Andrew Wilson, Remaking the World - 1776

 

Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West

Andrew Wilson

Crossway, 2023 (ISBN: 9781433580536 hb, 360pp)

 

I have really loved this book. It is an education from poetry to economics. If you are at all interested in history or ideas or understanding yourself and your world, I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.

 

This is a fascinating and compelling account of something of our WEIRDER (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian and Romantic) age, its origins and how Christians might respond.

 

The cover depicts Wilson ten object related to 1776:

 

The quill pen

Thomas Pain’s, Common Sense

A rose (to represent Romanticism)

The cylinder from James Watt’s steam engine

Cook’s ship, HMS Resolution

Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Gear from the Watt steam engine

Flywheel from the Watt steam engine

A Revolutionary War-era flintlock pistol

 

Wilson argues that grace, freedom and truth provide a pathos (how we feel), ethos (how we act) and logos (how we think) which speak especially powerfully to the spirt of our age.

 

Some jottings follow:

 

The American Declaration of Independence’s self-evident truths haven’t seemed obvious to most people. Andrew Wilson writes: “The Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov expressed the non sequitur at the heart of Western civilization with a deliciously sarcastic aphorism: “Man descended from apes, therefore we must love one another.” Yuval Noah Harari says: “There are no such things as rights in biology.” Expressed in biological terms, the Declaration might have said: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men evolved differently, that they are born with certain mutable characteristics, and that among these are life and the pursuit of pleasure.” (p131)

 

* * *  

 

At the age of 30, Richard Trevithick was the first to build a working locomotive. Without warning and to widespread astonishment, he rode his Puffing Devil up Camborne Hill on Christmas Eve 1801. However, when the drivers went off to the pub for the evening, leaving the engine running unattended in a shed, everything burnt down.

 

Trevithick started work on a tunnel under the Thames which he never finished and was declared bankrupt. He went to South America to make his fortune in mining but got caught up in the fight for independence, designing a new gun for the army. He fled from the Spanish in Peru across the jungle, narrowly escaping being eaten by a crocodile and ended up in Colombia, where he bumped in to Robert Stevenson who leant him £50 for the journey home.

 

John “Iron Mad” Wilkinson was so obsessed with iron that he had an iron coffin made for himself and kept it in his office. Unfortunately, when he died the coffin was found to be too small for his body and then too large for his grave. He was buried four times in total, most recently in 1928.

 

The making of British manufacturing was made by metals, mechanization, management, marketing and money. (pp173f) 

 

The HR department at Jedediah Strutt (b. 1726)'s factory was kept busy. Offences included riding on each other’s backs, throwing tea on Josh Bridworth, calling thro' window to some soldiers, putting Josh Hayne's dog in a bucket of hot water, throwing water on Ann Gregory very frequently. (p177)

 

* * *

 

The English Puritan John Owen published over eight million words. The Banner of Truth edition of his works is 16 volumes. Yet Carl Trueman points out the remarkable fact that he never mentions the loss of his wife and all eleven of his children. (p190)

 

* * *

The difficulty of defining Romanticism and an eight-word sketch:

Inwardness

Infinity 

Imagination 

Individuality 

Inspiration 

Intensity 

Innocence

Ineffability 

(p189f)

 

William Blake, “Britain’s greatest Romantic genius” – ‘I went to the Garden of Love’ poem (p205) – Chapel, “Thou shalt not” writ over the door – etc. (p206)

 

Rousseau – “the greatest autobiography since Augustine (Confessions), the most important work on education since Plato (Emile)… the most influential piece of political thought of his generation (The Social Contract), and the eighteenth century’s bestselling novel (Julie).” (p207)

 

Rousseau’s talent for opening lines – footnote p207

 

Inwardness – Truthfulness, sincerity, authenticity (p208) – free to follow your heart

 

Robert Bellah, “expressive individualism”; Philip Rieff, “triumph of the therapeutic”; Charles Taylor, “age of authenticity” (p209)

 

Romanticism + Marx, Nietzsche, Darwin, Freud

 

Donna Tart, The Goldfinch – be yourself / follow your heart – “What if one happens to be possessed of a heart that can’t be trusted?” and for some reason leads you towards ruin, self-immolation, disaster etc. – See Wilson, p211

 

* * *

 

The transformation of health, wealth and prosperity – the great escape / the great divergence / the great enrichment / the European miracle (p214)

 

A thousand years of living standards pretty constant for most people.

