LST Insight Vol. Issue 5 by Matt Adcock

THE THEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE OF THE LONDON SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

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When tough times come – who do you turn to? As believers we stand firm on the Word of God and that is the cornerstone of The London School of Theology (LST). These are challenging but also exciting times at LST as we seek to hold fast to the faithfulness of the Lord and continue to deliver transforming theological education that will impact the world through the lives of those who study here. I had the great pleasure of meeting a group of LST (LBC) alumni who were students in the 1970’s. We arranged a reunion on campus and it was wonderful to hear how their training had been instrumental in their lives – one told me:

‘I came to LST (then, LBC) to learn more about the Bible – and boy, did I learn! I started to understand things I had never understood before, and, through that, to get to know better the God who caused it to be written. I am so grateful!’ LST exists to resource generations who want to make a stand for Christ and with the newly launched LST Online we can truly resource and train students worldwide. Do check www.lst.ac.uk/alumni to read (and share) more thoughts from those who have studied here. Hold Fast to your shield of faith, there is much yet to be done! Matt Adcock Editor

CONTRIBUTORS Matt Adcock Insight Editor & Director of Communications

Trevor Adams Founder of Passionate Dementia Care

Krish Kandiah President , LST

nerv (nerv.co.uk) Designers

Lucy Mills Graduate, LST freelance writer & editor

Chloe Lynch Lecturer in Practical Theology, LST

Ben Mcnamara Graduate, LST

Candy Zhang Student, LST Theology

Tony Lane Professor of Historical Theology, LST

Special thanks to... Rob Brown, Steven Creamer, Elisabeth Higginson, Jan Wallace and Sam Hargreaves.

INTERACT 4

Email editor@lst.ac.uk Web www.lst.ac.uk

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Facebook /LondonSchoolOfTheology twitter @LSTheology

CONTENTS 6

DEVELOPING DEMENTIA FRIENDLY CHURCHES “The need to develop dementia friendly communities arises from the growing number of older people in the United Kingdom and their increased likelihood of developing dementia.”

16 HEAVIER THEN A ROCK “Like any genre there are subgenres, mainstream and indie, and it would be frivolous to try and compartmentalise this musical art form.”

10 DISCIPLESHIP AND ANTI-FRAGILE FAITHS “How do we ensure that our disciple-making opens up the minds and hearts of those we work with to both the depth and the breadth of the gospel?”

REVIEWS BOOKS: Exploring Christian Doctrine - Tony Lane, Paradoxology - Krish Kandiah, Forgetful Heart: Remembering God In A Distracted World - Lucy Mills, Jack Frost Came Last Night - Babs Jack MUSIC: Soul Food - The Darn Funk Orchestra

Plus

28 IN THE SILENCE OF GOD “Christians would not agree with Nietzsche’s denial of God’s existence, but Nietzsche is right in recognising God as the fixed point for human life. ”

20 DRIFTWOOD - “We let the current take us, instead of striking out against it”. 24 AS EASY AS ABC? - “Recent models of leadership have often defined success in simple terms. Terms as simple as ABC”. 34 THE WRATH OF GOD AN ASPECT OF HIS LOVE - “Father of Christ, is a loving God who rescues us from the God of the Old Testament.” LST INSIGHT -THE HOLD FAST ISSUE

DEVELOPING

DEMENTIA FRIENDLY CHURCHES DEMENTIA FRIENDLY CHURCH ASSOCIATE LIVABILITY LONDON

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EVANGELISM AND SOCIAL CARE HAS OFTEN BEEN DIRECTED TOWARDS YOUNG PEOPLE AND MANY CHURCHES TODAY HAVE A YOUTH PASTOR. BUT WHAT ABOUT PASTORS SPECIALISING IN OLDER PEOPLE OVER THE AGE OF 65? SURELY OLDER PEOPLE ARE JUST AS IMPORTANT AS YOUNGER PEOPLE AND HAVE JUST AS MUCH NEED TO MEET JESUS.

When I first went to London Bible College in the mid1970s, I wanted to be a preacher. But God knew differently and I found myself increasingly thinking about mission, not just in terms of facilitating personal salvation, but also as social care and political action. After leaving London Bible College, I trained as a nurse: first in mental health nursing, then general nursing and latterly community mental health nursing. I spent 10 years in nursing practice and then taught nursing for 20 years when I gained an MSc (Brunel) Nursing and a PhD (Surrey) on supporting people with dementia and their families in community settings. During that time I undertook research projects, wrote papers and books on dementia care and went around the world speaking at universities and conferences. This was completely different from how I had thought my career was going to develop, but most importantly it allowed me to gain a credibility ‘in the world’ that I would have never have had if I had just been in Christian-based work. It was what God has planned for me! But there was a cost and it was that working in the NHS or secular university meant that I could not talk about God or integrate the Christian faith with my professional and academic work. I once tried to do this at a key note presentation in Sydney, but it did just did not work. Even the Buddhists lost their sense of Karma! About four years ago I left university teaching and started my own training and consultancy business, Passionate Dementia Care and much of my work is now with the UK’s leading Christian disability charity, Livability. This particular aspect of their work supports churches seeking to become dementia friendly. We see dementia friendly churches as inclusive and accessible to people with dementia and working together with other local organisations, they can help create a dementia friendly community. Our work recognises that we live in a broken and fallen world and takes seriously Isaiah’s prophetic word that looks towards the renewal of communities that are ‘livable again.’

The need to develop dementia friendly communities arises from the growing number of older people in the United Kingdom and their increased likelihood of developing dementia. The Alzheimer’s Society estimates that 1 in 14 people in the UK over the age of 65 will have dementia and that presently 850,000 people live with dementia in the UK. If we do not take action, this number will rise to 1,142,677 by 2025. This is more than the entire population of Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city. These are big numbers and the church needs to make a response. This challenge is exacerbated by social changes in the UK, not least economic difficulties arising from the high cost of health and social care to people with dementia and the widespread breakdown of the family. Healthy and supportive families are one way God offers people with dementia care and support. When a family is broken or geographically dispersed, it is less able to support people with dementia. Our approach at Livability seeks to integrate recent developments about what constitutes good dementia care with Biblical and theological insights. We see good dementia care as: n

R ELATIONAL: highlighting the importance of mutual and reciprocal relationships between the person with dementia and other people such as family carers and dementia care workers;

P ERSON CENTRED: offering people with dementia recognition and optimal choice and control about what is happening to them;

n I NCLUSIVE: challenging and seeking to address social and interactive barriers that limit and exclude the participation of people with dementia in their local community.

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This approach corresponds with wider developments in recent social policy such as the National Dementia Strategy and the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge. We believe churches are an important part of many local communities and can make an important and distinctive contribution to the creation of a dementia friendly community. Many people have a connection with a particular church, perhaps through a baptism, wedding or funeral, and churches can offer people with dementia a possible place of help and support. Churches need to recognise that these past and present links are an opportunity for mission to people with dementia and their families. Helping churches contribute towards the creation of dementia friendly communities corresponds with broad themes in the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament the Promised Land is characterised by peace, justice, reconciliation and joy. God’s concern for people’s material and emotional welfare and wellbeing is a key feature of Jesus’ ministry and the opening words of his ‘mission statement’ are ‘The Spirit is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor’. Furthermore, Jesus taught that people who follow him are the light and salt of the world and that by engaging with others, they will make ‘the world’ a better place. We see dementia friendly churches as in part, fulfilling the overall mission that God is accomplishing in the world through the Church and helping to make local communities ‘liveable again’ through the creation of dementia friendly communities. At Livability we seek to apply Biblical ideas to people with dementia. These ideas include: G OD

MADE EVERYONE WITH DEMENTIA IN HIS IMAGE AND EQUALLY VALUABLE. Being human is not based on people’s ability to remember, think and ability to make choices, but rather that they reflect the image of God. This means that everyone displays in part, what God is like, for example God’s creativity and ability to enter into personal relationships. It is not surprising therefore that creative therapies and

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developing good relationships are important therapy approaches that enhance the personhood of people with dementia. In addition, God took the form of a body in Jesus Christ and thus gave the body respect and dignity as a ‘temple’ of God’s spirit. Physical and bodily care of people with dementia is thus an important part of any dementia care programme. People with dementia therefore should be valued and respected like any other person.

J ESUS CALLED US TO LOVE PEOPLE THAT SOCIETY OVERLOOKS AND EXCLUDES. Until recently people with dementia were taken away from their family and local community and placed in long stay institutions. Often they found themselves isolated, having few visits from relatives and friends. They were frequently given little respect and dignity and left feeling as though they were no longer people and easily ignored and discounted. Sometimes people with dementia were emotionally and physically abused. Jesus promoted the health and well-being of all people, and that included people with dementia. Through his words and actions, Jesus showed marginalised people compassion and love, gave them a new life, and enabled them to return to the community. People who follow Jesus should treat people with dementia in the same way and should include them in their mission.

WITHOUT DISABLED PEOPLE AND THEIR GIFTS, OUR CHURCH IS INCOMPLETE. The Bible sees the Church as being like a body in which every part has a role that helps and supports the rest of the body. Every follower of Jesus, including people with dementia has a gift which they can share with others. In a society that highlights social success and personal intelligence, people with dementia remind us of our fragility and dependence on others, and on God. People with dementia will have retained gifts and abilities and will be able to share these to support others. Churches

need to display humility and willingness to receive what people with dementia have to offer. Having dementia makes people no less than those without dementia. Without people with dementia, the church is incomplete and cannot gain from their experience and journey as it seeks to fulfil Jesus’ mission to the world. Livability now works with national bodies such as the Alzheimer’s Society and the Dementia Action Alliance as they seek to develop good practice and inclusive communities relating to people with dementia and how faith groups may be mobilised and equipped to support people with dementia and their family carers. We have developed training packages that churches and groups of churches may use to enhance their ‘dementia friendliness’. We are also developing with the Alzheimer’s Society a pack that offers information about supporting people with dementia and resources for Bible study and sermons. These resources are available to churches through the Livability website. At Greenbelt 2014, we were able to gain 350 new Dementia Friends.

JESUS PROMOTED THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF ALL PEOPLE, AND THAT INCLUDED PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA. THROUGH HIS WORDS AND ACTIONS, JESUS SHOWED MARGINALISED PEOPLE COMPASSION AND LOVE, GAVE THEM A NEW LIFE, AND ENABLED THEM TO RETURN TO THE COMMUNITY.

