Let us worship God

Part of a minster's task is to lead the public worship of God on the Lord's Day and preach the Word in that context. Here are some thoughts on leading worship. I include a suggested order of service with some comments along the way.

1. Call to Worship

Do not begin a service by saying "Good morning everybody!" In the call to worship you are summoning the church to worship and glorify their God. You are a minister of the gospel, not a primary school teacher greeting class 1B. Some preachers quote a few well chosen Scripture verses at this point, which can be helpful. I simply say, "Let us worship God, let's all pray..."

2. Opening Prayer

In this brief prayer offer worship to God and ask for his blessing upon the meeting. Do not ask him to be present. The Lord is always present among his people, as the church by definition is the "dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). The church only meets because God has taken the initiative to gather his people together to worship him. Pray for his presence to be made known and evident. But be careful what you are asking for. The free God of majestic love and awesome holiness may reveal himself in unexpected ways. Include a petition for forgiveness and cleansing from sin as you address the holy Father in the name of the Son.

3. First Hymn

Singing is an important aspect of publish worship, but it should not dominate the whole service. We would do well to remember that the New Testament epistles only mention singing twice (Ephesians 5:18-20 & Colossians 3:16). What is sung first should be a hymn or psalm that sets forth the grandeur and glory of God rather than a subjective type of hymn. This will remind the congregation that the meeting is all about him. I always try to sing at least one Psalm per service on a Sunday as I think that it is important to use the Bible's own book of praise. Many believers think that the doctrine Trinity is a rather abstract theological proposition. But God's self-revelation as Father, Son and Holy Spirit should be fundamental to distinctly Christian worship. Singing explicitly trinitarian hymns will help to embed the doctrine of the Trinity in the minds and hearts of the worshippers. But more than that, should we not offer praise to our glorious Triune God?

4. Announcements and Offering

These can include a few words of welcome as well as the church activities for the week. I think that is best to take an offering during the service rather than have a retiring offering. The former makes the offering very much part of the worship rather than something done on the way out of the building. A short "offertory prayer" commending the gifts to God should follow the offering.

5. Scripture Reading

Make this a reasonably lengthy passage, not just the few verses or paragraph that will be the subject of preaching. If you are preaching a "one off" sermon, then read the whole chapter in which your verses are set (unless the chapter is very long!). If you are preaching a series of sermons on a chapter, read an associated passage of Scripture that will tie in with your message. When Paul said to Timothy "give yourself to reading" (1 Timothy 4:13) - he meant to reading the Bible in public worship, not the act of private study. Announce the chapter and verses that you will be reading, and say, "Let us hear the Word of God", before reading the passage meaningfully. You should say "Let us" not "Shall we", because you are leading the people to do what God has commanded, not making a suggestion.

6. Second Hymn

This hymn may be more subjective or experimental, expressing the worshipper's experience of God in response to the reading of his Word. God has spoken to us, we respond by singing to him of what we have heard and felt. This makes worship a living dialogue between God and his people. Choosing hymns or psalms that fit in with the reading and message will help to give the service coherence and meaning. As well as some older hymns, I usually try to pick at least a contemporary number or two. The hymns of Watts, Wesley and others remind us that the church of today is not a creature of the moment, but part of the historic people of God. Singing centuries old hymns is a historical expression of the communion of the saints. Selecting contemporary hymns helps to save the church from being locked in a cultural backwater and acknowledges that the Spirit is still at work among the people of God today.

7. Main Prayer

This should not be too short, or two long. Around 5-10 minutes of praise, petition and confession will be sufficient. Never pray using "I". You are leading the people in prayer, so always say, "we". Meditating on the Psalms, 1 Kings 8 and Paul's prayers will help to bring Scriptural content and variety into your public prayers.

8. Third Hymn

This will be sung in the anticipation of the preaching of the Word. Choose a hymn or psalm that will lead into the message. Some preachers give a little introduction to each hymn. I don't do this. Most hymns are self-explanatory, so why bother? Just give the number and read the first line or two. "Let us sing hymn number 12, In heavenly love abiding". Cut the waffle and sing!

9. The Preaching of the Word

I'm not going to say much about the act of preaching here. (See the "Preaching" label below for more thoughts on this). Suffice to say that it is good to announce your text clearly right at the start of the message. Doing this shows that you are preaching the Word. If you don't do so, the people will wonder what you are going on about until you mention the passage that you are preaching from. The preaching of the Word of God to the people of God in the presence of God should be the high point of worship. Don't allow other aspects of the service to drag on so that there is little time left for preaching. "Preach the word!" (2 Timothy 4:1-5).