 

GDP per person per year roughly $550 for Shakespeare and King David

 

The Malthusian Trap was first described in 1798, just as people were beginning to escape from it for the first time (p214)

 

“Today, human beings consume around seventy times more goods and services than we did two centuries ago – an increase… of 7,000 percent – while world population has only increased by a factor of seven….. the average person today … has a standard of living around ten times higher than in 1776. If the Pilgrim Fathers lives on $2 a day in today’s terms, and the average person in the eighteenth century lived on $3 a day, the average person now lives on more like $30. In richer countries, it is closer to $100.” (p214)

 

Graphs – p215f – income per person, life expectancy, social development index (energy capacity, organisation, IT, capacity to make war – a proxy for the sophistication of a society – Ian Morris)

 

Adam Smith – kidnapped by a gypsy woman? (p218) – terribly absent minded etc. – Samuel Johnson called him “a most disagreeable fellow” who was “as dull a dog as he had ever met” (p218)

 

“led by an invisible hand” (p219)

 

The productivity of labour and Gross Domestic Product (p219f)

 

 Reasons for this economic explosion: institutional, socioeconomic, ideological and cultural, geographical (pp220ff)

 

Secure property, law, contracts, representative government, religious pluralism etc. p221f

 

Acemoglu and Robinson, Why Nations Fail

 

Ferguson, Civilization

 

 William Cobbett, Britain as “Old Corruption” (p223)

 

Gregory Clark: The IMF & World Bank might have rated Britain better in the medieval period than today (p223f)

 

GREED – Guns, Resource Extraction, Enslavement, Death (p224)

 

Thomas Thistlewood – “the worst man in the world” (p226)

 

Monopolies and slavery as counterproductive (p227)

 

A modern breakfast & luxury goods (p227)

 

An industrious revolution? (p227)

 

Consumer culture & cotton (p228)

 

The “lords of the loom” (industrial revolution, cotton etc.) depended on “the lords of the lash” (slavery, colonialism) (p228)

 

The effects of the black death – 1/3 of population died, wages increase, peasantry empowered, feudalism destabilised, agricultural improvements incentivised (p228, fn)

 

Bejamin Franklin as a most modern person – pragmatic, cosmopolitan, sense of humour, his career & abilities, inventions, wit etc. – diligent, frugal, prosperous, normal, can-do, upwardly mobile, middle class, democratic, optimistic, Protestant-lite (p229)

 

A culture of growth, curiosities, novelty, improvement (p230f) – discovery, possibility

 

“virtually all cultures put a higher value on tried and tested ancestral wisdom than on newfangled, unproven contemporary innovation” (p231)

 

Christianity – individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, non-conformist, analytical (p231) – town folk (p232)

 

Rejection of Jesuit astronomy in China (fn, p231)

 

A. N. Whitehead on the importance of “the rationality of God” and his providence etc. for science (p232)

 

Yuval Noah Harai increases in knowledge leading to “the discovery of ignorance” – there is so much you don’t know, you are driven to investigate (p232f)

 

A divided church, a heliocentric cosmos & America! (p233)

 

The reception / partial rejection of Aristotle in this period (p233)

 

Books in Europe and China – movable type printing, Protestantism, a relatively free press, literacy, correspondence etc.

 

Cf. attituded to maths and money in Shakespeare and Johnson (p234)

 

Competition, productive fragmentation – independence and connection (p235)

 

Walter Scheidel – polycentrism / “competitive fragmentation of power” (p236) – competition, diversity, innovation, options

 

Maps not chaps (p238)

 

The Eurasian steppe and pastoral nomads (p238f)

 

Separation of church and state but also Christianity / language etc. in common (p239) – political fragmentation and cultural connection in Europe (p240)

 

The republic of letters – a market of ideas (p239)

Church growth, young people and silver bullets

I’ve been in my job serving three small rural churches for thirteen years. The population of the benefice is c. 1700.

I can’t say revival has broken out. But by God’s grace the churches have held on while pubs shut down around us!

Sometimes my four kids have been the only young people in church.

Last week the official statistics showed that we had 11 under 16s at one service. And one of my children had been to the earlier service. And some regulars were missing.

Of course things are still small and fragile but we’re enormously grateful for this little uptick / mind-blowing % growth.

For quite some time, 25% or more of the Church of England's congregations have no children attending regularly. On average, nine children attended each service across all Church of England churches in 2016. And the pandemic hit some places hard. Habits of church going were hard for some people to recover.

 

The Church of England has published ‘Youth and Children Growth research - Research amongst churches which have grown in their under 16 Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) 2014-2019 - Sample: 217 churches - Jan-April 2022.  

The Vicar gets a lot of credit (p11)! They also conclude that that “growth resulted from an active, intentional choice, as opposed to something that happened organically.” (p12). 88% of growing churches agreed that there had been an active choice to engage more in youth, children and families work in your church in the past five years. Well, okay, I’m not sure how much that really tells us. Only 11% said the growth had been organic growth over time (not a result of specific changes). (2% of churches didn’t know). (p12) People are likely to credit their actions with working after the fact, aren’t they?

