Sean the Baptist

OK, all set up and ready to go.  As from today, March 1st 2007, all new posts can be found at the new home of Sean the Baptist

http://seanthebaptist.typepad.com

I am sorry that for some of you this will mean a further alteration to links etc.  Let me know if you have any problems and what you think of the new site.  I will keep this site open for a number of months, but won't post new stuff here from now on.

Thanks to all who have been supportive thus far

Sean

I have just shifted to Google Reader from Bloglines.  The Google service is much more user friendly and has a number of really useful features.  You can import fropm Bloglines directly, and run the two concurrently for a little while if you want to get used to Google.

HOWEVER, in trying to use one of the excellent Google features (live updates from your blogroll in the sidebar) I have finally grown frustrated with Blogspirit and will very likely be moving to Typepad very soon.  I have set up the trial and an emperimenting with the Typepad service before moving over - but be warned: Sean the Baptist may be moving (again). 

I want to plug this event being held at Manchester Cathedral on Wednesday March 14th at 7.30 p.m. admission free:

Reversing the Curse of Racism: The Apostle Paul, the Black Pulpit, and International Reparations

Dr Brad R Braxton

Given as part of this year's Bray Lectureship Tour organised by USPG and SPCK

The writings of St Paul have been criticised by some as offering support for slavery, patriarchy and sexism – and, as a consequence, black preachers in particular have avoided using Paul’s letters to challenge social oppression.

But at a series of public lectures in March, the black American theologian Dr Brad R Braxton will argue that Paul’s letters contain a great deal of material that can be used to tackle racism.

Dr Braxton has been invited to put forward his ideas as part of the Bray Lectureship tour, which is organised every two years by USPG and SPCK in honour of the Revd Dr Thomas Bray, who founded the two societies 300 years ago.

The theme for Dr Braxton’s lecture tour – entitled Reversing the Curse of Racism: The Apostle Paul, the Black Pulpit, and International Reparations – has been chosen to coincide with this year’s bicentenary of William Wilberforce’s Act of Parliament to abolish the British slave trade.

Dr Braxton is Associate Professor of Homiletics and New Testament at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Brad is a good friend of mine and a compelling preacher and speaker.  Please come along to support him if you are in Manchester on that date.

I have been meaning to mention Marilynne Robinson's astonishing novel for a while now.  I finished reading it in December with that sense of loss that the completion of some books provokes in me (the last was, like Gilead, a Pulitzer prize winning novel, Michael Cunningham's The Hours.)

Of course, Gilead connected with me because the central figure is a dissenting minister.  John Ames belongs to a bygone age, but his sense of calling, vocation and duty are timeless and his vision of what ministry can be, both poignant and compelling.  Here is Ames, reflecting on his sleepless nights:

'In the old days I could walk down every single street, past every house, in about an hour. I'd try to remember the people who lived in each one, and whatever I knew about them, which was often quite a lot. . . . And I'd pray for them. And I'd imagine peace they didn't expect and couldn't account for descending on their illness or their quarreling or their dreams. Then I'd go into the church and pray some more and wait for daylight. I've often been sorry to see a night end, even while I have loved seeing the dawn come.' (p.81)

But more than this, it is Ames' perception of the beauty in the world; a beauty that is not merely the breaking in of divine light from heaven, but which is utterly inherent in the world in all its worldliness.  Here is just one, exquisitely beautiful, quotation: 

'I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then has to close its eyes again.  I know all this is mere apparition compared to what awaits us, but it is only lovelier for that.  There is a human beauty in it.  And I can't believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition or mortality and impermanence, the great bright dream of procreating and perishing that meant the whole world to us.  In eternity, this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets.  Because I don't imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely, and I think piety forbids me to try.' (p.65)

The other thing Ames does when he can't sleep is read Barth, and it shows:

'When this old sanctuary is full of silence and prayer, every book Karl Barth ever will write would not be a feather in the scales against it from the point of view of profundity, and I would not believe in Barth's own authenticity if I did not believe he would know and recognize the truth of that, and honor it, too.' (p.197)

I am not sure if I can think of a more authentic Christian voice in recent literature than that of the Revd John Ames. 