10. Fourth Hymn

This should enable the worshippers to respond appropriately to the ministry of the Word of God in song.

11. Benediction

Briefly close in prayer, Calvin's prayers at the end of his sermons are a good model. Finally, pronounce the benediction. This is not a pious wish, but an affirmation of faith. The triune God will be with his people as they depart. Look carefully at the benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:14. It is addressed to "you" not "us". It is a declaration, not a prayer. And it does not end, "for evermore Amen", just "Amen". The "forevermore" bit is a Cranmerism. Cut it out.

The Future of Justification by John Piper

This newly published book by John Piper, The Future of Justification, A Response to N. T. Wright, is now available for free from the Desiring God website, here.

These are Piper's words from the introduction,

"My little earthly life is too far spent to care much about the ego gratification of scoring points in debate. I am still a sinner depending on Christ for my righteousness before God. So I am quite capable of fear and pride. But I do hope that, where I have made mistakes, I will be willing to admit it. There are far greater things at stake than my fickle sense of gratification or regret. Among these greater things are the faithful preaching of the gospel, the care of guilt-ridden souls, the spiritual power of sacrificial deeds of love, the root of humble Christian political and social engagement, and the courage of Christian missions to confront all the religions of the world with the supremacy of Christ as the only way to escape the wrath to come. When the gospel itself is distorted or blurred, everything else is eventually affected. May the Lord give us help in these days to see the word of his grace with clarity, and savor it with humble and holy zeal, and spread it without partiality so that millions may believe and be saved, to the praise of the glory of God’s grace".

Blogging and the democratisation of theology

"It is to be feared that the democratisation of the theological process (every blogger now demands the right to have centre stage and equal validity) destabilises serious theological engagement. The church's affirmation of its 'tradition' becomes engagement with last week's posting."

(Derek W.H. Thomas in Always Reforming, A.T.B. McGowan ed., IVP Apollos, 2006, p. 339).

Maybe the man has a point. But have I just made things worse by blogging on his remarks?

John Calvin on the resurrection of the body (6)

The Intermediate State

Calvin devoted a lot of time to thinking about the soul and its properties. His first major piece of writing was Psycopannychia - on the immortality of the soul. But when he gave his attention to eschatology in the Institutes, (Book III, Chapter XXV), he kept his interest in the soul within bounds, devoting greater attention to the resurrection of the body. This is not to say that he failed to reflect on what will happen to the soul of the believer between death and the resurrection. (All quotes from III:XXV:6)

1. The Intermediate State

Calvin was concerned to address the idea that on death, the whole man perishes. In that case, the soul as well as the body would only rise again at the resurrection. The Reformer was not exactly keen on this proposal, which he described as, "a wicked curiosity". For Calvin, this was to "convert a spirit formed after the image of God, into an evanescent breath, which animates the body only during this fading life, and to reduce the temple of the Holy Spirit to nothing". In Calvin's construction, the soul is no mere life force. It is, "that part of ourselves in which the divinity is most Refulgent and the marks of immortality conspicuous." Its is the soul that distinguishes human beings from the lower animals.

Calvin quotes a number of Scriptures to show that the soul lives on after the death of the body,

"Thus Peter, in reference to his approaching death, says, “Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle,” (2 Pet. 1:14). Paul, again, speaking of believers, after saying, “If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God,” adds, “Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord,” (2 Cor. 5:1, 6). Did not the soul survive the body, how could it be present with the Lord on being separated from the body?"

He also appeals to the communion of the saints and the promise of Christ to the dying thief,

But an Apostle removes all doubt when he says that we go “to the spirits of just men made perfect,” (Heb. 12:23); by these words meaning, that we are associated with the holy patriarchs, who, even when dead, cultivate the same piety, so that we cannot be the members of Christ unless we unite with them. And did not the soul, when unclothed from the body, retain its essence, and be capable of beatific glory, our Savior would not have said to the thief, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise,” (Luke 23:43).

But Calvin does not wish to speculate about the intermediate state,

"Moreover, to pry curiously into their intermediate state is neither lawful nor expedient. Many greatly torment themselves with discussing what place they occupy, and whether or not they already enjoy celestial glory. It is foolish and rash to inquire into hidden things, farther than God permits us to know. Scripture, after telling that Christ is present with them, and receives them into paradise (John 12:32), and that they are comforted, while the souls of the reprobate suffer the torments which they have merited goes no farther. What teacher or doctor will reveal to us what God has concealed?"