It is nearly 40 years since I was at LBC and it is really good that following many years of developing practice for people with dementia, I can now bring my previous academic and professional work within a theological framework on the development of an innovative approach that supports the mission of the church towards people with dementia.

TREVOR ADAMS PHD (LBC 1974–1976) Dr Trevor Adams attends Farnham Vineyard Church, Surrey If you want to find out more about Livability and its work with churches, information is available on the charity’s website at www.livability.org.uk

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DISCIPLESHIP AND ANTI-FRAGILE FAITH

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KRISH KANDIAH EXPLORES WHY THE PARADOXES OF OUR FAITH MAY PROVIDE OUR DISCIPLE-MAKING WITH A “BREADTH” OF FRESH AIR...

ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS PARADOXES IN OUR DISCIPLESHIP OF YOUNG PEOPLE IS THAT THE MORE SECURELY WE SEEK TO GROUND THEM IN THE FAITH, THE MORE VULNERABLE WE MAY BE LEAVING THEM IN THE LONG RUN. This struck me a few months ago when I got to spend the day with one of my childhood heroes. As you can imagine I had been looking forward to this particular day at work. After all I had spent a good proportion of my teenage years watching this guy on the television, both on the sports field and in his post-sporting celebrity status. As a student I had been wowed by him as he spoke to a packed room with an infectious passion for Jesus. But as the cameraman repositioned between the shots of the short film we were making together, I asked him about his faith and he disclosed that it had all but gone. I appreciated his honesty but I left feeling totally deflated. My hero’s story was very similar to too many young people I have met. As a young convert he was nurtured by a brand of Christianity that came as a complete package with black-and-white theological (and political) positions on every subject under the sun. When he began to question one of those positions he was not just destabilized in that aspect of his faith, his whole faith came crashing down. It was a story I had heard before, echoed in the lives of many friends and acquaintances, particularly, but not exclusively, from the younger generation. I am still haunted by the statistic that 70% of the young people in our churches do not make the transition to adult church1. What if the problem with our discipleship of young people is not that we don’t squeeze enough in but that we squeeze too much of the wrong stuff in? What if the problem is not just that we develop faith that is too shallow, but that we develop faith that is too narrow? This begs the next question – how do we ensure that our disciple-making opens up the minds and hearts of those we work with to both the depth and the breadth of the gospel? And how can we prepare our young people

effectively for all and any circumstance without closing them down so much that their faith is at risk from the one circumstance we didn’t foresee? Economist Nassim Taleb coined the term “anti-fragile” to describe a property of something that becomes stronger when chaos and disorder strikes. I would love to see young people developing not just a resilient faith, or a sticky faith that can survive when things get tough, but an anti-fragile faith, which actually deepens, broadens and thrives as they encounter new ideas, uncharted situations or even tragedy in their lives. One way to help develop this kind of anti-fragile faith which has both depth and breadth is to deliberately tackle head on the many paradoxes of our faith, which currently lie outside of many of our discipleship programmes across the church, leaving a legacy not only of unanswered questions, but an underlying message that these questions should not even be raised. For the rest of this article we will explore five reasons why the paradoxes of our faith actually help us in the paradoxes of life and how tackling them head on can make our disciple-making more effective in the long run.

1. NO FEAR – OPEN MINDED WHEN FACING CHALLENGES I loved the way my PE teacher wanted my rough comprehensive school in Brighton to have a rugby team that could take on the well-to-do public schools in our area. I was virtually blind without my glasses on but I could run fast and so was given the role of winger. He drilled us to fully commit to a tackle: hit the runner with all our might, grab on to their legs and hold on for dear life. A half-hearted tackle would certainly end up with a boot in the face so we needed to go all in or not in at all, he said.

Brierley,P., Has Youthwork Worked?

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JUST AS IN THE WORLD OF ADVANCED PHYSICS, SOME ASPECTS OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD ARE DIFFICULT TO GRASP AND WE MAY NEED TO RE-VISIT EVEN THE MOST BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF OUR OWN FAITH IN OUR QUEST FOR BREADTH AND DEPTH. When it comes to exploring the Christian faith with our young people we need to have the same attitude. They are often not afraid to tackle the hardest parts of the Bible, or raise the most difficult questions. Yet often we skirt around them for fear we cannot offer them answers. However, because our contact time with young people is limited, deliberately focussing on the tough parts can be a good investment, building confidence in our young people that all of Scripture really is God-breathed, and developing the skills to handle any part of the Bible. Let’s learn to model an all-in attitude when it comes to studying Scripture. We may not know or even discover all the answers, but we can give it all we’ve got and show that these difficult questions won’t phase us.

lab and a £2000 grant that his head teacher invested in him. Reading his story made me wonder what 13-yearold Jamie would be learning in youth group or Sunday school this weekend if he went along?

If we can help a young person to go beyond the more straight-forward lessons of, for example, Joshua, and wrestle with the paradox of the all loving God who seems to command genocide, or beyond the simpler lessons of Abraham and wrestle with the paradox of the all-sufficient God who demands that Abraham kill his own son, then we add breadth to our discipleship, and teach young people not to be afraid of critics such as Richard Dawkins who make claims such as:

Just as in the world of advanced physics, some aspects of our knowledge of God are difficult to grasp and we may need to re-visit even the most basic assumptions of our own faith in our quest for breadth and depth. When I was studying A-Level physics. I was pretty sure I knew what light was. Then came my very first lecture at university. Professor Kemp, with his mad-scientist haircut walked into a room full of expectant students in brand new gleaming white lab coats, and, to the palpable disappointment of everyone present, wrote Schrödinger’s very long equation on the board. It scared the living daylights out of us as we were told to mentally throw away everything we had been taught about how light worked, and perform experiments that demonstrated contradictory things about light. Rather than take the easy route and ignore or discount one or the other set of data, we were shown that as scientists we were to take the humble route and acknowledge both truths, and accept that our brains are not big enough to understand the paradox they call ‘wave particle duality’.

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” 2

2. N O SIMPLE ANSWERS – OPEN MINDED TO MYSTERY Jamie Edwards, a 13-year-old schoolboy from Lancashire, recently became the youngest person ever to build a working fusion reactor. He created a “star in a jar” using an online open source recipe, his school’s underused science

The God Delusion

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We often underestimate the abilities of our young people and so give them a watered-down, over-simplified understanding of faith which is geared more towards aspiring couch potatoes than aspiring rocket scientists. Rather than dumbing the message of the Bible down and giving bumper-sticker answers to challenging theological problems, I would like to see the bar raised and young people given the chance to access the riches and complexities of our faith.

Similarly, when we say that Jesus is both fully human and fully God, or God is one and Trinity, or forgiving and just, it is not just nonsense, or a puzzle, or a play on words. We do not need to toss a coin, or hold a debate, or ‘ask the audience’ to decide between them. Both teachings are true, with neither being compromised. Learning to explore the paradoxes of God’s nature may be mind-bendingly

complex, but the end result is that we are left humbly in awe of a God who cannot be fully understood. Our young people should be given the opportunity to enjoy thinking hard about their theology and also to recognize the limits of our understanding that can in fact also inspire faith. Reflecting on the mysteries of God will help them in times when tragedies occur and there seem to be no answers except to trust a God whose ways are beyond ours, and who we can hardly begin to comprehend.

3. NO BOXES – OPEN MINDED ON SECONDARY ISSUES Growing up in the 1980s it was hard not to want to be Harrison Ford who landed the dream role in two of my favourite movie series’. Firstly as Han Solo, clearly the coolest person in the Star Wars universe, and then he topped it by becoming Indiana Jones. One scene from the best of the Indy movies; Raiders of the Lost Ark, shows the Nazis transporting the Ark in a wooden crate with a Nazi insignia on the outside. When the camera pans out and the soldiers leave the Ark alone, we see the Swastika on the outside of the crate being burned away. The contents were bigger than the crate, the power greater than any badge. It made a deep impression on me. Director Stephen Spielberg was indicating that God’s power does not belong to any nation. God does not fit into a box. There is a kind of Christianity that seeks to systematise God, to have a pre-prepared answer to every conceivable question or situation that its followers could pose. It is not hard to find Christian leaders who tell us exactly which political party to vote for, how to discipline our children, who should be the wage-earner in a household, why it is wrong to save the planet, which baptism is the only baptism that counts, when and where to pray and which prayer to use when we face difficulties in our lives, how to respond to our neighbours’ doubts about the resurrection, which organisations we should support financially, and countless other subjects not stated specifically in the Bible. Buying in to a brand of Christianity that comes as a complete and definitive package like this can, as we saw earlier, have a house of cards effect when one of those views is challenged. Disciples of this kind of Christianity may end up with their entire faith being compromised. God cannot and will not be boxed in by our own specific cultural or political preferences.

However if we never allow our young people to explore these practical and theological issues, they may end up failing to reconcile their faith with their everyday life. We want them to ask the questions about how they should vote, and bring up their children, and pray and reach their neighbours. So how can we encourage them to ask the questions, without falling into the trap of spoon-feeding them the answers that we may have decided upon for ourselves? How can we encourage them to be openminded without, as GK Chesterton put it, being “so openminded that your brain falls out”? Exploring the paradoxes of Scripture can help us as we are forced to distinguish between the things we can clearly understand from Scripture that form the foundations of our faith, and other things that can be held loosely because Scripture is less clear about them. These secondary issues will cause some tension as we wrestle not only with our own understanding and application, but as we accept others who may take a different view. Effective discipling means helping our young people wrestle with and differentiate between first and second order doctrines. Augustine put it well: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”

4. N O CLONES – OPEN MINDED TO DISAGREEMENT Even if we do not subscribe to a type of ‘packaged’ Christianity described above, there can still be a temptation for us as youth workers to turn our young people into a “mini-me.” We feed them the same books, courses and festivals that we enjoy and expect clones to appear at the other end of the sausage machine production line. There are teaching methods that are complicit in this. Let’s think about our last study – did we spend more time giving good answers ourselves, or encouraging them to ask good questions? Just as a good maths teacher withholds the answers to encourage the discipline of ‘working out’, so we should think twice before giving slick or pat answers to the complexity of the Christian faith. Is it time to tweak our teaching methods to respond to a question with a question? What do you mean by that excellent question? What are the possible answers? What

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are the implications of that? Is this really what Scripture teaches? To what extent is that biblical rather than cultural? What would it mean if I took that seriously in my life? Why is that difficult for you? How does this connect with what the Bible says elsewhere? What would you say to somebody who took the opposite view? The paradoxes of Scripture and Christian theology force us to answer questions with questions because they do not come with slick and pat answers. When Job came to God with the age-old problem of suffering: why? God refuses to answer him, despite letting future readers in on the secret of Satan’s wager. Instead God asks question after question forcing Job to think hard about whom he was trusting in the middle of his tragic circumstances. Rather than giving handouts and hand-me-downs when it comes to theology, perhaps we should be encouraging wrestling and wrangling in a bid to encourage discernment and true discipleship of Jesus (as opposed to discipleship of the youth leader). This will inevitably lead to disagreements, however learning to disagree will stand them in good stead if we wish to see them stick with the church.

