Travel Advice: HELP

Is it really stupid (you’re allowed to say ‘yes’) for me to be contemplating a 30+ hour plane flight next March with a 23 month old? I did it about a year ago and it was exhausting but fine. Now my daughter is, of course, much more active and I’m anxious how she (and I) will cope. It will probably be just the two of us (and a plane load of wierdos). I am really keen to hear from others who may have been (or still are) similarly mad and if you have any tips.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody’s help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,
Now I find I’ve got few clues about most things …

New Book Announced

Brill has announced a forthcoming book: The Authority of Scripture in Reformed Theology: Truth and Trust, by Henk van den Belt. Looks like a published version of his 2006 thesis from Leiden University.


Here’s the blurb:

The authority of Scripture is the cornerstone of Reformed theology. Calvin introduced the term autopistos from Greek philosophy to express that this authority does not depend on the church or on rational arguments, but is self-convincing. After dealing with Calvin’s Institutes, the development of Reformed orthodoxy, and the positions of Benjamin B. Warfield and Herman Bavinck, the author draws theological conclusions, advocating a renewed emphasis on the autopistia of Scripture as starting point for Reformed theology in a postmodern context. The subject-object scheme leads to separating the certainty of faith from the authority of Scripture. The autopistia of Scripture, understood as a confessional statement, implies that truth and trust are inseparable.

On the Creeds – and Doctrines – of the Church

This is the boldest statement that I have ever read on the Creeds of the Church:

‘We may have ground for believing the Creeds of the Church to be the most perfectly balanced and harmonious expression of the truth whereof our earthly knowledge is, or will be, capable. Yet when we struggle, as in the language of the Athanasian Creed, to express the relations which have been exhibited to us in the eternal Godhead through the use of the words ‘Person’ and ‘Substance,’ or ‘upostasis and ousia; or when we thus profess our belief in the Person of the Holy Ghost, ‘The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son: neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding,’ need we fear to own that the instruments which, perforce, we make use of upon earth, even in the Creeds of the Church, are necessarily imperfect instruments; the power of conception imperfect; the power of phrase and imagery imperfect also; and that their sufficiency of truth (though not their correctness meanwhile) is so far temporary that it is limited to earth and to time; and that, in the perfect light and knowledge of the presence of God, the perfectest knowledge represented by them will be superseded and absorbed, while the glosses and materialisms with which, in various ways, we may have been unconsciously clothing them to our own imaginations, will be – not superseded only but corrected, and, it may be, reproved? Moreover, if the truths represented in the Creeds are wider and deeper than our conceptions of them, we can admit that there may possibly be particulars in which, even now, the experience of spiritual life may deepen and enlarge the meaning, to us, of our Creeds; as, for instance, the words heaven and hell may present to us ideas differing, in the direction of more correctness, from those which they presented to some of our forefathers. It is not that the Creeds will be some day corrected. It is not that we shall see hereafter how false they were, but how far the best conceptions which they opened to us, the best, that is, that our earthly faculties were capable of, lagged in their clumsiness behind the perfect apprehension of the truths which they had, nevertheless, not untruly represented; but which we then shall have power to see and know as they are. The truth which is dimly imaged for us in the Creeds, will never belie, but will infinitely transcend, what their words represented on earth’. – Arthur Lyttelton. ‘The Atonement’, in Lux Mundi: A Series of Studies in the Religion of the Incarnation. (Edited by Charles Gore. London: J. Murray, 1890), 256-7.

Now contrast this with a comment recently made by NT Wright at a seminar at the University of St Andrews:

