Articles, thoughts, essays, and content from Brian as well as students – our budding theologians.
Christmas: From “for us” to “with us”…
Probably like you, I am struggling to believe that Christmas is almost upon us – but facts are facts, and December is galloping away. I have done some Christmas shopping and the family are soon due to see the Christmas lights – so it is definitely that time of the year. As I have been thinking about the significance of Christmas (and Christmas seems especially poignant after this COVID filled year) I have been struck by my favourite name for Jesus, Emmanuel – which means, God is with us. One simple thought has jumped out at...
read moreOn Praying for Parking Bays: Does God Intervene?
Photo Jack Sharp: Unsplash In my new book Why Christianity is Probably True I discuss some experiences where God intervened in my life in such a way that I had no option but to conclude that God is probably real and that Christianity is probably true. It caused a reader to contact me and ask: But how often does God intervene in our lives? Is prayer about changing the course of events, or more about our adapting to our circumstances more constructively? These are good questions, and I thought worth exploring in a post. You have probably heard...
read moreWhen Confidence is a Curse..
Swamped as we are with endless courses aimed at enhancing our self esteem and confidence, it might seem passing strange to suggest that confidence can be a curse. But it can! True, lack of confidence can also be a curse, but for a while ponder the other side of the equation – for although our many self esteem courses might suggest that the absence of a worthy self image is a wide spread problem, the hard evidence suggests otherwise. David Brooks in his book The Road to Character notes that in 1950 when asked if they considered...
read moreOn Quoting Shakespeare and Scripture…
A delightful post widely circulated on Facebook highlighted how many English expressions originate from Shakespeare. Here is a taster: “If you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a doornail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then — by Jove! O Lord! Tut, tut! For goodness’ sake! What the dickens! But me no buts — it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.” (Bernard Levin) Even Prince Charles has...
read moreFaithful Improvisation: Following Jesus Today
I’m currently reading the revised edition (2018) of Samuel Wells’ book, Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics. It’s a great read, and tries to answer the question of how we should play our part in the drama of God’s work in the world when we have no closely worded script, and when we are constantly facing new challenges. What follows springboards both from ideas in the book as well as from insights in a Nomad podcast with Samuel Wells on 6 May 2020. Wells draws his key idea from the theatre, and in a similar way...
read morePraying the journey…
My Sabbatical leave is almost over, and what an unusual season it has been. I spent part of it at Carson Newman University in Tennessee, and after seven wonderful weeks close to the Smoky Mountains, Rosemary and I had to dash back to Australia to avoid being locked out, potentially for many months. It did make for an abrupt end, though the major task for my Sabbatical, remained. That was to make significant progress on a book on the formation of spiritual leaders, which is my current writing project. I am now at the two thirds through stage,...
read moreIs sin passé? David Brooks and The Road to Character
I’m surprised at how much I am enjoying reading David Brooks’ motivational book, The Road to Character. Amazon classifies it in the “personal transformation/ self help” category, and knowing how flooded and shallow this market is, I am only reading it on the strong recommendation of someone whose work I respect. First thing to note about this book – don’t think shallow and trite. An easy read, yes, but shallow and trite, no. And while an easy read, it is unsettling and inspiring at the same time. And for a...
read moreRemembering the Friday…
We are sometimes a little uncomfortable with Good Friday, and tend to rush past it to arrive at Easter Sunday as quickly as possible. Yet unless we feel the weight of the Friday, we will miss much of the mystery of Easter. If you are a theologian you might say that a theology of suffering must precede a theology of glory, lest the latter becomes trite and superficial. So this Good Friday I have been noting the things I need to remember… I need to leave the last supper and walk to the Garden of Gethsemane. I need to pause – is that...
read moreCOVID – 19 and Complicated Blessings…
I am writing this at a little after 3 in the morning, my jet lagged body refusing to accept that now is the time it is supposed to be asleep. Like many travellers around the world, I have been through a complicated process of rushing home as national borders close, and almost all international flights are cancelled. True, Rosemary and I had been so enjoying my sabbatical leave at Carson Newman University in the USA that we were tempted to miss the last flights out, and thought that there could be worse fates than being trapped on Carson...
read moreAs a decade begins…
With the twenty teens recently ended, I thought I would post a bit of an update about the blog, fill you in on an exciting new venture I am part of, add some reflections about the start of the twenties, and close with a prayer I have found meaningful. This site has carried 359 posts since it officially launched in August 2015. Some have been picked up by other sites and reposted over and over again, yet others have made it onto the reading list of a variety of courses and are sometimes quoted back at me, and yes, some have been read by only a...
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