Bible and Mission

  A new journal was launched today by the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life.  It is the Journal of Religion and Public Life.     JRPL's purpose is To provide a platform to publish research, studies and reflections that relate to OCRPL’s understanding that religion is significant in shaping all areas of public life. The editors of the journal state that they plan to include the following topics: Religious Freedom, Human Rights, Extremism, Religion and State, Faith and Economics, the Security of Religious Minorities, Religion and Refugees, Religion and Globalisation, and Addressing Corruption. The first issue includes the following articles: ·        Editorial: Welcome to the First Issue of the Journal of Religion and Public Life', pp.2-3 ·        Reconstructing Public Theology with Old Testament Foundations', pp.4-29 ·        The Tamil Library in Tranquebar ...

  One of the main points to note regarding the doctrine of the Trinity is the teaching that God is present.   His presence in the sending of the Son and giving of the Spirit is the climax in history of His presence in creation and redemption throughout the Biblical witness and the experiences of God's people.   It was revealed in and for God’s covenant people, Israel, and is now revealed to, experienced in, and declared by the Church to throughout the world.   While a full understanding of the Bible’s witness to the doctrine of the Trinity must engage other New Testament and Old Testament texts, the following collection of passages from the Gospels and Acts contributes significantly to our understanding of this teaching that God is present. The early Church’s understanding of God as ‘One God in Three Persons’ (later language of the Church) began with the events and experiences of the first followers of Jesus.   The doctrine of the Trinity is not speculati...

  The Treatment of Children: Select Primary Sources from Antiquity   for Theological Studies Rollin G. Grams   This post provides some quotations regarding the treatment of children from select primary sources in antiquity taken from three contexts: Jewish, Graeco-Roman, and Early Church.   Biblical references are not included.   For further resources on abortion per se , see Rollin G. Grams, ‘The Christian Church’s Stance on Abortion,’ Bible and Mission (4 May, 2017).   Jewish Sources   Letter of Aristeas 248 : And on the next day, when the opportunity offered, the king asked the next man, What is the grossest form of neglect? And he replied, 'If a man does not care for his children and devote every effort to their education. For w always pray to God not so much for ourselves as for our children that every blessing may be theirs. Our desire that our children may possess self-control is only realized by the power of God.'   (‘Th...

  ‘The government has decided on a new tax on everyone.’ ‘A new one?’ ‘Yes.   It will be used to set up a grant system to aid farmers.’ ‘That sounds very good.   Farmers need this sort of assistance from time to time so that droughts, storms, insect infestations, and the like do not wipe them out.   Anything else?’ ‘Well, I don’t suppose people who are not farmers will object.   They will benefit even so: everyone needs to eat!’ ‘No, they should not object.’ ‘Still, I wonder about the stipulation for acquiring a grant.’ ‘And that is…?’ ‘If a farmer wants any of the grant money from the government, they must become pig farmers as well as whatever else they farm.’ ‘Everyone a pig farmer?’ ‘If they want government grant money.’ ‘They don’t do enough by growing crops or having cattle or sheep, they also have to have pigs?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘What if they are Jewish farmers?   Or Muslims?   Or vegans?’ ‘Well, they can farm whatever they lik...

‘I believe in freedom.’ ‘Do you mean freedom of speech?’ ‘That and everything.’ ‘I don’t.   How could you allow hate speech?’ ‘I don’t like it, but who am I to shut someone else up?   And if I do, then someone else might just as well shut me up.   That trail quickly leads to tyranny: the person with power gets to say what hate speech is and shut everyone he wants down.’ ‘Bah!   There is virtue and vice, good and evil, right and wrong.   It is not about power but about the good controlling the bad.’ ‘And what is bad, in your view?’ ‘People who oppose the right of mothers to kill their unborn children, for instance, and people who pray near the clinics that take their lives.   They must be silenced!’ ‘Do you hate them?’ ‘Of course, I do!’ ‘So, you define prayer as hate speech, and you take away the freedom to pray.   You oppose hate speech unless it is your own.’ ‘Very clever.   But I have you in a trap, too.   Your freedo...