“When asking churches which, if any, changes have taken place within your church community, the top answer was Increased emphasis in working with families (57%), followed by changes in church style or programme (51%), new church leadership (50%), Increased investment by adults in the wider church (43%) and employing a youth, children’s or families worker (42%). However, when asked about how important that decision was in contributing to the growth of youth and children’s attendance in your church, 82% of those that had employed a youth, children’s or families worker rated it as’ very important’ in contributing to the growth of youth and children’s attendance in your church, with 74% rating increased emphasis in working with families as very important and 64% rating both changes in church style or programme and increased investment by adults in the wider church as very important.” (p13)

We’ve worked really quite hard at church growth over the years. We did a diocesan course about it. We’ve worked on our welcome. We’ve used a special prayer for church growth and we often pray about it at our monthly benefice prayer meeting. We’ve had two benefice missions with outside teams, and all sorts of one off and regular events, courses, holiday clubs, initiatives and Mission Action Plans – some of them multiple times. We did Messy Church in the village hall on a Sunday at 4pm for a few years. We have had a youth group. Toddlers is sometimes at capacity. I could go on, but I can’t say we have any single silver bullet.

Inevitably some people move away and some people become too ill to come to church any longer. So you need to grow to stand still. We have seen a few new people at all three churches in recent times. Mostly they have just turned up, been welcomed and kept coming back.

We can’t see people’s hearts or predict the long term, but it’s humbling to think that we can’t manage or control church growth. None of this is to say that we shouldn’t plan nor do X or Y, but the Spirit moves wherever He pleases, sometimes through our careful organisation, maybe sometimes despite it.

Perhaps that also means we should try not to be too anxious or obsessed about numbers. Of course we want as many people as possible to know, love and follow Jesus. But numbers aren’t everything. Our job is faithfulness. Naturally we long to be fruitful. But fruit is God’s job.

It turns out that the Bible is right. If there is to be any growth, God gives the growth. And we give thanks for all those who have planted and watered. Only eternity will reveal what fruit was good and lasting. Much growth might for the moment be unseen or elsewhere.  

In the meantime, I’m immensely grateful, in particular, for the flexibility and perseverance of our children’s Sunday Club leaders. Well done to them for preparing each week when there might be no customers and coping if the size of the group doubles!

1 Corinthians 1vv1-9 a handout

1 CORINTHIANS 1:1-9 (page 1145)

 

CALLED TO LIVE IN CORINTH AND IN CHRIST

 

Background:

marclloyd.blogspot.com/2024/05/1-corinthians-one-page-a4-introduction.html

 

Introduction: The Word of God to 1^st Century Corinth & 21^st Century Sussex

 

Ancient letters: FROM… TO… GREETINGS / thanksgiving

 

 

(1) God’s call to Paul (v1) – an apostle

 

 

(2) God’s call to the church in Corinth (v2) – holy

 

 

 

 

Ø  Be holy in Corinth and in Christ (v2)

 

 

Ø  Be thankful in Christ’s rich grace (vv3-6)

 

 

Ø  Be confident in Christ’s keeping power (vv7-9)

 

 

 

… and now for some of your issues! (v10ff)…

1 Corinthians - a one page A4 introduction

MESSY CHURCH: Christian community in a pagan culture between cross and resurrection

Paul’s “First” Letter to the Corinthian Church – a less than one A4 page introduction

 PDF version

From the Apostle Paul (9:1-3, 15-18; 12:28; 15:8-9) and Sosthenes – cf. Acts 18:17 - a scribe / secretary (amanuensis)? cf. 16:21 Did he carry the letter to Corinth?

 

To the church in Corinth (map: https://bibleatlas.org/corinth.htm), which Paul founded on his second missionary journey (Acts 18:1-8) ? in the Autumn of AD 50. Paul stayed for 18 months, his second longest stay in any city. Maybe Paul’s most “successful” church in terms of growth but as we’ll see with issues! Paul probably wrote to them in AD 54 – 55 in response to their worrying letter (7:1). Paul has had a report from Chloe’s household (1:11f) and had learnt about problems in the church. See also 16:17; 5:1. Sometimes he seems to be responding to their questions (7:1) / possibly quoting ?them (6:12; 10:23). The church members seem to be mostly gentiles = non-Jews (12:2). Maybe it is a church of around 100 people in a city of 50 000. Notice 1:2, they are called to be holy in Corinth – a great challenge, as it is for us in 21^st Century Britain! How does their new identity in Christ apply to the values of their culture? Paul says, “Don’t listen to your culture, rather listen to Word of Grace!” (Mody)

 

Corinth is in modern day Greece. The Greek city had been a Roman colony for over a century when Paul went there. It was the seat of the Roman governor of the province of Achaea and had a population larger than Athens. It is on an isthmus (narrow strip of land / land-bridge). “Situated on the main north-south route between northern and southern Greece, and with two good ports that linked it to Italy on the west and Asia Minor on the east, Corinth quickly became a center for commerce.” (Fant & Reddish). The city was competitive, selfish, prosperous, growing, booming (rich & underclass), bustling, international, pluralistic, individualistic, self-sufficient, valuing rhetoric, status, honour, patronage, achievement, power, knowledge, wisdom, spirituality and autonomy / freedom. The Corinthians seem influenced by pagan philosophy e.g. sophistry, Stoicism (4:8-9). Like many other pagan cities, idolatry was everywhere and sex lives could be colourful. How can the church be holy in this unholy culture? Paul will tell them what they do with their bodies really matters. “Body” is used 47 x in 1 Cor. The church seems affected by pride and division.

