oddments

1		'I Believe'
2		Lurking - a Christmas 'poem'
3		Five Little Ditties
4		At Our Best
5		Radio Cornwall - Reflections - July 2007
6		Radio Cornwall - Reflections - September 2009
7		Radio Cornwall - Thought for the Day - January 2010
8		Radio Cornwall - Darwin and Evolution
9		Diagram 1 - The 'Methodist Quadrilateral'
10		Diagram 2 - A Theology Triangle
11		Diagram 3 - An Ethics Triangle
12		Diagram 4 - A Hermeneutic Triangle
13		Dialogue on John 14:6
14		SCM Studyguide - The Psalms - Indexes

1 ‘I believe’

One of the tasks we set second and third year ministerial students on the South West Ministry Training Course is to produce a 6-point ‘creed’ which sums up what they believe. Here’s my own version, though it’s in two slightly different forms (and for an explanation of that you’ll need to go to Sermons and read the ‘I believe’ sermon there).

Either I believe

in life and light and love, despite the power of their opposites which we see all around us

in God as the hidden source and the sustaining power of life and light and love in all their many and varied forms

in the story of Jesus of Nazareth, where we see life and light and love lived out in a human life, death and resurrection

in God’s call to all humanity to live for life and light and love in the power of his spirit

in God’s eternal generosity towards our human failings

in the ultimate victory of life and light and love over death and darkness and hate

Or I believe

in celebrating and affirming life, in all its many forms, despite its fragility and distortions

in celebrating and affirming the kaleidoscope of human life, despite its tragedies and failures

in life and light and love as values worth living by

in the challenge to all humanity to live by them despite the attractions and the power of their opposites - death, darkness and hate

in the power of the story of Jesus of Nazareth, where we see life and light and love lived out in a human being, to promote such living

in a future for humanity and planet Earth if humanity chooses to live by these values

2 Lurking - a Christmas 'poem'

Lurking,
underneath the two Bible stories and behind the crib,
even in the tinsel and the Santas, the holly, the busy tills, the Dinner and the mince pies,
lie two facts.
A birth to a girl called Mary,
in a particular place and a particular time,
though neither identifiable;
in circumstances beyond our recovery,
though normal enough
from broken waters to a woman’s pain and joy
and somewhere, surely, the necessary man.
And a life,
in a particular place and a particular time,
with an identifiable end,
in circumstances broadly recoverable,
and normal enough in their brutal savagery,
but not quite the death they intended;
which is why the stories birthed.
Luke,
simple women and shepherds,
angel visited,
a journey to a strange place
and then a journey home again -
but all the story signs were there for those who knew their old, old stories of other simple women
and the children they bore from,
and for,
God.
If you have ears to hear, Luke says,
then hear this pregnant story.
Matthew’s tale,
grimmer,
speaks of prophet’s words,
confusingly fulfilled,
but as so often in the past unheard, despised, denied, rejected,
except by strangers;
leaving only dead children and mourning mothers.
Can you not see? Matthew asks?
Knowing the answer
rich meanings are storied here.
But why no story from the earliest Story-teller?
Maybe the death is story enough for Mark.
And in the latest,
narrative becomes philosophy though the truth is the same,
that if you want to see God, or the Meaning of All Things, or whatever it is you seek and by whatever name you name it,
you need to look at one living,
and dying,
first century Jew,
says John
and glimpse, there,
lurking,
some sense
of why
and how
things might be.
3 Five Little Ditties (with attitude)
To Qoheheth
I did not ask to be born,
an accident of life
on a speck of cosmic dust;
But seeing that I’m here
I may as well make the most of it,
enjoy it while it lasts,
make meaning where I can.
And so, against the grain,
I use those big words,
like:
love,
‘my sibling’s keeper’
and even,
‘God’

Religion

Religion should make us sane and humane,
and any sort of religion which makes us the opposite
(and there are plenty of examples of such religion around)
is to be condemned accordingly

‘God’

For me,
‘God’,
is not an exclamation of horror or surprise;
nor an explanation – theological, philosophical, cosmological, or any kind of logical;
nor even a liturgical experience or a spirituality thing.
But rather a symbol,
a cipher,
of a way to be,
to do,
to walk,
to live

God (2)
By definition, surely,
God,
whatever or whoever we mean by that mysterious word,
must be better than the best of us;
and not be what,
if we were to be like it,
would have us arrested

On ‘judgement’
I didn’t ask to be born,
and I don’t see why I should be condemned,
eternally,
for failing to come up to some god’s standards
when I die.
Did I select my genes or my environment?
Have any say in my nature or my nurturing?
I do my best to make a good fist of it,
to temper the unruly urges
and moderate the less pleasant parts of my inheritance;
even to live usefully.
I don’t plan an epitaph or obituary,
but if I did - ‘He tried to do his best’ - would have to do.
If that’s not good enough in some god’s judgement,
then isn’t that his problem, as they say?
And if he makes it mine,
what kind of justice is that?
4 At our best – a funeral ‘poem’
Our very difficult 95-year old neighbour died a couple of years ago, and his family asked me to ‘say something’ at his funeral. It wasn’t to be the sermon or address, for if there was to be one of those, then it would be given by the Roman Catholic priest conducting the cremation. But what could I say, for Len really was a difficult old stick, and everybody knew it? I came up with this, and said it was an anonymous poem I had come across. That was a pastorally-appropriate fib, of course, for it was written with Len very much in mind, though I think it’s really true of most of us.
We’re not at our best when we are old,
often, though not always,
things stop working,
we get tired,
and tiresome,
and some of our worse traits come to the fore.