5. N O HONEYMOON – OPEN MINDED TOWARDS THE REAL GOD I have heard people brag about their marriages claiming “we never argue”. This always concerns me – are these couples really connecting with one another? In any relationship it is as we connect, that we inevitably clash, but those clashes mean that we get to know one another better and connect more deeply. A conversation during one family Christmas gathering revealed that one of my female relatives left the shower running while she applied her hair and body products. Her husband was outraged at such a waste of water, as he always turned off the shower between rinses and assumed everyone else did the same. We had to laugh as they argued loudly over this as they had been married for nearly 60 years at the time. Similarly it is when God surprises us that we know that we are connecting with him not just as an imaginary God, a Stepford God, or a puppet God who just does what we want, but as the real God with whom we are having a real relationship.

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We long to see our young people having real encounters with the real God, and so by honing in on the parts of Scripture that challenge us most, there is more chance that our young people will connect with him and become prepared for real life. The Bible is full of incidents where his people clash with him and we are often presented with apparent awkward paradoxes in his character. In Scripture we meet a God who is both terrible and compassionate; offering mercy to Israel but genocide to the Canaanites. We meet a God who is both distant and present: calling the Israelites out of Egypt to be with him but keeping his distance in the Holy of Holies. The Bible is not afraid to show Jonah, Habakkuk, Moses, David, Peter and the other disciples complaining to God when they don’t understand him. The puzzling nature of God makes him hard to always love, trust, honour and obey, and unless we are able to help our young people wrestle with some of these paradoxes their relationship with him could become stunted, warped or half-hearted. Conversely, it may be as they wrestle with them, that their understanding of who God is grows, and their relationship with him is strengthened. If we are going to see young people thrive in their spiritual lives we need to help them go beyond the honeymoon period and enter a mature faith with a living God. We want to help them become open-minded about discovering new depth and breadth in their faith, through wrestling with good questions rather than settling for easy answers and through testing the limits of their own cognition, delighting in encounters with the mystery of our complex God beyond. Paradoxically, we may find our own faith is deepened and broadened in the process.

KRISH KANDIAH President, LST Krish’s new book “Paradoxology: Why the Christian Faith was never meant to be simple” explores how paradoxes equip us for life and help develop antifragile faith. The book is reviewed on page 39.

THE PUZZLING NATURE OF GOD MAKES HIM HARD TO ALWAYS LOVE.

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CHRISTIAN METAL MUSIC’S RESONANCE WITH OLD TESTAMENT SUFFERING AND NEW TESTAMENT HOPE ‘WHY SHOULD THE DEVIL HAVE ALL THE GOOD MUSIC?’ SANG LARRY NORMAN IN 1972. SINCE THEN THE VERY IDEA OF ‘CHRISTIAN ROCK’ AS A VALID MUSICAL EXPRESSION HAS BEEN VIGOROUSLY DEBATED. WHAT DEFINES CHRISTIAN ROCK? CAN IT EVEN BE CALLED ‘ROCK’ OR ‘CHRISTIAN’? “Can’t you see you’re not making Christianity better, you’re just making rock and roll worse.” 1 This debate has previously argued that rock/metal contains ‘hidden messages from Satan’, and, ironically, some suggest that Worship-music today is also subliminal in its influence on people’s belief in God. Although, in my opinion, it is wrong to consider certain forms of music to be more ‘spiritual’ (whether godly or demonic) than others, it is my belief that when we make certain enquiries about contemporary Christian Rock (CCR) we find a legitimate form of Christian spirituality. I hope to highlight, therefore, the way CCR resonates with Old Testament themes about suffering and New Testament themes concerning hope, through engaging with some CCR and some of the Scriptures, in order that we may learn to appreciate the genre, its expression, and how appropriate it is for the people of God.

WHAT’S ALL THE NOISE? It is important to stress that CCR has no universally accepted definition – like any genre there are sub-genres, mainstream and indie, and it would be frivolous to try and compartmentalise this musical art form. The rise of independent Christian Rock/Metal labels, however, like Solid State Records, Tooth & Nail Records, and BEC Recordings, has demonstrated a market for a Christian Rock genre that wrestles with faith ‘in the world’, and seeks to articulate Christian faith in a way which is

Hank Hill, from the T.V. series King of the Hill (20th Television: 2003, Season 8, Episode 2: ‘Reborn to be Wild’) www.ccmmagazine.com

different to the more established, and mainstream, Christian Contemporary Music (CCM).2 CCR is not congregational, in the same way that sung worship is designed for the Church’s public expression of faith, yet it is a form of expression that deals with themes that lie beyond a ‘Sunday School’ reading of the Scriptures. This genre expresses a head-on-head clash between the individual and their introspection, as they deal with feelings of hatred, anger, frustration, depression, self-loathing, suicide, self-harm, rejection, fear, doubt, and abandonment. Could these feelings be expressed authentically in a worship service with just an acoustic guitar? It is possible, yes. The musical style, however, is what is appealing to its listeners, because it is intertwined with sounds that communicate these feelings through instruments that replicate that same emotional turbulence, audibly. The more hard-core metal fans read and re-read lyrics, like Scripture, in order to understand them – and that is not because the words are indistinguishable.

WHAT DO THE WORDS SAY, AND HOW DO THEY COMPARE WITH SCRIPTURE? “I’m the desperate, and you’re the saviour. I’m the desperate, and you’re the saviour. There’s been something, something else talking in my ear. Someone save me. When I speak it begins to decay. I’m not about to bury myself. Oh, God! My hands are shaking again. Calm down! Calm down! Now I can’t feel the floor and my vision takes its toll on me. I’m the desperate, and you’re the saviour. I’m the desperate, and you’re the saviour.”3

Stanza 1 of ‘Breathing in A New Mentality’, by Underoath from Lost in the Sound of Separation (Tooth & Nail Records: 2008). Meaning of Hebrew uncertain.

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O THAT I MIGHT HAVE MY REQUEST, AND THAT GOD WOULD GRANT MY DESIRE; THAT IT WOULD PLEASE GOD TO CRUSH ME, THAT HE WOULD LET LOOSE HIS HAND AND CUT ME OFF! THIS WOULD BE MY CONSOLATION; I WOULD EVEN EXUTL4 IN UNRELENTING PAIN; FOR I HAVE NOT DENIED THE WORDS OF THE HOLY ONE.

What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient? Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? In truth I have no help in me, and any resource is driven from me.”5

Live for your dreams and say goodbye to this era, and remember what it was that held you down. Never again will this overtake my mind. It’s all coming to an end, this era’s over. It’s all coming to an end, this era’s over.”6

When we compare these two outcries we can see that the first author views God as the deliverer from an impersonal, yet audible, force that is fighting with the writer, in order to cause fear leading to death or paralysis. The second shows the other author requesting that God would end his life, as he is suffering to the extent that there is nothing within himself that can enable him to persevere.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

In Old Testament lament we find that there is mourning over the state of Israel in relation to their Holy God, when he seems to abandon them, yet there is a persistent hope that God will deliver. Also, in various wisdom texts, we read the internal struggles of a righteous individual who has to reinterpret the world through their experience of suffering. Their dismay is mixed with reflection upon their own place in the world, and the wisdom of an almighty God in the way he has structured it; ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom’ Prov. 1:7a. In CCR there is also this struggle. Yet within this melee of loud, heavy, fast-paced guitars, and screaming vocals, there are outcries of hope that point to a God who loves and wants to rescue those who are in the midst of suffering, either caused by an individual’s own sin or, tragically, by those in the church who do not understand the pain that an individual feels. “It’s all coming to an end, this era’s over. Live for your dreams and say goodbye to this era, and remember what it was that held you down. Never be afraid. Strive to accomplish the goals that you have. Leave this time alone and make sure you never look back. It’s all coming to an end, this era’s over.

5 6

Job 6:8-13 (NRSV) Lyrics from ‘An Era’, by Inhale Exhale from Bury Me Alive (Solid State Records: 2009).

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Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’”7 What is misunderstood, at times by those within the Church, is that those who enjoy CCR do not reject the Church nor the message of Christ’s saving work. They look, rather, at the cross of Christ and see in his death the bloody, gritty, naked reality of Jesus suffering for them, and the need to communicate that same love for others. This is then done with a form of music that is also gritty, raw, and loaded, lyrically, with empathy for people who suffer without hope. The genre seeks to integrate those who are on the ‘outside’ of the Church community with those ‘on the inside.’ However, the overtly abrasive nature of the music can be interpreted as anarchic, when in fact it is a vehicle for the Gospel message. 8

US VS. THEM? A pause for thought: Can you hear what is being said through the words of the songwriters? Or can you identify with the voice of the Sages? Do you see the longing to have pain end, and have all things made new again? More importantly, can you identify with them?

7 8

Revelation 21:3-5 This accusation of rebellion was also one of the charges against some of the very first evangelists to the Gentiles (Acts 13:42-14:7).

It is all too easy for yet more dividing lines to be drawn within the Church, between the ‘rockers’ and the ‘righteous’, as misunderstandings between the two occur. On the one hand are those who wish to be ‘authentic’, pleading that the Church welcomes the outsider by meeting the sinner in street (and dressing in the same cultural clothing); and on the other are those who want to discharge any resemblance with ‘the world’. Space does not allow for a theological exposition, but it does for a question. Can we hear the desires of both the rocker and the righteous, and see them working together like different members of a body? We are in a time when portable MP3 devices have created a musical world for the individual to live in, without fear of intrusion. Likewise the internet has enabled a way to be a part of a likeminded community, from the comfort of the keyboard. The community can be found in the Church, or on the computer. There is potential that when the computer becomes more welcoming than the Church, the ‘on-line’ and not the oikos,9 then we see a cultural homogeneity – and not the heterogeneity of a Church that contains the slave, free, Jew, Gentile, male, female, that is then homogenised ontologically by the Spirit, in Christ.10

THE MOSH-PIT A ‘mosh-pit’ is when a band plays live and, during a climactic or intense part of a song, the audience run, and crash into eachother. Yet, despite how violent it may get in a mosh-pit, there is always an unwritten rule; that, when you can, you help someone who is on the floor or injured. There is physical and emotional release in there, aided by the music, but one has the choice: be on the outside, or be in the thick of it. Could we, as a Church, replicate that (metaphorically speaking!)? We, all, are hurting. Can we help to heal each other? When the modus operandi is through engagement with the Holy Spirit, who is able to comprehend what is truly human and God’s (1 Cor. 2:9–16), then I think we can. Those that self-harm or hide behind a veil of black clothing do not need more condemnation, but a listening ear. They do not need to be forced to find their scene on a computer screen, but welcomed in to the mosh-pit of an open, raw, dynamic, and healing church.

