2001 Study Groups
Doctrine: June 27th-29th
"Worship and Spirituality in the Hebrew Bible"
Wednesday
4.45 Jeff Leininger, Influence of Luther on early English Evangelicals: Tyndale, Frith, Barnes
8.00 Tom Winger, Luther and the Priesthood of all the Baptised
Thursday
9.30 Gerald Bray, Lutheran-Roman Catholic Agreement on Justification: is it Justified?
11.30 Tony Lane, Joint Declaration on Justification: Simul catholica et evangelica?
4.45 SEMINAR/discussion on the Joint Declaration
8.00 TYNDALE LECTURE: Mark Elliott, Luther, Luther's bible and authority
Friday
9.30 Bret Stephenson, The theological other in Luther's theology of creation
11.30 Paul Basset, Luther in English Methodist Scholarship
TF Associates: June 29th-30th
Fri. 29th June
4.00pm
Arrival and Introductions
4.30pm
‘Paul and His Letters in Recent Scholarship’
Simon Gathercole (Lecturer in NT, University of Aberdeen)
6.00pm
Dinner at the ‘Grad Pad’
7.30pm
Wenham Lecture:
‘Communicating the Gospel in a Postmodern Society’
Paul Weston (General Secretary UCCF)
Sat. 30th June
9.00am
Prayers
9.30am
Recent Evangelical Thinking on how we ‘do Church?’
Daniel Strange (RTSF Co-ordinator)
11.00am
A Review of Science and Theology Books’
Phil Duce (Theological Books Editor IVP)
12.00pm
‘Ministering to People Struggling with Homosexual Feelings/Behaviours’
Stefan Cantore (True Freedom Trust)
1.15pm
Lunch
2.00pm
3.00pm
Discussion of TFA matters:
Conference Report
Every aspect of the Conference this year fitted the aim of the Associates - to ensure that the best of current Biblical and Theological research is passed on in an applicable and relevant to those engaged in everyday ministry.
The Wenham Lecture (included in the autumn 2001 issue of Themelios) was a highlight - Dr Paul Zahn, Dean of Birmingham Cathedral, Alabama, delivered a dynamic critique of the new perspective', focusing on the pastoral implications. He summarised the new perspective under the four phrases 'covenantal nomism', 'solution to plight', 'boundary markers', and 'reformation spectacles'. Then he argued that E.P. Sanders mistakenly thought that Luther took issue with the Pelagianism of Roman Catholicism, (which was actually semi-Pelagian, not Pelagian). Because Sanders et.al. missed that distinction 'they understand neither Luther nor Paul.' Moreover, the 'solution to plight' paradigm, Dr Zahn maintained, is untrue to life; and the 'boundary markers' issue, far from being a novel insight into second temple Judaisim, merely re-visits the classic distinction between ceremonial and moral law. Dr Zahn concluded, provocatively, that proponents of the new perspective display the classic symptoms of those who are extremely knowledgeable about a tiny area but startlingly ignorant of the broad picture. This lecture followed on well from Simon Gathercole's opening paper on Paul and his Letters in recent scholarship, in which we were given a most helpful comparison of the traditional view of Paul and the new perspective.
The next day, Daniel Strange gave a stimulating paper on 'doing church' in the 21st Century - which sparked off some vigorous discussion on reaching the 'unchurched' in our society.
A regular feature of the Associate's conference is news of recent publications - this time Phil Duce provided a helpful overview of recent literature on science and theology.
In the final paper: Stefan Cantore spoke on 'Ministering to people struggling with
homosexual feelings/behaviours.' Stefan is a senior executive in the NHS, and a trustee of the True Freedom Trust (TfT). He gave a Biblical perspective, followed by a discussion of the causes of homosexual feelings, and then a 'pastoral care tool kit' outlining the importance of listening, accountability, accurate information, strong involvement in church life, support from others who struggle, counselling, friendship, and the need to educate our congregations. Arguing from the Biblical foundation that same sex sexual activity is wrong, Stefan offered a wealth of pastoral advice and was rightly critical of some conservative churches in their approach. He argued against categorising people as 'homosexuals' or 'heterosexuals' - saying rather that men and women made in the image of God, as a result of the havoc sin has caused, experience fallenness in a variety of ways - which for some involves sexual desires and behaviours that focus around those of the same sex. There was a helpful discussion of some of the issues raised in this paper over lunch.