It is "futile and inept" to inqure concerning the abode of the departed spirits of the godly as the dimension of the soul is not the same as the body. Calvin is admirably restrained in his account of the final state. He does not attempt to pry into that which is not revealed in Scripture. What we do know is that after death, the soul of the believer will live in the presence of Christ. Where the Reformer may be criticized is in his insistence that the human soul as distinct from the body is God's image bearer. Scripture simply does not recognise such a dichotomy. The image does not belong to one component of man's makeup. We are told that man as a complete psychosomatic unity was made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28). The soul and body are separable at death. But it is sin that caused this tragic anomaly. Also, as pointed out in a previous post in this series, in biblical terminology, the word "immortal" is never attributed to the human soul alone. When used of human beings, it always refers to the final, resurrected state (1 Corinthians 15:53&54). But we can agree with Calvin, that what Scripture says about the intermediate state is not given to foster unhealthy speculation. These things have been revealed to sustain believers in the face of death,

"Trusting to these clear proofs, let us doubt not, after the example of our Savior, to commend our spirits to God when we come to die, or after the example of Stephen, to commit ourselves to the protection of Christ, who, with good reason, is called “The Shepherd and Bishop” of our souls (Acts 7:59; 1 Pet. 2:25)."

2. The Final State

Despite his strong, almost Platonic emphasis on the "immortality of the soul", Calvin realised that the final state of the elect will not be disembodied bliss. He points us beyond death to the final resurrection hope that will be ushered in when Christ returns,

"Still, since Scripture uniformly enjoins us to look with expectation to the advent of Christ, and delays the crown of glory till that period, let us be contented with the limits divinely prescribed to us—viz. that the souls of the righteous, after their warfare is ended, obtain blessed rest where in joy they wait for the fruition of promised glory, and that thus the final result is suspended till Christ the Redeemer appear".

In popular evangelical eschatology, it is often the case that the intermediate state is given greater attention than the final resurrection state. Just look at a standard hymn book and you will probably find many more hymns on going to heaven after death than on resurrection glory. But the intermediate state is just that; intermediate. It is not final or ultimate. Calvin's eschatology, as it unfolds in the Institutes helps us to redress the balance. He rightly focused almost all his attention on the resurrection of the body. In doing so, Calvin captured the overwhelming emphasis of Scripture. Yes, Christians will go to heaven when they die, but after death, we shall be raised immortal and made like our glorious, risen Lord Jesus.

The Westminster Larger Catechism gives a helpful summary of the biblical teaching,

Question 86: What is the communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death?

Answer: The communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death, is, in that their souls are then made perfect in holiness, and received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies, which even in death continue united to Christ, and rest in their graves as in their beds, till at the last day they be again united to their souls. Whereas the souls of the wicked are at their death cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, and their bodies kept in their graves, as in their prisons, till the resurrection and judgment of the great day.

In the next post in this series, we will look at what Calvin has to say on the resurrection of the wicked.

The beauty of the Lord

Stourhead

As I write, I can see something of the beauty of creation through my study window. The sky is clear blue, with traces of thin, white cloud. Some of the trees that envelop our housing estate are still lush with bright green leaves, while others are slowly turning into their autumn shades of red and brown. Soft sunshine bathes the tops of the garden hedges with a warm glow. It's a beautiful sight. And that's just the view from my window, as I peer over a row of books and my computer screen to gaze at the outside world. If instead of sitting here, working at this article, I was walking around Stourhead Gardens, then the sight would be even more impressive. Right now, I can imagine the lake lit up by the autumn sun and the trees in all their multicoloured glory. What a beautiful world we live in!

But there is nothing necessary about the beauty of the world. Things sometimes function very efficiently without being especially beautiful. The street light I can see out of my window isn't great to look at compared with a lovely old oak tree, but it illuminates our street pretty effectively at night. The beauty that we encounter every day is a sign of the Creator's loving generosity. He does not want us simply to exist in the most efficient way possible, he made us to live. He created us with the capacity to enjoy the world that he made for his glory and our pleasure. "But" you might say, "there is also much ugliness in the world." Yes, that is true. Rainforests are devastated, rivers and seas polluted. Some people have to live in soulless, graffiti strewn "concrete jungles" rather than pretty Wiltshire villages. Not to mention the moral ugliness that often confronts us - the ugliness of greed, hatred and selfishness. This reminds me of the old expression, "as ugly as sin". Sin, rebellion against the God of beauty has brought ugliness into our world.