For those who haven't seen them, two further sets of propositions by Kim Fabricius have been posted over at Faith and Theology

Ten Propositions on Theodicy

Ten Propositions on Ecumenism

The propositions on ecumenism include the statement that: "There are, of course, limits to acceptable diversity, but I would suggest that they lie within the parameters of: (a) a common baptism, (b) a Trinitarian confession of faith, and (c) a belief in Christ crucified and risen as Lord and Saviour. All else, I suggest, is adiaphora – particularly matters of polity. Moreover, it would be unreasonable to expect more agreement between our churches than we accept within our churches."  The concerns that Baptists have over the language of 'common baptism' are perhaps not as well known as they ought to be, and the possibility of mutual recognition of journeys of inititation, rather than moments within those journeys has still to take deeper root within ecumenical discourse.  The force of Kim's description of 'parameters' is to exclude those from a baptistic tradition who struggle to recognize infant baptism as baptism from the ecumenical journey within which such a recognition might eventually be reached.

Finally, I also enjoyed this post by Jason Clark over at Church and Postmodern Culture on Baudrillard and Superficial Church.

As I have posted previously, I am due to give the Whitley Lecture here at Luther King House in Manchester next Tuesday, March 6th.  Coffee will be available from 7.00 p.m., Lecture at 7.30 p.m. with a 9.00 p.m. finish.  All are welcome.

However, if there is anyone out there reading this who is planning to come or who knows others who might be coming, could you please let me know numbers asap.  We need to make sure we have a room that will be of approximately the right size.

What I love about NT studies (and what is true here is perhaps true of any academic discourse) is way in which meticulously detailed study of the texts, using all of the technical skills that one possesses, many years of hard work, the full range of scholarly resources - all this can result in the ability to say things in a relatively simple and straightforward way, such that people who have not studied the texts in the same detail can nonetheless grasp the issues and understand the implications of what one has said.  Much of my teaching is a combination of (a) saying a few things simply, in such a way that the group can understand what I am claiming and why it is important and (b) showing how those few simple statements are in fact rooted in detailed work with the primary and secondary sources.  Whether I succeed is a moot point.  But as an illustration consider these two posts on the Synoptic Problem.  One is written by Brandon Wason, and gives detailed information on the way that Luke has used Mark.  The second is by Mark Goodacre (who like one of his mentors, Michael Goulder, seems to hold much of this kind of detailed information in his head) describing the Synoptic Problem in 8 Easy Steps.

Furthermore, I think that good preaching combines these two elements.  I often think that those who know the most and have worked the hardest, preach the simplest.  Complicated preaching is often the result of inadequate understanding and/or preparation. 

Notification has just arrived from SAGE.  Articles include:

Communion, Unity and Primacy: An Anglican Response to Ut Unum Sint

Mark Santer

Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Ut Unum Sint, published in 1995, was immediately recognized as a document of fundamental importance for ecumenism. John Paul II clearly and unequivocally renewed the Roman Catholic Church’s commitment to the ecumenical movement and invited leaders and theologians of other churches to engage with the Roman Catholic Church in patient and fraternal dialogue on the issue of the Petrine offices. A decade later this lecture reviews official Anglican responses to the Pope’s initiative and sets out issues which Anglicans need to address and explore.

Authority to Teach in Classical Anglicanism

The Praxis of Inculturation for Mission: Roberto de Nobili’s Example and Legacy

Paul M. Collins
This article investigates inculturation in the twentieth century in relation to the example and practice of the seventeenth-century Jesuit missionary Roberto de Nobili. Monastic and liturgical attempts at inculturation in South India are examined as well as the critique offered by Dalit Theology. There are four sections: (1) Outline and analysis of the practice of de Nobili, and its theological basis in the seventeenth century. (2) Analysis of the parallels between the praxis of de Nobili and various Christian sannyasi in the twentieth century, e.g. Savarirayan Jesudason, Ernest Forrester-Paton, Jack Winslow, Abhishiktananda, Bede Griffiths and Francis Acharya. (3) Evaluation of the practice, and its theological basis, of these sannyasi and other religious leaders in South India. (4) Investigation of the critique of Dalit Theology of these practices, and possible outcomes for future practice e.g. in relation to inter-religious dialogue.

A Practical Church Unity within Secular Hospitals

I have had the clipping to this link for a while now, but for those who haven't see it...

MP3 recordings of the Durham NT Seminar in 2005 are available from the Durham website.  The focus is largely on Romans 9-11 and other Pauline texts, but a highlight is clearly the recordings of an extensive conversation between Jimmy Dunn and Tom Wright on Jesus and Paul.  Here are the listings for the two terms worth of recordings, but note not all of the sessions were satisfactorily recorded.