οἶκος; Greek meaning house/household; ‘a spiritual family’ in 1 Timothy 3:15 and Hebrews 3:6 . Ephesians 4:1–6.

CCR has flourished, partly, because believers find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They are forced to make one of two choices: either to go into the Church where their outward appearance is condemned or ridiculed by a duplicitous middle majority – whose struggles are just as turbulent, yet their fashion is not as provocative – or to stay outside where those who share the same cultural identity do not identify, ultimately, with the Christian hope.

OUTRO So, where does this kind of music fit in the Church? Shall we incorporate it at the 8:30am communion service, the 11am family service, or the Sunday evening service? “It’s all free and that’s real it’s all free, you said. I need to accept, I need to forget I guess. I’m glad I got this looked at, finally got this looked at. I’m so glad you came for me. Get this, get this right before we go.” 11 I am not arguing that Amazing Grace be played through a huge stack of Marshall guitar amps; but I hope to have highlighted how CCR resonates with Old Testament themes about suffering and New Testament themes concerning hope, by comparing some of the lyrics with some of the Scriptures, and asking whether we can identify with their voices. They uncover their own failings, in a world that contains temptation, sin, evil, and suffering, to an audience that is like them, yet point to a God who is loving, gracious, transforming, and regenerative. If we understand the death and resurrection of Jesus, along with the activity of the Spirit, correctly, then I think we can all do the same, regardless of our taste in music. BEN MCNAMARA Graduate, LST Ben McNamara is an MA student in Biblical Studies at Durham University, having studied his BA at LST. He has been a member of the Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland since his conversion at aged 17. He writes and records his own Christian rock music and gigs regularly. www.rednightfields.com

Lyrics from ‘Hands’ by The Almost from the album Monster Monster (Tooth & Nail, Virgin, 2009).

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DRIFTWOOD

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I LOVED STUDYING THEOLOGY. MY MIND BUZZED AS IT MADE NEW, EXCITING CONNECTIONS. EVERYTHING FELT SO IMMEDIATE, SO FULL OF POTENTIAL. IF ONLY I COULD UNDERSTAND MORE – IF ONLY MY MIND COULD GRASP IT ALL! I may have been frustrated by my limitations, but there was another problem I had not considered. As I listened, learned and grew I couldn’t imagine a time when these things would not excite me; when I would cease to recall the connections I made. Surely it would always be with me. It was all so real.

A DANGEROUS TENDENCY For a few years after leaving LST, I could still tap into what I’d learned; a trigger was all I needed. However, I’m not someone who retains things for long periods, not without revisiting them. They fall into disuse. The dust begins to cover them. I underestimated my forgetfulness. I found myself having more and more ‘tip of the tongue’ moments. I know this – surely I know this! But what I once knew (or at least, had some understanding of) was now unformed and elusive. I could no longer reach for it in the same way, no longer felt sure enough to share it with others. In the years after graduating my husband and I encountered a number of difficult situations in his new ministry, and I – well, who was I? I battled to know who I was supposed to be and wished for the seemingly ‘easier’ times when I felt the support of friends we made – and lived in community with – earlier. Without the structure of knowing where I was going, in the newness of marriage, moving and ministry, I began to neglect the things that once drove me. Some part of me couldn’t see the point, and it didn’t see the point until I had drifted a long way. I struggled to see the reason for my life in an achievementdriven culture, especially as I struggled with Chronic Fatigue, which dogged my heels constantly. I hated having to explain everything I was not. I neglected the

very friendships I missed most; I stopped reading books I once thought ‘life changing’. I no longer used my time to deepen my understanding. I began to drift. Initially, drifting can be quite comfortable, in comparison with trying to swim. We let the current take us, instead of striking out against it. However, without the exercise of effort, we get weaker. It’s harder to navigate. We are not as strong as we were; we can’t quite remember the strokes. We stop watching for the landmarks; we ignore the flash of the lighthouse. One day we look up and realise we are far from where we thought we’d be (or wanted to be) by now. It’s easy to get arrogant about what we think we will become, making assumptions about our future. We can forget our original passion and fall prey to the murkiness of mixed motives. Do we feed our faith to follow Jesus more closely, or to make us feel good and successful? If life steals our good feelings for a while, do we stop swimming? Drifting is not a decisive act, not a deliberate turning. It’s just a ‘bobbing along’. We don’t recognise what we’ve become: driftwood – battered by the waves, a long way from where we started.

SOMETIMES WE DON’T REALISE HOW FAR THIS IS UNTIL WE BEGIN TO DROWN.

QUESTIONS OF IDENTITY Much of what we have in the bible was written to record or remind – whether by telling the story or by direct exhortation. An array of Scripture explores, clarifies and emphasises what has been taught, correcting misunderstanding or error, addressing specific issues faced by the intended audience. In the bible, God’s people are identified by the fact that they are God’s people. God is the primary source of their

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identity and calling – impacting every little bit of life. That’s the idea, anyway. But when God’s people forget the very one who makes them who they are, things fall apart. Their light dims, they no longer testify to the one who has rescued them, the one who has given them their special identity. We see this in the Old Testament stories of forgetful Kings. When King Josiah’s secretary reads to him from a newly discovered book of the law, Josiah tears his robes when he realises what has been forgotten. Judah has drifted away from her calling, her purpose, her identity. But even Josiah’s decisive act of remembering, lauded in 2 Kings, was not enough to prevent the consequences of all the bloodshed and cruelty of his relatives and forebears. Remembering God is more than just thinking about him occasionally. It’s about living in a way that reflects God’s character. Judah, like the other tribes before her, entered exile.

PAY ATTENTION When we cease to remember the things that make us who we are, we start getting it wrong. ‘False teaching’ can be accidental but inevitable as we develop a diluted theology. We fill the gaps in our memories with guesses – things that sound good (ish) – or with defensive platitudes. Genuine questions can’t get satisfaction here; we aren’t equipped to deal with them any more. We forget not only what we believe but why we believe it. What we end up clinging to is our own flimsy construct, our image of whowe-think-God-is (or more alarmingly, who-we-think-Godshould-be), instead of engaging with who-God-really-is. This happens on a church-wide scale. We see this in the New Testament letters: the writers are desperate for their readers not to go astray, not to miss out on the abundant life offered to them. Paul is frustrated that the Galatians are ‘so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel’ (Gal 1:6, NRSV). The writer of Hebrews

is concerned that readers are losing their grip on the truth of all Jesus is and what he has accomplished. They are told that ‘we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it’ (Heb 2:1, NRSV).

JUST KEEP SWIMMING? What about us? What factors pull us off course? They can range from the personal to the environmental and cultural. The personal is potent. We can get overwhelmed by a sense of our own inadequacy. Initially, my knowledge that I was drifting only confirmed what I already felt about myself. Disappointed hopes, depression, poor health – these can all make it so much harder to keep swimming. We can also be overcome by pressures from other people – even if those pressures aren’t deliberate. Unreasonable expectations or constant misunderstanding can cause us to flounder and lose heart. Problems faced by our loved ones can, naturally, take centre stage. Sometimes it’s hard to handle these in a healthy way. We get hurt by those who are supposed to help us. Things can get nasty between Christians; we neglect to disagree graciously, to answer each other with gentleness and respect. We stop trying to understand one another. This, too, is forgetfulness – we are no longer mirroring the love of Christ. We can only be responsible for our own behaviour, but the reality is we can get beaten down by the behaviour of others. We need to practise remembering God in all these things. But often we panic and forget God’s presence with us in the darkest places. We do not recognise him, because he does not appear in the way that he has before. We get distracted. Our culture has an abundance of distractions on offer. When external overload of information and diversion meets an internal tendency towards distraction (like mine), it’s easy to drift away.

DRIFTING AWAY SEEMS SUCH A SUBTLE THING. WE ASSUME THINGS CAN’T BE FORGOTTEN, THAT OUR NAVIGATION SYSTEMS ARE AUTOMATIC. BUT WE NEED TO KEEP MAINTAINING THEM, MAKING ADJUSTMENTS WHERE NECESSARY.

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We fill our days with mediocrity. I’ve realised I can’t keep blaming the world for that – I’m called to hold fast to what is important, in the face of all this other ‘stuff’ available to me. But do I rise to the challenge? We need to recognise our own weaknesses, without feeding them with yet more distraction. That’s easy to do – if I become aware of my distracted state I feel bad about it. Rather than taking steps towards a better way of living, I often pursue more distraction to stop myself feeling bad. The cycle continues. We are addicted to immediacy – our brains react to constant stimuli and need their hourly ‘fix’. When difficulties arise, this doesn’t hold up. What we need, deep down, has been replaced by surface ‘wants’. We can spend so much time in the shallows – but there’s no depth there to draw on when the hard times come. Have you ever taken a bite of something and remarked: ‘I didn’t realise I was so hungry’? I suspect many of us go through life not knowing how hungry we are. We’re not used to the real thing any more; we’ve forgotten what it tastes like. We need to remember to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good!’ (Psalm 34:8).

What do we, as individuals and as church, need to unearth, to dust off and remember? Forgetfulness is widespread. Inattentiveness to what we already know and have experienced stymies our ability to engage with current issues. We don’t know how to respond because we’re not sure why we believe what we say we do. We’ve not taken time to reflect and to ask questions ourselves – so how can we begin to answer the questions of others? God is unchanging. But this doesn’t mean God doesn’t speak to us in new and unexpected ways. We may need to tune into a different frequency, and be prepared to do so often. Holding on to what we know and have learned doesn’t mean we become inflexible: we can’t put a full stop at the end of our understanding. There is always more – more to learn and experience, more to build on, more to challenge us, disturb us, propel us forward. Studying theology gives us tools; let’s not let them get rusty with disuse. Let’s remember the why of it – the passion, the calling. It may be a bit more nuanced now, but still powerful.

