Questions for the New Year: Two Prompts from Genesis 16
Genesis 16 is one of the more troubling passages in the Hebrew Bible, dealing as it does with Abram and Sarai’s initial attempt to deal with their childlessness by having a child through Sarai’s servant, Hagar. Though the plan originates with Sarai, …
On not making great things small…
I recently listened to a podcast in which Fuller Seminary President Mark Labberton lamented that religions (including Christianity) have a habit of making great things small. He said he initially heard the sentiment from his father – who at best was on …
Doing what Love Requires: Exodus 1, Murder, Myths and Morality…
I recently preached at the wonderful Westcity Church of Christ, taking part in their sermon series on Disruptive Stories. My disruptive story was from Exodus 1:15-22, a story of enormous courage and surprising ethical complexity, which we usually gloss over too quickly. …
Reflections on Bultmann’s ‘Task of Theology’ (1)
A couple of days ago I posted an exposition of Rudolf Bultmann’s ‘The task of Theology in the Present Situation’ from May 1933. I want to reflect a little further on this lecture and task. First, Bultmann reflects on the contemporary political …
Rudolf Bultmann on the Task of Theology in 1933
On May 2nd, 1933, Rudolf Bultmann began his lecture series unusually, with a comment about the rapidly developing German political situation. Ladies and gentlemen! I have made a point never to speak about current politics in my lectures, and I think I …
Reading Karl Barth’s Doctrine of God (4)
Selection: The Church Dogmatics II/1:25-31, §25.1 “Man before God.” We saw in our previous discussion Barth’s contention that “Biblical knowledge of God is always based on encounters of man with God” (23). In this encounter—the divine encounter of grace—the human subject is confronted with the …
A Cohort of Courage…
Have you spared a thought for students who studied their pivotal year 11 and 12 in the shadow of COVID – with disrupted classes, lockdowns and great uncertainty? What would you say to a year 12 graduating class? Last week I spoke …
Reading Karl Barth’s Doctrine of God (3)
Selection: The Church Dogmatics II/1:21-, §25.1 “Man before God.” Barth began his discussion with the insistence that God is known in the church because God has given himself to be known in his revelation, supremely in Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh. The knowledge …
Reading Karl Barth’s Doctrine of God (2)
Selection: The Church Dogmatics II/1:12-21, §25.1 “Man before God.” When Barth speaks of ‘man before God’ he means the person who does in fact stand before God, the one in whom the knowledge of God has been realised or fulfilled. How does this occur, …
Times Have Changed
This is from the opening paragraph in the General Introduction of The Library of Living Theology. The first volume of the series appeared in 1952, and thus the General Introduction probably also appeared then: As we enter the second half of the …