Articles, thoughts, essays, and content from Brian as well as students – our budding theologians.
The Blog: Some Notes and News…
It has been great to see the increase in traffic to the blog. Each week it has been hitting new highs. It’s been going a little over a month and is currently just short of 5 000 page visits from more than 2500 visitors from 58 countries – a few of which I had never heard of before and have had to look up on the map. Wherever you are from, welcome. Some bits and pieces First, why the blog? I’d like to help further a thoughtful Christian faith. Roughly a thousand years ago St Anselm spoke of ‘faith seeking...
read moreThe Reason for the ‘Go…’: Reflections on Matt 28:16-20
Several people said they found the sermon notes from last week Is Cross Carrying Passe helpful. So I thought I’d post this weeks notes as well. This is the message I preached at Carey Baptist Church, Perth, today. As always, feel free to use them any way you find helpful. If you pass them on, it is always nice if you credit the source as brianharrisauthor.com In this series we have been asking the question, ‘Why Jesus?’ – but now we finish on a slightly different note. ‘If it is Jesus – so what? What difference should that make in my...
read moreFor better, but not worse: Marriage and Divorce in the 21st century
I still remember the day. A woman had moved into the town where I was pastor, and on arriving at the church, announced that she was trying to build a new life for herself. She and her husband had separated after 30 years of marriage. He was now living with a much younger woman, and she doubted he would ever return to her – though she would be happy if she was wrong. She wasn’t. After 18 months of agonising and of all attempts at reconciliation failing, she filed for divorce. On the day her case was to be heard in court, she asked...
read more3 Ways to Decide: Some Models to Navigate Ethical Dilemmas
Ever been in the position where you scratch your head and ask, ‘So what should I do now?’ And as you ask, your thinking is not only moving along the track of what might work, but you are also wondering, ‘regardless of what works, what is the right thing to do?’ The right thing is invariably defined by a cluster of factors such as our faith, upbringing and cultural background. We may or may not be aware of how these impact our decision making. But enough pontificating. In real life situations, how do we go about making...
read moreIs Cross Carrying Passé?
After preaching I am often asked for a copy of my notes, so I thought I would place them on the blog – well some, at any rate. Here is the text of the message I preached at Carey today. It is part of a series on the portrait of Jesus that emerges from Matthew’s gospel, and this sermon is based on Matt 10, focusing on verses 34-42. As always feel free to use it in any way you like, though if you do reproduce it in some form, it would be nice if you would credit the source as brianharrisauthor.com Hope it’s helpful… Is...
read moreRemembering what Matters: Ethics and Exodus 1
In 2011 I was asked to deliver the TB Maston lecture on ethics at Carson Newman University in Tennessee, USA. I spoke on the ethical dilemmas inherent in Exodus 1 in a talk entitled ‘Remembering what Matters: Ethics and Exodus 1’. If you want the full text of that talk you can access it here. It starts on page 91 of the journal. What follows is an edited version of that talk. As we start to think into the field of ethics, I want to underline (and emphatically underline) that we should not think in terms of trite and easy answers...
read moreDeciding what’s right: Introducing a new series…
I hope you enjoyed the ‘Why believe?’ series, which was a 101 introduction to apologetics. Lest you missed it, the posts are still readily accessible. We covered ‘Why believe: A sort of apologetics 101’; ‘Theism and all that’ which explored some of the basic arguments for the existence of God; ‘The Bible: Bloodthirsty Text or Solid Witness?’; ‘The Church: Hazard or Witness?’; ‘A World Minus Jesus’; ‘Easter cancelled. They’ve found the body’ (not);...
read moreWhy Christian Teachers and Schools Matter…
Last night I spoke at the 25th anniversary celebration of Grace Christian School in Bunbury. I don’t know what you think of the missional potential of Christian schools, but my assessment is that it is enormous. I am not sure if this is true in all parts of the world, but am convinced that it is in Australia where a favourable funding regime and a willingness to enrol students of any or no faith (while holding a strong line on only employing Christian staff, who carry the mission) sees Christian schooling as the most rapidly growing...
read moreResurrection, Pannenberg and Aaron Chidgzey
Aaron Chidgzey, a Vose Seminary graduate, is currently a PhD student at Murdoch University where he is engaged in research that compares the views on the resurrection of German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg and NT Wright. Pannenberg died in Sept 2014, having been one of the theological giants of the 20th century. He is well known for his conviction that faith is reasonable – indeed, that it is more reasonable to believe than not to believe. He places special emphasis on the resurrection. I asked Aaron about his research, and thought...
read moreAnother day, another Prime Minister…
I was born in South Africa, am a New Zealand citizen, and live in Australia. Though living in the latter country for 12 years, its politics remain a mystery to me. On a day by day basis, life here is a little like paradise. Australia truly is a glorious country, with an indulgently comfortable standard of living. Yet we’ve just changed our Prime Minister. Again. The 5th in 5 years. Being a schoolkid here has just got a whole lot more stressful. Who can possibly remember the names of all Australian Prime Ministers? I was in two minds...
read more