The Cambridge Companion to the Trinity, ed. Peter C. Phan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. xiv + 417pp. hb. £55). This volume brought out the hidden statistician in me, and I found myself counting the proportions. Of the twenty-one contributors only one, Karen Kilby from the University of Nottingham, was working, at the time of [...]
The Theological Commission appointed by the Church of Scotland in 2011 to examine issues relating to the ordination of those living in openly homosexual relationships has now prepared its report, and one thing is sure: very few of those attending the forthcoming General Assembly are going to have the stamina to read it. Ninety-four pages [...]
Most 20th century Highlanders view Christianity very much as Pontius Pilate viewed it: a load of rubbish, and sinister to boot. If asked why, you’d expect them to draw themselves up to their full intellectual height and tell you that modern science has put an end to that sort of nonsense. But what’s been interesting since [...]
The church is always in crisis. If you don’t believe it, just read any preacher from one of her Golden Ages. All of them, from Augustine to John Kennedy, thought they were living in ‘cloudy and dark days’. The 21st century is no exception. True or not, the perception is that the church is in deep, [...]
Last week’s decision of the Church of England not to allow women bishops will have little immediate impact here in the Highlands. We do, of course, have our own form of Anglicanism, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba, but neither the Archbishop of Canterbury nor the General Synod has any authority over Scottish Episcopalians. They already have [...]
The Regulative Principle was defined by John Calvin as follows: “God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by His Word.” (from the tract, ‘The Necessity of Reforming the Church’ in John Calvin: Tracts and Letters, Vol. 1, p. 128). In elaborating this principle, however, Calvin and his successors are much clearer on [...]
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him (Colossians 2:9, NRSV) These words take us to the very heart of the gospel. They remind us, in the words of the King James Version, that we are complete in Christ. In him there is fullness, we share [...]
Some of the lessons are brought out even more clearly in the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The passage is too long to quote in full, and we shall confine ourselves to the leading feature of its teaching. We learn in the first place that we must not expect to derive blessing [...]
A second passage that deals with this subject is Romans 8:28: ‘We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.’
Anyone who in these days accommodates his teaching to the assumption that the Christian life is arduous is faced with the preliminary objection that he is fundamentally out of tune with the believer’s experience. Many contemporary Christians would insist that they live lives of unmixed blessedness, without conflict, failure or pain.