We’re not at our best in our middle years,
often, though not always,
we’re driven by ambition,
caught up in ourselves and in our work,
and neglectful of the things that really matter.

And were we at our best in our youngest days?
Or were those early times,
not quite as happy or as innocent as they were supposed to be?
Just when are we at our best?
If not in this life, what about the next?
Or are we just recycled, to try it all again?
Or do we just stop, in nothing, for this one’s all there is?

No one knows, of course,
but I believe the best is yet to be,
when all our worst bits, and our best,
are purged, refined and changed.
And then the ‘us’ that few have ever seen,
including we ourselves,
emerges from God’s power and love,
and we are,
for the first time,
and for ever,
at our best.

5 Radio Cornwall – Reflections - July 2007

Monday

Morning everyone, it’s good to be with you again for Reflections. This time I want to share some of the things that are important to me, so I’ve called my reflections this week, “I believe”. The first thing to say is, “I believe in God”. I don’t believe, you see, that life is an accident. I know accidents happen all the time, and some are so important they shape the way our lives go after that, and others are so small they are quickly forgotten. But I just can’t accept that life, the universe and everything is itself an accident. I believe that behind it, underneath it and in it there is an intelligence, a purpose, a reason which holds it all together - ‘God’. I don’t believe that our lives are programmed or anything by this “deep purpose” but I do believe there is one. I believe in God.

Tuesday

Yesterday I said I believed in God, today I want to say I believe in life. I believe in the world we live in, and in life itself. I believe in the things I touch and see every day and the ordinary things all round us: Oatibix for breakfast, the smell of good manure, the sound of curlews in the estuary at St Clement and all sorts of other ordinary, everyday things that give moments of pleasure. We had a lad in college who used to burst into the washroom at 7 in the morning with ‘Isn’t it great to be alive!’ only to be told to shut up or worse. ‘Isn’t it great to be alive!’ He died of leukaemia at 35 leaving two little children – but his zest for life, for the little and ordinary things is something I’ll always remember. Jim believed in life; I do too.

Wednesday

Today I want to say that I believe in me – yes that’s what I said, I believe in me. I believe in me, Stephen Dawes, the ordinary mixture of the good, the bad and the in-between that I see in the mirror every morning. I also believe God believes in me. That’s the great joy of baptisms – they are such preposterous services. There we are, celebrating the birth of a new baby and saying that God loves her, welcomes her and values her. What a silly claim to make, ‘cos apart from her parents, granparents and a few friends and family, she’s only a statistic, one of millions. But the Baptism Service boldly insists that this little baby is precious to God; she matters, God believes in her. So if God believes in little babies and in me, the least I can do is to believe in me as well.

Thursday

Controversial one today, I believe in religion. The world is full of it - Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and all sorts of little religions too. And that’s not surprising because we’re all looking for the meaning of life, the universe and everything, and religion is a big part of that search. I know there’s another side to this, and that terrible things are done by religious people in the name of their religion. That’s bad religion, and it’s inexcusable; but I still want to say I believe in religion, because religion is about getting in touch with the deep things of life, those things that are wider and bigger than us, and which help us make sense of life and cope with it. And I believe that mystery is worth looking for, and that without that dimension life is missing something. For all its faults, I believe in religion.

Friday

I believe in God, life, me and religion, and today I want to say I believe in right and wrong, that there is a difference between good and evil, and that doing right and not doing wrong matters. I think most people agree that some things are good - like kindness and letting pedestrians over zebra crossings; and that some things are evil - like child abuse and drinking and driving. I think we also recognise that we can go wrong, and that’s why I believe in repentance, saying sorry and forgiveness too. But I don’t believe that life is like it is in fairy stories and films with happy endings where good always wins in the end, for too often it doesn’t. Right and good don’t just happen, they have to be worked at, important choices have to be made, yes, I believe in right and wrong.

Saturday

Finally, to end a week of reflections on some of the things that are important to me - God, life, me, religion, right and wrong - I want to say I believe in Jesus Christ, that young rabbi who wandered round Palestine 2000 years ago, teaching the old Jewish truth about God and his love, healing, getting a good reputation as a holy man and a bad one as a friend of sinners, who in the end upset too many people and was killed. I also believe that God did not let things end there. So I believe in Jesus, for me the best clue there is to the meaning of life, the universe and everything. I find his story compelling, that his teaching makes sense, and that his life, death and resurrection point right to the heart of God and the meaning of life; I believe in Jesus Christ.

