2026-02-23 Lent 1

Intro

What is Lent?
- 40 days
- reflection
- desert time
- anticipating the Cross

A series in 6 parts of the Christian life, sharing in:

worship
prayer
scripture
communion
service
good news

Jesus you are the way, guide us on our journey.

Video

Reading: Luke 11:1-12

¹ One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

Deuteronomy - 8 challenges

8 contrasting challenges to the way we choose to live

Practicing the Way

Dust

Who are you following?

There are no free thinkers

The world is forming us continuously …into what?

Even on days of doubt, I want to believe. I resonate with Peter’s conclusion

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Apprentice to Jesus

Dramatisation of Peter’s calling by Jesus. Conclusion: bizarre, what on earth made him do that?

Rabbi as guru, each with a yoke (Hebrew idiom for briefs and practices).

James

Justice, railing against the pompous and self righteous Assurance of real justice (one law giver and one judge): Good news for the faithful and oppressed and a challenge to those exploiting their position.

Category: Exegesis

Groups

James

Category: Commentary

Sources

Gorman, Romans 9:11

Summary and quotations from Michael J. Gorman’s 'Romans' commentary, chapters 9-11

Category: Introduction to Christian Ethics

Sources

Bioethics: a primer for Christians

Christian bioethics and moral vision.

Category: Mission and Ministry in Context

Sources

A reader's guide to transforming mission

Matthew’s model of mission and discipleship.

Category: Introduction to Old Testament

Synopses

Morrow

Self styled objectivity blind to own biases and produced

Not to deny many gains from modern historical criticism

Unwittingly take sides in battle between throne and altar

Three periods 1. from Muslim polemics to medieval Christian theology 2. renaissance, reformation, wars of religion 3. enlightenment and 19C historical criticism

Ibn Hazm’s polemic against Judaism cause at least in part by personal sense of being slighted by Jews Attacked Moses authorship of Pentateuch in order to undermine the idea of divine authorship No attempt to be balanced but solely searching for insupportable [in his view] ideas. Attacked allegorical interpretation which was adopted by medieval Christianity by the likes of marsilus of Padua and William of Ockham. Disdain for allegorical interpretation accompanied by emphasis on sensus literalis Both received patronage from ludvig of Bavaria who was in conflict with the papacy. Thus their criticism of allegory and preference for historical interpretation of scripture supported ludvigs desire to overturn the pope’s temporal authority in Italy

Synopses

Bostock

Allegory is derived from the Greek word allegorein meaning 'to say one thing openly but to imply something else'

Allegorical interpretation first emerged from Stoicism and by the first century AD was the dominant way to interpret all philosophy and was always didactic on purpose. As Christianity spread into the Hellenized world it became natural that scripture would also be interpreted this way given the purpose of scripture is to reveal God to humanity. Indeed, Jesus use of parables might be taken as endorsement of such interpretation. Though CH Dodd strongly disagreed.

Synopses

Three key questions

Chapter 1 - What are the keys to understanding the OT?

An overview of OT study: attractions and obstacles

The attractions of the OT

1. Gripping stories

[Contrary to Richter] Longman finds Christians increasingly attracted to OT.

'spell-binding plots', 'vivid characters'

Paul says [1 Cor 10:1-11] that these are warnings against behaviour such as Solomon’s who lost a kingdom as a result of his marriages to foreign wives [1 Kings].

Synopses

The Epic of Eden

Introduction

Most people have a hodge-podge of knowledge of the old testament but no coherent structure. Richter suggests there are three reasons for this:

Never been taught the OT is their story. Both story and God different to the NT and to Jesus, even unnecessary.
OT is inaccessible for historical, geographical, cultural, linguistic etc. reasons.
The 'dysfunctional closet syndrome'.

OT as your story

OT is two thirds of the Bible and redemption story but treated as 'unfortunate preface'. Yet the characters are unknown to us as close relatives may be to an Alzheimer’s sufferer.

Category: Brief Introduction to Christian Doctrine (Evening)

Posts

Doctrine essay bibliography

Bibliography for Doctrine course’s question on Tradition

Sources

The Doctrine of Creation

The doctrine of creation.

Sources

Doctrine of the Trinity

The doctrine of the Trinity.

Sources

Doctrine of God

The doctrine of God in Christian theology.

Sources

Holy Scripture

History and doctrine of Scripture, from patristic to modern approaches.

Sources

What is theology?

A brief introduction to Christian doctrine: Introduction

Category: Doctrine

Sources

ESSENTIALS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

Creation and providence in Christian theology.

Sources

A Short History of Christian Doctrine

Lohse, Bernhard 'A Short History of Christian Doctrine.' Trans. F. Ernest Stoeffler. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1966.

Sources

The Trinity in Africa

Journal of Reformed Theology 3 (2009) 125-143 The Trinity in Africa James Kombo Associate Professor of Systematic Theology; Daystar University, Kenya E-mail: jkombo@daystar.ac.ke (c) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOL: 10.1163/156973109X448698 Downloaded from Brill.com

Sources

Does God suffer? Chapter 2

Thomas G. Weinardy. 'Does God Suffer?' Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000

Sources

Scripture

THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF Systematic theology Edited by JOHN WEBSTER, KATHRYN TANNER, IAIN TORRANCE Chapter 19 - Stephen E. Fowl

Sources

Divine Teaching--An Introduction to Christian Theology

Divine Teaching—An Introduction to Christian Theology. Oxford, Blackwell, 2008.

