"My soul glorifies the Lord
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
 for he has been mindful
      of the humble state of his servant.
   From now on all generations will call me blessed,
    for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
      holy is his name.

 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
      from generation to generation.
 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
      he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
      but has lifted up the humble.
 He has filled the hungry with good things
      but has sent the rich away empty.
 He has helped his servant Israel,
      remembering to be merciful
 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
      even as he said to our fathers."

Amen.

Mark over at Pseudo-Polymath has tagged me with a Seven by Seven meme. The seven questions are:

1. Seven things to do before I die
2. Seven things I cannot do
3. Seven things that attract me to Sam Mrs Pseudo-Polymath
4. Seven things I say most often
5. Seven books (or series) I love
6. Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would watch over and over if I had the time)
7. Seven people I want to join in, too

Here goes:

Seven things to do before I die:

1. Read all of Church Dogmatics
2. Publish at least one book
3. Learn how to bowl the perfect leg spin delivery
4. Travel the world
5. Become self-sufficient at growing my own food
6. Not live in a city
7. Have kids, and probably some Grandkids too.

Seven things I cannot do

1. Sew
2. Turn down an offer of a cup of tea
3. Sit still for more than five minutes unless I'm watching TV
4. Speak a non-european language
5. Understand why girls are so obsessed by shopping. It is abominable.
6. Lick my elbows
7. Like cauliflower

Seven things that attract me to Mrs Pseudo-Polymath Bryony

1. Her smile
2. Her compassionate and the way she cares for people
3. She's very down to earth
4. Her infectious enthusiasm for most things in life
5. Her sensitivity
6. Her patience
7. How she knows when I need a hug

Seven things I say most often

1. X is rubbish
2. Aaaaaagh
3. I really should be studying
4. SHUT UP! SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP! (Usually to my pet cockatiel when I'm trying to sleep/read/watch TV/talk on the phone)
5. I hate my job
6. I have to go to work tomorrow (followed by whimpering noise)
7. I'm hungry

Seven books (or series) I love.

1. N T Wright's series Christian Origins and the Question of God
2. Jürgen Moltmann - The Coming of God and The Spirit of Life
3. Bishop Kallistos Ware - The Orthodox Way
4. The NIGTC commentary series - still the best by far, especially R T France on Mark's Gospel
5. Paul Fiddes - Past Event and Present Salvation
6. Robert Westall - The Machine Gunners (childhood favourite, still great)
7. James Dunn - Theology of Paul the Apostle (controversial, yet compelling)

Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would watch over and over if I had the time)

1. Battle of Britain
2. The Pianist
3. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
4. Platoon
5. Shaun of the Dead
6. The Gospel According to St Matthew
7. 28 Days Later

Seven people I want to join in

1. VJ
2. Anne
3. Ben Myers
4. John Pettigrew
5. Richard
6. Ben Finger
7. Adrian

Absolutely no offence taken if you don't join in!

Another essay, this time an Old Testament one. It's an exegesis of Genesis 3:16b in the light of the rest of the creation narrative. It's often been used to justify male dominance over women - but is this what the text means, or what God's intention was after the fall? Read on if you're interested to find out:

NB I published this essay ages ago but some spammers have got hold of it and are spamming it with about 20 trackbacks a day which my security software seems powerless to stop so I've deleted the original post a republished it to generate new links to it.

“To the woman he said,

 

‘I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;

in pain you will bring forth children,

yet your desire shall be for your husband,

and he shall rule over you.’

Read more...

Ok, it's the middle of the week and my Galatians thesis has taken up all my spare time at the moment so I don't have much time to post on here. I intend to write a little more on ID and also chip in with some ideas on the have they/haven't they ceased debate about spiritual gifts that is currently hot topic of discussion at the moment.

Until then, I've dragged one of my old essays out of the archives. The title was "Compare and contrast the theology of Karl Barth and Paul Tillich. Which deserves the title of 'theologian to the Post-modern Generation?' It's not the best essay I ever wrote and doesn't really deal with either postmodernism, Barth, or Tillich in too much detail but it covers the basic ground well enough.

Read more...

Richard Hall over at Connexions has some strong criticism of biblical inerrancy in his post on Fundamentalim and Evangelicals:

"To take one example recently rehearsed in these columns: the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. Not only is it not biblical, it is not even venerable, dating only to the nineteenth century. It is a defensive doctrine, reactive to modernism and theological liberalism (which is also, as Karl Barth graphically put it, a “flat-tyre” theology - but that’s another post). It is probably most usefully understood psychologically rather than theologically, as the product of a paranoid mindset that appeals to authoritarian and obsessive personalities. Its assumption that scripture has an independent authority, oracular in function - hence the wildly misleading phrase “The Bible says . . .” - it is, in fact, Koranic..."

Read the rest here.