Today, with rapid scientific, technological and cultural developments the ethical challenges we face mean we can find ourselves off the known ethical map and facing unknown dangers. And where will we find the right direction? Read More
Let me suggest the top five reasons preachers give for avoiding any significant reference to politics in their preaching, along with a response as to why they aren’t really convincing.
1. ‘It’s too political an issue and therefore too controversial. To many people ‘political’ means ‘controversial’ and ‘divisive’. Therefore it is best to leave such issues alone in order to allow individuals to make up their own minds about them. It’s safer that way.’
The trouble is that the gospel affects the whole of life. Read More
Those of us who, in our youth, studied the work of sociologists and cultural theorists like Peter Berger, were aware of the consensus (whether we agreed with it is another matter) that religion was declining, being marginalized and becoming increasingly secular. In that context any notion of a ‘public theology’ was irrelevant. Religion was seen as retreating into the domestic isolation of home and personal opinion. But against these predictions religion has actually grown in influence in the public sphere, and ‘public theology’ has developed Read More
The book Tales of Two Cities comprises seven contributions on aspects of the relationship of Christian faith with contemporary, secular, pluralist politics. The papers were originally presented at a conference organised by Affinity, a network of approximately 1,200 churches throughout Great Britain and Ireland.
The papers vary considerably in length and style. Field’s discussion of Rutherford is particularly lengthy. There is a strong historical leaning with the writers generally seeking to find wisdom for the present from writers of the past. Read More
It has long been argued that most secularist attempts to remove or restrict religious dialogue from the public arena are based on a misunderstanding of the true nature of a ‘secular’ society. But in Why Politics Needs Religion Brendan Sweetman, Professor of Philosophy at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, argues that these anti-religious sentiments are not so much a misunderstanding of the concept of secularism as an essential dimension of it. Read More
The gospel in post/modernity
“Proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the context of modernity and post-modernity” by Rolf Hille, Brian Edgar, Jan Henzel, Evangelical Review of Theology Vol. 21:27-28 (Jan 1997)