The challenge of Scripture and doctrine: Tyndale Fellowship 2018

Richard Peers, who is Diocese Director of Education in Liverpool Diocese, reflects on his attendance at the 2022 Tyndale NT Written report Group.

Why?

4 or five years ago I was invited to sit on a panel at an inter-faith event. Sat alongside Jewish, Muslim and Hindu panelists nosotros we were each asked to begin with a curt reflection on a piece of our own Sacred texts. I chose the Magnificat. I had prepared advisedly and everyone nowadays was given a carte du jour with the Magnificat on information technology. All the same, I was dissatisfied with what I did that day. Each of the other panellists presented a careful, close reading of their called texts, appropriately quoting the text in the original language. I felt my piece seemed distinctly lite-weight in comparison—very much in the three infinitesimal 'thought for the mean solar day' league.

Since then I have fabricated a concerted effort to get my biblical languages up to speed and always to have some serious biblical scholarship in my reading. I've besides been reading and thinking more almost the art of preaching, reading accordingly, trying to mind to sermons and seeking to develop a more expository manner, i which is more than closely fatigued from the text I am preaching on.

As role of this evolution of my work (at Ian Paul's suggestion) I attended, for the beginning fourth dimension last year, and for the second last week, the Tyndale Fellowship New Attestation Conference in Cambridge. I wrote well-nigh last yr's conference here. I won't repeat what I wrote there.

Similar most Christians I believe that Scripture is central to who we are, the revelation of God himself. Not only is Scripture of import for my ministry as a priest, but also as Managing director of Education. If what nosotros offering children and staff in our schools is non the living Word of God so we are lost.

Attending anything for the second time is always a relief. Anxieties well-nigh the practicalities removed and familiar faces. Several people I had met last year were present at the conference again and it was skillful to renew onetime acquaintance. This twelvemonth's conference was all based on John's Gospel which seemed to give information technology a stronger sense of a single result than last yr'due south and those giving papers stuck more tightly to the topic. Several of the papers covered overlapping areas and this as well added involvement.

As last year there were very few women which is disappointing. Merely this yr there was an impressive paper from Charlie Butler, a educatee at Oak Hill theological college, that took feminist readings of the Samaritan woman seriously. 2 papers addressed the issue of the alleged anti-semitism of John's gospel. These were very helpful and also contributed to a sense that gimmicky issues of multifariousness were very much part of the agenda. The briefing was international; as far equally it was possible to know near participants were non-Anglicans from a diversity of Reformed traditions, and one Roman Catholic layman. This ecumenism among people who I would not otherwise meet is one of the key benefits of this briefing for me. Conversations over dinner, into the evening and at coffee breaks are ever among the about rewarding elements of conferences and this was no exception. I was able to talk to Christians from the United States, the Netherlands and Australia. With a few exceptions the conference was non racially diverse and non-European cultures were non well represented.

Once over again, I tin can thoroughly recommend attendance at the briefing.

Who and What?

Richard Bauckham, 'Cana in the Gospel of John'. Richard is ane of the foremost New Testament scholars of our time. His magnum opus is Jesus And The Eyewitnesses, it is a long, detailed read, but in it he essentially proves the closeness of the New Testament texts to the events described. This is an of import piece of work that needs to exist improve known in our culture as well as in the church. There is textile hither for preaching and pedagogy in schools and parishes. His paper at the conference dealt simply with the account of the nuptials at Cana, locating Cana and examine the purpose of the rock water containers and the nature of the household. In a sense it presented in miniature what his volume presents beyond the board. Several elements stood out for me: in particular the apply of archaeological bear witness, we need to see much more of this in schools. The Bible is true at an historic level and young people need to hear that. Bauckham was also suggesting that the family at whose firm the hymeneals was occurring was more than than likely a priestly family, which would account for the very big rock jars containing water for purification purposes. It hadn't occurred to me previously that Mary, the mother of Jesus, whose cousin Elizabeth was married to a priest was, therefore, quite probable to have been born into a priestly family herself.

Pete Phillips, 'Seeing, Believing, Abiding: Experiential, Conceptual and Post-Conceptual notions of Faith in the Fourth Gospel'. Peter presented his paper with great passion and enthusiasm. He showed how the utilize of belief in John's gospel is about very much more rational assertions. In particular he demonstrated that utilise of 'abiding' acts as a synonym for organized religion, for that sense of fidelity that the disciple has in Jesus.

Andrew Byers, 'Theosis and the Jews': Divine and Ethnic Identity in the Fourth Gospel'. This longer newspaper, which was the annual Tyndale New Attestation Lecture, was a detailed study of the texts which are usually accused of existence anti-Semitic in John'due south gospel. Byers showed well how the sense of creation/giving nascence that occurs in the Prologue is an important theme for establishing that the Jesus Community is nearly believing, not nearly ethnicity. He used the – dangerous in Protestant circles – notion of theosis equally the best available clarification of our incorporation into this new, non-genetic customs of believers: "theosis trumps genetics" as he memorably put it.

Two fantabulous papers started the 2nd day, Bruce Henning's 'The Rhetorical Effect of Typology Shifting in 12:38-41' and Chris Seglenieks' 'Faith and Narrative: A Ii-Level reading of Belief in the Gospel of John'. Information technology was good to see overlapping themes emerging here. I was particularly interested in the division betwixt story and soapbox genre texts. In my work in education I have become fascinated by retentivity and the significance of memory as the fundamental unit of learning. Some scientists divide memory into episodicand semantic and I suspect there is a link here to the sectionalisation between more narrative style passages and more discursive. It is interesting to encounter John balancing the two.