The quality of the papers given at the conference was uniformly high, and
the times of discussion were lively and enjoyable.
Sharon James.
Old Testament: July 2nd-4th
"Worship and Spirituality in the Hebrew Bible"
Mon 2 July
4pm Tea
4.30 Dr Deryck Sherrifs (London) on Exodus
5.15 Dr Ian Wilson (Cambridge) on 'The Ark in Deuteronomy'
8.00 Mr Bo-Krister Ljunberg (Lund)
Tues 3 July
9.00 Prayers
9.30 Dr Mark Boda (Regina) on 'The necessary grace of penitence:from communal lament to penitential prayer in the 'exilic' liturgy of Israel'
10.15 Dr Doug Ingram (Nottingham) on Ecclesiastes
11.00 Coffee
11.30 Dr Walter Moberly (Durham)
1.00 Lunch
4.00 Tea
4.30 Planning session
8.00 Tyndale Lecture - Rev Dr Lindsey Wilson (Melbourne) on 'Letting God be God: explaining the fear of God motif in Genesis
Wed 4 July
9.00 Prayers
9.30 Prof Gordon Wenham (Cheltenham) on the imprecatory psalms
10.15 Mr Jamie Grant (Cheltenham) on "Torah Spirituality in the Book of Psalms'
11.00 Coffee
11.30 Dr David Firth (Sydney) on '2 Sam 5-24; on the rhetoric of David as ideal king'
Biblical Theology: July 4th-6th
"The Temple in Biblical Theology"
Wednesday 4th July
2.30-4.0pm
30 mins James Palmer, "The Role of Moses and the Tabernacle in Exodus."
30 mins Pekka Pitkanen, ‘From Tent of Meeting to Temple: Presence, Rejection and Renewal of Divine Favour’
30 mins discussion
4.0-4.30 teatime
4.30-5.30 Robert Fyall, ‘Building & Abortive Restoration of the Temple in 1-2K’
5.30-6.30 John Taylor, 'The Temple in Ezekiel'
8.0-9.0pm Roger Beckwith, 'The Temple Restored'
Thursday 5th July
8.30 Opening Devotions
9.0- 10.0 Crispin Fletcher-Louis, 'The Image of God and the Cosmic Temple: The OT Context of the Incarnation'
10.0-11.0 Peter Head, 'The Temple in Luke'
11.30-11.45 Coffee
11.45-12.30 Ken Baker, ‘The Temple in Chronicles’
12.30-3.0 Lunch and free time
3.0-4.0 David Peterson, ''The New Temple and Ecclesiology in Ephesians and 1 Peter'
4.0-4.30 Tea
4.30-5.30 Steve Walton, 'The Temple in Acts'
5.30-6.0 Daniel Strange: A Response to Steve Walton and Greg Beale
8.0pm? Tyndale Lecture - Dr Carl Armerding
Friday 6th July
8.30 Opening Devotions
9-10 Mark Bonnington, 'The Temple and Ethics in 1 Cor 6 & 2 Cor 6'
10.0-11.0 Jonathan Norgate, 'The Temple in the Theology of Barth and Moltmann’
11.0-11.30 Coffee
11.30-12.30 Stephen Sizer, 'The Temple in Modern Christian Zionist Thought'
12.30-1.0pm Prayer and Business Meeting
New Testament: July 9th-11th
"Christian Identity, Life and Ministry in the New Testament"
Monday
4:00: Tea and welcome
4:30 - 6:00: Dr. Peter Head (Tyndale House, Cambridge): Qualifications for Ministry in the Pastoral Epistles
DINNER
8:15 - 9:45: Dr. Niclas Förster (University of Göttingen), The Death of King Agrippa and the Christian Rejection of the Ruler cult
Tuesday
9:30 - 11:00: Dorin Axente (PhD student, London Bible College),Mission in the Fourth Gospel. A Missiological reading of Light and Darkness dualism.