11 October
Dr. William R. Telford
"Has God Rejected His People?: Jews and Judaism in the Thought of Paul (Romans 9-11)"
download (7.6MB)

18 October
Professor John M.G. Barclay
"Philo and Paul on Election and Grace (Legum Allegoriae 3.77-96; Romans 9.6-18)"
download (6.3MB)
Note: Due to technical difficulties, Professor Barclay's actual presentation was not recorded, though the discussion that followed was captured.
An English translation of Philo's Legum Allegoriae. Scroll (about 1/3 of the way) down to XXIV. (77) to begin reading the relevant material.

25 October
Special Event:
Professor James D.G. Dunn and Bishop N.T. Wright
"An Evening Conversation on Jesus and Paul"
Part 1: Jesus download (7.5MB)
Part 2: Paul download (7MB)

1 November
Professor Robert C. Hayward
"Jewish Perspectives on Paul's Statements about Israel in Romans 9"
download (10.3MB)

8 November
Dr. R. Walter L. Moberly
"Jeremiah and the Potter (with a View to Romans 9)"
download (10.3MB)

15 November
Rt. Rev. Dr. N.T. Wright
"Further Thoughts on Romans 10"
download (10.8MB)

29 November
Gary Griffith (final year postgraduate)
"A Smorgasbord of Grace: Paul's Use of Charis in 2 Corinthians 8-9"
download (9.7MB)

6 December
Professor John Moles (University of Newcastle, Department of Classics)
"Dionysiac Acts?"
download (10.9MB)
An English translation of Euripides' Bacchae.

13 December
Professor Francis Watson (University of Aberdeen)
"Scripture and Self-definition in Romans 9-10 and the Damascus Document "
download (9.6MB)
Professor Watson's handout.
An English translation of the Damascus Document.

17 January
Dr. Richard Bell (University of Nottingham):
"Paul and the hardening of Israel"
download (10MB)

24 January
Dr. Wendy Sproston North (formerly of Hull University)
“'The Jews' in John’s Gospel: Observations and Inferences"
download (10.3MB)

31 January
Professor Loren Stuckenbruck (University of Durham)
"Does Romans 9.1-5 have an 'afterlife' in 9.6ff?"
download (10.3MB)

7 February
Professor Joel Marcus (Duke University Divinity School)
"Crucifixion as Parodic Exultation"
download (10.3MB)

21 February
Dr. Angus Paddison (University of Gloucester)
"Karl Barth on Romans 9-11"
download (10.9MB)

28 February
Professor John Riches (formerly University of Glasgow)
"The End of the Law in Galatians: Readings in the HIstory of Interpretation"
download

7 March
Professor Philip Esler (University of St. Andrews)
"Reflections on Romans 9-11 in the light of Conflict and Identity in Romans (Fortress, 2003)"
download

The first delivery of the Whitley Lecture was last Wednesday at Bristol.  It went well: about 40 present, including old friends and many new faces, made up largely of ministerial students from Bristol and Cardiff Baptist Colleges. The lecture was slightly too long (this will be altered the next time I present it), but there was good interaction after it and we went well over our allotted time.  Among the questions that, for me, generated further reflection were:

• have I underestimated the extent to which interpretation is bound up with issues of power, not least at the level of the local church? (Answer: I possibly have in the lecture, although I make comments in it that address this point and developed on them in my comments)
• does my thesis mean that 'anything goes' and that there is no prospect for agreement or convergence in interpretation (answer, no its doesn't mean that, but addressing these concerns is a lengthy and complex task and my focus is inevitably on the fact and legitimacy of interpretive difference, given the assumptions about the nature of interpretation that prevail in our churches).  There was a nice historical point here noting that by starting with the General Baptists I am in danger of suggesting that the doctrinal move to Unitarianism was OK (the irony of discussing this point in the institution partly responsible for the development of Evangelical Calvinism was not lost on me).
• do we need to be more radical about re-thinking Sunday worship and especially preaching?  Yes, we probably do and I confessed to feeling caught here between the desire for churches to be places of genuine plurality and my belief in preaching as proclamation.  I still hope to think that this is a creative tension.
• did I use too many long words?: yeh but..no but...yeh but...