 

Was there a previous letter of Paul to Corinth? (5:9)

 

1 Corinthians is a wide-ranging letter. It could be seen as “the longest pastoral document in the New Testament” (Winter). It speaks of grace, mission, love and hope. This letter can help us to apply the great truths of the gospel to the realities of daily life. How does the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus teach us to live? The cross is especially prominent at the beginning of the letter and the resurrection at the end. In the middle, the gospel is applied to the mess of life. And it is quite messy at times! These are not perfect Christians with a perfect church – though perhaps they think they have already arrived (4:8) and have a high opinion of themselves. The Corinthians need to learn what authentic Christian community under the cross looks like. “The terms “cross/crucify/crucifixion” are used more frequently in 1 Cor than in any other Pauline letter.” They are associated not merely with the execution of a criminal but with folly, weakness, and shame, and that is the grace of God. (Mody). Issues and themes include: True and false wisdom, factionalism, conflict, sexual immorality (incest, prostitution), marriage, greed and the godly use of our bodies, idolatry, gathered worship, spiritual gifts, giving, the resurrection. Paul calls his readers to a lifestyle of service shaped by the cross and governed by the new age of salvation. And he also gives instructions about the collection for the poor (16). Flee and glory are key words. They are to flee sexual immorality (6:18) and honour / glorify God with their bodies (6:20). They are to flee idolatry (10:14) and do everything for the glory of God (10:31). “Shape your lives not by what seems wise in this age, but in light of the truly glorious: Christ’s cross - because you know his resurrection age is coming!” (Ham)

 

Issues addressed in 2 Corinthians might also be relevant. In 2 Cor, Paul defends his apostleship in contrast to the so-called “super-Apostles”, who might seem so much more impressive. Paul speaks of God’s power made perfect in weakness.

 

NIV Proclamation Bible summary sentence: “All believers in Christ are God’s holy temple and should live in keeping with that holy status by being unified, shunning pagan vices and glorifying God under the lordship of Christ.” (Rosner)

A historical note on prayers for the dead in The Church of England

 As far as I can tell, prayers for the dead did not form part of the authorised public liturgy of The Church of England from 1552 until 1917 or even 1967.

Of The Thirty Nine Articles of Religion, we might note especially:

“XXII. OF PURGATORY

THE Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping, and Adoration, as well of Images as of Reliques, and also invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.”

And:

“XXXI. OF THE ONE OBLATION OF CHRIST FINISHED UPON THE CROSS

THE Offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits.”

Homily XIX Concerning Prayer seeks to “take away the gross error of purgatory out of our heads” and says “neither let us dream any more, that the souls of the dead are anything at all holpen by our prayers.”

In the case of Breeks v Woolfrey (1838) 163 English Reports 304, The Dean of the Arches, Jenner, concluded that the historic formularies “shew that the Church discouraged prayers for the dead, but did not prohibit them: and that the 22nd Article is not violated by the[ir] use” (p.311).

Prayers for the dead were included in 1900 during the Boer War and in a service for the commemoration of Queen Victoria in 1902.

In 1904, Archbishop Randall Davidson was embarrassed by an allegation that he had “said prayers for the dead with the late Queen [Victoria]”. He seems to have agreed that the insertion of such prayers in the public services of the Church would have been illegal.

An explicit prayer for the departed was issued by authority for the first time in 1917 and brought forth protests from evangelicals Bishops Chavasse (Liverpool) and Knox (Manchester) although they were clearly in a minority.  

In the 1919 novel, Mr Standfast, John Buchan has a fictional Protestant lady say: “I whiles wish I was a Catholic and could pit up prayers for the sodgers that are dead.  It maun be a great consolation.” 

Prayers for the dead were included in the 1928 Prayer Book which was rejected by Parliament.

Following the Prayer Book (Alternative and Other Services) Measure 1965, Series 2 (1967?) included them.

The Church of England Worship and Doctrine Measure 1974 gave General Synod the power to introduce liturgy.

* * *

Culled, with some cutting and pasting, from a number of online sources but especially:

https://ecclesiasticallaw.wordpress.com/2019/11/08/praying-for-the-dead/

https://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/articles/can-we-pray-for-the-dead/

Solving The Mystery would be a problem

 

Dr Thomas G. Weinandy (OFM Cap)’s book, Does God Suffer? (T & T Clark / University of Notre Dame Press, 2000) (Spoiler: no) is brilliant.

