Articles, thoughts, essays, and content from Brian as well as students – our budding theologians.
The Church: Hazard or Witness
Hear the word ‘church’ and are you more inclined to think, ‘Now that’s why I can’t believe’ or ‘yup, it sure is another of those niggling little signs that belief in God is warranted’? Given the bad press the church has experienced in recent decades, I imagine that many will select the first option. Some would boldly say that the church is hazardous and exposure to it is likely to leave you less inclined to believe in the existence of a good God. But I’d like to suggest that such thinking...
read moreThe Bible: Bloodthirsty Text or Solid Witness?
In this ‘Why Believe?’ series we’ve been engaged in a little exercise of cumulative case apologetics – not trying to demonstrate that everything that Christianity stands for is proved with one knockout blow, but cumulatively building a case for belief, one piece at a time. The role of the Bible in building or detracting from this case is important. While arguments for theism establish that belief in a god or gods is reasonable, at some point we have to give content to the character and nature of the god believed in....
read moreTheism, and all that…
When we ask the ‘why believe’ question we pretty soon come to the ‘but can I believe that God exists?’ question. To answer it, we have to explore whether theism is reasonable. Theism claims that there is a God who is the creator and ruler of the universe. It does not go much further than that. This God could be the one worshiped in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism (for theism does not insist that there can only be one God) and potentially a host of other faiths as well. A great deal of content is not attached to...
read moreWhy believe? A sort of apologetics 101…
Why believe? Well, you already do. The question is really, what do you believe, and why? The first big question is the God one. Does God exist, and if so does it matter? Regardless of whether your answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the first part of the question, some faith is involved. Perhaps it is better to ask which takes the greater faith, to believe that God exists or does not exist. In the absence of definitive proof for either side, some faith is involved. At the cognitive level, it is about assessing the evidence...
read moreStarting Tuesday
Thanks to those of you who have kept coming back to this site,hoping to find something a little more substantial on it. The good news is that from this Tuesday, 25 August, 2015 your visits will be rewarded. My aim is to post every Tuesday and Friday – with some bonus additions from time to time. The first series will be on ‘Why Believe’ – a little exercise in apologetics for the non specialist. Other frequent themes will be current issues, leadership, how to read the Bible, spiritual formation, church and...
read moreThe Role of the Holy Spirit in the Interpretation of Scripture
Ben O’Reilly for TH401 Knowledge of God Thanks to Ben O’Reilly, a Vose BMin student, for providing the first essay for our budding theologians column. As the title suggests, his essay explore the role of the Holy Spirit in interpreting Scripture. Abstract The role of the Holy Spirit in the Interpretation of Scripture is to guide us to the truth contained within it. The Spirit assists us in interpretation by guiding us to truth, convincing us that it is true, and helping us understand and appropriate truth to our own faith...
read moreWelcome to my website
Welcome to my website. Find information on my books, read my blog, or view essays and work by some budding theologians. My plan is to post twice a week, one a post I have written, the other by a friend or emerging theologian (or both). I want the site to give a voice to those whose thoughts are not always expressed or available in the public arena. If you would like to contribute, feel free to contact me. Topics covered will be wide, but will usually gravitate back to some of the key themes from my books – quiet leadership, key building...
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