Incidentally, the day after returning i picked off my copy of AKMA's book Faithful Interpretation off the shelves, and found to my delight that he is articulating a similar vision, in rather more sophisticated terms.  The chapter on Integral v Differential Hermeneutics is right on the mark.

I had a conversation today in which I was asked if I felt that there was potential for the ideas in the lecture to really make a difference to the ways in which we as Baptists understand and talk about the whole interpretive task.  I have my doubts.  But thanks to Bristol for giving me the opportunity to give a first airing to these ideas. 

It is rare for me to get angry - on this blog at least - but having tracked for some time now the story of Sheri Klouda's dismissal (technically disguised as a refusal to allow her to apply for tender) from Southwestern Baptist Seminary, and the role of Paige Patterson (the Seminary's President) in that dismissal, my blood just keeps on boiling.

What am I on about?  Well for the short answer see here.  For the longer view see Wade Burleson's exhaustive discussion here and follow up post here.

Patterson, of course, was one of the key players in the SBC's break from fellowship with other Baptist Christian's worldwide in the Baptist World Alliance.

On this evidence ... good riddance! 

I am due to give the Whitley Lecture in several locations over the next couple of months.  I am at Bristol Baptist College on January 31st and then at Spurgeon's on February 13th.  But I am also due to give the lecture here in Luther King House as a part of the 1st Tuesday series of public lectures on March 6th 2007 at 7.30 p.m.  A flyer for the event for downloading can be found below:

Whitley_A4_Poster.2.doc

The foreword to the printed lecture gives some history and background:

'The Whitley Lecture was first established in 1949 in honour of W. T. Whitley (1861-1947), the Baptist historian.  Whitley was a notable scholar and pastor in both England and Australia.  Following a pastorate in Bridlington, during which he also taught at Rawdon College in Yorkshire, he became the first Principal of the Baptist College of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia in 1891.  This institution was subsequently renamed Whitley College in his honour.  Returning to England after eleven years in Australia, he was a leading and influential figure in the denomination during the early part of the twentieth century.  His History of British Baptists (1923) is still an important source of information and comment for contemporary historians.
Whitley was a key figure in the formation of the Baptist Historical Society in 1908.  He edited its journal, which soon gained an international reputation for the quality of its contents, a reputation it still enjoys nearly a century later as the Baptist Quarterly.  Altogether he made an important contribution to Baptist life and self understanding, providing a model of how a pastor-scholar might enrich the life and faith of others.
The Lectureship established in his name is intended to be an encouragement to research and writing by Baptist scholars, and to enable the results of their work to be published.  The committee consists of representatives of the British Baptist Colleges, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, BMS World Mission, the Baptist Ministers Fellowship and the Baptist Historical Society.  It is always keen to hear about work being done by Baptist scholars, and is prepared to consider making grants as well as offering advice and support.
Each year from 1996, a leading Baptist scholar has been appointed the Whitley Lecturer. The lecturer is invited to write and deliver a lecture as a significant contribution to Baptist thought.  It is given at different locations during the course of the year, and published by the committee.  This year the committee is delighted that Revd Dr Sean Winter, tutor at Northern Baptist College in Manchester, has agreed to be the tenth Whitley Lecturer in this series. Sean prepared for Baptist ministry at Bristol Baptist College (1986-1990) where he studied at the University of Bristol and then went on to Regent’s Park College (1990-1993) to study for a DPhil.  He worked with the present Bishop of Durham, N. T. Wright, completing a thesis exploring Paul’s rhetorical strategy in his letter to the Philippians in 1997.  In 1994 he was called to be minister at Abbey Baptist Church in Reading, a historic town centre church.  The call back into College life came in 2000 with a move to Northern Baptist College in Manchester, where he is the Tutor in New Testament.  He has served the Baptist Union of Great Britain in numerous roles, and currently serves as the Moderator of the Baptist Union Council.
In his Whitley Lecture Sean pursues one of his research interests in the area of theological hermeneutics and explores the distinctive contribution of Baptist Christians to the task of interpreting the Bible today.  This theme is of interest to all those who believe in the continuing relevance of the message of the Bible, and in particular to all those of a Baptist persuasion who want to think seriously about their faith.
The printed lecture is available from the Baptist Union of Great Britain.' 

