This week sees the final instalment of my series in the Baptist Times.
I originally came up with the title "From New York to New Jerusalem" for the sermon I preached the Sunday after 9/11. Not sure if the sermon was any good, but it's a great title.
Well, thought I, that'll be useful - somebody actually teaching me how to teach!
But, thought I also, I hope it's worth doing... It looks like a lot of hours and a lot of work...
Well, as those who knew me over the two years it took to complete the course, I had a hate-love relationship with PCUTL.
There were moments, particularly towards the start, where my natural cynicism asserted itself, and my reply to 'where are you off to today?' was, typically, 'Bl**dy PCUTL'.
However, as the course progressed, I became more and more convinced of the value of (most of) what I was learning.
And so I converted.
Here, I'll say it: PCUTL is thoroughly worthwhile. I'm a better teacher as a result. There, I said it, and it didn't hurt! I'm proud to be a PCUTL graduate and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
So a big thank you to Clare Kell and the team at PCUTL.
Here's a PCUTL publicity video featuring me being interviewed by Caroline, in which I explain a bit about why I found the module valuable.
ROM. 3:86 - 4:86 Friends, I urge you to Excel in all things, becoming proficient in the holy Word, for by this means you will gain Access to the knowledge which surpasses understanding. I would have you study the Works of the Lord to such an extent that you become Word Perfect. Ensure that you do not lack the Saving power, which is your Help, and Restores your lost labour. Be patient with one another, and take care that your actions do not put another’s Backup. Do not worship Icons, for these are to be shunned as being linked with pagan Cursors. Neither should you associate yourself with those who dabble in Fonts. Remember how Abraham sacrificed a RAM in place of his own son, remaining Open to your Word even in his distress. In this way Abraham was Justified by faith, not by Works. Above all, be Bold in your faith. By following this advice you will avoid being cast aside like Abraham’s son E-mail. Praise to the Lord, our gracious ISProvider, who rescues us from everlasting Doom and opens before us the glorious Vista of life eternal.
The second of my 'Faith Matters' series in the Baptist Times is now out - on the theme of 'Judgement and Hope'.
I said last week that I was expecting 'letters' and, true to expectation, the first one has arrived. Thankfully it's a nice one! Cheers, Iain, I owe you a drink...
They've also started using the photo taken hurriedly at the Baptist Assembly. As someone who suffers from "Chandler-Photo" syndrome, I actually don't think it's a bad photo...
But JW's comment this morning when he saw it was "Well, at least you don't look drunk. But still, it's not the best photo: you don't normally look mad"!
For those of you who aren't sure what I'm talking about, here's the relevant clip from Friends:
This is the cover of a piece of serious academic research... (although weirdly this picture from Amazon is a bit off-centre)
I've just been round to John Lyons' to have a look at the first copy hot of the press, and it looks fantastic.
Here's the blurb and contents: (My own chapter is about half way down...)
The richly varied collection of 15 essays in this volume showcase the afterlife of the Book of Revelation. It is a biblical book that has left its mark in many fields of intellectual endeavour: literature, film, music, philosophy, political theology, and religious ideology. It is perhaps paradoxical that this book, which promises God’s punishment upon anyone expanding on its contents, has nevertheless accumulated to itself over two millennia vast amounts of commentary, exposition, and appropriation.
Offered at the close of the ‘Blair/Bush years’, this volume also exposes and highlights the often deeply ironic resonances generated while studying the reception history of Revelation during a period when the book has both significant public currency and a potentially terrifying global impact.
Setting the Scene: The End of the Bible, the End of the World (Jorunn Økland)
Decoding, Reception History, Poetry: Three Hermeneutical Approaches to the Apocalypse (Jonathan Roberts)
Laying Hold of Divine Riches: Self-Authorization in Christina Rossetti’s The Face of the Deep (1892) (Jo Carruthers)
Revelation, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: R.L. Stevenson’s Strange Case (Alison Jack)
‘Every eye shall see him’: Revelation and Film (Melanie J. Wright)
The Apocalypse according to Johnny Cash: Examining the ‘Effect’ of the Book of Revelation on a Contemporary Apocalyptic Writer (William John Lyons)
The Johannine Apocalypse and the Risk of Knowledge (James E. Harding)
Revelation, Violence, and War: Glimpses of a Dark Side (Heikki Räisänen)
Observations on the Reception of Revelation, c. 1250–1700: Apocalyptic Prophecy as Refractory Lens (Anke Holdenried)
The Plain and Literal Meaning of the Text: A Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist Perspective on Revelation 20.1-7 (Simon Woodman)
‘Be thou faithful unto death’ (cf. Rev. 2.10): The Book of Revelation, the Branch Davidians and Apocalyptic (Self-)Destruction? (Kenneth Newport)
Earth Left Behind? Ecological Readings of the Apocalypse of John in Contemporary America (Michael S. Northcott)
Feminists in Search for a Usable Future: Feminist Reception of the Book of Revelation (Hanna Stenström)
The Spectre Revealed and Made Manifest: The Book of Revelation in the Writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (Jorunn Økland)
The Interdisciplinary Colloquium on the Book of Revelation and Effective History (Christopher Rowland)
The Book of Revelation: Currents in British Research on the Apocalypse
The Plainly Revealed Word of God?
Questions of Identity
Wisdom, Science and the Scriptures
Prayers of the People
The Way the World Ends?
Bible and Justice
Delivering the Word
Dictionary of the Bible and Western Culture
The story of Women in Ministry in the Baptist Union of Great Britain
The Book of Revelation - Bible Society
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