Pub Date : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2041246
M. Grundy
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Pub Date : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2036466
James M. M. Francis
If you are used to books of sermons, talks, and addresses this is such a book, 31 in number. But it is quite unlike what we may be used to, if we consider some such content informative but rather worthy. The quality of Barbara Brown Taylor’s thinking is remarkable, and these talks are riveting and transformative. The title reflects her ability to recognise herself as a guest wherever she goes (often indeed ‘far from home’), and from this perspective to speak engagingly and hospitably. The hospitality of her style in truth seeking and truth sharing is impressive in its inclusivity and sustained participative insights. We will all have much to learn from her wisdom and skill in preaching and teaching. While speaking predominantly though not exclusively to a USA context, the content of the book in its many insights is not confined to it. It does indeed speak to the reader of faith far from home. Each address or talk comes with a highlighted repeated sentence somewhere in the middle that focuses a key point. It is not possible to range across the whole book, but briefly to take some examples – ‘The sacramental sky’ is a study of Genesis 15: 1–6 and God’s promise to Abraham about his descendants. The story unfolds to the point where Abram in becoming Abraham awakes from his dream to find the pieces of meat divided as a sacrifice with his own expectation to walk between them. But instead he finds it is a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch (as the author says, ‘God’s favourite calling cards’) that pass between them. So it is God who assumes the whole risk of the covenant... ‘Abraham did not cross his heart that starry night. God crossed God’s heart...God decided to believe, and Abraham decided on gambling on a God who was willing to gamble on him’ (p. 33). Or the innovative study of Isaiah 58: 6–9 entitled ‘Sabbath rest’, which is arranged as a fivecourse meal (pp. 71-77) to be enjoyed and digested. Or the study of ‘The widow’s mite’, with all the riveting, poignant and memorable detail that is drawn out from the seemingly simple description ‘this poor widow’. It has nothing, the author rightly persuades us, to do with a lesson in stewardship, and everything about Jesus’ own realisation of the costliness of his own approaching sacrifice. The front cover of the book depicts a tree in full leaf and laden with fruit. If ever one wondered in faith’s journey what the Tree of Life and the Tree of Wisdom are like, this book will furnish the reader with the answer.
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Pub Date : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2041250
John Holdsworth
{"title":"Leaves from the notebook of a tamed cynic","authors":"John Holdsworth","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2041250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2041250","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"20 1","pages":"125 - 126"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48795819","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 : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2041249
M. Grundy
{"title":"And did those feet: the story and character of the English Church AD 200–2020","authors":"M. Grundy","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2041249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2041249","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"21 1","pages":"68 - 69"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45694064","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 : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2036459
J. Astley
{"title":"Grace and glory in one another’s faces: preaching and worship","authors":"J. Astley","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2036459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2036459","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"20 1","pages":"58 - 59"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45451937","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 : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2022.2048539
S. Lawson
ABSTRACT This paper sets out to explore the experience of discipleship in some of the fragile rural churches in two Church of England dioceses and to examine the challenges which clergy face as they seek to grow people as disciples of Jesus in the countryside. First the hypothesis of the fragile rural church is set out. The biblical background of discipleship is briefly considered, together with an assessment of what discipleship means in the twenty-first century Church. Next the experience of 17 clergy with responsibility for three or more multi-church rural parishes is explored, and the challenges they face are discussed. Finally, a conclusion is drawn that discipleship is an essential part of the Christian life, and ways and means of providing models of discipleship and discipleship learning which are appropriate for all rural Christians need to be found as a matter of urgency.
{"title":"Discipleship: The Experience in the Fragile Rural Church of England","authors":"S. Lawson","doi":"10.1080/14704994.2022.2048539","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14704994.2022.2048539","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper sets out to explore the experience of discipleship in some of the fragile rural churches in two Church of England dioceses and to examine the challenges which clergy face as they seek to grow people as disciples of Jesus in the countryside. First the hypothesis of the fragile rural church is set out. The biblical background of discipleship is briefly considered, together with an assessment of what discipleship means in the twenty-first century Church. Next the experience of 17 clergy with responsibility for three or more multi-church rural parishes is explored, and the challenges they face are discussed. Finally, a conclusion is drawn that discipleship is an essential part of the Christian life, and ways and means of providing models of discipleship and discipleship learning which are appropriate for all rural Christians need to be found as a matter of urgency.","PeriodicalId":41896,"journal":{"name":"Rural Theology-International Ecumencial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives","volume":"20 1","pages":"18 - 27"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43952625","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}
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