Dowler Theological Ethics
Chapter 1: Sin and Grace
Augustine and Pelagius
The incident of the pears
Theft receives certain punishment by your law (Exodus 20:15) Lord and by the law written in the hearts of men (Rom 2:14) which not even iniquity itself destroys … I wanted to carry out an act of theft and did so, driven by no kind of need other than my inner lack of any sense of or feeling for, justice. Wickedness filled me. I stole something which I had in plenty and of much better quality. My desire was to enjoy not what I sought by stealing but merely the excitement of thieving and the doing of what was wrong. There was a pear tree near our vineyard laden with fruit, though attractive neither in colour nor taste. To shake the fruit off the tree and carry off the pears, I and a gang of naughty adolescents set off late at night after (in our usual pestilential way) we had continued our game in the streets. We carried off a huge load of pears. But they were not for our feasts but merely to throw to the pigs. Even if we ate a few, nevertheless our pleasure lay in doing what was not allowed. Such was my heart, O God, such was my heart. You had pity on it when it was at the bottom of the abyss. Now let my heart tell you what it was seeking there in that I became evil for no reason. I had no motive for my wickedness except wickedness itself. It was foul and I loved it. I loved the self-destruction, I loved my fall, not the object for which I had fallen but my fall itself. My depraved soul leaped down from your firmament to ruin. I was seeking not to gain any thing by shameful means but shame for its own sake.
Bonhoeffer Costly Discipleship
Chapter 1: Costly Grace
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace.
Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjack’s wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap?
Changing world changing church
CHAPTER ONE: ONE CLICK FROM EXTINCTION
The Harvard Business Review is not most people’s idea of a light read. But if you had flipped through the pages for July/August 1998, you would have come across an article by American management gurus Joseph Pine and James Gilmour, entitled "Welcome to the experience economy'. In it they argued that the advanced world is racing into a new era.
Consumers have been getting bored. They go to the same old shopping malls, see the same old shops, view the same old brands, and they long for something new, something exciting, something that will arrest their interest. Retailers and manufacturers have developed a new line of business in response, experiences — and consumers love it.
Anxious tribalism and the loss of the metanarrative seen in Daniel Everett's mission amongst the PirahĂŁ
Church for every context
Introduction
New expressions of the church are springing up in many parts of the global North. Going under a variety of names - church plants, emergent church, fresh expressions of church, missional communities and many more — they are making a significant mark on the ecclesial landscape. Though notoriously difficult to count, they have attracted a growing literature, generated extensive debate and changed denominational strategies. It is widely recognized that something significant is afoot. Church for Every Context offers a theological rationale of what is becoming a global trend. It proposes some methodologies for starting these new types of churches and growing them to maturity.
Historical dimensions of mission
Introduction: The Importance of History
Before we think specifically about mission history, it’s important to get our bearings: why is history important? How do we interpret it, so that it speaks to us today? All Christians should have a strong sense of history since their identity has been forged out of historical events, even if those events, for Anglicans for example, were often politically very ambiguous and even embarrassing. But that is just as true of all history, and no less true of the history which shaped the people of God in Scripture! That was also sometimes very ambiguous and embarrassing. Biblical faith is itself a historical faith, and God reveals himself through its story. As we interpret the past we try to understand what God has been doing in history and therefore how he is at work today. If we believe that the Lord of history was in providential control of past events to fulfil his missio Dei mission purposes, so we trust that 'God is working His purpose out' today, even through the tortuous complexity of human affairs.
Introductory paper: Foundations for mission theology
Theology and the Theology of Mission
What is theology and what is the theology of mission? This paper aims to lay some foundations for what is known as 'missiology' and it outlines the key theological and missiological concepts that form the dimensions of 'mission theology'. I would argue that all Christians need to be able to think theologically about mission and think missiologically about theology. This means integrating theology and mission. This is because theology begins as reflection upon God and what he has chosen to reveal of himself. The history of that revelation is the history of his mission, which is the fulfilling of his purposes for the world, a single story beginning with creation, moving through his covenant relationship with the people of Israel, climaxing in his redemptive purposes in Christ and leading to the ultimate goal of the transformation and reconciliation to Himself through Christ in the power of His Spirit of the whole of reality (Eph 1.10; Col. 1.20). This grand story of the Mission of God is opened out in all its comprehensiveness in Chris Wright’s majestic biblical foundations of mission (Wright, 2006). One of his main points is that God’s mission actually precedes Scripture, since God’s purposes for his Mission are set in place from the foundation of the world (Eph 1). He therefore prefers to think in terms of the missional basis for the Bible rather than the biblical basis of mission. The whole Bible is a witness to the Mission of God, which therefore becomes the hermeneutical framework for the interpretation of Scripture. God is revealed in Scripture as a missionary God. We cannot think about God separately from His mission. All theology therefore, if it is to mean anything, is mission theology because it speaks about the God who has mission at the heart of his identity.
Truth with a mission
A reader's guide to transforming mission
Chapter 2: Disciple-Making
Matthew’s Model of Mission
(Bosch, TM, pp. 56-83)
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."