‘The idea that doctrines are portable stories is of course already present in the classic statements of Christian doctrines, that is, the great early Creeds. They are not simply check-lists which could in principle be presented in any order at all. They consciously tell the story – precisely the scriptural story! – from creation to new creation, focussing particularly of course on Jesus and summing up what scripture says about him in a powerful brief narrative (a process we can already see happening within the New Testament itself; not only in the obvious places but also when Luke, for instance, decides to telescope Paul’s defence together as in Acts 26.22f: ‘saying nothing but what Moses and the prophets said would take place, that the Messiah must suffer and that, by being the first to rise again, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.’)’ … You can, in fact, join up all the dots not only in the classic early creeds and most of the later ones (for instance, the post-Reformation Confessions and Articles) and still be many a mile away from affirming what the biblical writers, all through, were wanting people to affirm. You can join all the dots and still produce, shall we say, a thistle instead of a rose, an elephant instead of a donkey. Or whatever. To take a rather different but related example, if I come upon the letters BC written down somewhere, only the larger context, the larger implicit narrative, can tell me whether they mean Bishop’s Council (if it’s a note in my diary), British Columbia (if it’s a note of my cousins’ address), Before Christ (if it’s in a notebook about ancient history), or the two musical notes which bear those names (if it’s about the end of Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony). Implicit narrative is all; and if you affirm a doctrine but put it in the wrong implicit narrative, you potentially falsify it as fully and thoroughly as if you simply denied it altogether.’

Spong: Bishop for the non-religious

John Shelby Spong is in Melbourne this week, promoting his new book, Jesus for the Non-Religious, explaining again why he discounts almost everything in the Bible as unreliable but still believes Jesus has much to offer.

In this article, Barney Zwartz writes that ‘Spong admits that he is not a theist and rejects the idea of a personal God, but says that doesn’t make him an atheist either. He dislikes simple categorisations’. He goes on:

The problem I have with Bishop Spong is not that he is an interesting and challenging thinker, the problem I have is that he is a bishop. Because I cannot see in what meaningful sense of the world he could be called a Christian. I think he is a secular humanist – an entirely respectable position but not one that should be funded by the Anglican church. And I suspect, though this may be unworthy, that he wouldn’t have received the same notoriety as plain Jack Spong.

C’mon Zwartzy, tell us what you really think! What do you think?

‘Where Does The God Delusion Come from?’

The latest issue of New Blackfriars is now available and includes a fascinating article by Nicholas Lash entitled ‘Where Does The God Delusion Come from?’.

Here’s the abstract:

While Richard Dawkins’ polemic against religion scores easy points against Christian fundamentalisms, he supposes his target to be much vaster: “I am not attacking any particular version of God or gods. I am attacking God, all gods”. Given The God Delusion‘s lack of extended argument, historical ignorance and unfamiliarity with the literature, the praise it has received from some distinguished scientists is troubling.

This essay seeks, first, to examine some of the book’s chief weaknesses – its ignorance of the grammar of “God” and of “belief in God”; the crudeness of its account of how texts are best read; its lack of interest in ethics – and, second, to address the question of what it is about the climate of the times that enables so ill-informed and badly argued a tirade to be widely welcomed by many apparently well-educated people.

The latter issue is addressed, first, by considering the illusion, unique to the English-speaking world, that there is some single set of procedures which uniquely qualify as “scientific” and give privileged access to truth; second, by examining historical shifts in the senses of “religion”; thirdly, by locating Dawkins’ presuppositions concerning both “science” and “religion”, his paradoxical belief in progress, and the reception which the book has received, in relation to tensions in our culture signalled, fifty years ago, by C. P. Snow.

You can read the entire piece here.

What we know

For those of us who always consider ourselves to be learners, here are some encouraging words from Thomas Edison: ‘We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.’

Whether Edison is right or not, his words sometimes make me just want to pack it in and go fishing. While at other times, they are a call to celebrate that we can and indeed do know something – of God, of the world, of ourselves. Thus I inevitably turn to Churchill: ‘Keep buggering on!’

Why? Because ‘now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love’. (1 Corinthians 13:12-13).


Note: There’s a good wee post on Churchill here.

Children’s Letters to God – A Review

There is something particularly special in listening to children pray, and in praying with them. This was brought home afresh to me today when I read Children’s Letters to God, compiled by Stuart Hample and Eric Marshall. While some of the prayers included in this volume seem not merely humorous but silly (to an adult), most betray a deeper cognition. All betray, however, a glaringly beautiful honesty and unpretentiousness that God not only makes possible for us, but encourages in us by the Spirit.