6 Radio Cornwall – Reflections – September 2009

Monday

Good morning everyone, good to be with you again. The summer’s not too long ago to talk about holidays, is it? So that’s what I want to talk about this week – holidays. I won’t bore you with my holiday snaps or anything like that – but I will start the week by saying how important I think holidays actually are, so important that the last thing Margaret and I do at the end of our summer holiday is go through the diary and book the dates of our next year’s summer holiday and as many mini-breaks as we can manage and afford, of course. Over the years I’ve tried to tell ministers and student ministers to do the same - some listen, some don’t - because not only are holidays and proper breaks a good thing but the Bible says so too. I’ll say more about that tomorrow.

Tuesday

Hello again. Yesterday I said that the Bible tells us to take holidays and proper breaks. In case you wonder where - it’s the 4^th commandment, the one that says ‘Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. 6 days you shall labour and do all your work, and on the 7^th you shall put your feet up’. That means, if we translate it into 21^st century English – ‘Take your holidays and make them special’. But we can go back before that. The Bible starts with a parable – the one in which God creates the world in seven days – and the climax and punch line of the parable is that when he got to Day 7 he had a rest and blessed that day as a holiday. That’s why everyone else should have a rest too, so one version of the 4^th commandment says. More on that tomorrow.

Wednesday

Morning everyone. Yesterday I said that the last thing that God did when he made the world in the parable at the start of the Bible was to have a rest, and so build holiday entitlement into the very fabric of the universe. The Bible doesn’t call it ‘holiday’, it calls it ‘Sabbath’, the Hebrew word for ‘rest’ – but that’s what it means. Unfortunately ‘Sabbath’ is a word which conjures up very different ideas for us – if it means anything at all - and we think of the commandment to keep the Sabbath as heavy rules to stop us enjoying ourselves on Sundays. Margaret tells me that as a child she wasn’t allowed to go to the beach on Sundays or to play outside – Sunday was too serious for that and you had to go to church. Awful. But that’s not what it’s about at all. See you tomorrow.

Thursday

Hello again. God says ‘take a break’, treat your holidays seriously, that’s what the Bible means when it says to ‘remember the Sabbath Day and keep it special’. Why? Not because ‘we’re worth it’, horrible phrase, but because we need a rest! Work matters, but life is more than work. We need a change of routine, different scenery, different things to do. We need to stop doing this and do something else, or even do nothing at all. We need breaks, regular and often – one day off in seven was the Bible’s idea – but we also need bigger breaks too. And we all need them. That’s what the other version of the Ten Commandments says: holidays aren’t just for the farmers and their families, but for the farm workers and their families too, and even for the farm animals! That’s right, animal rights in the Bible. See you tomorrow.

Friday

Good morning everyone, talking about holidays this week. Everybody needs a break – the Bible says that and even includes our donkeys! Holidays aren’t just for the rich and affluent with leisure – they are especially for the workers – radical stuff the Bible, you know, full of ideas about human welfare and well-being, so it’s breaks for all, not just the few. But breaks for what? That’s an important question. Our Victorian ancestors were hot on going to church and all that on Sundays, and I don’t want to knock going to church on Sundays or any other day, in fact I recommend it: but going to synagogue on the Sabbath Day wasn’t where that ‘honour the Sabbath Day’ business actually started. The Sabbath was not originally a day of worship at all – it was a day of rest, as simple as that! Worth thinking about, that. See you tomorrow.

Saturday

Hello everyone. Happy Sabbath Day, for that’s where we are today, the seventh day, the Sabbath, the Day of Rest, and that’s what I have been talking about all week - the need for holidays, breaks and rests. God says you need them, so take them, whatever helps you relax. If that’s sitting on a sunny beach in Spain , that’s fine. If its sweating your way up Scottish mountains, that’s fine too. If it’s sitting in the garden watching the grass grow, that’s fine! If it’s cutting the lawn, that’s fine too. The Bible says enough to give us the idea, and then leaves us to work it out for ourselves. Okay, people came along later and tried to force their rules on everyone else, but Jesus wouldn’t play their game and neither should we. You need a break, so take a holiday! That’s the bottom line. See you tomorrow.

Sunday

Good morning everyone, my last spot on holidays and breaks and how important they are. Now I know it’s not easy to take breaks. Some of them cost money and that’s a problem these days. Then there’s the fact that we work longer than most people in Europe , and some employers think they own your soul as well as your body, so the European Time Directive gets my vote at least. And that’s why I think the old Keep Sunday Special Campaign had a lot going for it – it reminded us that life’s about more than work, and if we’re on the same sort of go for seven days a week every week life pretty quickly becomes grey. Holidays, weekends, half terms, Christmas breaks, summer holidays, mini-breaks, days off – whatever suits you – they matter. We need them. Make sure you have them. The Bible says so. See you in the spring.

7 Radio Cornwall – Thought for the Day – January 2010

Monday

Good morning everyone, and if it’s not too late, ‘Happy New Year’. In fact I hope it’s not too late because this week I want to talk about some values to live by and live for in this New Year, words of wisdom (not mine, I mean, other people’s) that might help make this New Year a good one for us all. I’m a Christian, as you know, and some of these wise words I’ve found are Christian ones; but I’m one of those Christians who believes that Christianity does not have a monopoly on the truth or on God; so some of the sayings I’ll be sharing with you come from other religions where God is equally faithfully worshipped and followed. So tomorrow I’ll be starting the series off with one of my favourite Jewish stories, but until then, if it’s not too late, ‘Happy New Year’.

