Articles, thoughts, essays, and content from Brian as well as students – our budding theologians.
Remembering 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 moreMiracles, maths and mystery…
I can still remember the sneer from one of the panelists at an evangelistic atheist site. Desperate to convert others to her newly found atheism she declared: ‘Christians are really, really bad at maths. When doctors say your cancer is incurable, what they mean is that there is only a 1 in a 1000 chance that it won’t prove terminal. When it doesn’t, religious nutters happily proclaim, “a miracle”. No it’s not. It is the 1 in a 1000 cases which comes around, on average, once every thousand cases. Low odds...
read moreSugar, fat and all that…
I publish a monthly article in Perth’s Advocate newspaper, and as most readers of this blog don’t see it, I thought I would reproduce it here. September’s title was ‘Sugar, fat and all that.’ It comes as a bonus blog. The current ‘Why believe?’ series continues on Tuesday with a post ‘Miracles, maths and mystery.’ Sugar, Fat and all that… Due to a recent flight’s disappointing movie choice, I was reduced to watching Damon Gameau’s That Sugar Film which pontificates on the...
read moreEaster Cancelled. They’ve found the body…
Graffiti was an art form during my university days. It adorned three of the walls of every toilet cubicle. One wall was devoted to political comment, another to the smutty, the third to the witty and clever. By and large contributors conformed to this unwritten guideline, and a few days before a now long past Easter the headline ‘Easter has been cancelled. They’ve found the body!’ appeared on the third wall. It has stuck with me through the years. In its own way, it is deeply insightful. Produce the body of Jesus, and whilst...
read moreA world minus Jesus…
Ever imagined a world minus Jesus? There would be some obvious differences. The date for example. I’m writing in 2015 – 2015 since what? And though we might not have got the year of Jesus’ birth completely right, there is no doubt that our calendar has been structured to convey the conviction that the date of his arrival marked the turning point of all history. That’s to be more than a little famous. So what earned Jesus such accolades. The most striking is the claim that he conquered death and that his resurrection...
read moreAbout the blog…
I’m recently back from preaching at a special Fathers’ Day service at Katanning. For those not familiar with Western Australia, it is a three hour drive south of Perth – and what a stunning drive it was today. The countryside was ablaze with colour. This is one of the best times of the year in WA. The blog has now been operational for two weeks, and lest you are interested, I thought I would give you a quick update on where it is at. So far 549 people have visited the site from 39 countries viewing pages 1205 times viewers...
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