The chapter on theological method (2: ‘Theology – Problems and Mysteries’, p27ff) is excellent and worth reading even if you have impassibility all sown up. He has useful things to say about theological posture, prayerful faith seeking understanding in community with the faithful and in continuity with Scripture and the Great Tradition.

There can be a kind of doctrinal development as the church uses reason to clarify and defend the deposit of truth, confronting new problems, clarifying her faith, seeking to understand and live the gospel more ardently as new times and places are discipled, and showing how the truths of revelation fit together.

Drawing on Gabriel Marcel’s The Mystery of Being (1950), Weinandy argues that God is never a problem to be solved but a transcendent mystery. We do not master revelation but are mastered by it. We cannot coldly dissect God to arrive at comprehensive and systematic analysis of him. Much can be said which is true and helpful, but our understanding of God will never be total or final. There is always more to be contemplated and articulated. The theologians’ goal, then, is not to solve the mystery (as if it is a problem that would go away – QED!) but rather to clarify the mystery – GLORY! At the “end” of the theological enterprise, we will be left with a deeper mystery – a sharper more profound insight into the inexhaustible God.

Perhaps God chuckled (impassibly) as he revealed himself to Moses as I AM WHO I AM (Exodus 3). Moses knew God better, but the Mystery was greater not less.

Weinandy says we should learn a primary lesson about the nature of revelation and theology: “The more God reveals who he is and the more we come to a true and authentic knowledge of who he is, the more mysterious he becomes. Theology, as faith seeking understanding, helps us come to a deeper and fuller understanding of the nature of God and his revelation, but this growth is in coming to know that mystery of God is not the comprehension of the mystery.” (p33)

Arius thought the problem of Son and Father could be solved. Athanasius clarified the Triune Mystery.

On The Quiet Time

 

In my particular tribe of evangelicalism in my lifetime, there has been an enormous emphasis on The Quiet Time. That is, that each day one should read the Bible and pray.

 

We could say there’s no precise specific commandment in the Bible to do that. And we could talk about legalism and guilt-trips and magical views of The Quiet Time, and more. But on the whole, I would say this is excellent advice: most days, if you can, at least for a few minutes, try to read or listen to the Bible and pray.

 

And, if you can, I would suggest doing so often even if you don’t feel like it. You never know how God will use this. He might call to your mind in years to come something you read tomorrow.

 

There are no laws here and there are all sorts of notes, resources and plans designed to help. Explore! Have fun! Mix it up. Give it a go. Start small. Do something.

 

You might like to explore Morning and or Evening Prayer (e.g. The Book of Common Prayer or Common Worship) either in a book, online, or in audio form. These tried and tested forms might have you read something from the Psalms, The Old Testament and the New Testament each day. I find Morning Prayer outload normally takes less than 20 minutes, maybe with a bit of getting ready and tidying up afterwards!

 

Maybe this might be done in your family or household or somehow with others from church or online.

 

The form doesn’t really matter. Bible. Pray. Repeat.

 

But I do have one word of advice:

 

Don’t rush. It is brilliant to read several chapters of the Bible a day if you can and if you want to. I am all for The Bible in a Year, or whatever. But equally it might be wonderful just to read one verse and to dwell on it, maybe even to try to memorise it.

 

I would say this: however much you read, don’t just read it, tick it off and rush on to the next thing. Just pause for a moment. Reflect. Think about what you’ve read. Is there something you can hang on to? Something that can sink in and maybe stay with you? Something to turn into praise or prayer? Maybe even something to jot down.

 

In our Quiet Times we are not doing a good work we feel we ought to do. However briefly, we actually want to meet with God and to do business in our souls / hearts. So SLOW DOWN.

 

God’s word is a great treasure. God’s presence is our highest delight. What a joy to contemplate the glory face of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures and a pleasure to be with our Heavenly Father who is pleased to hear us.

 

Psalm 27v7f

2025 Nicaea 1700 / Trinity Reading Suggestions

Of course it is Trinity Sunday any moment. And The Council of Nicaea has a bit anniversary coming up. 

What reading might you suggest?

Someone more learned than me would be better placed to write a list like this. I have to really concentrate to spell “Nicaea”! No, okay, I’ll be honest: I Google it just to be sure. Anyway, here are some things that come to mind, some of which I haven’t read / didn’t finish: (Some of these will also of course provide lots of other bibliography) Thanks for some suggestions from friends. 

This 800+ pages is due in October 2024: Matthew Barrett (ed.), On Classical Trinitarianism: Retrieving the Nicene Doctrine of the Triune God (IVP Academic)

Jared Ortiz and Daniel A. Keating, Nicene Creed, The: A Scriptural, Historical, and Theological Commentary, (Baker Academic, 2024)

Phillip Cary, The Nicene Creed: An Introduction (Lexham Press, 2023)

Athanasius, On The Incarnation – the introduction by C. S. Lewis is also worth reading 

Peter Barnes, Athanasius of Alexandria: His Life and Impact (Christian Focus)

 Simonetta Carr, Athanasius - Christian Biographies for Young Readers (Reformation Heritage Books)

Ryan Reeves, Who was Athanasius and Why Was He Important? (The Gospel Coalition blog, MAY 9, 2016) https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/who-was-athanasius-and-why-was-he-important/ 

John Piper also has a chapter on Athanasius in Contending for Our All (IVP)

Rowan Williams, Arius: Heresy and Tradition (SCM Press) – do I recall correctly this is a notoriously hard book?