Tuesday

Hello again. Yesterday I promised you one of my favourite Jewish stories. One day a non-believer challenged Rabbi Hillel, one of the great first century rabbis. He said he’d convert to Judaism if the rabbi could teach him the Torah, the Jewish Teaching and Law, while he was standing on one leg. That give the Rabbi a bit of a problem, because there’s 613 commandments in the Torah. Anyway, he thought about it for a minute, hitched up his robe, stood on one leg, I don’t know which one, and said to the non-believer, ‘What is hateful to you, don’t do to anybody else; that’s the whole of the Torah, the rest is commentary; learn it’. I don’t know if the non-believer kept his side of the deal, but that’s my New Year value worth living out: ‘What you don’t like done to you, don’t do to other people’. See you tomorrow.

Wednesday

Morning everyone. Yesterday I quoted Rabbi Hillel’s summary of the Jewish Law, ‘What you don’t like done to you, don’t do to other people’. That’s about 2000 years old. We’ve no idea if the Rabbi had ever met anyone from China , but 500 years before that the great Chinese philosopher, Confucius, had said the same thing. He called it the Golden Rule, ‘Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you’. Look into your own heart, he said, and see what gives you pain, or what upsets you, and then refuse under any circumstance whatever to inflict that kind of pain on anyone else or to upset them in that kind of way. Do that all day, every day, he said to his followers; and you’ll be living a life increasingly marked by compassion, and it’ll be good for you, for those around you, and for all the world. See you tomorrow.

Thursday

Hello again. On Tuesday it was Rabbi Hillel, yesterday it was Confucius, today it’d better be Jesus. Only it wasn’t quite Jesus, it was whoever wrote the book of Leviticus, whenever that was. Moses gets the credit but it’s really an anonymous book. Tucked away in chapter 19, and at verse 18 we are told, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’, and then a few verses later we get a tweak, ‘You shall love the stranger as yourself’. 10 years after Rabbi Hillel had died someone challenged Jesus about what was the most important of those 613 commandments, and Jesus said there were two: one was to love God, and the second was this one, to love our neighbour as ourselves. It’s the Golden Rule put positively, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘what you would like people to do to you, do that to them!’ See you tomorrow.

Friday (This one was not used. Because of the heavy snow I was invited to walk to the studio for a live one, which is the second one below)

Morning everyone, talking about values to live by in this New Year. We’ve done Rabbi Hillel standing on one leg, Confucius and his Golden Rule, and Jesus telling us that loving our neighbour as ourselves means that we should do to them what we would like them to do to us. To be fair, this is a very old and very common idea; it goes way back in Greece and ancient Egypt long before Confucius. What we’ve got here is something common to many religions and many cultures, something ancient and profound. It’s the simple observation that if we want life to be good then we have to live in certain ways and avoid other ones, and this simple value is the key: do to others what you’d like them to do to you, and don’t do stuff to them you wouldn’t like done to you; and do it to everyone. See you tomorrow.

Morning everyone, live this morning, on another sharp wintry day. It’s going to be another good one for the kids, and one for the rest of us to carry on taking care. Remember that sensible and safe is better than heroic and hurt, especially in a car. After all the weather’s bigger than we are, most of the time we don’t need to remember that, but now and again, like now, the weather’s got ways of reminding us just how little we are. No matter how good a driver you think you are, or how smart your car, unless it’s a 4by4 you won’t get up our road yet. So there’s all the more reason to be alert and aware, to keep safe, but also to look out for our neighbours, as I’ve been saying all week. The simple Golden Rule - Do to others what you’d like them to do to you – is a good one, whatever the weather. Bye now.

Saturday

Hello again. This week I’ve been talking about a big idea in all the religions, that we should ‘do as you would be done by’ if we want to live in a healthy society. Today I thought I’d look at the opposite, ‘Do to others what they do to you’. Be nice to me and I’ll be nice to you; be nasty to me and I’ll be nasty back; tit for tat. It can work. If you’re on the till in Tesco and I smile at you, the chances are you’ll smile back and everything will go well. Occasionally it doesn’t, for there are some miserable folks around. Then there’s the nasty version we see on the road every day: cut me up and I’ll try to get you back one way or another. That sort of attitude doesn’t get anybody anywhere, and just makes the roads more dangerous. See you tomorrow.

Sunday

Morning everyone, last time this week on the Golden Rule running through most of the religions, that if we want a healthy and wholesome society, then there’s a simple code to live by, ‘Do to others what you would like them to do to you’. Not ‘what they do to you’ – that’s the law of the jungle – but ‘what you would like them to do to you’ – that’s being civilised. But I must admit I’m a bit worried. I’m worried about the me-first, all-age yobbishness which seems to be increasingly common, the get-out-of-way and pushing-in drivers, the why-should-I-queue-for-this brigade, the aggressive never apologise and never say please or thank you characters. That sort of thing doesn’t really help. So my New Year antidote is the Golden Rule, ‘Do to others what you would like them to do to you’. Let’s give it a try this New Year. See you in the autumn.

