Pub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2102232
James M. M. Francis
{"title":"Love: work. Reflections and prayers for a world at work","authors":"James M. M. Francis","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2102232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2102232","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"21 1","pages":"69 - 69"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41498837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2102240
M. Grundy
When I became Team Rector in the Cambridgeshire town of Huntingdon, I realised the main time that the Christian people of the town were divided was when they went to church. With many of the other social, economic, and voluntary activities in the town they co-operated as one. In this semi-autobiographical book, John H. Armstrong charts his conversion to ecumenical activity and describes the driving forces for his own journey. Growing up in a conservatively religious household in the South of the United States Armstrong moved through seminary and into ministry with a growing awareness of the blinkered nature of his own denomination. He begins with the realisation of the true strength of the concept of ‘catholic’ in our credal belief: One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The unity he commends is relational rather than structural or even organic. He mentions a ministry of ecumenism as a legitimate vocation, while aware of the possibility of creating another ‘sect’ or even heresy. What he gives us in this book is neither autobiography nor theological reasoning, but an accessible mixture of both. For many in our congregations, and an increasing number of our clergy, this spiritual journey will be familiar. Our rural congregations will be made up of many from a range of denominations committed to worshipping locally. Clergy inmulti-congregation charges equally find themselves growing through the chameleon-like work of local ministry. That they can do this with integrity is thanks in no small part to journeys like that of the one described in this book. Important is the wide reading that Armstrong shares alongside his narrative of deep and enduring friendships across the denominations. Aware of the importance of knowing the Orthodox in any faith journey, he is equally sensitive to the need for the inclusion of Pentecostal and charismatic churches. The emerging theology underpinning ecumenical activity is important. Armstrong is indebted to theologians from Leslie Newbiggin to Jim Packer, to encyclicals and prophetic models such as Focolare, Taizé, and weeks of prayer for unity. He might not have grasped the full social implications of the Kingdom parables or of the full nature of apostolic ministry, but in conclusion, he does recognise the purpose of all missions as reconciling the world to the purposes of God. In our own country the energy seems to have gone from much ecumenical activity. Grace Davie and Paul Avis have analysed this in some detail. Here, Armstrong gives a spirited account of what continues to energise him – and the foundation he has established. Ecumenical development has to be both local and theological and Armstrong’s narrative makes this task appear enlightened common sense. Indeed, he says, ‘keep it simple’ and that what makes this book internationally relevant. In a closing chapter, with indebtedness to Bonhoeffer, he commends the passages in the opening of The Cost of Discipleship changing the concept of ‘cheap grace’ to ‘che
{"title":"Tear down these walls: following Jesus into deeper unity","authors":"M. Grundy","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2102240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2102240","url":null,"abstract":"When I became Team Rector in the Cambridgeshire town of Huntingdon, I realised the main time that the Christian people of the town were divided was when they went to church. With many of the other social, economic, and voluntary activities in the town they co-operated as one. In this semi-autobiographical book, John H. Armstrong charts his conversion to ecumenical activity and describes the driving forces for his own journey. Growing up in a conservatively religious household in the South of the United States Armstrong moved through seminary and into ministry with a growing awareness of the blinkered nature of his own denomination. He begins with the realisation of the true strength of the concept of ‘catholic’ in our credal belief: One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The unity he commends is relational rather than structural or even organic. He mentions a ministry of ecumenism as a legitimate vocation, while aware of the possibility of creating another ‘sect’ or even heresy. What he gives us in this book is neither autobiography nor theological reasoning, but an accessible mixture of both. For many in our congregations, and an increasing number of our clergy, this spiritual journey will be familiar. Our rural congregations will be made up of many from a range of denominations committed to worshipping locally. Clergy inmulti-congregation charges equally find themselves growing through the chameleon-like work of local ministry. That they can do this with integrity is thanks in no small part to journeys like that of the one described in this book. Important is the wide reading that Armstrong shares alongside his narrative of deep and enduring friendships across the denominations. Aware of the importance of knowing the Orthodox in any faith journey, he is equally sensitive to the need for the inclusion of Pentecostal and charismatic churches. The emerging theology underpinning ecumenical activity is important. Armstrong is indebted to theologians from Leslie Newbiggin to Jim Packer, to encyclicals and prophetic models such as Focolare, Taizé, and weeks of prayer for unity. He might not have grasped the full social implications of the Kingdom parables or of the full nature of apostolic ministry, but in conclusion, he does recognise the