Happy 65th Birthday Paul Fiddes

Today is Paul Fiddes' 65th birthday, and I'd like to add my voice to those of others (Sean and Andy) firstly in wishing him many happy returns of the day, and secondly in voicing appreciation for him as a person, and as a Baptist scholar.

I first encountered Paul when visiting various Baptist Colleges to try and decide where to train for Baptist ministry, and I clearly remember the meeting Liz and I had with him in his study at Regents Park College in Oxford, and the encouragement that he gave us. Ultimately I chose Bristol (no offence meant, Paul), but for some years he still seemed to think I had actually studied at Regents!

I have had the privilege on two occasions of publishing essays by Paul in books I've edited, and I have to say he is a joy to work with. His writing is superb, and his essay on Prophecy, Corporate Personality, and Suffering was so meticulously proof read before it arrived that my co-editor (Helen Dare) and I had to look long and hard to find anything at all to justify our editorial claims.

Paul has been an encouragement, inspiration and friend, and I am grateful to God for him.

It is perhaps best to let his own words speak for themselves, so...

On Baptist hermeneutics:

               The authority of scripture is its intrinsic power to grasp and shape human lives; it witnesses to a human experience of God, and this experience continues in the present through the activity of the Spirit. Wheeler Robinson suggests that Baptists are committed to this understanding of the witness of the Spirit in scripture through their commitment to believers’ baptism, which is both an expression of faith and a baptism of the Spirit.  This is, we might say, a baptismal hermeneutics.

               Our Baptist interpreters are committed to history and the critical-historical method; they have some confidence in finding the intention of the writer in his historical context; but they also think that the meaning of the text is not confined to these aspects. What we now call ‘reader-response’ is essential for the meaning of the text, but this response includes a movement of faith and obedience. The reader does not just contribute to the meaning of the text, but is engaged in a search for truth. This aspect is valid, I suggest, even if we drop the quest for an ‘enduring principle’ within the form, and even if we raise some doubts about how much of an author’s experience we can uncover. Faced with the text, the reader is challenged to discern the truth of God…

               We may return finally then to the question of hermeneutics, as discussed earlier, in the light of recent insistence that interpretation can only be done in community.  Out of the context of their community and their corporate memory Baptist interpreters are called to make a value-judgement about truth as they read scripture, and the truth they have often found there is the redemptive suffering of God. They are called to make their own judgement in faith, and they are able to make it through the Spirit of God. But they are not imprisoned in memories. If we follow H. Wheeler Robinson’s perceptions into the activity of the Spirit in all human consciousness, and the kinship of all humanity with God, this interpretation will always be open to hear the discoveries of other communities too.

Fiddes, Paul S. "Prophecy, Corporate Personality, and Suffering: Some Themes and Methods in Baptist Old Testament Scholarship." In The 'Plainly Revealed' Word of God? Baptist Hermeneutics in Theory and Practice, edited by Helen Dare and Simon Woodman, 72-94. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2011, pp. 84-5, 94.

And on the theology of prayer:

               In intercession we find that we are being pulled into a zone of inter-connection. This kind of prayer is supremely social. We are being swept into a current in which nothing is separated from anything else, no one from anyone else. We find we are being urged by the Spirit to pray for those far away in the world, some of whom we have never met; we find that we can enter with empathy into the experience of the hungry and needy of the world, and that this opens up an awareness of the hungry and needy parts of ourselves. We who pray for others find that we too are being prayed for as we enter the community of prayer…

               If divine activity takes the form of partnership between God and the world, then as we pray we can add the persuasive power of our love to God’s. That is, in praying for others we are expressing our love and concern for them, and God takes that desire into the divine desire for their well-being. God wants to create a response within persons at every level (conscious and unconscious), to entice them into an openness to new possibilities that will promote healing, to woo them into cooperating with initiatives of grace. Our hopes, expectations and longings for someone are assumed into God’s own persuasion, augmenting and amplifying the urgings of God’s Spirit, so that together God and the interceders begin to work transformation. Whether we want someone to act justly and generously, or to be comforted, or to be strong in the face of adversity, God is the means of communicating this desire to them, and of making it effective within God’s own pressure of grace where on their own our wishes could achieve little. At the same time, of course, the one praying is becoming attuned to the desires of God, prompted to act appropriately, and where possible, to change the situation with practical deeds of help…

               In intercession, then the two patterns of dialogue and dance interweave. We respond to the revealing of God’s purpose (dialogue), and we are drawn into the communion (or dance) in God where we can affect the lives of others. In making prayers of intercession, it is appropriate to include some details of the situation for which we are praying, and not just to be vague, as long as the result is not a set of instructions (or a ‘shopping-list’) for the way that God should operate. A realistic understanding of the needs faced by people will help us to empathize with them, entering imaginatively into their situation, and so enabling us to enter more deeply into God’s transforming love towards them. Our prayer is also informed by hope, as we imagine what it would be like for our desires to be fulfilled. There is a serious playfulness, a festive note as we live in imagination in a situation that has not yet happened, praying ‘your kingdom come ... as in heaven, so on earth’.

Fiddes, Paul S. "A Theology of Public Prayer." In Prayers of the People, edited by Karen E. Smith and Simon P. Woodman, 1-16. Oxford: Centre for Baptist History and Heritage and South Wales Baptist College, 2011, pp. 11, 12, 13.

A new life begins

On the whole things have been a bit quiet on this blog for a while now - largely due to the huge changes that Liz and I have been through over the last few months: Leaving our house and friends in Bristol, Liz leaving her job and starting to look for a new one in London, me leaving South Wales Baptist College and starting at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in London.