Here’s a few that I like:

  • Dear God. Are you really invisible or is that just a trick?
  • Dear God. Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?
  • Dear God. Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones why don’t you just keep the ones you got now?
  • Dear God. Who draws the lines around the countries?
  • Dear God. I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that OK?
  • Dear God. Are there any patriarchs around today?
  • Dear God. It’s OK that you made different religions but don’t you get mixed up sometimes?
  • Dear God. I would like to know why all the things you said are in red?
  • Dear God. Is Reverend Coe a friend of yours, or do you just know him through business?
  • Dear God. I am English. What are you?
  • Dear God. Thank you for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy.
  • Dear God. How come you didn’t invent any new animals lately? We still have just all the old ones.
  • Dear God. Please put another holiday in between Christmas and Easter. There is nothing good in there now.
  • Dear God. Please send Dennis Clark to a different camp this year.
  • Dear God. I wish that there wasn’t no such thing of (sin. I wish that there was not no such thing of war.
  • Dear God. Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother.
  • Dear God. I bet it is very hard for you to love everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it.
  • Dear God. If you watch in Church on Sunday I will show you my new shoes.
  • Dear God. I am doing the best I can.

‘… For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me’. (Matthew 18:2-5, The Message)

Children’s Letters to God is a great little book to use to open up the questions of life, of God, and of the world – and to encourage mutual and humble dialogue which, after all, is at least part of what we are engaging in when we pray. Warmly recommended … as is prayer.

McLeod Campbell and Children’s Letters to God

It is not unusual for me to have a plethora of books on the go at once, scattered conveniently around most parts of the house. Of late, I’ve been reading two books (in the same room) whose themes converge that I wish to comment on here. I’ve just re-read (after many years) John McLeod Campbell’s, The Nature of the Atonement. This book must be counted as among the most significant reflections ever penned on the atonement. Denney rightly listed it alongside Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo?, and Forsyth praised it as a ‘great, fine, holy book’, although both had reservations about some of Campbell’s ideas. Others, such as James Orr, Robert Dale and John Scott Lidgett also gave positive voice to Campbell’s work on the atonement.

The fact that McLeod Campbell is largely ignored today (despite the influence of Tom and James Torrance, and Tom Smail, and a few recent publications such as those by Peter Stevenson and two by Michael Jinkins – here and here), and that not least in publications dealing specifically with the atonement, is scandalous (pun intended). There may be some identifiable reasons for this neglect. Perhaps it is because, like Forsyth, Campbell was a non-conformist and non-conformist British theologians have, until more recently, found it difficult to be heard and taken seriously by the academy. Perhaps it is because Campbell is just not the easiest writer to follow, particularly in his atonement tome (his sermons are much easier going on the reader!). Perhaps it is because Campbell’s best insights have been taken up by others, such as the Torrances. Who know? I often ask similar questions about Forsyth (and Denney and Lidgett). I hope to post more about the relationship between Campbell and Forsyth soon.

The other book I’ve been reading is Children’s Letters to God, compiled by Stuart Hample and Eric Marshall. While Campbell laid much weight on the filial nature of Jesus Christ and his vicarious work of offering to the Father the perfect human response from the side of sin (a response which was at heart about Christ’s intercessory ministry), Children’s Letters to God takes up something of humanity’s imperfect participation in that perfect intercession. Some of these prayers seem quite humorous and even silly. Others betray a deeper cognition. All betray, however, a glaringly beautiful honesty and unpretentiousness that our elder Brother not only makes possible for us, but creates in us by the Spirit.

Here’s a few that I like (and each one could serve as a great sermon starter):

– Dear God. Are you really invisible or is that just a trick?
– Dear God. Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?
– Dear God. Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones why don’t you just keep the ones you got now?
– Dear God. Who draws the lines around the countries?
– Dear God. I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that OK?
– Dear God. Are there any patriarchs around today?
– Dear God. It’s OK that you made different religions but don’t you get mixed up sometimes?
– Dear God. I would like to know why all the things you said are in red?
– Dear God. Is Reverend Coe a friend of yours, or do you just know him through business?
– Dear God. I am English. What are you?
– Dear God. Thank you for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy.
– Dear God. How come you didn’t invent any new animals lately? We still have just all the old ones.
– Dear God. Please put another holiday in between Christmas and Easter. There is nothing good in there now.
– Dear God. Please send Dennis Clark to a different camp this year.
– Dear God. I wish that there wasn’t no such thing of (sin. I wish that there was not no such thing of war.
– Dear God. Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother.
– Dear God. I bet it is very hard for you to love everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it.
– Dear God. If you watch in Church on Sunday I will show you my new shoes.
– Dear God. I am doing the best I can.

