First Steps to a Theology of Nature

In theology, the term "nature" has several distinct usages. Bauckham explains that he wishes to focus on the modern usage of the term, namely, as it refers to "the observable non-human world." He critiques such usage, explaining that it tends toward a focus on the natural environment of human life on "our" planet. Bauckham's concern is that a misleading distinction between "nature" and humanity can easily be supposed.

Adding to the Church during the Early American Period

This article is a historical study of how the New England church in America dealt with issues like the determining of membership after a person or persons came forward as converts. There were a set of rules and procedures that had to be laid down at that time to determine whether one was genuinely a member of Christ's body or not.

Gospel of Glory – Individualism

According to the author, the Gospel of John lays emphasis on both the individual believer and the community of believers. We should not allow either to cancel out the other. What Bauckham indicates as individualism is nothing more than the considerable emphasis this Gospel account lays on the relationship of the individual believer to Jesus Christ. In Chapter 1 he gathers and assesses the evidence for the individual’s relationship with Jesus.

Sin

'Sin' has become an old-fashioned word. One reason for this is that sin is a religious word. It suggests that what one does wrong is wrong in the sight of God. Another reason is that the word 'sin' implies that there are some things that are absolutely wrong. It assumes some standard to which our lives ought to conform. Both of these reasons go against the modern trend in our culture which views morality as a matter of private opinion.

Prayer

Is it childish when we go on asking God for things even as adults? What Jesus says about prayer is put in the simplest childlike way: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you". This understanding of prayer makes sense only if we realize that for Jesus it belongs to a special kind of relationship with God - a relationship of trusting intimacy and close friendship. A child would not hesitate to ask a loving parent for anything.

Judgment

Once Christians were very familiar with the image of the Last Judgment. Yet today, many wonder what it has to do with the gospel message of the love of God, or with the Jesus of the Gospels who lived and died for the salvation of sinners. However, it is the Jesus of the Gospels who makes it clearer than anyone else that He will sit in judgment over people. He will distinguish the innocent from the guilty as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats in a mixed herd (Matthew 25).

The Gospels as Eyewitness Accounts

Are the four New Testament Gospels reliable accounts of Jesus? Are the Gospels accounts of real history? In this article, Richard Bauckham highlights the importance of the eyewitnesses described in the Gospels - those who were actually there at the events of Jesus' life. Bauckham asks the question: How are the Gospels related to the testimony of the eyewitnesses?

Reading the Bible in the Context of the Ecological Threats of Our Time

This lecture is on the care of creation. Francis Bacon was the first person to understand the dominion given to humans at Creation as a task for the progressive exploitation of the resources of creation for the improvement of human life. Before this, people had taken the command of Genesis 1:28 as authorizing the ordinary ways in which people already made use of non-human creation - i.e. farming, hunting, fishing, etc.

Jesus and the Crisis of Meaning

In contemporary culture there is a crisis of meaning, but most of the time it is swept out of sight. Not many think there are any answers to the big questions of meaning: “Why am I here?”, “What’s the meaning of life?” People tend not to ask them. They try to create meaning out of the things our societies urge us to fill our lives with: working and spending money. This lecture proposes that the Christian message about Jesus Christ has something to say to this crisis of meaning.

Orthodoxy in Christology

How should we understand and live out Christology in our modern context? Who is Jesus Christ for us today? This author maintains that our orthodoxy must be contemporary. This does not mean that our contemporary context should determine our faith, but that we should understand our orthodoxy within the modern context. This article discusses what a contemporary orthodox witness to Christ looks like.