Christendom bulletin

John Stott has been given a CBE. According to the press release from the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, "Dr. Stott says he is grateful that the citation reads 'for services to Christian Scholarship and the Christian World'. At the same time he is somewhat embarrassed by the continuing reference to the 'British Empire' which has long ago ceased to exist!"

For anyone who’s not quite sure who John Stott is, he was named last year by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Although this might seem far-fetched, given that at least in the UK few outside of Christian circles would have heard of him, I think it could well be true in terms of influence. In England he’s known for his books, his preaching and his leadership in numerous nationally significant Christian organisations. However, his significance internationally may well be greater, in his drafting of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974, and his far-reaching commitment to encouraging the emergence of strong church leaders in the majority world, as embodied in the Langham Partnership.

(For church history anoraks, how would you tackle this as an essay question?:
‘The Lausanne Congress is to evangelicalism as Vatican II is to Roman Catholicism.’ Discuss.)

John Piper has undergone surgery, which appears to have been successful. I recommend looking at his last sermon to his congregation before going into surgery.

Some interesting Christian-related stories in ‘mainstream’ media:Academics fight rise of creationism at universities, Bible stories ‘eyewitness accounts’ ("A leading biblical scholar is to use a series of prestigious Scottish theology lectures to make the controversial claim that the Gospels represent eyewitness accounts of historical events." - Shock horror!), 'God' faces name-change deadline ("A US man who signs himself 'God' has been told to use his real name by 14 February - or lose his driving licence. "), Italy judge throws out Jesus case ("An atheist who sued a small-town priest for saying that Jesus Christ existed has had his case thrown out of court. ").

Given that we’re partway through the HT church weekend on ‘The Holy Spirit and the Vibrant Christian Life’, I thought I might recommend Simon Ponsonby’s lectures on the doctrine of the Spirit for the ‘School of Theology’ at St Aldate’s, Oxford. This is an ongoing series over the course of this year. You can find them as MP3 files at St Aldate’s Media (this link will take you to all of their recordings of Simon Ponsonby – the School of Theology sessions are marked). Simon Ponsonby is the “pastor of theology” at St Aldate’s, having previously been in charge of student work. I think it’s an encouraging development that a church known for being “charismatic” has chosen to employ someone whose job is basically to study, teach, preach and write systematic theology.

Other things which are good fun: Together for the Gospel blog (four church leaders from different backgrounds chatting through issues and winding each other up), 9 Marks interviews (half these guys seem to have met in Cambridge, despite being largely American).

Lunch at Granta - Ben, Mike and Jo in foreground 

Lunch at Granta - Chin Hwa, Lizzie, Caro, Stephanie, Dunstan 

happenings

One of the pretentious words we use in literary studies is "topos". This is the Greek word for place and is used for commonly recurring themes or modes of expression in particular forms of literature. One topos common among bloggers is the apology for not having posted for a long time. This can get a bit tedious after a while, so I won't do it here.

Well, I think the exam went fairly well. Afterwards we went for lunch at the Granta, where I ate duck wrap and took pictures of people. The other week I attended a dinner in college for graduate students - 12 postgrads and 6 fellows. They rotate these dinners so that all the postgrads in college participate once a year. I got to talk to Dan Wakelin, one of the Christ's English fellows (who has his own fan club on Facebook), and Luke Skinner, a young palaeoclimatologist (someone who studies climate in the past) from America. Both were very amiable company (as were my fellow graduate students).

As I think I've said before, baptisms are always great. I tend to go to an average of one baptism a term but this term I will have been to two. A couple of weeks ago was Mark's baptism. As well as the encouragement of hearing Mark's testimony of how his faith has grown and developed over the years, there was an excellent sermon on the prodigal son from Marvin Wong. Marvin is from Malaysia and his cross-cultural insights, among other things, help in making his preaching come alive. You can listen to the sermon from the Eden website - look for '2006/02/05 Lost and found'. A number of Cambridge churches now have downloadable MP3 sermons. (If HT people are reading this, take it as a hint) . This Sunday I will hopefully go to Annie's baptism.

My main work focus at the moment is a textual bibliography project (looking at old books in their original editions and finding something to say about them). I'm looking at English publications of Calvin's Institutes (a hugely influential theological work) and adaptations of it. I recently got to look at a copy of the original edition of the first version of the Institutes, published in Basle in 1536. One of the first known references to the work is in a letter from Marcus Bersius to the Swiss Reformer Vadianus which mentions the Basle publication of “a catechism by some Frenchman or other, dedicated to the king of France”. From the first version of the Institutes in 1536 to Calvin's final revision in 1549, the work grew from 6 chapters to 86 chapters.

Last Saturday, I went to a day on China, which was informative and encouraging. Today I saw David Cornish, who is back from Japan for a couple of weeks. I recently discovered that one of the people who helps out with the HT international tea, and was in India for 20 years with his wife, knows my Grandad from their time together in China when they were children. I've also got to hang around in Costa Coffee a bit recently. I'm sure I've been up to more than that recently, but I'll try to post as things come to mind.

filler

Hi everyone,

I intend to post soon, but having left it this long I perhaps should wait until after my palaeography exam on Tuesday. Just to keep you on the edge of your seats: The other day I managed to fall up a flight of stone steps at Trinity College. I managed to avoid falling face down on the top step (which would have hurt) by catching myself on my little finger. I've also replaced my phone if any of you would like to call. The other day when I was meant to be working in the library I was reading the Wikipedia entry on procrastination. That should do for now.

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes" (Erasmus)