Signs of a healthy relationship
I’ve been asked the question often enough, “How can we be sure our love will last? How can we know if our relationship is more than infatuation?” Many decades ago I was helped to explore the question by Anthony Kosnik’s (ed) work …
On being a progressive conservative (or a conservative progressive)…
Is the world so simple that we can quickly attach a valid label to everyone? We often act as though it is – or certainly we do in the world of theology, where we try to separate between those who are theologically …
Neder: On Teaching & Learning Theology (Part 3)
Teaching and learning theology is dangerous: so says Neder in his fourth chapter. Of course, teaching spaces should be ‘safe spaces’ in the sense that students are not demeaned, coerced, or manipulated. Unless students have confidence that teachers and classmates take their …
“Positive Christianity”
On February 24, 1920, at a public meeting in Munich the German Workers’ Party proclaimed a 25-point programme, drawn up originally by Gottfried Feder (1882-1941),[1] with a variety of social, economic, and political aspirations appealing to everyone except the Jews and the …
Neder: On Teaching & Learning Theology (Part 2)
(See the first part of this reflection here.) The second chapter of Neder’s book considers ‘Knowledge.’ Neder argues that true knowledge of God is possible, but it also involves existential participation in the life of God—faith and obedience. Theological educators therefore have …
Original Goodness: Taking our First Creation Seriously
I often listen to the theology podcasts from Yale Divinity School. Their by line asks a question: “What is a life worthy of our humanity?” I love it. It reminds us that although we might talk about original sin, God’s first word …
Just Arrived
This could be the biography we have been waiting for: Karl Barth: A Life in Conflict by Christiane Tietz. Karl Barth died in 1968 and until now we have not had a full and critical biography. Many books contain a brief overview …
A bit of an update…
Many of the people who read this blog do so because our paths have crossed – and this is a good way to keep in touch. So let me update you on some of the things that have been happening in my …
Arguing for the sake of heaven: Why we need curious conversations…
I wonder if you, like me, are finding the polarising conversations taking place in the public square shrill, tiresome and destructive. We have lost the art of disagreeing with one another politely or constructively, and have forgotten than ad hominem attacks (attacks …
Neder: On Teaching & Learning Theology (Part 1)
Adam Neder, Theology as a Way of Life: On Teaching and Learning the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019), pp. 158. ISBN: 978-0-8010-9878-9 Adam Neder has written Theology as a Way of Life to provide a theological account of teaching theology …