The abstract I sent to the Committee last year gives, perhaps, a better feel for the focus and content of the lecture

The lecture will explore the issue of how Baptists might understand the task of biblical interpretation in the light of their covenantal understanding of the nature of God, God’s relating to the world, and the life of the church.  In particular, the lecture will consider how as Baptists we ought to understand the inevitable diversity of biblical interpretation and the consequent disagreements that arise as a result of such diversity.  I will argue that the use of the word “biblical” in relation to Baptist identity, denotes not a commitment to a particular interpretive decision about the meaning of scripture, but a commitment to a particular kind of relationship to scripture.  Within such a relationship, diversity and disagreement are to be expected and even welcomed as those things which sustain an appropriately covenantal relationship with God via the medium of the text, and with each other.  The lecture will end with several practical suggestions as to how such an understanding of interpretation might take visible shape in the local church and within theological education.

If you are in Manchester on March 6th and want to join us you would be welcome.  Alternatively, I am also giving the lecture at the BUGB Assembly in Brighton on Saturday May 5th at 4.00 p.m.

Update: it occurs to me that there is a remote, highly, extremely remote, chance that someone reading this blog might want to host a Whitley Lecture event.  Part of the responsibility of being the lecturer is to respond to invitations to deliver the lecture within the Baptist constituency during 2007.  While I am not looking to pack my diary, I would be prepared to consider invitations from any colleges, associations, churches that feel that it might be a good idea.  Get in touch to discuss it further if you feel this would be an idea to pursue. 

Yesterday in a staff meeting, we were trying to develop a course that would better equip preachers for the task of preaching.  A key element in our thinking was a fundamental commitment to enabling people to be themselves in the communication of the Christian faith.  Throughout, I was reminded of an article by Zadie Smith in the Guardian this past weekend on great writing and what it means to be a writer.  Here are a few selected quotations that connect to the reason why, in the end, I can not simply believe as a Christian, but needed to try and articulate (as scholar / theologian) and communicate (as minister / preacher) the faith I profess (as disciple), and that challenge me about how to do it better and with greater authenticity and integrity.

'To speak personally, the very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.'

'For writers have only one duty, as I see it: the duty to express accurately their way of being in the world. If that sounds woolly and imprecise, I apologise. Writing is not a science, and I am speaking to you in the only terms I have to describe what it is I persistently aim for (yet fail to achieve) when I sit in front of my computer.When I write I am trying to express my way of being in the world. This is primarily a process of elimination: once you have removed all the dead language, the second-hand dogma, the truths that are not your own but other people's, the mottos, the slogans, the out-and-out lies of your nation, the myths of your historical moment - once you have removed all that warps experience into a shape you do not recognise and do not believe in - what you are left with is something approximating the truth of your own conception. That is what I am looking for when I read a novel; one person's truth as far as it can be rendered through language. This single duty, properly pursued, produces complicated, various results.'

'A great piece of fiction can demand that you acknowledge the reality of its wildest proposition, no matter how alien it may be to you. It can also force you to concede the radical otherness lurking within things that appear most familiar.'

'Writers fail us when that interface is tailored to our needs, when it panders to the generalities of its day, when it offers us a world it knows we will accept having already seen it on the television. Bad writing does nothing, changes nothing, educates no emotions, rewires no inner circuitry - we close its covers with the same metaphysical confidence in the universality of our own interface as we did when we opened it. But great writing - great writing forces you to submit to its vision'

The whole article can be found here.  I wish I could write like that.  Smith is one of those novelists whose essays and non-fiction (to this reader at least) have an even greater quality than the novels themselves. 

The latest issue of Ecclesiology revolves around the question 'What is the Church?'.  Articles include:

Oliver O'Donovan, 'What Kind of Community is the Church? The Richard Hooker Lectures 2005'

Richard Bourne, 'Democracy and Civil Society: Reflections on John Howard Yoder's Exilic Ecclesiology'

Carolina Armenteros, 'Communio Ecclesiology and the World: Ecumenical Intimations of Joseph de Maistre's Du Pape' 

Frederick W. Guyette, 'Sacramentality in the Fourth Gospel: Conflicting Interpretations'

Thomas Seville CR, 'Article Review: The Origins of the Eucharist in Early Christian Worship'

Unfortunately, abstracts are not yet up on the Sage site, nor downloads for those who have access.  But go here in due course and you should be able to locate them.

AKMA offers a working definition here.