NEVER ALONE

FAITH MAINTENANCE Remembering is not merely about feeling. We get sentimental about remembering, but biblically, when God’s people are called to remember him, they are to do so with their lives. To remember God doesn’t mean storing up facts about him for a bible knowledge quiz. To remember God is to develop an awareness of God in all we do, to live in accordance with his character, and reflect that character to the world. If we bear the image of God, forgetting God means we forget who we are made to be. ‘Drifting away’ seems such a subtle thing. We assume things can’t be forgotten, that our navigation systems are automatic. But we need to keep maintaining them, making adjustments where necessary. When Judah was exiled, the people had to broaden their ideas of God. Yahweh was not some regional deity, but the God of every place. We, too, need to remember this. Just because our circumstances have moved or changed, doesn’t mean God is not still present with us.

We shouldn’t think of this as a lonely struggle, dependent on our own strength. Remembering God is a co-operative act. The Holy Spirit is with us to strengthen and guide us, reminding us of what Jesus taught (John 14:26). We hold onto God and God holds onto us. Where our grip is often weak, his is always strong. Our God is gracious. When we cry out to him, he brings us back to him. Each time we need to be reminded: pay attention to what you have heard. When we let go of God, when we stop seeking him, we lose something profound and our life suffers for it. Let’s fix our eyes on our Saviour, so that we become intentional followers through the good and bad times, instead of driftwood, floating out to sea. LUCY MILLS Graduate, LST Lucy Mills graduated from LST in 2003 and is a freelance writer and editor. She’s the author of Forgetful Heart: Remembering God in a Distracted World (Darton, Longman and Todd). www.lucy-mills.com

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AS EASY AS

DEFINING LEADERSHIP SUCCESS IN THE CHURCH 24

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‘LEADERSHIP IS THE HOPE OF THE CHURCH’, SAYS MALPHURS 1 AND, LOOKING AT THE POPULARITY OF TODAY’S CHRISTIAN ‘LEADERSHIP CONFERENCES’, MANY APPEAR TO AGREE WITH HIM. THROUGHOUT MY TWENTIES, I’D IMBIBED THE SAME MESSAGE IN BOOK AFTER BOOK AND SERMON AFTER SERMON. THE CHURCH NEEDS HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL, PURPOSE-DRIVEN, COURAGEOUS, CREATIVE CHURCH LEADERS. (YES, THAT STRING OF ADJECTIVES IS PROBABLY A FAIR INDICATION OF WHAT I’D BEEN READING!).

This growing commitment to leadership in the Christian West may be the inevitable heritage of the church growth movement of the 1980s and beyond, whose apostle, C. Peter Wagner, claimed that the primary catalyst in church growth is ‘dynamic leadership’.2 Or perhaps, instead, it comes from the increasing professionalisation of ministry in Western societies: as the social status historically attributed to the minister is gradually eroded in the face of a need to compete in what has become a religious marketplace, minsters’ marketability has become all – and many have chosen to sell themselves as experts with a sought-after competence – leadership. Wherever it comes from though, ecclesial leadership is seemingly here to stay, whether in the prolific writings of Christian leadership guru, John Maxwell,3 Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal,4 or annual events like Willow Creek’s Global Leadership Summit and the increasingly-popular Holy Trinity Brompton/Alpha Leadership Conference. Still, as I’ve moved into my thirties I’ve started to become restless. The leadership paradigms I’ve been fed really don’t seem to satisfy anymore – perhaps because there’s nothing quite like being 28 and getting the leadership of a church unexpectedly dropped in your lap to focus the mind! Since then, as my co-leaders and I have bumbled our way through what is now a handful of years leading a church of young-ish believers and new converts, my frustration has increased. You see, by the standards of the church growth-inspired leadership models that I have been reading, I judge myself a failure as a church leader. Flicking through my journal over the last eighteen months, in fact, I see a startling number of references to this sense

TAubrey Malphurs, Being Leaders: The Nature of Authentic Christian Leadership, Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003, 12. C. Peter Wagner, Your Church Can Grow: Seven Vital Signs of a Healthy Church, Ventura: Regal, 1984, 63. 3 www.johnmaxwell.com.

that I am utterly failing. This sense of floundering and doubt is apparent in the terms in which I couch some of my blog posts at The Art of Steering:6 wondering whether I have ‘wasted my twenties’, describing every step as one through a morass of fear and foreboding, feeling weighed down by the sheer size of the task… And yet. And yet there is another thread in my journal, in my blog posts. The barest whisper that maybe the traditional models have it all wrong, that just possibly what matters is not building a church as an institution but making disciples, that maybe there are new maps to be dreamed, that perhaps the other side of the broken glory which I see all around is hope. When I read those writings, I am struck by the idea that perhaps it’s not that leadership is broken beyond repair but rather that the church has allowed the idea of leadership to take us somewhere we were never meant to go. Recent models of leadership have often defined success in simple terms. Terms as simple as ABC. Attendance, buildings and cash, to be precise.7 You increase bottoms on seats or even expand to another service or campus, you win. You improve current church buildings or build more, you are a success. And when the tithes are strong and the cash keeps rolling in, you know you are living the leadership dream. Now I’m freely willing to admit that perhaps I say what follows because lately, in the bubble of transitory life that is London, we’ve sent out more people than new ones have come in. Add to this that we have no

www.christianitytoday.com/le/. http://lc14.alpha.org/. http://theartofsteering.wordpress.com. 7 Dallas Willard describes the ABCs as the ‘popular model of success’ (www.dwillard. org/articles/ artview.asp?artID=112).

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building of our own (not even an office!) and that it’s a miracle that we successfully make the end of our tax year each year without going into the red, and you’ll see that I am hardly unbiased – but still I will say it: I don’t think the church can afford to define leadership success in terms of ABC any longer.

IN FACT, THERE’S A LETTER OF THE ALPHABET WHICH I PREFER FOR DEFINING SUCCESS. IT’S THE LETTER D.

D stands for disciple-making. It’s deceptively simple as a concept but, I think, powerful. My success as a leader, our success as a church, is surely not defined by attendance, buildings or cash but by our disciple-making. This message has been coming loud and strong out of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity for several years now. Their Imagine project was all about disciplemaking and how the church might equip the saints to make the most of the places where we spend the majority of our week, growing as disciples of Jesus and bearing fruit in precisely these places. From this study a grassroots disciple-making initiative has developed with books and a Grove booklet published to spread the word,8 a team of speakers9 deployed to share this idea with churches across the UK and workshop-based roadshows helping those churches to implement this measure of success in their local contexts. I’ve been privileged to share in this project since the beginning: our church was part of the 8 9

See http://www.licc.org.uk/resources/resources-2/imagine-church/. http://www.licc.org.uk/imagine-church/contact-us/.

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initial learning interaction, and I’ve had the opportunity in my personal capacity to remain part of the ongoing conversation. In a Christian leadership world largely obsessed with the ABCs, I’ve valued working with LICC to keep the D central. In fact, LICC is one of the places that I’d recommend any church leader start who wants to think through some of this for themselves. Yet, lately, I’ve recognised the need to apply a corrective to my understanding of disciple-making. Somewhere along the way I’ve got confused. I’ve forgotten what disciplemaking really means. To explain that, I perhaps need to share with you some of our little church’s story. We began with a team of eleven adults plus children. My husband and I were, at 25, the youngest and the most inexperienced in faith, life and leadership. We considered ourselves lucky to be tagging along on this great adventure with those who knew what they were doing. And, for three years, we enjoyed having a lot of older believers around us. But then that dynamic began to change. Those believers began to leave. As it happened, they left round about the same time as leadership dropped into our laps. Some left because God had called them forward to a different part of the country, some because they couldn’t get their heads round younger leaders perhaps, others quietly slipped away from us and from such overt profession of faith as life overtook them. Since then, a lot of younger people have joined us: non-believers, new believers and trying-tofigure-it-all-out believers. So, in a relatively short period of a year or two, what had been a stable church in terms of attendance and cash, one without a building but able to afford the Sunday rental on a plush hotel suite, suddenly became a whole lot more fragile. Young, more than a little naïve and willing to work hard, we newly-fledged leaders rolled up our sleeves and got to it, making disciples of those whom God had given. We really didn’t have many mature believers so the three of us leaders did a lot of one-to-one investment to grow disciples, to develop leaders. Because many have come to faith as adults through our little church, we’re working to change whole mindsets, to disciple one another’s hearts out of the dominant cultural narratives of consumerism and individualism. The work, truthfully, has been hard. I’ve cried more tears over a whole string of young women than any of them will ever know – especially the ones who ultimately decided that the cost of discipleship was too great – and my co-leaders and I have welled up with indescribable pride and joy when we’ve seen them fly. We’ve done a lot of disciple-making in this little community. Many have come to faith and we’ve seen many move on, in the transitory nature of London life, to

YET, LATELY, I’VE RECOGNISED THE NEED TO APPLY A CORRECTIVE TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF DISCIPLE-MAKING. SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY I’VE GOT CONFUSED. I’VE FORGOTTEN WHAT DISCIPLE-MAKING REALLY MEANS.

continue their discipleship – elsewhere in the country and even as far as Kuala Lumpur and Washington! They came in, we gave them all we had, and then we released them to those other parts of the kingdom where God was calling them. In fact, I counted the other week. In two years, we have seen 40 of our own go out of our doors to live as disciples in work and marriage and ministry contexts elsewhere. Given that Sunday congregation numbers have remained throughout that time at somewhere between 45 and 65 including children, that’s a fair number to have to give away. And the thing about now being partway into my 30s is that I’m a lot less innocent than I was. We are not so starry-eyed. In fact, we’re emotionally worn. It is hard to invest your heart and whole person in others for a time – to see them come to faith and to baptise them, shepherding them through the early thrills and spills of a life now shaped by faith, believing them into greatness, taking risks on them as we give away responsibilities which most churches wouldn’t dream of – only to see them move on. Disciple-making with open hands is costly. There is only so often that you can give your heart away without reserve to see the formation of Christ in someone and then have to watch them leave. In all of this, I’ve noticed my perspective on disciplemaking shift. Because, though this disciple-making may have borne fruit for the kingdom, it has not borne fruit for our needs in this church. We don’t have all the workers we need. Every time that we launch a few more disciples out of our doors, it feels like we go back to starting on empty. And, lately, I can’t help feeling that I’m too old for this. Too old and too soul-battered to keep having to start from nothing. I discern in my heart a belief that I shouldn’t still have to pay this price. I catch myself wanting my work of disciple-making to produce not so much disciples of Jesus as weight-bearers for this church. Somehow I have managed to corrupt even this measure of success so that it has become about sustaining the edifice of our leadership, about the long-term stability of our community. Disciplemaking has become twisted in my head into a desire to

identify and raise up those who will be part of our succession planning so that what we have built will remain.