‘… For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me’. (Matthew 18:2-5, The Message)

Forsyth’s sources and my resourcing

One of the things I am most enjoying about my research on PT Forsyth is mining the pages that he himself mined, tasting the words that he himself tasted, and chewing on some of the thoughts that gave rise to his own. Of late, I’ve been reading Alexander Bruce’s book, The Humiliation of Christ in its Physical, Ethical and Official Aspects. Along with Dorner and Gore, Bruce had a significant impact in the shaping of Forsyth’s own christology, not least his kenoticism.

Here’s a few words from Bruce to chew on:

‘… if descent into the legal standing of a sinner were at all possible, Christ would gladly make the descent. It was His mind, His bent, His mood, if I may so speak, to go down till He had reached the utmost limits of possibility.’ – Alexander B. Bruce, The Humiliation of Christ In its Physical, Ethical and Official Aspects (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1895), 317.

– [McLeod Campbell] speaks the truth, though it may be in an exaggerated form; for, without a doubt, it was the instinctive impulse of the Redeemer to impute to Himself the world’s sin, and in the light of such imputation, to regard the evils of His earthly lot as a personal participation in the curse pronounced on man for sin. It was a satisfaction to His heart to feel that, in being born into a family whose royal lineage and mean condition, combined, bore expressive witness to the misery that had overtaken Israel for her sins, in being subjected to the necessity of earning His bread by the sweat of His brow, in being exposed to the assaults of Satan, in having to endure the contradiction of sinners, in being nailed to the cross, He was indeed made partaker of our curse in this respect, too, our Brother, and like unto His brethren’. pp. 318-9.

I’m heading off tomorrow for a week up in the northern Highlands and to Orkney so it will be a post- and blog-free week. It is mostly the retracing of a trip that I made many years ago on my own and am now looking forward to taking my family. I’ve promised them that I’ll only fish for a day … or two. I’m taking three books: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, Tommy and Me by Ben Stein, and True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey – in the hope that I may get at least half of one of them read

McCormack on Romans 5:17

Today I was greatly blessed and encouraged as I listened to Bruce McCormack’s recent lecture on Karl Barth and the Problem of Universalism given at the recent Karl Barth and American Evangelicals: Friends or Foes? conference. Here’s McCormack on Romans 5:17:

‘The contrast here in of the effect of the act of the first man and he effect of the act of the second. The second act establishes the reign of God through the destruction of the dominion of sin and death … Paul’s main point would, in fact, be wiped out if the real meaning of the passage as a whole is that sin and death ultimately prevail over most of humanity for in that case the saving deed of Christ would be much less than the condemning deed of Adam. To be sure, the saving deed of Christ must be received, according to verse 17, but how it is received and when it is received are questions left unresolved at this stage in Paul’s argument in Romans. What we must not conclude … is that the receiving spoken of in verse 17 is an act that can only take place within the limits of history. For in chapter 11 Paul is going to give us reason to think that reception … may, in some instances at the very least, take place beyond the limits of history’. – Bruce L. McCormack, ‘That He May have Mercy Upon All: Karl Barth and the Problem of Universalism’ (paper presented at the Karl Barth and American Evangelicals: Friends or Foes? Princeton Theological Seminary, 27 June 2007).

Grace costly and cheap

Like Jim, I spent much of the morning away from the keyboard and making the most of the Scottish sun. It was not poetry, however, that sustained my attention this morning (as it will tonight when I follow my evening ritual of reading a Les Murray poem before retiring). It was a sermon on hope by that awesome preacher of Rhu, John McLeod Campbell. Lamenting the lack of assurance and the attendant anxiety in his parishioners, he pleads with them to resist seeking assurance in good works, even though this is precisely where the anxious soul so often retreats. Rather than harass them, however, Campbell does what the preacher must do – reminds them of the Father’s heart for them, revealed in costly love and the fullness of grace:

