Crumbs from the Table

This is not a post about Brexit. But I am going to use the 2016 Brexit referendum in the UK as an analogy.  To refresh your memory, in 2016 a referendum was held in the UK on whether or not to stay in the European Union. This had been a longstanding issue for debate ever since the UK first joined in 1971. In the event, to the surprise of most pundits, the vote was 52% to leave the EU. This led to the immediate resignation of the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and later to the resignation of his successor, Theresa May, in 2019. For months and years, the British parliament, the House of Commons was "blocked" - unable either to implement the referendum or to vote to hold a second referendum (effectively, to reject the result of the first). Finally, under Boris Johnson, a deal was reached and the UK left the EU in 2020. This was followed by years of wrangling over issues such as goods crossing the land border between Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland (...

I have been interested in Eastern Orthodoxy ever since spending my linguist's year abroad in Novosibirsk in 1995/6. On my return, I began to read up about church history, and was later encouraged in that by my friend, Donald Fairbairn, who was at that time a PhD student at Cambridge. I have pursued this interest ever since then, researching and teaching the church history course at Novosibirsk Baptist Seminary, and later completing an MTh thesis accredited by Glasgow University on the missionary work undertaken from Constantinople 397-1453. As evangelical Christians, we have a huge amount to learn from our Orthodox brethren, past and present. As much as is possible, I try to engage in dialogue with Orthodox brothers and sisters, both finding common ground and also identifying areas of disagreement which prevent full communion at the present time.* 'Orthodox exclusivism' However, it is one thing to recognise some Orthodox as brothers and sisters in Christ, and to seek a meas...

The "covenant of works" (also known as the "covenant of life" or the "covenant of creation") refers to the original commandment given by the LORD God to Adam, the ancestor and head of the human race, when he created him. This is recorded in Genesis 2:15-17: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." The command is given in the context of creating Adam and placing him in the garden of Eden "to work it and keep it" (what is called the cultural mandate).  The command involves permission ("You may surely eat of every tree of the garden") and prohibition ("but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat"). Obedience or otherwise to the command wi...

These are some thoughts on Athanasius' "On the Incarnation", a classic Christian text from the 300s which I am reading this advent 2025 along with some colleagues with connections to Bury.  Here are my thoughts on chapter 9 which corresponds to paragraphs 56 and 57. In the final two paragraphs of "On the incarnation", Athanasius addresses the recipient of the book, Macarius. Athanasius describes his own work as "a brief statement of the faith of Christ and of the manifestation of His Godhead to us". He goes on to encourage his reader to examine what he has read by studying the Holy Scriptures (Bible), and speaks of Christ's second appearance, namely his second coming in glory to judge the living and the dead. Athanasius instructs Macarius as to the need for "a good life and a pure soul, and for Christian virtue to guide the mind" in order to apprehend Christian truth. "... anyone who wishes to understand the mind of the sacred writer...

Here are some thoughts of mine on Athanasius' work "On the Incarnation", which I am reading for advent 2025, along with some other fellow ministers with connections to Bury. Chapter 8 of "On the Incarnation" (which corresponds to paragraphs 41 to 55) continues the theme of Gentile/Greek objections to the gospel. The main point that Athanasius makes in this chapter is the impact of the Christian faith leading to the decline of pagan practices and knowledge of various kinds. Athanasius is arguing that these constitute proof and vindication of the Incarnation of the Word. "When did people begin to abandon the worship of idols, unless it were since the very Word of God came among men?" "Again, in former times every place was full of the fraud of the oracles, and the utterances of those at Delphi and Dordona and in Boeotia and Lycia and Libya and Egypt and those of the Kabiri and the Pythoness were considered marvellous by the minds of men. But now, si...

Here are my thoughts on chapter 7 of "On the Incarnation" by fourth century church father Athanasius of Alexandria. I have been reading this work along with some brothers/colleagues during the season of advent 2025.  Chapter 7 (paragraphs 41 to 45) is responding to objections raised by "Greeks" i.e. non-Jews of the Hellenistic world of Athanasius' time.  The main focus of the chapter is engaging with the idea that the concept of the incarnation of the Word is "unfitting".  Athanasius begins by considering and dismissing the possibility that there is no Word in the first place, i.e. no governing reasonable principle underlying the universe. "If they deny that there is a Word of God at all, that will be extraordinary, for then they will be ridiculing what they do not know." Assuming then that there is a Word, Athanasius engages with the idea that it would be "unfitting" for that Word to dwell in a human being. "But if the Word of...