Sources

Gregory Nazianzus--The First Theological Oration

Gregory Nazianzus on the Trinity and Christian doctrine.

Category: Introduction to Doctrine

Sources

Christian Doctrine, Chapter 3

Mike Higton, Christian Doctrine, London, SCM, 2008

Sources

THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD, CHAPTER 3

From Webster, Tanner, Torrance, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology. Oxford: OUP, 2007.

Category: Reformation

Sources

Calvin and Calvinism

Some notes and quotations from Justo Gonsalvez’s "Story of Christianity Vol II" chapters 7 and 21. Key events in Calvin’s life, theology and how this was developed after his lifetime.

Sources

Luther and Zwingli

Some notes and quotations from Justo Gonsalvez’s "Story of Christianity Vol II" chapters 4,5 and 20

Category: Introduction to Church History

Sources

The Twentieth Century

Church development in the 20^th century — war, conscientous objectors, ecumenicalism, Vatican II, pentacostalism, women

Sources

Turning points, third edition, chapter 12

Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity

Sources

The Church in Britain in the 19th Century

The church in Britain in the nineteenth century.

Sources

The church in the age of reason - chapter 10

Methodism and the evangelical revival.

Sources

The English Reformation

The English Reformation and its precursors.

Sources

Calvin

Zwingli and the early Reformation in Zurich.

Sources

The Counter-Reformation

The Catholic Reformation and its response to Protestantism.

Sources

Martin Luther and the start of the Reformation

Martin Luther and the start of the Reformation. Handout from Paul Roberts as part of his 'Introduction to Church History' at Trinity College, Bristol, Easter Term, 2022

Sources

Turning points, third edition, chapter 4

Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity

Sources

British Christianity after AD 407

The Medieval Church in the West. Handout from Paul Roberts as part of his 'Introduction to Church History' at Trinity College, Bristol, Easter Term, 2022

Sources

The Great Councils

The Great Councils. Handout from Paul Roberts as part of his 'Introduction to Church History' at Trinity College, Bristol, Easter Term, 2022

Sources

The Medieval Church in the West

We will attempt to cover nearly 1000 years in one session - obviously we have to be selective, so we’ll look at how Christianity survived the collapse of Roman rule in the West. We’ll look at how Ireland, Scotland and England were evangelized and also how Britain went on to help re-established Christianity in Europe through the work of missionary monks. We’ll look at the fortunes of the papacy, some key figures and some important developments in theology and culture.

Sources

The Confessions of Saint Augustine

The importance of the Confessions (Confessiones), written in 397-8, is as a personal document and statement of faith. This translation is in modern English found at the Stanford website. However it is incomplete and does not make clear its copyright.

Sources

The African Pilgrim

Extract from "Introduction to Church History" by George Herring.

Sources

An Introduction to St Augustine of Hippo

Handout from Paul Roberts as part of his 'Introduction to Church History' at Trinity College, Bristol, Easter Term, 2022

Sources

The three great Capadoccians

History and writings of the Cappadocian Fathers: Basil the Great, his younger brother Gregory of Nyssa, and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus.

Sources

From Persecution to State Church

Today we’ll look at the major times of widespread persecutions of Christians by the Roman State, together with some of the long-term effects it had upon the Church. Then we will move forward to look at the process whereby the Empire itself became Christian.

Sources

Reading Topic: Christian Faith: Worship, Prayer and Church Order in the Early Centuries

This reading topic gives you a chance to look at how the Early Church worked, in terms of its core activities of worship, prayer and ministry. Patterns familiar in our day were in their earliest stages of development.

Sources

Key early thinkers

The purpose of this session is to give you a taste as to how the first generation of Christian 'theologians' tackled the issues of their day, arising from the existence and mission of the Church. You will be reading these writers in other modules, but this session is to introduce them and give you an idea of their overall context and thought.

Synopses

Chadwick, The Early Church

Chapter 1 from Jerusalem to Rome

Christians were first Jews so necessary to find continuity from Old Testament and old covenant
P9, 10 Jews 'a race apart' but 'ready to dedicate synagogues "to God in honour of the emperor"'
'A million Jews in Alexandria and Egypt' → influential. Often easier to let them have their own way in matters of religion
Admired for monotheism, morality and antiquity
Septuagint (work of 70 authors) dated from Alexandria in 3rd C BC under sponsorships of Ptolemy Philadelphus

Sources

The Early Church

The early church and its shaping theologians.

Sources

Early Heresies and Movements

This session tracks the early developments in Christian, and not-so-Christian, thought. It looks at the emergence of 'heresy', the emergence of the concept of 'Catholicity' and 'orthodoxy', and the reaction to the increasingly structured nature of the Church.

Sources

After the Apostles

The death of the apostles; an increasingly delayed parousia; a growing Church; state-sponsored persecution and the rise of convincing, but 'false' teaching — all in the midst of a world which had very different ideas to those of the Bible and a culture which was deeply suspicious of monotheism and its implied challenge to the political and social ways of doing things. This was the entry moment for Christianity onto the wider world scene.

Sources

The Confessions of Saint Augustine

Project Gutenberg’s 'The Confessions of Saint Augustine', translated by E.B.Pusey and produced by Robert S. Munday