Tag: Faith

  • Family ministry?

    One of my favourite blogs, Internetmonk, recently posted a video which was a pretty good parody of too many Christian youth programmes. One of the commenters made a good point about youth ministry and family ministry. He asked the question, “How can we expect parents to teach their children when adults are largely ignorant of…

  • Only probably?

    Professor Richard Dawkins is supporting a publicity campaign to have London buses carry ads saying that “There’s probably no God”. I can’t help but think that he could have been a bit more positive about it given his hard-line atheist stance. Surely he’s not having doubts? I also wonder if it won’t backfire somewhat. Surely…

  • A year on

    This time last year I was struggling with Schleiermacher. Today’s Biblical Interpretation class was dealing with another chunk of Schleiermacher and shock! horror! I actually more or less understood it. I’d like to think that it’s because I’m more knowledgeable but I suspect it was an easier read than the last one. That’s not to…

  • The Shack

    I’ve just finished reading The Shack. It’s a book that has caused a huge stir among certain Christian groups in the US, not least because of its depiction of God. So it has been hugely hyped at both ends of the conservative-liberal spectrum (and many in-between) and that’s been the main reason I’ve avoided reading…

  • Biblical interpretation – again

    Yesterday’s class was a whistlestop tour of the main phases of Biblical Interpretation since the first century. Interesting enough but nothing earth-shattering. It was followed, though, by an interesting discussion on more recent approaches to scripture. Much as the traditional historical-critical methods are useful and interesting, I struggle with some of the inherent flaws present…

  • A higher level of ignorance

    I was skimming through an old Terry Pratchett book (Equal Rites if you must know) and came across a piece of dialogue which I loved. It’s between two wizards at the Unseen University who have just been lectured on some esoteric knowledge. ‘I look at it like this,’ he said. ‘Before I heard him talk,…

  • I’m not a luddite really

    Stewart is currently mulling over a discussion topic for this year’s Church of Scotland National Youth Assembly. Unsurprisingly its focus is on the use of media and technology in a church setting. Unsurprisingly I remain to be convinced of its effectiveness. That’s not to say that I don’t think it’s useful. Rather, I’m not convinced…

  • Transformation

    Part of the discussion that kicked off the “Hell!” article made mention of Fowler’s stages of faith. It sounded intriguing so I did a bit more digging and came up with a couple of articles which give an overview of what it’s about. The first is an article from Theology Today which covers the subject…

  • Those who can, do..

    I’m sure you’re all (note assumption of a readership here) familiar with the old adage, “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach” or one of its variants “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach; those who can’t teach, teach gym/lecture/counsel (delete or add as appropriate)”. For whatever reason, this phrase popped into my…

  • Dazed and confused

    Well, maybe not so much confused, but yesterday I was certainly dazed and more than a little brain-dead by late afternoon. In the morning I was on my hospital placement followed, in the afternoon, by my follow-up PDI – that’s Personal Development Interview in 121-speak. Each of those on its own is taxing enough. Both…