8 Radio Cornwall - Darwin and Evolution

My notes for a discussion on Darwin and Evolution 8.2.09

1 Introduction

I thought the Radio Cornwall introductory piece on Darwin and Evolution was a very helpful and balanced piece. It showed the tremendous importance of Darwin and his ideas – ‘now and again an idea comes along which changes the world’ – and Darwin and ‘the survival of the fittest’ was one of them. That’s why, of course, we are celebrating Darwin at the moment, and that piece did it without some of the propaganda I’ve heard elsewhere on this.

It showed how some people did find Darwin ’s thesis hard to take, including many Christians but also some scientists; but it also said, quite rightly, that not all Christians took that line. Some church responses were positive, and saw Darwin ’s explanation of things as explaining the way the Creator God operated.

And – and I’m not a scientist – I was glad that it said quite simply and plainly that modern science is entirely ok about Darwin and Evolution, because so is modern theology and the Church, apart from a very vocal and completely wrong American minority.

2 ‘Evolution is God’s way of doing things’

John Fiske (American philosopher, 1842-1901, who took part in this debate, greatly respected Darwin and saw no conflict between Science and Christianity) put it like this - ‘Evolution is God’s way of doing things’. And basically I’ll go along with that.

3 On the Bible, Evolution and Creationism

The 19^th century was a tough one for Christianity, no doubt about it, as the Church had to come to terms with the revolution in thinking that we call the Enlightenment, and all that that meant in terms of scientific developments like geology and evolution, and in terms of new approaches to the Bible that were coming across from the German universities. It wasn’t easy, and some reacted against all that, while others took it seriously and took it on board. By the 1920s the mainstream churches had got it sorted, American Fundamentalism had failed to take root in the UK , and the mainstream churches saw no real conflict between Science and Religion. Until, unfortunately in my view, American Fundamentalism revived big time 30 years or so ago and reopened the debates with their Creationist challenge to Evolution. And all I want to say on Creationism here is that, as a Biblical scholar, traditional Methodist and middle of the road 21^st century Christian – Creationism is nothing less than a heresy – because it misuses and misreads the Bible, and brings mainstream Christianity into disrepute.

4 We’re all people of our times

We are all people of our times, and I don’t think it’s helpful to blame our ancestors for their views. Many of my Christian forebears did have trouble with Darwin at first, though some didn’t: but by the 1920s British Christianity had largely worked it through and accepted Evolution.

I’m quite sure that my grandad, 17 times removed, thought that the earth was flat. Like I’m sure everyone else’s did. But I don’t now, nor does anyone else. The world, knowledge, understanding, has moved on and we’ve moved with it.

That’s why I love the Victorian American poem by John Russell Lowell which ended up as a hymn in the old Methodist Hymn Book (no.898, ‘Once to every man and nation’) and its lines:

New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth;

They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.

That’s why I and pretty well every Christian I know has no problem with Darwin and Evolution, and why I am embarrassed by those American Christians who call themselves ‘Creationists’ and risk getting us all tarred by the same misguided brush.

It’s one thing for some 19^th century Christians to take against Evolution – it was a big shock to their system – but it’s quite another for 21^st century ones to do so. It’s just like insisting, against all the evidence, that the world actually is flat.

5 On Science and the Bible

The Bible is not a scientific text book. It’s a theology book. If I want scientific answers to scientific questions, then I ask the scientists, I do not read the Bible. Do you know who put it like that? No, it wasn’t me. It was the great 16^th century, Protestant, evangelical, Reformer and Bible scholar John Calvin. He wrote in his Commentary on Genesis in 1563, that ‘He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere’ (See John Drane, Introducing the OT, p257, published by Lion). I can’t put it better than that.

6 Silly statistics?

I heard someone on the radio the other night say that some Think Tank or another had done a survey which indicated that a third of the British public did not believe in Evolution. I haven’t checked that out and found out anything more about it, but frankly I’d be amazed (and very worried) if that were the case.

It could be, of course, that the question had been badly phrased. If you ask me whether I believe in God, and if I believe that God created the world, then I will answer Yes to both of those questions. If you ask me if I believe in Evolution I will answer Yes to that one as well. Yes God created the world, and, Yes Evolution is part of his way of doing it. It might be that the questionnaire couldn’t cope with that, and if you said Yes to believing in God as Creator it automatically put you down as saying No to Evolution. In which case, of course, the question setters and the statisticians both deserve the sack for stupidity.

9 Diagram 1 - The 'Methodist Quadrilateral'

It has been quite fashionable in recent years for Methodists to talk about 'the Methodist Quadrilateral' (or the 'Wesleyan Quadrilateral' as the Americans sometimes call it) as a way of doing theology. No one quite knows who invented the term, sometime in the middle of the 20th century. It's quite a helpful tool, though like all tools it has its uses and isn't useful for everything. It can be quite controversial, especially in the US, where they dispute which of the four elements has priority, though we have not gone down that road in the UK. I use it in two things on the Articles page: no 7, ''The 'Primacy of Scripture' and the 'Methodist Quadrilateral'' and no 19, 'Revelation in Methodist Practice and Belief'. The important bit on the bottom of the page about time, is my own addition.

