If any of you are interested in the Pastoral Epistles, the subject of my doctoral research and an area in which I continue to maintain a keen interest, please visit the Pastoral Epistles blog.
I am one of four scholars who regularly contribute to the blog.
I was privileged to lead a seminar yesterday on “New Heavens and New Earth: A Theological Perspective” at the Soundcheck conference for SPEAK. I was able to try out in front of a very attentive audience of some 30 young people some aspects of my chapter on the book of Revelation from my forthcoming book, Reading the Bible After Christendom.
SPEAK is an exciting organisation that combines a passionate concern for social justice with spirituality, prayer and evangelism. Please check out their website.
Tom Finger is coming to Bristol for a morning on 23 February 2007 and will be presenting some thoughts on Anabaptist theology arising out of his recent book, A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology. I shall be offering a response.
Details are as follows:
A Morning with Tom Finger in Bristol
Friday 23rd February
9.00 Arrival
9.30 Tom Finger will present key aspects of his recent work, A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology
11.00 Coffee
11.20 A response by Lloyd Pietersen
12.00 Discussion
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Depart
Welcome to all who have arrived here via my old blog site. Thank you Graham for hosting this site for me. It is very much appreciated.
After a long period of inactivity Bristol Peace Church is reconvening as an experiment in being an intentional community. A (very) small group will be gathering weekly commencing on Sunday 19th November at 5.00 pm. We will be using the Anabaptist prayer book, Take Our Moments and Our Days as our liturgical resource with readings taken from The Revised Common Lectionary (Abingdon Press, 1992). Our weekly bible studies will be based on the passages in the Mennonite Bulletin Series. It is our intention to finish our weekly sessions with a simple meal during which we will share bread and wine together. If you are interested in joining us please contact me.
I am breathing a sigh of relief as yesterday I submitted a revised proposal for the book together with the introductory chapter. I had submitted a proposal some time ago but grew increasingly unhappy with the proposed outline. I am much happier with the revised version!
On pages 293-300 of Post-Christendom Stuart Murray outlines ways in which the Bible can be used as a resource for post-Christendom. He suggests that there are three primary moves that need to be made in reading the Bible in this fresh environment. The first is that Christendom hermeneutics needs to be disavowed. This involves employing a hermeneutic of suspicion which critically scrutinises long established readings of Scripture. The second is to employ fresh angles of vision with which to approach biblical texts. Finally, a hermeneutic of retrieval is employed so that biblical texts can be read in ways which resonate with our changing context. I am using this three-fold schema as the outline for the book.
After a brief examination of how the Bible was read before Christendom emerged I shall turn to highlighting in subsequent chapters how Christendom readings served to reinforce patriarchy, the ecclesiastical status quo and the interests of the politically and economically powerful respectively. In the second part I shall outline various angles of vision from which to approach the biblical texts. My central thesis is that the Bible needs to be read in the light of characteristics we find in Jesus as revealed in the Gospels. The first of these is prophetic emphasising both the need for a sustained vision of shalom and the consequent call to social justice. The second of these is poetic emphasising the Bible’s elusive and subversive character. The third is the pastoral perspective which will focus on the biblical call to discipleship. In the final chapter in this section I shall argue that we need a plurality of perspectives to do justice to the complexity of the Bible. In the third part I will apply these perspectives to various biblical genres and themes as follows:
In my concluding chapter I shall summarise what has gone before under the following headings:
I hope this whets your appetite for the book. I had better get on with writing it now! Any comments either here or over at the Post-Christendom website will be very much appreciated.
There is an excellent prayer book on a four-weekly cycle with prayers for both morning and evening (apart from Sunday). It is available here.
This is the title of my book in the After Christendom series.
If you have anything to say about this subject please head over to the Post Christendom website and add your comments to the discussion board there.
This is the title of a new undergraduate course that I am teaching at the University of Bristol this term. I have had some valuable input from Stuart Murray, Alan Kreider and Willard Swartley. Here are the contents of this ten week course:
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Week 1
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Introduction to 16th century Anabaptists and modern Anabaptist expressions including spirituality and worship |
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Week 2 |
The Context: An analysis of the political, socio-economic and religious contexts in which Anabaptism emerged and an investigation into why voluntary, believers’ baptism was considered a capital offence against the state
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Week 3 |
Shalom: An exploration of Anabaptist understandings of peace and radical non-violence
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Week 4 |
Community: Anabaptist ecclesiology and the significance of church discipline
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Week 5 |
The Bible: Anabaptist biblical interpretation
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Week 6 |
Economics: Anabaptist approaches to the community of goods
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Week 7 |
The Sword and the Oath: Anabaptist perspectives on political engagement
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Week 8 |
Eschatology: Lessons from Münster
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Week 9 |
John Howard Yoder: An introduction to his writings
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Week 10 |
Thomas N. Finger: An Anabaptist systematic theologian
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There is a new site dedicated to the After Christendom series. Please go to the Post Christendom website and join in the discussion forums.