Philip Cary, The Nicene Creed – An Introduction (Faithlife Corporation)

Augustine, On The Trinity 

Gerald Bray, Creeds, Councils and Christ: Did the early Christians misrepresent Jesus? (Christian Focus Mentor)

When the Vicar was at theological college, they probably used J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines and Early Christian Creeds 

At the learned end of the spectrum:

Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology (OUP) and Augustine and the Trinity (CUP)

Mark Smith, The Idea of Nicaea in the Early Church Councils (OUP) 

More general useful books on the Trinity include:

Stephen Holmes, The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity (IVP Academic)

Fred Sanders, The Triune God (New Studies in Dogmatics) (Zondervan Academic) and The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (Crossway)

Scott Swain, The Trinity: An Introduction (Short Studies in Systematic Theology) (Crossway)

Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship – revised and expanded edition (P&R)

D Glenn Butner Jr, Trinitarian Dogmatics: Exploring the Grammar of the Christian Doctrine of God (Baker Academic) – stimulating, stretching in places 

I think, DV, there might be an edition of The Global Anglican with a particular focus on Nicaea coming to coincide with the anniversary.

Romanticism

 Andrew Wilson discusses the difficulty of defining Romanticism and offers an eight word sketch:

Inwardness

Infinity 

Imagination 

Individuality 

Inspiration 

Intensity 

Innocence

Ineffability 

Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West (p189f)

Looking back with realism and forward with hope

 My parish magazine item for June 2024

From The Rectory

 

Do you think about the past or the future much? There’s a lot to be said for living in the present moment, not being too preoccupied with the past (perhaps with guilt or regret) or with the future (anxious, fearful?). But some sense of where we’ve come from and where we’re going gives meaning to our lives. We need to know our history and to aim for something with hope.

 

The Bible arguably contains a warning against excessive nostalgia. “Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10) And the good old days weren’t always that good, or at least not in every way.

 

Some Christians tend to look back to the early church as an imagined golden age. And there is some truth in this. The Apostles preached mighty sermons and thousands were converted in a single day. This passage from Acts 2 clearly presents a model church: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

 

But space prevents me from cataloguing all the “issues” of the early church. There was fierce persecution from outside the church and division within. Even in Acts we soon see tensions between different groups, financial and administrative problems which have to be addressed, lying and hypocrisy. And a corrupt attempt to buy spiritual power. We could go on.

 

Even the great Apostle Peter acted hypocritically and Paul had to oppose him publicly.

 

Paul can tell the Galatian church that he is astonished they are bewitched and so quickly deserting God for a false gospel which is really no gospel at all.  

 

I am about to preach a sermon series on 1 Corinthians. There we see the church split into rival parties. There’s serious sexual immorality of a kind not even tolerated among the pagans. Believers seem to be taking one another to court. Paul says the church risks being partners in the table of Christ and of demons. Their worship is disorderly and selfish, with people getting drunk at Holy Communion and showing off rather than serving one another in love.

 

If we can see serious problems in the contemporary church, that’s nothing new. The old joke is that if you find a perfect church, you shouldn’t join it because you’d only spoil it! We can imagine a perfectly ordered churchyard, but real living churches are always messy and face their challenges.

 

So we shouldn’t idealise the early church. But we can learn from it. The aim is not to recreate exactly how things were in the first century, but to be equipped by the Word of God for reformation and renewal, and to live hopefully in today’s world in the light of all the riches of our Christian heritage. The church has, as it were, died and risen many times. We can go back to the authentic apostolic gospel with humility, courage, resolve and confidence. We can be encouraged that new light has shone powerfully in dark days in the past. The flame of Christian witness has never been extinguished and might burn brightly again in our own land. The good news of Jesus is just as needed today as it ever was. And God’s Holy Spirit has lost none of His transforming power. No Christian, no church, will ever be perfect this side of glory, but the church remains the hope for nations and the world. Global Christianity has much to teach us too and we should look to the future in prayerful repentance and faith, trusting the God of the church who surely knows what he’s doing, even if we can’t always work out all the details!

The Revd Marc Lloyd

The Ascension of Christ - Prophet, Priest & King

 

Ascension 2024

 

Acts 1:1-11 (page 1092)

Luke 24:44-end (page 1062)

 

This week for our school church assembly here, the topic was “What is Christianity?”

And I explained to the children that of course the word “Christ” is not a surname, as we might imagine, but a title or job description.

Like many of our English surnames, like “Baker” or “Smith”, “Christ” tells us who Jesus is, what he did.

