becoming

Reason to be cheerful, Tom Wright, July 16, 2005

Much of our contemporary discourse – I sat through two days of general synod a week ago – has degenerated into a competition between the relative woundedness of people’s feelings. I am not saying that wounded feelings do not matter, only that saying “I’m more hurt than you are” cannot settle an argument on a point of principle. Unfortunately, since victimhood is the only high moral ground left after the collapse of reasoned discourse, speeches become harangues, name-calling replaces respectful engagement and party spirit trumps public wisdom.

回到聖經裡的神學 — 專訪李思敬（續篇），羅民威，二OO五年八月廿一日 (requires subscription)

再講得嚴重一點大膽一點：你作為保守的基督徒，你關心不到你所反對的人；若有另外一些基督徒可以關心他們，那是好事還是壞事？如果在悉尼同志大遊行中有傳道人站在他們身邊，你怎麼看？是的，他有機會被誤會，以為他就代表了所有基督徒，這是從宏觀新聞報道的角度來看，就如七一遊行不讓同志先行。但試試從個人的關係來看：當這同志運動的領袖有需要之時，他身邊有沒有基督徒？當他要尋問時，他會否找明光社？

這樣問下去，你就會看到教會的大公性（Ecumenicity）的重要。上帝擺了一個對問題有不同看法的基督徒在這班人身邊，是好事還是壞事？我不同意他的看法，但我不可以說他不是基督徒，我甚至不可以反對他去基恩之家當牧師。我當然不會去，不敢去，不想去，反對他們的看法……這個只是我，上帝沒有呼召我去做這些事。教會是甚麼？教會只是我？不是。教會只是他？也不是。教會是包括我和他，都是基督的身體。

這是一種讓人很不舒服的神學，然而保羅關於肢體配搭的話，其實並不輕鬆。若不返回聖經，重看教會和基督徒的身分，那段時間流行甚麼，大家就蜂擁過去。

Money and the Church, Ben Witherington, August 11, 2005 (see also Generous Giving)

Fact# 5: Americans spend, as a group, $2. 5 billion per year for world missions, $2. 5 billion per year for chewing gum,$ 8 billion per year for movies, $22 billion per year for hunting, $34 million per year for state lotteries. Source: John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, Behind the Stained Glass Window.

You’ve got to read this:

It is the church’s job, I believe, to hold such authorities as we’ve got — nationally and internationally and locally — to account before the God who will put the world to rights and who has announced in Jesus the way of doing it. The point of this all comes together, of course, in John 18 and 19 again, and Mark 10. The point of it all is that God will heal the world and that Jesus has achieved the victory in his cross and resurrection by which God will do that. And he is now calling the church, his loyal followers, to be the people through whom that critique can come about.

N.T. Wright’s The Christian Challenge in the Postmodern World and other recents articles from SPU’s Response

Pepperdine University Seaver College
Dean’s Lecture Series

by NT Wright

Lecture 1
Lecture 2
Lecture 3

fulcrum conference islington

The Holy Spirit in the Church
friday 29 april 2005

Tom Wright
Bishop of Durham
full text

從近日兩篇文章看見華人教會漸漸留意麥葛福(Alister McGrath)的作品，實屬好事。希望日後有更多對他的介紹和討論。

http://www.err.fes.org.hk/fansnews/2004sept/cover.php
http://www.logos.com.hk/work/work_current_detail.asp?ID=98

英文的介紹可參這裡：
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mcgrath/

不知NT Wright又如何？

Tom Wright

…. In a culture heavily influenced by Judaism and Christianity, one might have hoped that the Bible would play a part in the discussion. People seem to assume that it’s irrelevant. The general view is that the Bible offers an escape from the world into a personal religion. But that view is itself the result of the Enlightenment’s reductionism.

The Bible itself resists such treatment. It constantly acknowledges evil – “human” and “natural” alike – as a terrible reality. It doesn’t try to minimise it, to explain that good will come of it, or to blame someone (reactions which correspond uncomfortably closely to the excuses offered by immoral or warmongering politicians). It tells a story about the Creator’s plan to put the world to rights, a plan which involves a people who are themselves part of the problem as well as the bearers of the solution….

[Read more]

For the next little while (over 2000 pages, might take a little longer than “little while”), I will focus on spending my leisure time in reading 3 of a significant 5-volume series of NT Wright’s exhaustive project on Christian Origins and the Question of God: [Read more]