10 Diagram 2 - A Theology Triangle

This is just another way of putting the famous Anglican threesome of 'Scripture, Tradition and Reason' as proposed by the great 16th century Exeter Anglican, Richard Hooker. The time bit is my addition here too.

11 Diagram 3 - An Ethics Triangle

And here's my 'how to do ethics' diagram based on Hooker with the time bit added.

12 Diagram 4 - A Hermeneutic Triangle

13 Dialogue on John 14:6

(Ten years or more ago there was a popular series of 'Jesus and Peter' dialogues which were much used in worship in some churches. At that time my youngest daughter was heavily involved in dramas in her local church, and I wrote several short ones for her. I thought they had all disappeared without trace until this one surfaced when I was clearing out files in the loft the other day. It is more than ten years old, but I still rate it)

Jesus is sitting down, relaxed and doodling in the sand with a stick

Peter is restlessly wandering up and down

Jesus: For heaven’s sake, Peter – sorry Father, shouldn’t say that should I? – please Peter, stop wandering up and down: relax, lighten up, mellow, you’re disturbing the camels

Peter takes no notice and carries on wandering around in an agitated way

Jesus: Peter, sit down and tell me about it, man! What’s up?

Peter sits down

Peter: It’s what you said the other day

Jesus: What was that?

Peter: That stuff about “I am the way, the truth and the life: no one comes to the Father except by me”

Jesus: What’s the problem?

Peter: Well, did you mean it?

Jesus: What do you mean?

Peter: I mean, did you mean it?

Jesus: Do you mean, did I mean what I said when I said, “I am the way, the truth and the life: no one comes to the Father except by me”

Peter: Yea, did you mean it?

Jesus: Yea. Say what you mean and mean what you say, that’s not such a bad idea is it?

Peter: I thought you meant it.

Peter gets up and starts wandering about again, still agitated

Jesus: Peter, sit down. What’s up?

Peter: Say what you mean and mean what you say …

Jesus: Yes, Peter?

Peter: You mean that?

Jesus: Yes, Peter

Peter: So you meant, “No one comes to the Father except by me”?

Jesus: Yes, Peter

Peter: You didn’t mean to say, “No one comes to God except by me” then?

Jesus: No, Peter

Peter: Cos if you meant “No one comes to God except by me”, you’d have said, “No one comes to God except by me”?

Jesus: Yes, Peter

Peter gets up and starts wandering about again, still agitated

Jesus: Peter, what’s up?

Peter: Say what you mean and mean what you say. So you meant “No one comes to the Father except by me”

Jesus: Yes Peter. Do you have a problem with that?

Peter: No, no, no … Of course not …

Jesus: Peter!

Peter: Well, actually, Yes

Jesus: Well?

Peter: Well, it’s neater isn’t it? You’re the Messiah. You’re our Saviour. You’re the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Door of the Sheepfold, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life. You’re the Way, the Truth and the Life. Right?

Jesus: Right

Peter: So if we walk in your way, listen to your truth and share in your life, we come to God? If we don’t. we don’t. Right? Neat. Tidy. Simple. Right?

Jesus: Wrong

Peter: Wrong?

Jesus: Wrong

Peter: Why?

Jesus: Because God is God, the Creator of All, and his divine power and majesty can be seen by all in the world which he has made. He has never left himself, anywhere, anytime, without those who have seen his power and his glory and witnessed to it. In the same way, all those who have listened to their consciences and lived by what they have heard have honoured God and come to him

Peter: You mean Romans, Greeks, Samaritans, Edomites, Egyptians, Arabs?

Peter gets up and starts wandering about again, still agitated

Peter: You mean pagans, unbelievers, infidels, people of other religions?

Jesus: Didn’t I tell you the other day that I have other sheep which aren’t of the Jewish flock?

Peter: Yes, but …

Jesus: Peter, people come to God in all sorts of ways, and it warms my Father’s heart that they do. There’s an awful lot who don’t – of course there are and that’s their choice – but a good many do, by whatever name they call him. I call him, “Father”, the best name of all. You and the others now call him “Father” too – that’s the Prayer we use, and that’s what my life and work is all about. I live to help people find God as their Father, just as you and the others have found him to be your loving, heavenly Father

Peter: So if we walk in your way, listen to your truth and share in your life, we come to the Father?

Jesus: Right, Peter, right

14 SCM Studyguide - The Psalms - Indexes

The published book contains only an Index of Bible References and an Index of Modern Authors. Three more indexes are really needed and they are supplied here: an Index to the information boxes used in the book, a General Index and an Index to Hebrew and Greek words

