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‘Let no one who is not eager for truth and peace enter here’ (Plato)

Articles on this site express varying points of view, to encourage mature thinking on serious issues. The assumption is that you will want to study a controversial topic from various angles before you arrive at a conclusion, rather than simply believe what someone told you when you were impressionable! (So some stuff here is ‘hot’. Proceed at your own risk!). See the Statement of Faith for John Mark Ministries' theological stance.

Doing Theology with ‘All that is within me…’

By and others ⋅ July 27, 2014 ⋅ Post a comment

‘ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME’  Psalm 103:1,2 – Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. (KJV).  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and […]

MONKEY MIND (Richard Rohr)

By and others ⋅ July 25, 2014 ⋅ Post a comment

(Richard Rohr on Dualistic Thinking)   There are many words for it – dualistic thinking, associational thinking… It’s all about our human need for resolution, judgment, ‘understanding’… The end-product of ‘understanding’? Accusations of ‘heresy’ (one side of the debate is superior, the other inferior)… Heresy must be destroyed – hence most disputes, wars, violence.   In the […]

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: Some notes from a Progressive (Evangelical) Christian Viewpoint

By and others ⋅ July 16, 2014 ⋅ Post a comment

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: Some notes from a Progressive (Evangelical) Christian Viewpoint Note from Rowland: This article has been published in Gesher, the official journal of the Council of Christians and Jews (Victoria), Vol. 4 No. 5, November 2014.  As I write, today (14/7/2014) the story of a gay man who’s just come out of his painful […]

Mavericks in the Church (may their tribe increase!).

By and others ⋅ June 15, 2014 ⋅ Post a comment

IS THERE ROOM FOR MAVERICKS IN THE CHURCH? I came across an article the other day with this title [1]. It began with an IBM ad: ‘Dreams, heretics, mavericks, and geniuses. The story goes thatHenry Ford once hired an efficiency expert to evaluate his company. After afew weeks, he reported favorably except for one thing: […]

Satan And The Devil

By and others ⋅ June 15, 2014 ⋅ Post a comment

Sometimes the original words of the Bible text are left untranslated (“Mammon”, in Mt. 6:24, is an Aramaic example of this). ‘Satan’ is an untranslated Hebrew word which means ‘adversary’, while ‘Devil’ is a translation of the Greek word ‘diabolos’, meaning a liar, an enemy or false accuser. ‘Satan’ has been transferred from the Hebrew […]

C.S. Lewis: The Problem of Pain

By and others ⋅ June 15, 2014 ⋅ Post a comment

JACEK BACZ The existence of suffering in a world created by a good and almighty God — “the problem of pain” — is a fundamental theological dilemma, and perhaps the most serious objection to the Christian religion. C.S.  Lewis 1898-1963 Known to his readers as a philosopher, a Christian apologist, a science fiction writer, an […]

LGBTIs and the Bible: Pieces of Ease and Grace

By and others ⋅ June 9, 2014 ⋅ Post a comment

Note from Rowland: I’ve had a quick read of this interesting book; below are very rough jottings / ideas I want to think more about… When I get time, I might write a proper review… PIECES OF EASE AND GRACE, Ed. Alan H Cadwallader, Adelaide: ATF Theology, 2013. We now have a trilogy of books […]

Women in the First Two Generations of Christianity

By and others ⋅ June 6, 2014 ⋅ Post a comment

Notes and a few quotes from Ross Saunders: Outrageous Women Outrageous God: Women in the First Two Generations of Christianity, Acorn Press 1996 In times of social dislocation, often it’s the women who – against social precedent – ‘take charge’. Aboriginal (Koori) women are often ‘leading their menfolk in recovering and preserving their indigenous culture… […]

Preaching: Preachers other preachers read (and preach!)

By and others ⋅ May 22, 2014 ⋅ Post a comment

I talk to lots of clergy – in conferences and one to one – and have a pretty good idea about their preaching styles, and the  other preachers they read for inspiration. (An interesting thing happened on the way to writing this chapter,  Mothers’ Day 2014. My wife has produced one of the two or […]

‘His sheep hear his voice’: beautiful illustration

By and others ⋅ May 11, 2014 ⋅ Post a comment

During the Palestinian uprising in the late 1980’s the Israeli army decided to punish a village near Bethlehem for not paying its taxes. These taxes, the villagers claimed, simply financed the occupation. The officer in command rounded up all of the village animals and placed them in a large barbed-wire pen. Later in the week […]

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