How can we recapture true beauty? Not by conforming to the idealised images of human perfection that we find in the fashion magazines. We can't all be supermodels. Even if we could, through the marvels of plastic surgery, that would not make us truly beautiful people. As the saying goes, that kind of beauty is only "skin deep". True beauty comes from knowing the God of beauty. If you want an example of a beautiful life, don't look at the latest Hollywood heartthrob. Consider Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I don't mean look at a picture of him, because we don't know what he looked like. But think about the life he lived. Jesus shows us the beauty of love, grace and truth. In an act of unimaginable beauty, he laid down his life for his friends, dying on the Cross for us. Jesus embraced the ugliness of our sin so that by trusting in him, we might be forgiven and made whole. God raised his Son from the dead. His body that was flogged, crucified and disfigured was glorified. In Jesus, true beauty is restored. Those who believe in him will be made like him. "May the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us" (Psalm 90:17).

First printed in News & Views parish magazine.

Engaging with Barth

BOOK PROMOTION

Engaging with Barth: Contemporary Evangelical Critiques
David Gibson & Daniel Strange (eds.)
(Nottingham: Apollos, January 2008)
ISBN: 978-1-84474-245-5

Engaging with Barth Website

From the publisher:

Karl Barth’s theological legacy provides both opportunity and challenge for historic, confessional evangelicalism. While there are now numerous excellent studies highlighting the value of Barth’s theology, often receiving it with ringing endorsement, there are fewer more cautionary or critical responses.

This volume engages critically and courteously with Barth on a range of vital topics where, for the contributors, his interpretation of Scripture, reading of church history, and confession of Christian doctrine are unsatisfactory. This engagement is offered as a positive contribution to the wider programme of constructive theological reflection that seeks to articulate the gospel of Jesus Christ in and for the contemporary world, in the conviction that the ‘pattern of sound teaching’ (2 Timothy 1:13) really matters.

Evangelical reception of Barth's theology takes a step forward in this well-informed collection. These are articulate, confident appraisals which take Barth seriously enough to press him hard on what the authors consider his divergences from the classical Reformed tradition. Whether correct in their judgements or not, these essays warrant careful thought from those concerned for theology's orientation to the gospel.
John Webster
University of Aberdeen

Karl Barth was the most dominant theologian of the twentieth century, at once brilliant and baffling, majestic and frustrating. His influence, though, has scarcely waned. That is why this book is important. What we have here are some of the best essays I have read on Barth. They combine sure-footed knowledge of his ideas with critical insight into what those ideas mean. They are appreciative but also tough-minded and this combination is rare today. I commend this book highly.
David F. Wells
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

The house that Karl Barth built continues to loom large in the neighbourhood of evangelical theology. The authors of Engaging with Barth are not content to admire it from the outside but survey it from within, carefully moving from room to room, noting both positive and negative features. They do a particularly good job examining the structural integrity (read “orthodoxy”) of Barth’s house, detecting here and there both worrying cracks and uneven surfaces. At the end of the day, they neither raze nor condemn the dwelling, but offer a fair and sober assessment that is invaluable for potential buyers - even for those thinking of staying only overnight.
Kevin J. Vanhoozer
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Looks like getting hold of this book will be my first New Year's resolution.

Ten things on theodramatic preaching

1. Kevin Vanhoozer has proposed that theology is best viewed in terms of theodrama, "The gospel is "theo-dramatic" - a series of divine entrances and exits, especially as these pertain to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The gospel - both the Christ event and the canon that communicates it - thus appears as the climactic moment in the Trinitarian economy of divine self-communicative action. Theology responds and corresponds to God's prior word and deed; accordingly theology itself is part of the theodramatic action." (The Drama of Doctrine, p. 31). This post is a thought experiment that attempts to view preaching in theodramatic terms.

2. Theodramatic preaching is evangelistic. It will seek to incorporate sinners into the drama of redemption by heralding the good news of Jesus and demanding repentance, faith and obedience in response to the gospel.

3. Theodramatic preaching will enable the people of God to play their roles in the drama of redemption. It will equip church is to stage the theodrama by acting out gospel in a way that is faithful to the authoritative biblical script and appropriate to the contemporary setting.

4. The task of preaching is not simply to derive "timeless principles" from the raw data Scripture as a Scientist would extract theoretical propositions from nature. This approach "dedramatises" biblical principles and propositions by removing them from the dramatic action of Scripture. Theodramatic preaching sees the Bible not as a text book, but the God-given script that the church is called to inhabit and enact. Biblical doctrines certainly embody transcultural truth, that is relevant for all time. But doctrine should not be reduced to a set of abstracted "timeless principles". Doctrine is performative. Its purpose is to direct the people of God to embody gospel life in particular historical and cultural locations.

