Monday, January 31, 2011

Jonathan Robinson on Educational Preaching

If you have been missing my posting, sorry about that moving house and starting a new pastoral role have rather limited my time for blogging (not to mention the phone company messing up our internet connection), but over at Kiwi-Made Preaching you can see (and comment on!) a provactive and thoughful post by your's truly. Normal service at Xenos may or may not resume shortly. ;-)

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

brick-a-brack 12/01/11

  • Think you are being persecuted? (From Alex)





  • This is more than a little whimsical, which of course makes it true art.  HT Doug Chaplin



  • And finally, thanks to Calum for sharing this but not sharing that,

Thursday, January 6, 2011

brick-a-brack 06/01/11

 Cartoon from ASBO Jesus

Egocentric Literalists: Quote of the Day

I often say that what lies at the heart of most lovers of literature is a single impulse: “Let me read a story about someone who is unique and interesting, someone just like me.”   Ego-centrism, to a great extent, is the highest form of literalism.

There is so much truth in that statement i could unpack it for hours, but i don't have those hours today so you'll have to do it yourself.  The rest of the article is worth a read too, and it is not too long.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Wesley and Child Theology

My friend Peter Benzie has just put his MTh thesis online.  From the abstract,
Through considering the writings of John Wesley, as well as the work of other scholars, this thesis finds that children were evident in his theology. Wesley is shown to have undertaken something akin to child theology when he, for instance, allowed his theology to be informed and changed by the many instances of childhood faith he witnessed. He is shown to be a man who treasured children as a gift from God, who, he believed entrusts parents and teachers with the responsibility of educating them so that they can live lives of true holiness, that is, loving God and their neighbour.
Check it out and share it round with anyone you think might be interested.

Monday, January 3, 2011

How the KJV has influenced English

This will almost certainly be the only mention I make of the KJV's 400th birthday this year so make the most of it.

Even when the KJV was written it read a bit funny and faux archaic.  But by and by some of the snappier phrases got picked up, a couple of my favourite that many people have no idea come from the Bible are "apple of my eye" and "skin of my teeth."  The KJV is worth reading, at least once, as literature, but as scripture it was suspect from the start and for most of us now is of definate limited use due to the way the English language has changed over the 4 centuries since.  But anyway some chap is blogging through all the phrases that have made their merry way into English usage and you may want to check him out, after I tip my hat to Richard Walker.

Giles Fraser's excellent Guardian post is also worth a read.  A snippet:

Except, of course, that is precisely what the KJB was: an attempt by the Church of England to control the religious and cultural agenda. A team of academics was established in 1604 to translate the Bible in such a way that it bolstered the authority of the established church. James I gave the specific instruction that the translation must toe the official line on the importance of bishops. The Greek word ekklesia was to be translated as "church", rather than "congregation" or "assembly" – the translators thus giving the impression that the Bible proposes a top-down form of ecclesiastical authority.

Unfortunately even modern translations still often continue the tradition of translations that support the status quo, those in power and the peculiar pruderies of dusty old scholars. 

Sunday, January 2, 2011

New Year, same old blogging

Xenos has slipped a few places in the ranking this month, but still hanging on in the top 50 for now!

Another mamoth BS carnival has come out.

Rhett has started blogging again, again.

Jesus treats the Syrophoenecian Woman as a Disciple

[This is an extract from my essay "Breaking Bread: The Power of Hospitality in the Gospel of Mark" which you can read in full and ...