I CONFESS THAT I HAVE EXCHANGED THE IDOLATRY OF THE ABCS FOR THE IDOLATRY OF A CORRUPTED D.

I have been tempted to make my disciple-making about sustaining the institution we’ve built rather than seeking to form the saints in Jesus’ ways to follow him wherever he leads. I do not excuse this sin yet I know also that perhaps I am not the only one. That perhaps even a church leader reading this article will be drawn to admit that you too have directed your ecclesial leadership towards idolatry. I write this for myself and for you, whoever you are. I write it because in naming our idolatry there is hope. For each of us, there is hope because there is grace. We can recalibrate. We can direct our leadership towards the task which he gave us, not success in terms of ABCs but in terms of an uncorrupted D. We can make disciples of Jesus rather than of ourselves or of the institutions (including our churches) which we champion so energetically. We can complete this task because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him and he is with us always to the end of the age that we might fulfil this holy trust. May it be so. CHLOE LYNCH Lecturer in Practical Theology, LST

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A THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION OF INGMAR BERGMAN’S FILM THE SEVENTH SEAL When he opened the seventh seal, There was silence in heaven For about half an hour. —Revelation 8:1 In Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot, one of the characters Vladimir quotes from Proverbs 13:12 that, ‘hope deferred makes the heart sick’1 while waiting futilely for Godot who never appears. Sharing the same nihilistic/existentialistic spirit, in Ingmar Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal, the main character Antonius Block calls out to God, who remains silent and makes Block’s heart sick. Throughout the history of humanity’s endeavour of searching for truth, this silent God seems to have made many hearts sick. Is there a cure for such sickness? How can we know God? Block: I want knowledge, Not faith, not suppositions, But knowledge. Thinkers such as William Paley try to argue for God’s existence from the world’s complexity and design,2 while others try to prove God’s existence with logic and reason like Aquinas’ ontological arguments. According to these rationalists, truth should be objective, in the same way as the scientific laws of the physical and material world or mathematical rules derived by reason. Block seems to share this rationalistic view on truth, so he is not satisfied with his knowledge of God: after spending ten years in the Holy Land as a crusader, he finally returns back to his country where a horrifying plague takes people’s lives and his priest steals from dead bodies. The world surrounding him fails to provide sufficient objective evidence for God’s existence. Jof: Listen, I’ve had a vision. No, it wasn’t a vision. It was real, absolutely real.

Vladimir’s original line in Waiting for Godot is ‘hope deferred makes the something sick, who said that?’ In his Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, William Paley used the analogy of a watchmaker in arguing for God’s existence.

In contrast to Block, Jof, another character in the film, has never been bothered by such ‘sickness of the heart’. For him, God is never silent, but is constantly speaking to him in visions. Although his wife always ridicules him for being full of wild imagination, Jof is sure of his knowledge of God; for him, truth comes from subjective experiences. In fact, existentialists would agree with Jof as they pity rationalists from the empirical tradition who cannot see beyond the physical and material world. They argue that, viewed only through a scientific lens, human beings become things, objects, even machines. However, we are not merely things, objects, or machines, but conscious beings. Therefore, knowledge is not solely objective; even the rationalists themselves are making so-called objective claims from subjective perspectives. Perhaps Block needs to hear the call to subjectivity from these existentialists—to look inward and acknowledge the legitimacy of subjective experience; maybe he could find God there and experience Him in a unique way, and then God can become his God, not someone else’s God or an impersonal God. In church, ‘a personal relationship’ echoes with this call to subjectivity, which, unfortunately, has often become such a cliché that Christians are still following a set of dead and fixed doctrines rather than having a personal relationship with the living God. Block: I call out to Him in the dark But no one seems to be there. What should Block do? He seems to realise the limitation of human reason, especially when encountering God, whom many agree to be inconceivable. In addition, even if he did regard subjective experience as true knowledge, he doesn’t have any mystical experience to hold on to. Neither his active rational enquiries gave him any answer, nor does God grant him favour with a supernatural experience. He is indeed stuck. There seems to be no cure.

Søren Kierkegaard is more associated with anxiety and melancholy than with optimism. Some of his books have gloomy titles such as Fear and Trembling (1843), The Concept of Anxiety (1844) and The Sickness Unto Death (1849).

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DESPITE HIS PREFERENCE FOR GLOOMY BOOK TITLES,3 KIERKEGAARD IS ACTUALLY VERY OPTIMISTIC. HE WOULD HAPPILY ASSURE BLOCK THAT THE DARKNESS WILL SOON PASS AND THE DAWN IS COMING.

Growing up in what he views as a degenerate, selfsatisfied, rationalistic, Hegel-dominated Lutheran church, Kierkegaard knows the deficiency of reason in understanding a transcendent God. Because God is wholly transcendent, not a part of this world, there is no way for limited human beings to rationally demonstrate Him. He even considers trying to find God through pure reason a spiritual offence. Searching by reason alone leads us into darkness, while revelation shines the light of the coming dawn. Although Block doesn’t have mystical experience as Jof does, Kierkegaard would point out that God has in fact revealed Himself, especially through the historic Christ recorded in the New Testament. Instead of contemplating whether God exists or not in an objective, detached and cold manner, Kierkegaard would urge Block to passionately leap out to the truth—to encounter Christ and to enter a relationship with God. Kierkegaard’s urge to a leap of faith might sound like blind faith to many modern ears, given that he rushes in with insufficient evidence. However, compared with Kierkegaard’s ‘blind’ faith, our church seems to tend towards the opposite extreme—an ‘overly-sighted’ faith. We seem to be too confident in our knowledge of God as if God could be boxed in easily with some Christianity Explored courses.4 Not only does Block need to hear Kierkegaard, we also need to be reminded of God’s transcendence. When we stand in front of this transcendent God with fear and trembling, we might understand Him better and with humility. Jons: He grins at Death, mocks the Lord, Laughs at himself and leers at the girls. His world is a Jons’ world… Like Jof, Jons, Block’s squire, is never bothered by a ‘sickness of the heart’. However, the reason for this is fundamentally different: he doesn’t believe in God at all. He sees Block’s struggle as pointless and meaningless. For

Christianity Explored is an informal course developed by Rice Tice and Barry Cooper at All Souls Church.

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him, the only thing that matters is that he is alive and he needs to enjoy his life. Nietzsche would probably use Jons as a positive model to show Block how he should live his life—an authentic life in this Godless world. For Nietzsche, a person starts an authentic life when he finally realises and accepts the fact that God is dead. ‘God is dead’ means more than simply the non-existence of God, but the non-existence of any fixed points for standards, values, morals, meaning and everything that serves as a ground for human life. Only the weak ones, who live an inauthentic life as part of ‘the herd,’ hold a pathetic belief in a set of values and morals imposed by others in the name of a non-existent God. If there is no creator God, humanity needs to face ‘the advent of nihilism’—in losing God, we lose everything. However, in Nietzsche’s opinion, this is not a time for pessimism and despair, but indeed the best moment to celebrate: humanity now can truly show how great we can be by becoming the creators of ourselves. By losing God, we gain a truly authentic human life. Therefore, Nietzsche would suggest Block to join Jons in converting to be a follower of Dionysus—fully and freely expressing the self and seeking the satisfaction of desires. Christians would not agree with Nietzsche’s denial of God’s existence, but Nietzsche is right in recognising God as the fixed point for human life. However, many Christians profess that the creator God is alive, yet still live a Nietzschean life by being their own creators as if God were dead. Nietzsche’s call to an authentic atheistic life is ringing a bell in Christians’ ears: if we do believe in God as the creator God, we had better live an authentic, godly life by seriously regarding Him as the fixed point for every aspect of life. Block: Why can’t I kill God within me? Nietzsche would probably be disappointed because Block is unable to kill God and become an atheist, while Sartre

IF THERE IS NO CREATOR GOD, HUMANITY NEEDS TO FACE ‘THE ADVENT OF NIHILISM’—IN LOSING GOD, WE LOSE EVERYTHING.

would show more sympathy towards Block because the non-existence of God is indeed terrifying for him. Block’s reaction is normal: the death of God would lead us into anguish—all other objects in the universe have meaning but we, alone, are absurd and meaningless. Sartre explains that we could only find ourselves existing, but we could not find any given essence. This ‘existence precedes essence’ makes humanity unique, yet leaves us alienated and abandoned. Each individual is left alone in the solitude of his existence and in the hostility of this world. Block has every right to pause, to mourn and to yell

in dread and anguish, but Sartre would remind him that it is time to act. Sartre agrees with Nietzsche that there is no God to make us, and he adds that we are what we make ourselves. In being abandoned, each individual is now given tremendous freedom to make his own choice to create himself, his meaning, his values, and all his world. The key is to choose and act. By doing, one creates oneself; in other words, one’s actions demonstrate one’s essence which gives meaning to one’s existence.

