BIBLE
The Disarming Compassion of God
Earlier this month, I had the honour of giving the Bible Readings at Week 3 of the Keswick Convention. In part because my day job
31st August 2021
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theodicy
21st Century
Beirut Disaster: An Inspiring & Personal message from Trivina Kassis
The news from Beirut this week was horrendous. It was all just so NEEDLESS. A catalogue of criminality, responsibility-avoidance coupled with the impotence of those
7th August 2020
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20th Century
Echoes from Eternity 16: John Stott’s Cross of Christ
It is Good Friday so the subject matter for the day’s reading presented itself easily enough. Choosing what to read, however, was a very different
10th April 2020
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18th Century
On MLK, #MeToo, and the possibility of Pride in the Flawed
Does the legacy of a heroic struggle for justice cover over a multitude of sins?
Or does the iconic hero’s fatal flaw render him and, perhaps even his legacy, leprous?
Is it ‘one strike and you’re out’ or might the twitteratti just possibly permit nuance and, dare I say it, complexity?
26th May 2019
9 Comments
art & painting
Q Combinations 21: The big IF of Easter (from AE Housman & Eugène Burnand)
There is an emotional complexity to this wonderful painting by Swiss artist Eugène Burnand. I know very little about him, apart from the usual resort of Wikipedia. But he manages to capture a moment of almost frantic inquisitiveness, as Peter and his young, fellow-disciple John rush in the golden sunrise light to the burial garden. Their faces seem filled with anxiety, confusion, hope, wonder, and longing all at once. Hoping against hope, but fearing a con, or something worse? Could Mary Magdalene, first to visit the tomb, possibly have been right…?
21st April 2019
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16th Century
Q Combinations 6: Auden and Brueghel (a bit of a cheat, this time)
So I should be upfront about this one. It’s a cheat – because I’m not the instigator of this particular combination – the poet was.
18th September 2015
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All Souls Langham Place
Diving into the OT deep end with Joshua’s Conquest
Well, I feel I rather drew the short straw at ASLP on Sunday with Joshua 11-12 as my passage – but then actually, each of the
26th February 2014
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All Souls Langham Place
God, Gethsemane and Grace: How can God allow Suffering?
Again as part of our Uncover apologetics series, I looked at the issue of God and suffering on Sunday (my previous in the series was
22nd October 2013
1 Comment
A cultural adventure: Maggi Dawn’s The Writing on the Wall
In early 2009, the then poet laureate, Andrew Motion gave an interview in the Guardian in which he lamented the pervasive ignorance about the Bible. He
23rd June 2010
3 Comments
Edward Paice’s Wrath of God: Lisbon 1755
I read this book very quickly, while away on half term last week. It is a brilliantly researched and well-written account of a world-changing tragedy
23rd February 2010
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Prophetic motorway signs – Habakkuk 2 in summary
Hard to read, isn’t it? If it was a real motorway sign, just think of the accidents it would cause as people tried to work
29th June 2009
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Another gem from the Stott archive: The Message of Job
Having had the chance to publish John Stott’s 1952 Parochial Evangelism online, back in January, here is another next instalment from the archives. I was
10th June 2009
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