Bible and Mission

 [For Part One, click here ] Tradition enquiry identifies four tasks of theology: Exegetical Task Canonical Task Convictional Task Pragmatic Task When people discuss theology, ethics, and ministerial practices, they may begin to examine one or more of these tasks in any order.   This is typically what happens in the Church.   However, from a logical, authoritative, and Reformational standpoints, the order of the tasks is hermeneutically important.   Given the Reformational convictions that Scripture is God’s authoritative and inspired Word and that the Church needs reformation from time to time, the right order for theologising in the Christian community is to begin with the exegetical task and then proceed to the canonical, then convictional, and finally the pragmatic task.   Each of these tasks builds on the previous task, and the previous task can challenge convictions developed in later tasks.   Thus, a canonical interpretation must not contradi...

‘Tradition Enquiry’ in theological studies locates the research a scholar is conducting within and with respect to theological traditions.   It helps researchers consider the state of an exegetical, theological, ethical, missiological, pastoral, etc. issue in a particular tradition of enquiry and in relation to other traditions.   Too often, theological researchers address a contemporary issue with only a cursory engagement with Scripture—even ignoring Biblical studies (exegesis, Biblical theology)—and ignore the Church’s engagement with the issue for hundreds or thousands of years.   The result is that they turn to the social sciences, contextual theology, practical theology, or public theology without even a glance at theological traditions of the Church. The proper theological training for tradition enquiry requires a person to be trained in Biblical exegesis, Biblical theology and ethics, historical theology and ethics, Church history, and the contemporary Church....

  One of my favourite hymns is, ‘Rejoice! The Lord is King!’ by Charles Wesley.   It is a powerful hymn, rejoicing that Christ Jesus reigns from heaven, that His kingdom cannot fail, that He is victor over all His foes and over all our sins, and that He has victory over death.   The hymn celebrates Jesus’ reign as Lord and what that means.   It celebrates Jesus’ victory over what is wrong in our lives—our sins—and in our world.   The hymn is triumphant, and our response to Jesus’ triumph is to rejoice.   It commands us to rejoice, and we are eager to do so: we sing, ‘Jesus, the Saviour reigns, The God of truth and love.’   The hymn rightly puts Christ Jesus at the centre of it all: we rejoice not because of our emotions, our situations, our own happiness for any reason; we rejoice because of Him.   The theme of joy rings throughout the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.   John the Baptist leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb when he ...