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“THE CURE FOR SUCH ‘SICKNESS OF THE HEART’ IS IN LIVING OUT THE ABUNDANT AND ETERNAL LIFE GIVEN BY AND THROUGH CHRIST.” Interestingly, James has a similar call to actions in his epistle, ‘faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.’ (James 2:17) For atheistic existentialists, actions are vital in defining their essence; similarly, for Christians, although our essence is already defined by our creator God, actions are still important in manifesting such essence—God’s image in Christlikeness. ‘Acting out the faith’ is perhaps a better synonym for ‘being Christ’s witness’ than ‘giving a 10-minute testimony on the stage.’ Block: The life is an outrageous horror. No one can live in the face of death, Knowing that all is nothingness. Nietzsche is dead, and so is Sartre. No matter how convincing these atheistic existentialists’ arguments might sound, Block is not satisfied because he is clear that death would wipe out every meaning a person has made in his life. When death comes, all actions are forced to cease. Essence disappears like a vapour together with existence. The atheistic existentialists laugh at the absurdity of the world and are determined to revolt and create meaning for their existence; but at the end of the day, death mocks their futile actions and throws them back into nihil (nothing). If so, Albert Camus is absolutely right in claiming that ‘there is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide’. Girl: It is finished. — …Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’… —John 19:30 Block doesn’t need to ponder the question of suicide. He has no choice. Death has been hunting for him through the whole film. After Block finally arrives at his castle, the personified Death begins knocking on the door. In the

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end, Block and his companions join in an absurd dance of death and disappear on the horizon. An anonymous girl among Block’s companions whispers, ‘It is finished’, as the concluding remarks of Block’s tragedy. Over two thousand years ago, another man said the same sentence on a cross before he died. However, it was not the end of his story. Three days later, this man rose again from the dead. His resurrection not only continues his story, but also continues our story as Christians by giving us life. As mentioned at the beginning, in Waiting for Godot, Vladimir laments that ‘hope deferred makes the heart sick,’ but he forgets the second half of this proverb that ‘the longing fulfilled is the tree of life.’ (Proverbs 13:12) The cure for such ‘sickness of the heart’ is in living out the abundant and eternal life given by and through Christ who fulfils humanity’s ultimate longing. Unfortunately, Block fails to hear God’s invitation to life in the silence, as do many rationalists and atheistic existentialists. Heidegger is probably right that the distinction between objectivity and subjectivity is an exaggerated dichotomy. Human beings function holistically. Therefore, knowing God means more than believing in the objective truth of Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection, but also includes having a personal relationship with the living and transcendent God by walking with Him authentically in actions accompanied by faith. Thanks to Block and the existentialists, the church now probably understands better what it means to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ (Luke 10:27). CANDY (CEN) ZHANG Theology Student, LST

WHEN DEATH COMES, ALL ACTIONS ARE FORCED TO CEASE. ESSENCE DISAPPEARS LIKE A VAPOUR TOGETHER WITH EXISTENCE.

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THE WRATH

OF GOD AS AN ASPECT OF THE LOVE OF GOD

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DR TONY LANE HAS WRITTEN A THOUGHTFUL AND COMPREHENSIVE PAPER ON THE DILEMMA POSED BY THE WRATHFUL GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT,

BELOW IS A SHORT SUMMARY OF THE PAPER. I. THE NEGLECT OF THE WRATH OF GOD Today many people hold to a sentimental view of God’s love, understanding it to imply that God could never be displeased with anyone or anything. Such a belief squares neither with the Bible nor with our experience of life. In Romans 12:9 we read that “Love must be sincere.” The next word comes as a shock: “Hate” — “Hate what is evil.” A love which does not contain hatred of evil is not the love of which the Bible speaks. This does not mean we need to balance God’s wrath with his love, as rival attributes, but we need to acknowledge that God’s love itself implies his wrath, his displeasure against sin. Without his wrath God is simply not loving in the sense that the Bible portrays his love. Today, however, there is a conspiracy of silence against the doctrine of God’s wrath and it is quietly swept under the carpet. That is not how it used to be. The most infamous sermon on the topic is probably Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741), where he uses such expressions as: “His wrath towards you burns like a fire…. O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in. It is a wide pit full of the fire of wrath…God will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt; no place shall be thought fit for you…” and much more of the same. Is this how the wrath of God should be preached? We will return to that question. Today, the wrath of God in theology and preaching is muted or even suppressed. This happens in four different ways: 1. By denial, by arguing that wrath would be unworthy of God. 2. The early heretic Marcion held that Jesus reveals a different God from the wrathful God of the Old Testament. The latter, the creator God, is a harsh God; the former the

Father of Christ, is a loving God who rescues us from the God of the Old Testament. No one today believes that there are two Gods, but Marcion’s approach of setting the New Testament portrayal of God against that of the Old Testament is still to be found. 3. A more common approach is for the wrath of God not to be denied, but simply neglected; it has become a taboo. This is so in the majority of western Evangelical churches today. Why does the idea of God’s wrath arouse so much displeasure today? Three beliefs underlie such an attitude: (i) that God’s purpose is to serve humanity. (ii) that God must respect human rights as we define them. (iii) a sentimental view of God and his love, giving birth to benevolent, sceptical apathy. In contrast, the response to proclamation of God’s wrath will be different: hostility or conviction of sin (John 16:8–11). 4. God’s wrath is more subtly undermined by C.H. Dodd, who claims that talk of God’s anger is too anthropomorphic. He argues that Paul understood the wrath of God not as God’s attitude to man but as an “inevitable process of cause and effect in a moral universe”, namely, the consequences of sin. Wrath and punishment are therefore an impersonal by-product of the moral order and God is dissociated from them. There is some truth in what Dodd says. Talk of God’s wrath is anthropomorphic and should not be understood in a crudely literal fashion. It is true that the New Testament expresses God’s wrath in less personal ways that the Old. (The problem with Edwards’ sermon is that it moves in the opposite direction.) It is also vitally true that wrath is not fundamental to God in the way that love is. God is “slow to anger”. But Dodd is mistaken in reducing God’s wrath to an impersonal process of cause and effect, as if God is not actually displeased by sin. Such an approach

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is contrary to the teaching of the Old Testament and is based on a particular interpretation of Paul, supported by a truncated appeal to the teaching of Jesus — the very method that Marcion used.

II. THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE What of the biblical evidence? First, the Old Testament. Over twenty words are used more than 580 times to describe God’s wrath, his personal displeasure against sin and evil. No one seriously doubts that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath. This same God is, of course, also the God of love and mercy. What of the New Testament? Dodd claims that in the teaching of Jesus, there is no anger in God’s attitude towards people. Baird, by contrast, finds the full Old Testament teaching on judgement and wrath in the New Testament as a whole and in the teaching of Jesus as found in the Synoptics in particular. Why such different conclusions? A major difference is that Baird works from the whole sweep of Jesus’ teaching on judgement and wrath while Dodd appears to look solely at the use of the word wrath. It is true that Jesus does not in the Synoptics use the word wrath in relation to God except at Luke 21:23 (“There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people”), but there are many passages where he clearly expresses the divine hostility to all that is evil, though without using the actual term wrath. What of Paul? The impersonal character of his talk about God’s wrath should be acknowledged, but not exaggerated. Romans 12:19 refers to God’s wrath in impersonal terms, but Paul proceeds to state that vengeance is God’s and he will repay, quoting Deuteronomy 32:35, the text for Edwards’ infamous sermon! Also, if one looks at a passage like II Thessalonians 1:7–9 with its vivid portrayal of Christ coming in judgement at the Parousia it is hard to talk of God’s wrath in purely impersonal terms. In short, while much of Paul’s talk about God’s wrath is relatively impersonal, the evidence of his writings as a whole is that he did not wish to deny God’s personal displeasure against sin. Hebrews is even clearer: “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (10:31) and “Our God is a consuming fire” (12:29). Finally, some passages portray judgement of sin in this age as the direct act of God (Acts 5:1–11, 12:23; I Cor. 11:30; Rev. 2:22–23). The case that God’s wrath is purely

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an impersonal process of cause and effect, the inevitable consequence of sin in a moral universe can be maintained only with considerable difficulty. It necessitates rejection of the clear teaching of the Old Testament, dubious interpretation of some passages of the teaching of Jesus and Paul and the rejection of other New Testament passages.

III. THE WRATH OF GOD AND ITS RELATION TO OTHER DOCTRINES The conclusion thus far is that God’s wrath is to be understood neither as purely impersonal nor in crudely anthropomorphic terms. So to what does “the wrath of God” refer? Drawing on a range of authors, we can say that it is God’s personal, vigorous opposition both to evil and to evil people. This is a steady, unrelenting antagonism which arises from God’s very nature, his holiness. It is his displeasure against sin. What is the object of God’s wrath? Is God angry with evil or with evil people? In the New Testament both are true. Often God’s wrath is referred to without precisely specifying the object of that wrath (e.g. Matt. 3:7; Luke 3:7; Rom. 4:15; Rev. 14:19, 15:1,7). A comprehensive verdict would be to say that God’s wrath is directed primarily against evildoers because of the evil that they do. Where does this leave the modern aphorism that “God hates the sin but loves the sinner”? It is, of course, true that God loves sinners so much that he gave his only Son to die for them. But would not be true to suggest that God’s hatred of sin does not involve displeasure toward the sinner. Our sin cannot be sharply distinguished from us, like a set of clothes or even an illness. The problem is that sin involves the assent of our wills. The wrath of God relates to a number of other themes. First, the question of the moral order and the exercise of moral judgement. Jonathan Sacks laments the situation that prevails in our society, where the word “judgemental” is used “to rule out in advance the offering of moral judgement. The doctrine of God’s displeasure with sin points to the fact that morality is not simply a matter of personal taste and choice. Secondly, the fear of God. Together with the demise of the wrath of God there is the rejection of fear as a valid motive. The mainstream Christian tradition has always

THERE IS NO LOVE OF GOD THAT IS NOT HOLY AND NO HOLINESS OF GOD THAT IS NOT LOVING. LIKEWISE, GOD’S LOVE AND HIS JUSTICE ARE UNITED IN HIS ESSENTIAL NATURE. recognized that true obedience is motivated not by fear but by love. It is not a reluctant, fearful, slavish obedience that God seeks but a joyful, free response of love. But the mainstream Christian tradition has not been so naive as to imagine that this dispenses with the need for fear. Augustine came to recognize that the free response of love is often preceded by the constraints of coercion. Children need initially to be disciplined at least in part by fear. Thirdly, the doctrine of hell. It is very popular today to portray hell as locked on the inside only. God’s role in condemning people to hell is simply reluctantly and sorrowfully to consent to the choice that they have made. This is a half-truth. The mainstream Christian tradition has always acknowledged that God’s “No” to the unrepentant at the Last Judgement is in response to their “No” to him in this life. While it remains true that those who are lost have excluded themselves from heaven, it is also true that God actively excludes those who at least at one level wish to be included (e.g. Matt. 22:11–13). Jesus emphasized not the difficulty of escaping from God’s grace but the need to strive for it: “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to” (Luke 13:24). Finally, the cross. Belief in the wrath of God has, as its correlate, the work of Christ in dealing with that wrath. Those who recognize God’s wrath as God’s active displeasure with sin have been more willing to say that Christ on the cross bore in our place the wrath that was our due.

IV. THE WRATH OF GOD AND THE LOVE OF GOD The time has come to turn to our central theme, the relation between the wrath of God and the love of God. It is the thesis of this paper that God’s wrath should be seen as an aspect of his love, as a consequence of his love. We need to explore the ways in which God’s wrath both expresses his love and can be contrasted with it — though it might be happier to contrast wrath with mercy, seeing both as expressions of God’s love.