5. A theodramatic approach to preaching recognises that the Bible gives us God's authoritative "speech acts". Speech act theory teaches us that words are not just words. We do things by speaking. With the exchange of words we enter into a marriage relationship. With words we may insult people or encourage them. Words do things, they are "speech acts". In terms of speech act theory, God's words in Scripture are the biblical locutions. These locutions - or units of speech have an illocutionary purpose. God does things by his words - he enters into a covenant relationship with his people, makes promises, utters warnings or issues commands. By the Spirit these illucutions are given a perlocutionary power. They actually effect something. Promises are believed, warnings heeded and commands obeyed. Theodramatic preaching will seek to discover and proclaim God's communicative action in Scripture. God's Word is not just "words". Once proclaimed, the Word of the Lord will not return to him void, but accomplish what he pleases (Isaiah 55:11).

6. The redemptive-historical school of preaching seeks to locate particular texts within the grand sweep of the drama of Scriptural revelation. This approach has value because texts not understood in isolation from biblical metanarratives. But redemptive-historical preaching sometimes has difficulty with the exemplary and practical nature of biblical revelation. The effect of this is that preaching may become little more than an exercise in biblical theology. This may inform believer's minds. But does it help them to perform their roles in the drama of redemption? A theodramatic approach to preaching will bridge the gap between redemptive-historical metanarratives and the Bible's exemplary and practical teaching. It is in the light of what God has done in Christ as revealed in Scripture - the theodrama - that believers are to model their lives on the biblical examples and obey the Lord's commands. This certainly reflects the structure of many of the New Testament epistles, where a doctrinal opening section is often followed by practical exhortation (see Ephesians & Colossians). Theodramatic preaching will give weight to both the indicatives and the imperatives of Scripture.

7. Theodramatic preaching will reflect the polyphonic variety of Scripture because it takes biblical genres seriously. We should recognise that biblical revelation includes the form as well as the content of of Scripture. God has not given us a textbook of abstract, timeless propositions. In the Bible we have narrative, poetry, prophecy, proverbs and epistles. These all disclose God's eternal truth in distinct ways. There is harmony and coherence in the biblical symphony of revelation. But the harmony consists of the contribution that the differing genres make to the whole. Messages based on biblical narratives will preach those narratives not simply extract timeless propositions from the narrative and preach on them. The shape of the narrative will affect the shape of the sermon. The principles in the text will flow naturally from Scripture through preacher to congregation. I once heard a preacher comment on another man's sermon, "I listened to 'so and so' preaching on David and Goliath - he mentioned it once." No doubt the preacher derived some neat, timeless principles from the text, but did he capture the richness of God's communicative action in 1 Samuel 17?

8. Theodramatic preaching will attempt to triangulate Scripture, the church and the world. The Bible is our authoritative script, but we must not see the Scripture in isolation from the church. Scripture is not given to be exegeted in academic isolation, but to be performed by the people of God. Throughout history the Spirit has enabled the church to understand and enact Scripture. The preacher will not interpret the Bible idiosyncratically, much less heretically. He will bring Scripture into conversation with the riches of the church's creedal inheritance. The wise preacher will also engage with biblical commentators old and new in an attempt to explore the meaning of the text. But once the meaning of Scripture has been prayerfully discovered, this must be brought to bear upon the local church at it exists in the world (its current social and historical setting). The aim of preaching is not to force to today's church to replicate the historical and cultural world of the first, or seventeenth, or eighteenth centuries. The ministry of the Word will apply the ancient text of Scripture to the church as she exists now. We must perform the drama of redemption in our 21st century world. The preacher will help the people of God to respond to the challenges of the contemporary world in a way that is faithful to Scripture and meaningful in present day society. This will involve triangulating the Scriptures, the church and the world. Paul did this when he brought biblical principles to bear on the cultural situation in ancient Corinth (1 Corinthians 8-10). He demonstrated that to faithfully perform the gospel in their setting, the Corinthian believers had to abstain from idolatrous feasts. We will need to do something similar as we grapple with the collapse of Christian morality in the West, postmodernism, consumerism and so on.