11:30 - 1:00: Rev. Dr. Christopher Hancock (Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge): Give me a break! Paul, rest and patterns of ministry
LUNCH
4:30 - 6:00: John Taylor (PhD student, Cambridge):Concerning "Your Faith." The pastoral dilemma Paul could not endure. 1 Thess 3:1-10.
DINNER
8:15 - 9:45: Tyndale New Testament Lecture. Dr. Paul Trebilco (University of Otago, New Zealand):"What name shall we give ourselves?" The issue of self-identification in some areas of New Testament Christianity.
Wednesday
9:30 - 11:00: Book Discussion: L.T. Johnson,Religious experience in earliest Christianity: A missing dimension in New Testament Studies
11:30 - 12:30: Dr. Ostmeyer,Distinctive features of prayer-terminology in Qumran
12:30 - 1:00: Future plans.
LUNCH (and depart)
Conference Report
The Tyndale Fellowship NT Study Group met at Tyndale House on July 9-11 2001. We had eight very helfpul papers under the title "Christian Identity,
Life and Ministryin the New Testament":
i) Peter Head on Qualifications for Ministry in the Pastoral Epistles (based on an exegetical study of 1 Tim 3.1-7);
ii) Dr. Niclas Förster (from the University of Göttingen), The Death of King Agrippa and the Christian Rejection of the Ruler cult (a detailed comparison between Acts 12.20-23 and Josephus, Antiquities XIX.343-361; Luke attributes his death to his toleration and encouragement of a ruler
cult);
iii) Dorin Axente (a PhD student at London Bible College) on Mission in the Fourth Gospel. A Missiological reading of Light and Darkness dualism (which did what the sub-title claimed)
iv) Rev. Dr. Christopher Hancock (Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge) on Give me a break! Paul, rest and patterns of ministry for
Ministry (a fascinating counter-point to the common view of Paul as workaholic burning out for the Lord)
v) John Taylor (a PhD student at Cambridge) on Concerning "Your Faith." The pastoral dilemma Paul could not endure. 1 Thess 3:1-10. (showing how importance "faith" was, even in Paul's earliest letter)
vi) Dr. Paul Trebilco (University of Otago, New Zealand): "What name shall we give ourselves?" The issue of self-identification in some areas of New Testament Christianity. (A very helpful Tyndale Lecture on the way Christians perceived and presented themselves in literature associated with Ephesus).
vii) A Book Discussion of L.T. Johnson, Religious experience in earliest Christianity: A missing dimension in New Testament Studies (led by Bill Salier, a PhD student in Cambridge)
viii) Dr. Karl-Heinz Ostmeyer (from the University of Göttingen) on Distinctive features of prayer-terminology in Qumran (a detailed and ground-breaking study of the way in which prayer terminology reflecting the temple cult was avoided in Qumran).
Overall we were about 20-25 in total, with a strong mainland European contingent. Next year will be devoted to the subject of Contemporary Evangelical Approaches to John's Gospel, and speakers are already being recruited.
Peter Head
Religion, Culture, and Communication : July 12th-14th
"Religion and globalization"
THURSDAY 12 JULY
3:30 p.m. Arrival and registration
4:00 p.m. Coffee
7.00 p.m. Dr Dewi Hughes Ethnicity and Globalization
FRIDAY 13 JULY
8.00 a.m. Breakfast
9:30 a.m. David Miller Japanese New Religious Movements: Nationalism and Globalization in Tension
11:00 a.m. Coffee
11:30 a.m. Dr. John McDowell: Midnight Feasting: Hope and the Deglobalizing of Theology
1:00 p.m. Lunch
2:30 a.m. Dr Mark Walker We Browse from Our Own Webs: Liberative Theology and the Free Software Movement's Internationalisation/Localisation Project
4:00 a.m. Dr Allan Anderson The Globalization of Pentecostalism and the Reshaping of Christianity in the 20th Century
5.30 p.m. Break
7:30 p.m Tyndale Lecture
J Andrew Kirk Engaging the Epistemological Confusion of the West: An Essential Missiological task
SATURDAY 14 JULY
8.00 a.m. Breakfast
9.30 p.m. Dr Peter Riddell: Islamic Perspectives on Religion and Globalization
11:00 a.m. Coffee
11.30 p.m. Discussion of RCCG matters: Come with some ideas for the 2002 conference. Are there ways in which the group might be more helpful to you?