purpose of all missions as reconciling the world to the purposes of God. In our own country the energy seems to have gone from much ecumenical activity. Grace Davie and Paul Avis have analysed this in some detail. Here, Armstrong gives a spirited account of what continues to energise him – and the foundation he has established. Ecumenical development has to be both local and theological and Armstrong’s narrative makes this task appear enlightened common sense. Indeed, he says, ‘keep it simple’ and that what makes this book internationally relevant. In a closing chapter, with indebtedness to Bonhoeffer, he commends the passages in the opening of The Cost of Discipleship changing the concept of ‘cheap grace’ to ‘che","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"21 1","pages":"67 - 67"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41535672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2102243
M. Grundy
{"title":"The power of reconciliation","authors":"M. Grundy","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2102243","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2102243","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"21 1","pages":"71 - 72"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42883862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2102250
John Holdsworth
Introductory chapters discuss ‘northernness’, the relationship of gospel to any culture, and the assumption that we now live in a world ‘after Christendom’. So, what did the research reveal? Unsurprisingly, they found leaders and new Christians in the northern churches visited to be ‘down-to-earth, honest, real, inclusive and vulnerable’. They tell us also, using a phrase of the Brazilian Bishop Pedro Casaldálgia that God ‘speaks only dialect’, and go on to search for these characteristics in the conversations they recorded. A very different chapter five is an imagined description of what one Sunday might be like in the communities visited. From morning to evening formal and informal services are described, designed to illustrate that fuzzy churches have the characteristic not of ‘wooliness’ but of ‘something which is happening’. That something is set out in the findings of chapter seven. Merging their wide reading with the research findings, the authors conclude that healthy relationships between a congregation and its surrounding community produce spiritual capital which in turn, ‘creates relational capital at the fuzzy boundary between the church and the world’ (p. 112). Readers of this journal will be interested to know that the grouping of rural parishes visited resented losing their independence and displayed characteristics of increased rivalry. There are some heavy sentences which a rigorous editor might have removed. What would our imagined Yorkshire person make of, ‘It is possible, we believe, to hold a view in between the essentialist and the evacuated simulacrum’ (p. 45)? The authors accept that they did not find one ‘Northern gospel’ but were able to identify energised attempts to embed Christianity in diverse local communities. That those northern communities have been disproportionately scarred by poverty and deprivation is acknowledged but not explored in any depth. A further book is promised. It might address recent distinctively northern political promises and the responses of church leaders to them.
{"title":"Losing ground: reading Ruth in the Pacific","authors":"John Holdsworth","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2102250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2102250","url":null,"abstract":"Introductory chapters discuss ‘northernness’, the relationship of gospel to any culture, and the assumption that we now live in a world ‘after Christendom’. So, what did the research reveal? Unsurprisingly, they found leaders and new Christians in the northern churches visited to be ‘down-to-earth, honest, real, inclusive and vulnerable’. They tell us also, using a phrase of the Brazilian Bishop Pedro Casaldálgia that God ‘speaks only dialect’, and go on to search for these characteristics in the conversations they recorded. A very different chapter five is an imagined description of what one Sunday might be like in the communities visited. From morning to evening formal and informal services are described, designed to illustrate that fuzzy churches have the characteristic not of ‘wooliness’ but of ‘something which is happening’. That something is set out in the findings of chapter seven. Merging their wide reading with the research findings, the authors conclude that healthy relationships between a congregation and its surrounding community produce spiritual capital which in turn, ‘creates relational capital at the fuzzy boundary between the church and the world’ (p. 112). Readers of this journal will be interested to know that the grouping of rural parishes visited resented losing their independence and displayed characteristics of increased rivalry. There are some heavy sentences which a rigorous editor might have removed. What would our imagined Yorkshire person make of, ‘It is possible, we believe, to hold a view in between the essentialist and the evacuated simulacrum’ (p. 45)? The authors accept that they did not find one ‘Northern gospel’ but were able to identify energised attempts to embed Christianity in diverse local communities. That those northern communities have been disproportionately scarred by poverty and deprivation is acknowledged but not explored in any depth. A further book is promised. It might address recent distinctively northern political promises and the responses of church leaders to them.","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"21 1","pages":"65 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48927369","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-18DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2102235
M. Grundy