INDEX TO INFORMATION BOXES

Death in the OT 59
‘Deuteronomic Orthodoxy’ 100
End-of-book doxologies 111
Enemy and enemies in Psalms 84
Exegesis and how to go about it 34
‘First Temple’ and ‘Second Temple’ 9
Haggadah and Halakah 146
Hallelujah and Hosanna 37
Intertextuality 156
Israel’s ‘core creed’? 161
Lament 74
Life after death in the OT 60
Messiah 110
Names for God in the OT 96
OT Theology 158
Other images? 68
Other pss that voice dissonance 86
Other pss that voice hope 119
Other pss that voice penitence 102
Other pss that voice praise 43
Other pss that voice shalom 64
Other pss that voice spirituality 143
Other pss that voice theology 165
Psalms, tehillim and ‘the Psalter’ 10
Pseudepigrapha 126
selah 113
Simhat Torah 147
Some technical terms in Hebrew poetry 44
The four ancient versions 19
The four creation ‘pictures’ in the OT 77
The ‘I’ of the psalms 55
The ‘righteous’ and the ‘wicked’ 80
The Shema 167
Theodicy 81
Three ‘collections’ 175
Two minor complications: verse numbers and psalm numbers 21
Wisdom Literature 139
Working definition 8
YHWH 4

GENERAL INDEX

Abraham 59, 81
Academic 14f, 16, 26, 29
Acrostic 47, 137, 207
Alliteration 44, 105, 207
Anat Bethel/Anat Yaho 167
Angels 156
Apocrypha 207
Apostrophe to Zion 123
Asaph psalms 175
ASB 83
Asherah 168, 171
Assonance 44, 104, 207
Astarte 168
Athanasius 9
Atonement 102, 207
Authorial intention 195 note 6
Authorship 15, 25f, 55, 195 note 4, 196 note 10
Baal 168, 185
Basil of Caesarea 9
(The) Bible for Dummies 184
Bicolon 45, 46
Bless the LORD 41, 152f, 203 note 2
Book of Common Prayer 20, 105
Bricolage 156
Burns, Robbie 65
Caesura 44
Canon 13
Canonical approach 177
Chaoskampf 77, 119
Christ 13, 16, 110
Christianity 13, 26, 37f, 68, 147, 187f, 205 note 5
Codex Alexandrinus 10
Colon 45
Connotation 68
Construct 58, 105f, 199 note 4
Core Creed 65, 155, 161
Cotter J 103, 201 note 5
Couplet 45
Covenant 62, 75f, 114, 124, 178
Coverdale 20
Creation 12, 76f, 98, 118, 200 note 2
Crimond 58, 60, 103, 198 note 3
Curse 83
David, ‘David’, Davidic 9, 25f, 55f, 59, 94, 98, 114f, 122, 153, 180, 185, 203 notes 1 and 3
Dead Sea Scrolls 10, 27, 112, 121f, 123, 126, 182, 187, 196 note 9
Death 59f
Declarative psalms of praise 39f
Definite object indicator 45
Definition 8, 10
Democratisation 185
Denotation 68
Descriptive psalms of praise 39f
Deuteronomic History 36, 96, 116, 167
Deuteronomic Orthodoxy 59, 100
Deuteronomists 166, 205 note 9
Disorientation (psalms of) 70, 136, 181, 200 note 4
Dissonance 79f, 86
Distich 45
Doxology 111
(The) Dramatised Bible 195 note 5
Dyadic line 45
Dynamic equivalence 101
Elephantine 168
Elijah 169
Ellipsis 44, 47, 207
Elohistic Psalter 174, 203 note 2
Enemy/enemies 59, 80, 84, 86
Enthronement psalms 40, 119, 162
Eschatology 180, 185, 205 note 5
Exegesis 34f, 51
Exile 36
Exodus 36, 58, 61, 67, 76, 188, 204 note 4
Failure 100
Feminist Theology 188, 206 note 10
(The) Five Books 174, 178
Gallican Psalter 20
Gattungen 69f
Geneva Bible 27
Genre 5, 6f, 194, 196 note 1
Geoghegan J 184
God as father 68
God as host 54f, 64, 66f
God as king 54, 76, 118, 128, 162f
God as love 157 but especially see ḥesed God as shepherd 54f, 64, 66f
God (names for) 96-98, 108, 113
Godspell 200 note 7
Habakkuk Commentary 126, 187
Haggadah 146
Halakah 146
Hallel 38, 55, 176
Hallelujah 35, 37, 176
Handel G F 61
Heavenly Council/Court 112, 156, 169f
Homan M 184
Heilsgeschichte 158
Henotheism 169
Hermeneutics 15f, 68, 190, 208
Herod the Great 9
Historical Critical Method 14, 208
History 201 note 1
h(H)oly s(S)pirit 95
Hope 114f, 119
Hosanna 37
Hymn 39, 43
Hymn book(s) 9f, 174, 178
Ideological analysis 66
Imagery 54, 64-69, 68, 160, 204 note 3
Imprecatory psalms 83
Inclusio 44, 46, 133, 141, 151, 153, 157, 176, 180, 208
Intertextuality 156, 208
Irony 208
Jeremiah 205 note 9
Jerome 20
Job 59. 90
Jonah 40, 55
Justive approaches 85
Kethe W 43
KINGAFAP 68
Korahite psalms 175
Kuntillet ‘Ajrud 167
Kushner H 73, 200 note 6