12:30 p.m. Depart
Conference Report
The theme of this year's conference was 'Religion and Globalization'. Whilst the number of attendees was a little disappointing, the quality of the papers delivered and the subsequent discussions were, as we have come to expect in this group, excellent. Moreover, bearing in mind that, not only could several of the attendees not stay for all three days because of their busy schedules, but one of our speakers was due to fly out to Angola straight after his paper, another to Spain just after his, and another had flown in from South Africa just prior to delivering his, it was amazing that we were able to have a conference at all, let alone such an excellent one. I am enormously grateful to all who attended, particularly those speakers for whom it was not at all easy.
The conference began on a high point with a carefully researched and stimulating paper by Dr Dewi Hughes on 'Ethnicity and Globalization'.
The following morning, a welcome newcomer to the group, David Miller, Lecturer in Mission Studies at the International Christian College, Glasgow, and a former missionary in Japan with a particular research interest in Japanese new religions, read a fascinating and authoritative paper on Japanese new religious movements and globalization. This was followed by an interesting theological analysis of the implications of globalization by Dr John McDowell, Meldrum Lecturer in Systematic Theology, University of Edinburgh, entitled 'Midnight Feasting: Hope and the De-globalizing of Theology'. Rev. Dr. Mark Walker, Chaplain at NEWI, Wrexham and the Director of Ministerial Training, St Asaph Diocese, focused our minds on the significance of the Internet with a paper reflecting a critical appropriation of Guttierez's liberation theology: 'We Browse from Our Own Webs: Liberative Theology and the Free Software Movement's Internationalisation/Localisation Project'.
This was followed in the afternoon by a paper on perhaps one of the most interesting areas in the study of non-Western Christianity, namely the rapid expansion of Pentecostalism. Delivered by one of the leading researchers in the area, Dr Allan Anderson of Birmingham University, 'The Globalization of Pentecostalism and the Reshaping of Christianity in the 20th Century' was, as we expected, an authoritative and fascinating overview and analysis.
In the evening, we were delighted to welcome a colleague of Dr Anderson's and our 2001 Tyndale Lecturer, the well-known missiologist J. Andrew Kirk, Director of the Centre for Missiology and World Christianity at the University of Birmingham. Andrew's lecture, 'Engaging the Epistemological Confusion of the West: An Essential Missiological Task', was a clear and thoughtful analysis of Western culture which explored the missiological implications of Enlightenment modernity and the process of secularization. Needless to say, the paper provoked a discussion which lasted well into the evening.
The following day, our final paper was a typically erudite and informed analysis by the Director of Centre for Islamic Studies and Muslim-Christian Relations (London Bible College), Dr Peter Riddell, entitled 'Islamic Perspectives on Religion and Globalization'.
All present agreed that it was a challenging and worthwhile conference. Indeed, Dr David Burnett, the Chairperson of the group, is currently exploring the possibility of bringing some of the papers together to form the nucleus of a volume of evangelical studies of religion and globalization.
Finally, it was agreed at our planning meeting that the next gathering should address either 'evil' or 'conversion' and that the Secretary should contact all those on the mailing list in order to find out which topic would most tempt people to spend a few days in Cambridge. In accordance with the wishes of the majority of those who responded, the 2002 conference will address the complex and important subject of conversion.
Chris Partridge