Saturday FEET

A fascinating day that’s been very full!

An early morning start with prayers at 7-30 and then breakfast

And over breakfast a fascinating conversation with someone teaching systematic theology in the Belfast Bible College.  Having done her PhD on Emil Brunner, she was explaining the need, she felt to help students recognise that the way they read the Scriptures is through a lens.  And then maybe to discover there are other ‘lenses’ through which they can read the Scriptures.

I shared some thoughts from my thesis about the way in the very earliest years of the Reformation people on opposite sides of the divide found a point of contact and conversation reading Scripture.

We went on to a Bible reading looking at Romans 12:1-2 led by Prof Thomas Schirmacher who spoke of the way he had been involved in drawing up a statement collaboratively with members of the World Council of Churhes, repreentatives from the Vatican on approipriate frameworks for mission.  He reflected on the way it was in using the Scriptures that they all hold in common that they were able to come up with a common statement.  Interesting to make the connections with the conversations over breakfast.

He reflected on the emphasis Paul makes in those verses on the transformation of the mind – and the importance of thinking through our faith as we read the Scriptures.

We were then in to the first main paper of the day.

Dr Tchavdar Hadjieve of Sofia, Bulgaria, originally from a Congregational church in Bulgaria, now teaching in the Belfast Bible College.

Reading the Old Testament in Christian Scripture

He reflected in a fascinating way on the need for Christians to read the Old Testament with the help of the New Testament.  He made a study of I Kings 20 and 21, suggesting that within that text there is a transformation of meaning.  Within the Old testament there are moments when meaning is transformed.  He then suggested that Jesus then transforms the way the Old Testament is read.  And we need to read the Old Testament with a willingness to recognise that its meaning is transformed by Christ.  He then suggested three setting we might imagine this text being read in – from a context of judgment, from the margins and from the context of power.  In each instanced we might see the text through a different perspective.  It was fascinating to hear the discussion it provoked and interesting to see connections with the previous evening’s theme.

Over coffee I shared more with the person who chairs the Congregational churches of Bulgaria and spoke of our links with Bulgaria through the International Congregatinoal Fellowship.  A later converfsation with someone else from Bulgaria was an excellent piece of networking for our Congregational links.

Over lunch there were more interesting conversations with someone from the Geissen seminary we had links with through Jurgen and Stefan who had both been at Geissen.  He is exploring the significance in Matthew’s gospel of the ‘twelve apostles’.  And interesting discussion on ways of reading the Bible.

After lunch some welcome free time saw Stefan and me walking along the river that runs by the conference centre and flows into a small lake.  A lovely walk, good to set the world to rights with Stefan.

At the end of the afternoon Prof Roland Deines of the University of Nottingham gave a fascinating lecture in which he suggested that Matthew wrote his Gospel kowing that he was writing Scripture.  That too prompted lively discussion, turning to issues of canon with Roland suggesting we need to be open in our attitude to the canon.  It was all fascinating stuff – it prompted me to reflect on the way the Jewish Hebrew Scriptures come to a climax in II Chronicles and the way the final couple of verses seem then to be taken up at the beginning of Mathew.  Hopefully, an interesting contribution to al fascinating discussion.

Interesting afterwards to find myself in conversation with someone who was disturbed at Roland’s rejection of inerrancy and infalilibility, as a denial of what evangelicals are about; I felt almost the opposite that his view on the writing of Scripture was very much an evangelical point of view.

There are moments in the conference when there is an emphasis on retaining an ‘evangelical’ identify in doing theology.  I feel uncomfortable with the use of such labels, preferring simply to do theology.

It is interesting to hear different markers people put down.  One speaker has spoken of ‘evangelical’ being to do with the ‘good news’, no speaker, but this one participant felt being evangelical has to do with inerrancy and infallibility of the Scripture.

Roland Dieness made the interesting comment that it was the King James Bible that introduced the notion of ‘the Holy Bible’.  Prior to that published Bible s had been Holy Scriptures.  To think of our holy text as ‘The Holy Bible’ leads towards the inerrancy of each word and letter.  To think of our sacred text as ‘the Holy Scriptures’ leads towards a more open approach to canon.

He sugggsted in the Christian Biible we should think of Old Testament and New Tesatment.  The Old Testament is the ordering of the Septuagint Greek translation and is adopted by thye early Christians because it culminates with the prophets and Malachi and leads on to John the Baptist and the arrival of Jesus.

He suggested that in the days of Jesus the scrolls of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings were in boxes and not in an order.  Though the Torah is in an order.  Then like circles rippling out from a stone thrown into a pond the prop;hets and the writings have their place as well.

When the Jewish people put the Hebrew Scriptures into the order of the Tanakh they quite deliberately bring the scripturfes to a climax in II Chronicles because that leads to return from exile and building of the temple – almost a deliberate counter to the Christian reading of what has come to be for us the Old Testament.

All fascinating stuff – stimulatking interesting discussion and lots of food for thought.

Supper gave me the opportunity to share with one of our speakers from Friday evening and explore more thoughts about his approach to reading the Scriptures.

The day came to an end as we divided into discipline groups.  I joined a group of New Testament teachers.   Peter from the Czech Republic read a short paper on Philemon and stimulated a fascinating discussion on the radical new society the church is as Paul sees slave and master as one in Christ and Onesimus becomes a brother of Philemon.

It was great to revisit Philemon and I shared something of my project in exploring the world of the New Testament in the Cotswolds in this instance in Chedworth Roman villa.

All in a great time.

Two other members of staff of the Geissen seminary were in that group.  That gave rise to a great conversation that has only just come to an end about the links between Geissen and the university of Gloucestershire that led Jurgen and then Stefan and Birgit to join us at Highbury.

Great to have an opportunity to say thank you to Geissen for the contribution they have made indirectly to Highbury.

We reflected together on the involvement of people who hAve come through Highbury in theological education.  Ford, who runs the bookstore at Geissen and here at the conference, said that it is a wonderful mission area as it multiplies the contacts you have with people.  Involvement with theological education shapes those who are going then to be the ones playing key roles in many churches.

It was a wonderful encouragement.

Stefan and I have just got back to our room and Stefan has given me the new book mark he and the family have to give out.

It captures the identical theme.  There’s a picture of a dandelion seed head with all the seeds blowing in the wind, almost through Birgit’s hair!!!!  The heading is Multiplication – Theological Education in Brazil.

That’s what Stefan is about in Brazil, Jonathan in Truro, Graham in Manchester, Christina in India and I through our integrated training course – our vision in being involved in theological education is that the seeds may blow and take root in many places.

An even earlier start in the morning as we are off to church in Berlin.