 

I brought some olive oil to the assembly on Tuesday to help us think about the meaning of the word “Christ”.

“Christ” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew “Messiah” and they both mean “anointed one”.

 

Just as our own king was anointed at his coronation, in the Old Testament they anointed prophets, priests and kings as a sign that they were called and marked out by God, equipped with God’s Holy Spirit for their God-given roles.

 

So Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one is our prophet, priest and king.

 

This little book by Patrick Schreiner considers the ascension and what it means for Jesus as prophet, priest and king and I’m going to take a few moments just to plagiarise it for you now.

You might say this sermon could save you £12.99, or it might inspire you to buy the book!

 

Jesus’ ascension is a key moment and a crucial hinge in the life of the Messiah.  

The ascension is the climax and fulfilment of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

God the Son come from heaven and returned to heaven as the God-Man.

Jesus’ ministry to V shaped: from heaven, to earth and back to heaven again.

 

It is as the ascended Christ, that Jesus pours out his Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

 

The ascension confirms and continues Christ’s saving work.

Christ’s atoning work is done and proved by his resurrection and ascension.

And the ascension brings in a new phase of Jesus’ saving work.

Jesus’ saving work for us continues in heaven, and, following the ascension, the next thing in Jesus’ diary after Pentecost is the consummation of all things.

It is from his throne in heaven that the incarnate, crucified, risen, ascended Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead.

The ascended Christ will come again.

 

So let’s think briefly what the ascension has to say about Jesus’ three-fold office for us.

How does the ascension relate to Jesus’ ministry of prophet, priest and king for us?

 

First, then, Jesus as prophet.

As the ultimate prophet, Jesus perfectly speaks the word of God to us.

If we had more time, we could say something about Jesus as a new and better Adam, Moses and Elijah.  

Jesus is the full and final, and authoritative, revelation of God: God’s last Word.

Jesus is himself the Word or self-expression, the revelation of God the Father.

Jesus doesn’t just give us information about God:

He is himself the Truth, the Message:

He is God come in the flesh.

Jesus and the Father are one.

To see Jesus is to see God.

To know Jesus is to know God.

 

The ascension underlines Jesus’ identity and authority as the perfect prophet.

He is enthroned in heaven.

 

And even as he ascends he teaches his disciples about the Kingdom of God.

They want to know if he is going to restore the kingdom to Israel now.

But Jesus tells them they can’t know about the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

Jesus’ ministry as prophet isn’t about giving us a detailed blueprint or timetable to obsess about.

Jesus doesn’t download a chart of end-times prophecies to us.  

Rather, Jesus makes God known.

And he does have a plan which he reveals:

The Apostles, and the church which follows them, are to be prophet-like too.

They have a message, an announcement of good news, to take to the nations.

Jesus’ ministry as the ascended prophet continues now through his church in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus’ ministry as prophet is actually enhanced by the ascension.

The first disciples felt the loss of Jesus’ physical presences acutely, no doubt.

But he prepared them for his departure, telling them it was better that he goes.

Jesus’ ascension is for their good and for the good of the church.

Now that Jesus is ascended, the Spirit is poured out on the whole church.

As Peter says, quoting from the Old Testament prophet Joel in Acts chapter 2, now your sons and daughters will prophesy, young men and old men; God will pour out his servants on both men and women and they will prophesy.  

Jesus now ministers through all his people.

Jesus’ ministry is no longer confined to one time and space but the church can take the prophetic message of Jesus to every tribe and language and people and nation.

You no longer have to strain to hear Jesus on a Judean hillside.

You can hear him in every church or whenever you open your Bible.

Jesus still speaks his word the Bible to us from heaven as it comes to us on his Spirit.

 

The ascended Jesus pours out gifts on his church and gives them apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers that the whole body might be prepared for works of service and be built up in unity and maturity.    

 

Jesus continues as our ascended prophet.

 

Second, Jesus as Priest and the ascension.

Jesus is our mediator, or God-between with God who represents us to God and God to us.

He intercedes for us and brings us into the presence of God.

He is the God-man, chosen from among his brothers.  

He gave himself as the ultimate sacrifice for sin.

More than that: he was the new Temple.

It is to Jesus that we come to meet with God and to be put right with God.

 

The Old Testament priests were deficient in at least three ways.

First, like us all, they were sinners.

They had first to offer sacrifices for their own sins.

But Jesus was the only sinlessly perfect human being who ever lived.

He was the spotless lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Jesus is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens (Hebrews 7:26).

 

Second, the Old Testament priests kept dying and needed to be replaced.

But Jesus lives for ever as our risen, ascended high priest.

He is a priest for ever.

His priesthood continues, as does his indestructible life.

He ever lives to intercede for us.

 

Third, their sacrifices were deficient.

Of course the blood of sheep and goats could never really take away sin.

The Old Testament implied that the sacrifices didn’t really work because it said they had to go on being offered over and over again.