But we're here, were in, and I'm already at the end of week 1. The books are unpacked and my study is up and running, Sunday's sermon is in the bag, and I've even worked out where the toilets are.

I can see why people say that moving house and job is one of the more stressful things in life, even when you're as sure as you can be that it's the 'right' thing to do.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing some old friends next weekend here in London for the Baptist Assembly - it's not too late to book to come, but our house is now officially full for the weekend, so you'll need to find your own accommodation!

p.s. in the photo above, my study is the two small windows in the tower to the left of the rose window.

Thanks to Andy Goodliff for drawing my attention to a review by John Briggs of the Baptist Hermeneutics volume.

Andy writes:

John Briggs has reviewed The 'Plainly Revealed' Word of God? Baptist Hermeneutics in Theory and Practice edited by Helen Dare and Simon Woodman in the Journal for Theological Studies (April 2012). He ends his review by saying

'But lest it be thought that the essays here presented represent just a celebration of distinctively Baptist perspectives, John Colwell emphasizes the purpose of the exercise must be ‘with the goal of enriching the whole rather than further entrenching the past’, that is, the search is to make a contribution to the catholic rather than to defend a particular confession. At the end of the day fine words are not enough and so one of the external observers questions whether there is a mismatch between Baptist ideals and much Baptist practice, noting that ‘the disjunction between the radical ideals of the Baptist churches and their concrete realisation on the ground’ lead him to conclude that Baptists are too often ‘a people of unfulfilled promise’, a criticism which he turns into a challenge that Baptists serious about their identity should read this book and act upon it.'

John Finnemore on Religion from The Now Show

Baptist Cookbook

If you're a Baptist, and if you like cooking, then the Baptist Cookbook is for you!

Download the PDF and share the Baptisty Goodness...

Thanks to Fran B. for finding this...

Babylon is in Manchester!

Tattooing! Revelation 13:16-17
Tarot! Sorcery! Revelation 21:8
Nice hair! Revelation 9:8
Food! Revelation 2:20
Red sea! Revelation 16:3
Thai massage! Revelation 14:8

It's all there in Manchester...

Thanks to Lou for spotting this!

Nothing new under the sun

The Rev. J. R. Wood, of London, was then called upon to make an interim statement as to the arrested progress in the Baptist churches. He said the Committee which had the matter in hand were not yet in a position to present a report. They had held three meetings, and they asked for further time for consideration of this complex and exceedingly grave question. He did not think there was any question immediately before them of greater importance than this was. Speaking for himself, he might say that the arrest in their progress was real. The fact was that while the population was increasing the Baptist Church membership was decreasing. It was no comfort to them that this arrest was general, and that other denominations were suffering quite as much as they were. That made the matter all the more distressing. However, he did not think they ought to be unduly discouraged. There had been bad times in the Churches before now, and yet there had been a revival. They should get rid of the idolatry of numbers. Numbers mattered little; quality was everything.

The Manchester Guardian, Wednesday, October 6, 1909
Report of the BUGB Assembly, held in Reading.

Pause for Thought

Pausing for Thought on Radio 2 again this morning, on the Richard Allinson show (in case you missed it)

Pause for Thought 2012 01 07

I was presenting Pause for Thought on this morning's Zoe Ball show, in case you missed it...


 

Imago Dei

One morning, God was staring at the wall. Not a blank wall, but not patterned either. It was a wall of chaos: bright colours, dark colours, swirling patterns, eternally dark and infinitely bright both at the same time. God wondered what could be made of the wall, so he reached out a hand and swirled the colours around. Soon order and pattern began to emerge: luscious pastoral greens coalesced, deep aqua blues combined, and this new creation seemed very pleasing to God.

After contemplating the wall for a while longer, God began to wonder what to do next, so he spoke gently to the wall, and a lustrous sheen began to appear. The wall became shiny, as if a layer of glass had been laid over the top of it. As God continued to stare at the wall, he could now see his own reflection within it. He saw himself inside his creation. When he moved his hand, the image of God waved back. When God smiled, his image smiled back. When God blew at the wall, the image blew a kiss back. God loved the image in the wall, and was happy with all that he had made.

But then something unexpected happened. The image of God reached out and punched the wall from the inside, and the shiny surface of the wall now had a flaw in it, like a stone-chip on a car windscreen. Suddenly the image of God didn’t look quite so much like God anymore: the flaw in the surface had damaged the reflection. The order that God had brought to the wall was distorted, and God was very sad. But still he stood there, staring at the wall and not turning away. Then the image hit the wall again, this time harder and angrier, as if trying to get out, trying to get at God. God flinched, but still he stared at the wall. The surface was by now crazed with cracks, and the image continued to fragment into lots of tiny, sharp fragments. God contemplated walking away from the wall, but knew that if he did so his image would vanish from the wall forever. Distorted as it was, it was still his image; it was still the image he had loved, waved at, and blown kisses to.

God wondered what to do next. And then had an idea. He took a few steps back, and threw himself violently at the wall. The force of the impact stunned him and shook the wall, and the millions of tiny sharp fragments ripped at his skin. Powered forward by the momentum of his run-up, God seemed for a moment to merge into the wall. His blood streaked the surface, and the mark of the impact was clear to see. But God himself had vanished.

After a while it was just possible to make out the faint image of God through the crazed, blood-stained, fragmented surface. God had gone into the wall. Gradually the image of God grew stronger and larger, as God walked up to the wall from the inside. He reached out his hand and carefully joined two broken shards together, and then two more, and then two more. Gradually, slowly, God began to repair the wall from within. As God repaired the wall, he looked at it very carefully, and started to see his own image reflected back.

The end.

(c) Simon Woodman, 2011.