9. The act of preaching will itself be theodramatic. The task of preaching is not simply to give doctrinal instruction to the church, but to enable the people of God to understand and feel the truth of Scripture in order to practice it. Preaching will not be a lecture. It will be a living engagement between the preacher and the congregation. The preacher is to think and feel his way into the text so that his preaching becomes a living performance of the message. This does not mean that the preacher "play acts" his sermon. He must reflectively apply the sermon to himself before he preaches it to others. The preacher will be dramatically involved in the proclamation of the gospel. He will think it, feel it, live it. How can a man preach effectively on the love of God at Calvary if he has no theological understanding of the cross as an atoning sacrifice? How can he preach the sufferings of Christ without being emotionally involved? As Bunyan once put it, "I preached what I smartingly did feel." How can a man preach a message of forgiving love unless his life is shaped by the gospel? Preaching should be an enactment of the theodrama - a revelatory event where God's Word is proclaimed to his people in the transforming power of the Spirit.

10. Theodramatic preaching will consciously depend upon the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not enough to speak God's Word - to enunciate his locutions and illocutions. If preaching is to do anything, the Holy Spirit must be at work both in the preacher and the congregation. This is why the New Testament does not see preaching simply in terms of an accurate declaration of the truth, but a Holy Spirit empowered event (1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 1 Thessalonians 1:5, 1 Peter 1:12). Kevin Vanhoozer comments, "What God ultimately communicates in his crucified Word is the reality of salvation itself: a share in the divine life. And yet, this intended effect - fellowship with God through union with Christ - is not an automatic consequence of God's utterance. Not all communicative acts are received for what they are. So, the Word accomplished something on the cross (makes atonement for sin; declares pardon); this is the illocutionary aspect. Yet it does not really communicate salvation until and unless it is received and appropriated by the hearer [the perlocutionary aspect]. The Spirit's role is to minister Christ, to make what God is saying and doing in the cross effective. " (The Drama of Doctrine, WJK, 2005, p. 66).

I believe that reconfiguring preaching in terms of theodramatics may ensure that the proclamation of the Word is an activity that helps to produce churches that exist to perform the gospel.

"The world is filled with therapists and managers. What the church needs now is people who can (1) articulate from the Bible the truth about God, the world, and ourselves in terms that are faithful to the Bible and intelligible in the contemporary context (2) exhort their congregations to say and do things that corresponds to the truth of Jesus Christ as attested in the Bible". (Kevin Vanhoozer in an interview on this blog here).

My Top Ten Songs (for now)

1. PARANOID ANDROID- Radiohead
2. YOUR LOVE ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH - The Manic Street Preachers
3. SOMETIMES YOU CAN'T MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN - U2
4. GOING UNDERGROUND - The Jam
5. ALL OR NOTHING- The Small Faces
6. CHASING CARS - Snow Patrol
7. STILL ILL- The Smiths
8. HAMBURG SONG - Keane
9. FIX YOU - Coldplay
10. OVER MY HEAD (CABLECAR) - The Fray

Theodramatic triangulation and the future of systematic theology

"Theodramatic fittingness is the result of triangulating Scripture, church and world (cultural context). On what precisely do there three coordinates fix? The knowledge of God. God is the 'doable knowable' and to know God is to know what to say and do to glorify him in any given context. Theodramatic triangulation yields theodramatic understanding; in a word, sapientia - Christ, the wisdom of God."

From Kevin Vanhoozer's essay On the Very Idea of a Theological System in Always Reforming, Apollos IVP, 2006, p. 177

Edward Taylor on God's overflowing love

Following on from my review of the Donne biog below, here is another metaphysical poet, the Puritan Edward Taylor. See here for more info & poems.

Meditation 1

What Love is this of thine, that Cannot bee
In thine Infinity, O Lord, Confinde,
Unless it in thy very Person see,
Infinity, and Finity Conjoyn'd?
What hath thy Godhead, as not satisfide
Marri'de our Manhood, making it its Bride?

Oh, Matchless Love! filling Heaven to the brim!
O're running it: all running o're beside
This World! Nay Overflowing Hell; wherein
For thine Elect, there rose a mighty Tide!
That there our Veans might through thy Person bleed,
To quench those flames, that else would on us feed.

Oh! that thy Love might overflow my Heart!
To fire the same with Love: for Love I would.
But oh! my streight'ned Breast! my Lifeless Sparke!
My Fireless Flame! What Chilly Love, and Cold?
In measure small! In Manner Chilly! See.
Lord blow the Coal: Thy Love Enflame in mee.

Thanks to Paul Helm for drawing Taylor to my attention. His blog has two new posts on Word and Spirit in Conversion & Analysis 8 - The Gifts of a King on justification and sanctification.