The Old Testament priest could never say his work was done.

But Jesus said “It is finished” on the cross.

Jesus offered himself – the perfect human being – as the perfect once for all sacrifice for human sins.

Jesus could sit down in heaven, his sacrificial work completed.   

 

And the ascended Christ ever lives now in heaven to intercede for us.

The earthly temple, the Bible tells us, was only a copy of the heavenly temple.

And Jesus has entered the heavenly tabernacle – the true and ultimate Holy of Holies, the throne room of God - there to present his once for all finished sacrifice before the Father.

Whenever we mess up, Jesus can plead his blood.

“Yes, Father, I know our people keep failing and rebelling, but they are our people for which I died. Doesn’t my blood more than cover all their sins?”

 

 It’s appropriate, then, right at the end of Luke’s Gospel, as we look towards the ascension of Christ, that Jesus should lift up his hands and bless his people.

“And while he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.”

And they worshiped him with great joy, praising God.

Jesus our great High Priest blesses us.

 

And we too, as a Holy Nation and a Royal Priesthood, are in our own small way given a share in Christ’s ministry as ascended priest.

We are to seek to be lights in the world to shine for Jesus the Light, to bring the nations to God, to pray for the needs of the world and to be a blessing to others.

We present ourselves as living sacrifices, pouring out our lives in response to Jesus’ great finished work for us.

 

Third and finally, Jesus is ascended as the world’s true king.

 

Of course Jesus has always been the world’s true king.

But Jesus’ ascension is his coronation, his enthronement.

The prophet Daniel had foreseen it as one like a Son of Man came on the clouds of heaven into the presence of God the Ancient of Days and was given authority, glory and sovereign power.

All peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7)

 

Now a human being is on the throne of the universe.

God’s plans for Adam to rule the world under God are fulfilled in the God-Man Jesus Christ, The Second Adam.

Jesus was faithful where all other human beings were unfaithful.

The serpent is crushed and Jesus is victorious, and all of creation will be renewed and put to rights under the loving rule of King Jesus.  

 

And so now king Jesus claims his crown rights over the whole world.

As the risen Jesus said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him and therefore we are to go and disciple the nations, knowing that Jesus is with us. (Matthew 28)

The Spirit empowers us to take the good news to the world.

 

And one day, this same Jesus will return.

Jesus the king will then be Jesus the judge.

 

And so Jesus’ followers are not to stand staring into heaven but to get on with their mission of sharing the announcement of Jesus the king.

 

As we rejoice today in the ascension of Christ, may God give us grace to live in the light of all that Jesus has done, does and will do as prophet, priest and king.

And all glory, honour and power and praise be to God the Father, his ascended Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

 

* * *

 

Simon Vibert’s blog

 

https://metamorphe.wordpress.com/2024/05/01/ascension-day-the-forgotten-christian-festival/

 

 

The promises to Abraham in 5 Ps

 We are perhaps familiar with thinking of the promises to the patriarch Abraham as:

People - many descendants - a great nation 

Place - the promises land

Blessing

At Bible by the Beach (speaking on Genesis 12 5/5/24), Dr Jason Roach suggested we might think in terms of 5 Ps:

People

Place

Privilege

Protection 

Presence 

WEIRDER culture

In a really fascinating chapter (2, 'Quirks', p17ff) of Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West (Crossway 2023), Andrew Wilson shows that we are WEIRDER*, Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian and Romantic. 

Our experiences are significantly different from those of most people who have ever lived. And our thinking and values are shaped by a strange mixture of Christianity, Romanticism and Ex- Post- or Anti-Christianity. 

"Even if the God of Abraham is dead to you, your language, legal framework, moral imagination, and senses of self are all haunted by his ghost." (p22)

We can see all this in some of our slogans and the motifs of our culture. Characters find themselves or follow their hearts or must be true to themselves (p22). Cf. also "don't be evil" and "just do it".  

He fascinatingly charts how WEIRDER values might be seen in:

• Hamilton
• The West Wing
• Harry Potter 
• 1917
• Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy

He adds that he avoided more obviously Christian examples like The Lord of the Rings, Beyonce's Lemonade, Scorsese's Silence or Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. 

He also mentions The Revenant and Inception, Adele's 21, Breaking Bad, Black Panther and There Will Be Blood. 

Wilson locates successor ideology, intersectionality, wokeness, identity politics, cultural Marxism, social justice etc. as WEIRDER, owing much to Christianity (Matthew 20:16l Luke 1:52; Philippians 2:8) as well as Marx and Freud (p35f). 

Therapeutic expressive individualism and liquid modernity are in a revolt against the givenness of things (pp36-38) 

___

* WEIRD was coined by Henrich, Heine & Norenzaya, 'The Weirdest People in the World?' Behaviour and Brain Science 33 (2010), 61-83. See also Henrich, The WEIRDest People in the World (Allen Lane, 2020)