Those who know that the heart of God yearns over them with a father’s love – those who know that the Son of God has redeemed them from the curse of the law – those who know that the Holy Spirit is given them through Jesus Christ – those who know that Christ will yet raise their mortal bodies incorruptible – those who know that they will be kings and priests unto God – these are they who can tread this earth as the sons of God – who can present a bold front, not in their own strength, but in that of Jesus, conflicting with the devil and all his servants, and trampling them under foot – these are they who are prepared for all trials and conflicts, who will be more than conquerors, and of whom it will be written, that they conquered by the blood of the Lamb – these are they who will come out of great tribulations and that gloriously, having washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb – these are they who will dwell for ever in the New Jerusalem; and that faith is the victory that overcometh the world. But that man has no such faith, who, amid all the weariness of this body of sin and death – who, amid all the devices of Satan, does not know whether God loves him or not whether he has a Saviour or not – whether he has the Spirit of Christ or not – whether he has a better and an enduring substance.

The spurious gospel obliges men, in their desire of peace of conscience, to forge graces, and to pass them for current coin. I do feel as if I had come to a country in which the people of the land had lost all the pure gold, and all the king’s coin, at the same time that they felt their need of a currency of some kind, and so had had recourse to the coining of lead, gilding it over, making it look like gold, and calling it gold.

After some meditation on these fighting words, I turned to prayer … and then to Forsyth … but that’s for another post.

Note: The photo really is of the Scottish sky.

Gerald Bray and Alister McGrath in OZ

Those back in OZ may be interested to know that Queensland Theological College will be hosting Drs Gerald Bray and Alister McGrath in the coming months. Here’s the details and the related blurb:

DR. GERALD BRAY IGNORING THE PAST – MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES?
SEPTEMBER 14

Dr. Gerald Bray is Professor of Theology at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama and formerly taught at Oak Hill Theological College in London. A prolific author, Dr. Bray has published many scholarly articles and books, including The Doctrine of God. He is considered by many to be one of the foremost thinkers and theologians in the contemporary church. Free Public Lecture held at Queensland Theological College, 7.15pm for a 7.30pm start. Dr. Bray will also be giving a three-day seminar: Controversies over Christ: Then and Now. The seminar runs September 11-13, from 9:30am to 3:00pm each day at QTC.

DR. ALISTER MCGRATH THE BANKRUPTCY OF ATHEISM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1

Dr. Alister McGrath is Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University and formerly Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He is a world-renowned theologian, the author of over 30 books, which have been translated into over 20 languages. Dr. McGrath is known for explaining difficult ideas to lay audiences. In his talk he will challenge the assumption that the world is becoming more secular and discuss why atheism cannot provide the moral and intellectual guidance needed for modern life. 7:00 for a 7:15 start at the Raybould Lecture Theatre on the University of Queensland campus.

For more information contact QTC here.

Forsyth on Faith

‘We take refuge in what He believed when we are not sure about what we can. We trust His faith in men when experience shakes our own. We rest on His knowledge of the world, on His belief in divine power and human possibility, on His confidence in what He and His work did for men. We trust His experience and His judgment more than our own. When we cannot trust our wishes, hopes, or forecasts of human destiny, we can rest on His faith in it who secured it. If all the facts were against us, He is the fact that outweighs them all. And we both recover and complete our faith by being compelled to trust His.’ – P. T. Forsyth, ‘Faith and Experience’, Wesleyan Methodist Magazine 123 (1900), 417.

Sometimes parenting is like raking leaves

Sometimes parenting is like raking leaves.

Sometimes the forces are with you;

Sometimes the forces are against you;

Sometimes the forces seem neutral.

Sometimes parenting is like raking leaves.

Sometimes living at home with the parents is like raking leaves.

Sometimes the forces are with you;

Sometimes the forces are against you;

Sometimes the forces seem neutral.

Sometimes living at home with the parents is like raking leaves.

Sometimes life is like raking leaves …

≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈

28 July 2007. This poem was inspired by an episode this morning with my 15-month old daughter. I was trying to move the plastic fruit from the big basket into the small tub. She was trying to move the plastic fruit from the small tub into the big basket. Sometimes life is like raking leaves …

The Era of Darwinian Evolution is Over

Freeman Dyson, Professor emeritus of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, who has focused his research on the internal physics of stars, subatomic-particle beams and the origin of life, has written a thoughtful wee piece here. Here’s a snippet:

Now, after some 3 billion years, the Darwinian era is over. The epoch of species competition came to an end about 10,000 years ago when a single species, Homo sapiens, began to dominate and reorganize the biosphere. Since that time, cultural evolution has replaced biological evolution as the driving force of change. Cultural evolution is not Darwinian. Cultures spread by horizontal transfer of ideas more than by genetic inheritance. Cultural evolution is running a thousand times faster than Darwinian evolution, taking us into a new era of cultural interdependence that we call globalization. And now, in the last 30 years, Homo sapiens has revived the ancient pre-Darwinian practice of horizontal gene transfer, moving genes easily from microbes to plants and animals, blurring the boundaries between species. We are moving rapidly into the post-Darwinian era, when species will no longer exist, and the evolution of life will again be communal.

