Yesterday was Christmas Day and I thought I'd go to a church service close to where I'm holidaying in Brisbane, Australia. Responding to a text message from my 16-year-old son giving me the start time, I turned up to Unnamed Baptist Church on time, alone, in a car emblazoned with bright yellow interstate number plates, …
The heart of Christian ethics
Galatians 5:1-6 One of the temptations I face is that of reading fascinating blog posts, often work-related, at the expense of other important intellectual tasks. Last year I limited my blog browsing, but one blog I continue to find very rewarding and challenging is by Scott Higgins, a fellow Baptist minister and Director of Community …
People should live in tents
Tonight someone (who shall remain nameless) asked me to argue the case that all people should live in tents. I won't go into what prompted the request, but I thought you'd like to hear my answer. Here it is: 1. It's for good reason that many ancient societies preferred tents to permanent dwellings. They allowed …
Reading Harry Potter with Christian eyes
A topical sermon preached by Rod Benson, 6 Jan 2002 Deuteronomy 18:9-13; Isaiah 5:20-21; Colossians 2:8-15; Philippians 4:6-8 Sometimes we forget that the world in which we live is the canvas on which good and evil splash their stories. It might take the rise of Adolf Hitler, or the destruction of the World Trade Center …
A candid friend of historiography
A short commentary on the method employed in Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years “Of making surveys of Christian history, there is no end,” Diarmaid MacCulloch observes in his 1161-page book, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Yet he suggests that his approach stands out as more daunting than certain other notable contemporary accounts.[1] As a historian, MacCulloch …
iDigress 