First we should note that there is no true love without wrath. Love without wrath ceases to be fully righteous and degenerates into sentimentality. It is only the love that is opposed to what is evil that is truly restoring and saving love. Which parents love their children more: those who do not care how they behave or those who seek to instil moral character into them? Secondly, should we think of God’s love and his holiness, his mercy and his wrath, as attributes that somehow need to be reconciled to one another? In God’s innermost being, his attributes are perfectly united. There is no love of God that is not holy and no holiness of God that is not loving. Likewise, God’s love and his justice are united in his essential nature. But the holy, loving God acts differently towards us in different circumstances. In his holy, loving wrath he judges us for our sins. In his holy, loving mercy he forgives our sins. It is mistaken to divide the attributes by suggesting that wrath is the manifestation of holiness or justice, but not of love. It is equally mistaken to suggest that mercy is the manifestation of love, but not of holiness or justice. But there is a clear duality in God’s dealings with humanity. In salvation history, in Christ and in Scripture we see God acting both in wrath and judgement and in mercy and forgiveness. Clearly these two differ and are in some sense contrary to one another. Yet both originate in the one holy, loving God. The love of God and the wrath of God are not ultimately in contradiction, but there is a tension between them. We are unable fully to understand God. This does not prevent us from exploring the correlation between God’s wrath and his love, but it does warn us against imagining that we have completed the task. TONY LANE Professor of Historical Theology, LST. ‘Who is also the God of love’ - the original paper is available at http://www.theologynetwork.org/ christian-beliefs/doctrine-of-god/getting-stuck-in/ the-wrath-of-god-as-an-aspect-of-the-love-of-god. htm

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REVIEWS - BOOKS

REVIEWS EXPLORING CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE WRITTEN BY TONY LANE

Exploring Christian Doctrine is an unashamedly ‘orthodox’ introductory textbook to the major doctrines of Western Christianity. Its material is drawn from a series of lectures delivered by the author and is suitable for both first-year degree students and the educated layperson. The book is split into four major sections which follow the four-fold traditional thematic categories of creation, sin and evil, redemption and future glory. These are prefixed by an exploration of theological method and suffixed by a helpful glossary for the theological newbie. The content of the book is impressive and very helpful; particularly through the creative use of prayers, questions, further resources, cartoons and a ‘sceptics corner,’ spread throughout each chapter. A large number of diverse sources are drawn upon – such as the Second Council of Orange (529 CE) and the Belgic Confession of Faith (1561 CE) – making the reader aware of the vast doctrinal material produced throughout history.

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However, one major problem of the book is that it seems to lack a critical approach to understanding and using the Scriptures – particularly for establishing doctrine – and therefore reflects a conservative evangelical methodology. There appears to be no consideration of a text’s literary features or historical validity throughout, rather texts are simply taken as theological sources. Whilst the author must be commended for the sheer volume of verses and passages cited, it is disappointing that a critical approach has been neglected, particularly when the Scriptures are given such a high value in Chapter Two. In conclusion, this book provides the reader with a resource embodying a particular viewpoint that is prevalent at the London School of Theology. This makes it a necessary textbook for any student studying there, as well as a wealthy resource for the educated layperson in any other context who wishes to explore Christian doctrine from this perspective. Reviewed by Rob Brown. LST Graduate and Assistant to the Executive Director at LST. Visit his blog at: exploringthescriptures. wordpress.com.

REVIEWS - BOOKS

WE DO NOT TOUCH THE DEEP ILLOGICAL THINGS OF GOD TILL WE FIND PARADOX THEIR ONLY EXPRESSION. P.T. FORSYTH

PARADOXOLOGY WRITTEN BY KRISH KARDIAN Paradoxology goes against the grain. For generations the Evangelical community has endeavoured to communicate, in the simplest of terms, a coherent faith in which all aspects fit neatly together. For many this has been both a personal and apologetic endeavour whereby one both nullifies the restless angst that emerges when contradictions, or paradoxes, rear their head, and where one forms a Christianity that can be presented, and defended, to those outside the faith. As such, Evangelicalism has often been guilty of trimming the rough edges, ignoring the goad of contradicting verses, cherry picking what is in and what isn’t really there, and skimming over the confusion caused by mutually exclusive statements; near…and yet far, one…and yet three, human… and yet divine. Paradoxology is an attempt at something else. An attempt to reframe the conversation about the nature of God and faith.

At its heart, Paradoxology seeks to enable the reader to face the difficult questions of faith and not to shy away from the seemingly unrecognisable, the outrageously bizarre and the totally unnerving part of the Christian faith, arguing that a process of wrestling with such is a means of strengthening, rather than, as if often feared, weakening or destroying faith. Each chapter presents one of the paradoxes which sit at the heart of the christian faith, framed by the story of one of the biblical characters. As such, in keeping with its Evangelical base, the book is heavily bible-centric. However, the naming of atheist and other religious world-views increases the currency of the book for those exploring the christian faith from outside of its walls. Kandiah’s background in science comes through within the book, providing modern equivalents of the scriptural paradoxes such as the wave/particle duality of light, or highlighting the ‘paradigm of paradoxes’ that is our daily

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REVIEWS - BOOKS reality through Schrödinger’s Equations and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principal. This ability to relate theological problems to scientific problems, two disciplines often considered to be mutually exclusive, brings credence to the idea that the presence of a paradox or of unresolved uncertainty is not cause for dismissal.

An extremely accessible book, Paradoxology is an engaging read that is perfect for the Evangelical wishing to wrestle more with their faith, helping the reader become aware that that they are not alone; that they do not have to hide from the difficult parts of faith; that to wrestle and question is to grow and decline.

This leads us to consider one of the strongest element of the book; the refusal to offer neat answers, to fall into the trap of negating our anxiety by offering the quickest and simplest answer. In short, the comfort with paradox.

Reviewed by Steven Creamer. Graduate, LST.

However, this book cannot be considered a complete treatment of the existence of paradoxes within the Christian faith as the assumptions within Evangelical Christianity (that, it could be argued, are the root cause of the problem) are not addressed. In particular, the assumption that Scripture is understood as infallible or inerrant is as firm as ever, so much so that any alternative is never considered. For many then, Kandiah’s arguments are sidesteps from the simple statement that the paradoxes are the result of Scripture being a human construct rather than a divine one.

FORGETFUL HEART: REMEMBERING GOD IN A DISTRACTED WORLD’ WRITTEN BY LUCY MILLS

When I first started reading this book I thought it could have been written by me. I, like Lucy, am easily distracted and can very easily fill up my time with things that aren’t important, despite knowing and wanting to do the things that are meaningful. Throughout her book Lucy has included Scripture, quotes, and her own poetry. I feel that the different styles help to break up her writing and make it easier to read and to put down and come back to. Lucy has also included a lot of personal experience, which I found helpful in order to engage with the book as I felt I could say “she’s been there

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so she knows what she is talking about.” Forgetful Heart takes you on a step by step journey; considering our own busy lives and asking ourselves questions which help us to see what we could do to include God more. This is done at the end of each chapter with questions to reflect on. I found it helpful to do this as it also meant that I could begin to make changes to help me to focus more on God in my life. As a student at a bible college I really enjoyed reading Lucy’s book and would definitely recommend it to others. Reviewed by Elisabeth Higginson. Theology & Counseling Student, LST.

REVIEWS - BOOKS JACK FROST CAME LAST NIGHT WRITTEN BY BABS JACK

This is a beautifully written testimony book on the tragic stillborn loss of a child. As well as narrating her journey of despair and grief, Babs manages to intertwine poetry, Scripture and stories in a way that is uplifting and interesting. Far from a sad book, the testimony powerfully helps us to understand and empathise with those going through similar grief and difficult situations. It also gives us insight and understanding into how we can practically help others and not just avoid them because we don’t know what to say. As well as dealing with the difficult experience of stillbirth the book is also a very powerful and moving personal testimony of how God intervened in the lives of the Jack family and I really hope this book will get a much wider readership than just those who are going through similar experiences. It is not a book just for women, and despite the subject matter, I can honestly say that I loved reading it. As a consequence of her experience, God has brought many others into contact with Babs and enabled her to minister into their pain. Reviewed by Jan Wallace. Graduate LST and Manager of LST Bookshop.

THEOLOGICAL INTEGRATION IS HERE Introducing a unique suite of Masters-Level qualifications that integrate the Bible with real life.

Beyond applied theology – the MA in Integrative Theology can either be accessed and completed online worldwide or studied full-time or part-time on campus in London – whichever suits your lifestyle or needs better. Choose from a ground-breaking range of real-world integrated streams including:

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Find out more and register at: www.lst.ac.uk/integrative

THEOLOGY, MUSIC PUBLIC LEADERSHIP CHRISTIAN & ARTS WORSHIP STUDIES

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REVIEWS - MUSIC

THE DARN FUNK ORCHESTRA: SOUL FOOD

Jimmy Darn: singing drummer; Theology, Music and Worship 3rd year; writer of fun, quirky and thoughtprovoking funk/soul songs! His band’s performance was, for me, a highlight of the LST in the Park 70th anniversary celebration, and with this recording he’s taking things to another level. A unique selling point is the ‘funk Psalms’ – word-forword settings of various Psalms, which take the listener on a musical journey through the emotions of the ancient Hebrew poetry. Jimmy’s love for Scripture and excellence in composition are very evident in these songs. They go down very well live, apparently even in wine bar bars and wedding receptions when the audience have little spiritual inclination! Other songs have more original lyrics, often exploring faith themes from creative viewpoints. For example, the title track “Soul Food” uses the extended metaphor of preaching-as-diet; decrying “fast-food” sermons and pleading for sustaining “meat” from the pulpit. He really goes to town with this imagery in often humorous and yet challenging lyrics.

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Musically this is primarily in a 70’s soul/funk vibe, with some 90’s ‘acid jazz’ also present. There is some great playing by horns, guitars, keys and drums, including standout solos. My main critique would be that, considering the genre, the riffs and grooves could be tighter in places. The fakelive, party-vibe “Salvation Shoes” is proof that they can be locked-in when they want to be. Jimmy’s voice has never sounded stronger, with some excellent performances. Other standout tracks are the quieter moments, which showcase Jimmy’s ability to write in other genres, and do ‘serious’ music as well as party tunes. Track 8, “Grace”, features LST lecturer Carey Luce on piano, and is simply beautiful songwriting. This CD is well worth getting hold of and should secure the band more gigs and exposure. Reviewed by Sam Hargreaves. Programme Leader and Lecturer in music and worship, LST.

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