In the post-Darwinian era, biotechnology will be domesticated. There will be do-it-yourself kits for gardeners, who will use gene transfer to breed new varieties of roses and orchids. Also, biotech games for children, played with real eggs and seeds rather than with images on a screen. Genetic engineering, once it gets into the hands of the general public, will give us an explosion of biodiversity. Designing genomes will be a new art form, as creative as painting or sculpture. Few of the new creations will be masterpieces, but all will bring joy to their creators and diversity to our fauna and flora.

How’s this for a vision of the future? Will we still be able to get the old varieties of roses and orchids … ?

Things of note

Hamelife has a beautiful wee post here on giving our kids enough time to nut things out, process information and respond.

Here’s a preview:

… sometimes parents just need to give their child enough time to let the cogs turn, to allow a moment to process the information. Those few more seconds might take some patience on our behalf, but they could be absolutely priceless when it comes to our child’s personal development. Their little minds going over the words, processing what they mean, deciding what to do. I wonder if when parents hurry their children up, push them out the door, they deny them the opportunity to do that … Parents seem to be under increasing pressure these days, run off their feet. In the choice between the quick hit or the slow release it might feel like we have no time to go for the lengthier option. But in the long run, when they look back, parents might be glad that they extended just a little bit more time to their children, time to allow the cogs to turn.

There’s also a good podcast here on Family Values in The Simpsons and one here on Steiner Schools and a discussion on whether public schools are as good as private schools.

Barth and Schleiermacher Review

Finally … just finished a first draft of my review of Matthias Gockel’s Barth and Schleiermacher on the Doctrine of Election: A Systematic-Theological Comparison. What a great read – the book that is. If anyone would like a wee read of my review on the proviso that you give me some serious feedback, just email me. (Of course, all cash donations will be greeted with psalm-worthy thanksgiving, treated with the strictest confidence and will go to a good cause – my holiday fund. Bottles of Laphroaig are received with equal gratitude).

On another note, I’ve been thinking of late about purchasing Sony’s latest toy, the Portable Reader PRS-500. I’d be keen to hear from any who have one, or one like it. I’ve read a few reviews and I’m still on the fence. A criticism of it that would concern me is the apparent inability for it to zoom in and out of pdf’s.

Burma News

As someone who routinely follows the news in and about Burma, I was encouraged to read two articles in today’s The Independent. In this article, Forgotten and locked in the shadow of the past, Peter Popham recounts the student uprising of August 1988, SLORC’s (now renamed) refusal to give up power, and the ongoing popularity on Aung San Suu Kyi, who was placed under house arrest.

That was 17 years ago, and Burma has been living in the deep shadow of those events ever since. The ruling junta have consolidated their power: by keeping Suu Kyi locked away (she has been given her freedom several times since, but every time she proves to be as popular as ever, she is isolated again); by handing out ferocious jail sentences to her supporters and anyone else who defies the regime; and by conducting unending, brutal wars against the ethnic minorities on the country’s borders. Burma’s wealth of resources have encouraged companies such as Total, the French oil giant, to do deals with the regime.

Suu Kyi remains locked in her home, more isolated than ever. And the spasmodic, mostly symobolic pressure from the West has yet to precipitate anything in the way of democratic reform.

In the second article, Conservative MP John Bercow, reflects on a recent visit to Burma with a number of other MP’s from different parties. His article is entitled Burma: A plight we can ignore no longer ignore. The piece is well worth reading, especially for those unfamiliar with the situation. He asks, ‘The people of Burma endure human rights abuses on an unimaginable scale. Rape, torture and forced labour are facts of their lives. So why does the world refuse to act?’