{"title":"God will be all in all: theology through the lens of incarnation","authors":"M. Grundy","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2102235","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2102235","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"21 1","pages":"63 - 64"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42560103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2102234
L. Francis
One of the unexpected gifts arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and from the temporary disruption of church attendance was the liberation of Choral Evensong from the confines of ancient cathedrals to homes across the globe via livestreaming and YouTube channels. Dr Willis’ warm welcome to Choral Evensong in Canterbury Cathedral was now nuanced to include not only those joining in person in the choir area of the cathedral but also the ‘many joining us online across the world.’ While perhaps primarily intended further to inform and to inspire those encountering Choral Evensong offline in the physical space of cathedrals, parish churches, and college chapels, Simon Reynold’s journey ‘discovering and celebrating Choral Evensong’ could also be commended to those encountering this rich and enriching tradition afresh online and across the world. For Reynolds, Choral Evensong is rooted in an ancient monastic tradition, and remains vibrantly relevant to people today, relevant to those committed to the Christian tradition and equally relevant to those seeking spiritual nourishment in a secular age. Choral Evensong within cathedrals is enriched by the scale of the architecture and by the professionalism of the choral and liturgical presentation. Here is the sense of stability and continuity that opens access to transcendence and to the immense capacities of the human soul. The innovative strength of this well-crafted ‘discovering’ of Choral Evensong resides in the clear analysis of and commentary on the seven-component structure of the event. Reynolds expresses and unwraps the structure in the following way: An acclamation of praise (The Responses); All human life is here (The Psalms); A word once spoken (The Readings); Revelation and retirement (The Canticles); The cries of our hearts (The Lesser Litany, Lord’s Prayer, Preces and Collects); Untold lament and unfettered praise (The Anthem); and Sounding the depths (The Prayers of Intercession, Final Hymn, and Blessing). The analysis within each of these seven sections is followed by a brief anthology or well-chosen words for reflection. Here Gerard Manley Hopkins rubs shoulders with Rowan Williams, John Calvin, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and George Herbert. This is a book to buy once and to keep; thence to buy again and again to give as presents to those who may enjoy and be enriched by deepening appreciation of Choral Evensong.
{"title":"Lighten our darkness: discovering and celebrating Choral Evensong","authors":"L. Francis","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2102234","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2102234","url":null,"abstract":"One of the unexpected gifts arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and from the temporary disruption of church attendance was the liberation of Choral Evensong from the confines of ancient cathedrals to homes across the globe via livestreaming and YouTube channels. Dr Willis’ warm welcome to Choral Evensong in Canterbury Cathedral was now nuanced to include not only those joining in person in the choir area of the cathedral but also the ‘many joining us online across the world.’ While perhaps primarily intended further to inform and to inspire those encountering Choral Evensong offline in the physical space of cathedrals, parish churches, and college chapels, Simon Reynold’s journey ‘discovering and celebrating Choral Evensong’ could also be commended to those encountering this rich and enriching tradition afresh online and across the world. For Reynolds, Choral Evensong is rooted in an ancient monastic tradition, and remains vibrantly relevant to people today, relevant to those committed to the Christian tradition and equally relevant to those seeking spiritual nourishment in a secular age. Choral Evensong within cathedrals is enriched by the scale of the architecture and by the professionalism of the choral and liturgical presentation. Here is the sense of stability and continuity that opens access to transcendence and to the immense capacities of the human soul. The innovative strength of this well-crafted ‘discovering’ of Choral Evensong resides in the clear analysis of and commentary on the seven-component structure of the event. Reynolds expresses and unwraps the structure in the following way: An acclamation of praise (The Responses); All human life is here (The Psalms); A word once spoken (The Readings); Revelation and retirement (The Canticles); The cries of our hearts (The Lesser Litany, Lord’s Prayer, Preces and Collects); Untold lament and unfettered praise (The Anthem); and Sounding the depths (The Prayers of Intercession, Final Hymn, and Blessing). The analysis within each of these seven sections is followed by a brief anthology or well-chosen words for reflection. Here Gerard Manley Hopkins rubs shoulders with Rowan Williams, John Calvin, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and George Herbert. This is a book to buy once and to keep; thence to buy again and again to give as presents to those who may enjoy and be enriched by deepening appreciation of Choral Evensong.","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"20 1","pages":"138 - 138"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43476855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2102227
J. Astley
{"title":"Spirituality and wellbeing: interdisciplinary approaches to the study of religious experience and health","authors":"J. Astley","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2102227","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2102227","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"20 1","pages":"135 - 136"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49360452","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2102252