Tom Wilson's 'Reading John in the Company of the Jews', brought alleged anti-Semitism to the fore again. John works in inter-religion contexts in the diocese of Leicester and he raised a number of applied issues about the utilise of texts. Over coffee he pointed out how other well-known texts can exist heard anti-semitically, notably the parable of the Good Samaritan, which easily reads equally anti-Jewish and is, therefore, a most unfortunate text for use at inter-religion events. Hospitality is a primal theme of his work and he has published two excellent Grove booklets on the subject field. Essential reading for anyone involved in church building schools in multi-religion situations.

Charlie Butler, 'John four for all Christians? Integrating feminist insights with a developing paradigm of the Fourth Gospel's audience' was superb on acknowledging the complexity of Christian estimation of the life-history of the Samaritan woman, often being zip more than labelling her as a fallen woman, the perpetrator of sexual immorality. Given historical realities it is far more likely that she was the victim. He likewise drew analogies between Roman ideas of masculinity and imperial power and the Jesus in the outset part of the gospel who gives style to a new, more than vulnerable Jesus later. This was a less disarming reading and at to the lowest degree i person present thought Jesus as pious Jew was a much more than likely masculinity for the author to have had in mind.

Oliver Davies has written widely and I know his work on Eckhart and Celtic spirituality. He is a major theologian of our time and I particularly value his work on Transformation Theology . (For a good introduction to TT run across here). I couldn't resist slipping upstairs from the New Attestation conference to the Doctrine conference which happens at the same time, to hear him. I was not disappointed. The Doctrine conference was responding to the recently completed five-volume systematic theology of Pentecostalist theologian Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen who was nowadays for the whole of the conference. I won't write here why I thought Oliver's paper and Kärkkäinen'due south work is so of import considering I desire to write more than nearly them later – both on Mindfulness and education.

Fred Sanders, 'The Theology of Divine Blessedness' was the second evening'due south talk, the Tyndale Doctrine Lecture, and competing with the England game. It was a brilliant account of theologies of the nature of God, or rather how we tin can draw the nature of God. Deeply Trinitarian and biblical, I was specially interested in the Reformation take on the identify of the cross in describing what God is like. The questioning and discussion later on especially highlighted Luther's demand that God tin but be understood in reference to the cross and that God'due south glory tin can never exist described/seen directly. That discussion fabricated me want to return to Moltmann.

I missed the papers by Matthew Williams ('The Johannine literature and Socio-economic ethics') and Cor Bennema ('Moral Transformation in the Gospel of John') so that I could attend another doctrine session.

Jonathan Black is a Pentecostal pastor (Apostolic Church) and recently appointed professor of Systematic Theology at Regent's Higher, the Elim/Pentecostalist training college in Malvern. His paper examined the relationship between theosis and justification, in particular Kärkkäinen'southward presentation of this. I found his illustration of theosis in the hymns of early on twentieth century Welsh Pentecostalism especially fascinating. I was especially interested in his take on the link with the Welsh hymn writing tradition of Ann Griffiths and Pantecelyn as mediated by Donald Allchin and the place of Calvinistic Methodism in the emergence of Pentecostalism. (See my mail service on this hither).

J W Bunce on 'St John's Gospel: Liturgy of a Primitive Christian Synagogue' was the final paper. Jim presented his argument that John's gospel is entirely an early on liturgical text with great style. I am non sure that he proved his point but he certainly demonstrated how bringing his background in civil engineering science, where form follows function, could refresh biblical scholarship.

The Challenge

I'm enormously grateful for the opportunity to engage with such high level theologians and biblical scholars. I am already mining Richard Bauckham's website for insights to ensuring my preaching is properly expository. Tom Wilson and Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen take both challenged my thinking on the place of hospitality in our theology of church schools and what that hospitality might look like. Hospitality is a key element in Kärkkäinen's systematic theology, which is the first to take seriously the World Church building and the existence of other religions.

Many of the conversations, not to the lowest degree with Jonathan Black, continued my own personal dialogue with the Pentecostal tradition that began practically when I started work equally Head at Trinity, Lewisham. I take no doubt that theologies of Pentecostalism are going to be of huge significance in the emerging church building.

The New Testament sessions, peculiarly Bauckham on Cana, challenged me to think well-nigh the place of archæology in our RE education in schools and whether we are forthright enough about the Gospels every bit eyewitness accounts to the truth of the historical Jesus. The doctrine sessions and conversations challenged me to extend further my ain theological exploration and the need for a systematic arroyo to the theology of church schools and education. Oliver Davies has challenged me to extend further my piece of work on a theology of Mindfulness for Mission.

On all these topics I hope to acquire and write more.

To sit and talk with Christians in traditions then different to my own is deeply enriching. I am immensely grateful to Ian Paul, aka @Psephizo for suggesting I attend last year and for organising these conferences.

---

Side by side year's Tyndale New Testament Study Grouping will take place on Midweek 26th to Fri 28th June 2022 in Cambridge, and we will be exploring bug of orality and writing in the first century and the germination of the New Attestation canon. Put information technology in your diary—I look frontward to seeing you there!

Much of my work is washed on a freelance basis. If you have valued this post, would you lot considerdonating £i.20 a month to back up the production of this blog?

montgomeryyoucity.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/the-challenge-of-scripture-and-doctrine-tyndale-fellowship-2018/