Mike Kirby
Pereira and Cardoso’s new book is a pleasure to read. A highly readable, easily accessible and relatively short text, it brings together a number of the classic discussions on science and faith in areas such as creation and evolution, as well as touching upon more recent events in current view, such as climate change and the pandemic. It is complemented and enhanced by an equally wide range of illustrations – scientific, biblical, religious art, cultural, political, and historical. The work is delightfully woven through with scripture – not for effect, but as a thorough approach to an integration of faith within science which is born of the individuals themselves whose lives are lived in the realities of pastoring and science teaching within their local community. The writing is strong and robust, nicely referenced (from some solid, world-renowned voices) yet easy to follow; as such I think it will be welcome to both scientist and non-scientist alike, and illuminating to people of different faiths and none. The text is primarily a product of the authors’ own enthusiasm and love for God and science – it comes from themselves, the distinctive, talented individuals God has made and called. It is the product of a well-designed and well-thought-through series of discussions and services that they organised at their own community church, supported by the St John’s College Durham and Templeton World Charity Foundation’s highly successful and ongoing initiative, ‘Scientists in Congregations’. Sessions would be science-based, but seen from a biblical worldview. As such, the book is rich with ideas which many could use in their own communities and in schools’ outreach too. Rather as how some describe Mark’s Gospel, the text at many instances seems to ‘rush along’. For some, this may not resonate with a reader looking for a slower and more measured account, however I found it reflected the energy and vitality that Pereira and Cardoso bring to their love of the subjects of their lives; as Pereira himself puts it, lives where ‘he likes both the Bible and the biology book’. The authors quote Alister McGrath’s views that images of science and faith when brought together ‘enrich one’s perception of reality’ (p. 12) and give us back the joy of curiosity and the wonder of creation – in essence, the authors display that joy and wonder throughout. Their feelings that science itself is divine is infectious, and this book brings a new account to bear into the library of resources that many of us as people of science and faith seek to have; to help show that it is not a case that science and faith can co-exist... . but in fact that they do, to the betterment of each other and God’s divine created order. Indeed this book is a delight to read.
{"title":"In awesome wonder: bridging science and faith","authors":"Mike Kirby","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2102252","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2102252","url":null,"abstract":"Pereira and Cardoso’s new book is a pleasure to read. A highly readable, easily accessible and relatively short text, it brings together a number of the classic discussions on science and faith in areas such as creation and evolution, as well as touching upon more recent events in current view, such as climate change and the pandemic. It is complemented and enhanced by an equally wide range of illustrations – scientific, biblical, religious art, cultural, political, and historical. The work is delightfully woven through with scripture – not for effect, but as a thorough approach to an integration of faith within science which is born of the individuals themselves whose lives are lived in the realities of pastoring and science teaching within their local community. The writing is strong and robust, nicely referenced (from some solid, world-renowned voices) yet easy to follow; as such I think it will be welcome to both scientist and non-scientist alike, and illuminating to people of different faiths and none. The text is primarily a product of the authors’ own enthusiasm and love for God and science – it comes from themselves, the distinctive, talented individuals God has made and called. It is the product of a well-designed and well-thought-through series of discussions and services that they organised at their own community church, supported by the St John’s College Durham and Templeton World Charity Foundation’s highly successful and ongoing initiative, ‘Scientists in Congregations’. Sessions would be science-based, but seen from a biblical worldview. As such, the book is rich with ideas which many could use in their own communities and in schools’ outreach too. Rather as how some describe Mark’s Gospel, the text at many instances seems to ‘rush along’. For some, this may not resonate with a reader looking for a slower and more measured account, however I found it reflected the energy and vitality that Pereira and Cardoso bring to their love of the subjects of their lives; as Pereira himself puts it, lives where ‘he likes both the Bible and the biology book’. The authors quote Alister McGrath’s views that images of science and faith when brought together ‘enrich one’s perception of reality’ (p. 12) and give us back the joy of curiosity and the wonder of creation – in essence, the authors display that joy and wonder throughout. Their feelings that science itself is divine is infectious, and this book brings a new account to bear into the library of resources that many of us as people of science and faith seek to have; to help show that it is not a case that science and faith can co-exist... . but in fact that they do, to the betterment of each other and God’s divine created order. Indeed this book is a delight to read.","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"20 1","pages":"139 - 139"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43724488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：