Lament 74
Leviathan 75
Levites 55
Liberation Theology 188, 206 note 9
Life after death 60f
Literary Criticism 14
Love see ḥesed
Luther M 9, 194 note 2
LXX 19f, 21, 106, 120
Macrostructural approach 176
Magnificat 36
Masoretes 106, 122, 201 note 4,
Maximilists 201 note 1
Mercy see ḥesed
Messiah 110f, 117, 128, 180, 208
Metaphor 64-69, 160, 204 note 3, 208
Metonymy 208
Metre 44f, 50
Microtextual approach 176
Midrash Tehillim 9, 174, 183
Minimalists 201 note 1
Mizmor 10
Moabite Stone 36, 197 note 3
Monarchy 54, 115
Monolatry 169
Monotheism 166, 169
Moses 4, 25, 40, 58, 62, 101
Music 23f, 28, 104, 197 note 1
Naboth’s Vineyard 98f, 169
Names for God 4, 12, 96f
New Perspective on Paul 147, 203 note 4
New Testament 187f
New Year Festival 10f, 115, 117f, 202 note 2
Numbering (of psalms) 21
Numbering (of verses) 21
Old Testament Theology 158, 171
Onomatopoeia 105
Orientation (psalms of) 63f, 70, 136, 181, 200 note 9
Parallelism 44, 46-51, 198 note 10, 209
Paranomasia 44, 104, 209
Parataxis 44f, 209
(St) Paul 147, 203 note 7
Peake’s Commentary 19
Penitence 98f, 102
Penitential Psalms 94, 201 note 5
Peshitta 20, 32
Poetry 8, 12, 43f, 50, 52
Polytheism 166
Praise 38-43, 43, 52
Prophetic psalms 135
Psalm titles 19f, 103
Psalmoi 10
Psalterion 10
Pseudepigrapha 126, 209
Psychological approaches 85
Qumran 2, 27, 110, 122f, 126, 129, 161, 182, 196 note 9
R. Eleazar 183
R. Johanan 203 note 1
R. Joshua ben Levi 183
Radak 203 note 1
Rashi 203 note 3
Reader-response Criticism 15
Reception History 22, 174, 183f
Refrain 47
Reorientation (psalms of) 70, 136, 181
Rezeptionsgeschichte 174, 183f
Rhetorical analysis 66f
Rhyme 44
Rhythm 45
Righteous (The) 80
Righteousness see ṣedeq/ṣedāqāh
Royal Psalms 56, 115, 129, 178, 181, 185
Sacrifice 96, 100f, 106, 107
Satan 89, 112
Selah 47, 109, 113, 120
Seper Tehillim 9, 33
Septuagint 19f, 21, 24f, 32, 106, 120
Shalom 57, 62f, 64, 72, 79-81, 196 note 6
Shema 166, 167
Sheol 60, 71, 113
Simhat Torah 147
Sin 95, 99f, 107, 201 note 3
Solomon 9, 62, 75, 121, 129
Songs of Ascents 176
Songs of Zion 39f, 119
Soul 56, 154 also see nepeš
Spirituality 9, 134f, 143, 148
Stanza 44, 47
Steadfast love see ḥesed
Stich 45
Stress 45
Strophe 45, 47
Study tools 16f
Synecdoche 209
Talmud 27f
Targums 20f, 24f, 32, 106, 209
Tehillim 9f
Temple 5, 9, 12, 36, 55f, 60, 76, 96, 101f, 113, 115, 166, 175f, 194 note 5, 198 note 2
Ten Commandments 36, 146, 204 note 6
Tetragrammaton 4
Text 15
Thank Offering 40
Thanksgiving 43
Theodicy 73, 81, 87f, 200 note 8, 209
Theology 150, 158f, 165, 172
Thirteen Middot 161
‘This is the Word of the Lord’ 83
Titles of psalms 19f, 103
Torah 13, 116, 132, 137f, 143-147, 149, 162, 165, 209
Torah psalms 135, 138
Translation 103-108, 196 note 11
Triadic line 45
Tricolon 45
Tristich 45
Trope 65, 209
Types of psalm 2, 39, 69f, 159, 199 note 8
Ugarit 127
Vengeance 83, 92
Verbal equivalence 103
Verse numbers 21
Verse/verset 45
Vulgate 20f, 24f, 32
Waw consecutive 45
Wicked (The) 80, 84
Wisdom 131f, 139f
Wisdom psalms 135, 138, 149
Wirkungsgeschichte 174, 183f
Worship 108
Yahweh as king 118
Yahwism 99
Yancey P 200 note 6
YHWH 4
Zion 39, 76, 116, 119, 123

INDEX OF HEBREW AND GREEK TERMS

Adonai 4
Alamoth 28
Alleluia 37
Gittith 28
El Shaddai 4
Haggadah, see General Index
Halakah, see General Index
Hallelujah, see General Index
Hosannah, see General Index
Higgaion 113
Hodayot 123
Mahalath 23
Mahalath Leannoth 23
Middot 161
Muth-labben 23
Pesher 126
Selah, see General Index
Shalom, see General Index
Shema, see General Index
Sheminith 28
Sheol, see General Index
Shiggaion 25
Shushan-eduth 23
Simhat Torah, see General Index
Sukkot 118
Torah, see General Index
YHWH, see General Index

In what follows the words are in the order of their initial letters in the Hebrew alphabet (with ’ aleph first and ‘ ayin 16^th; and its 2 different h’s and 2 different t’s and 4 different s’s in their proper places), but after that in the order of their letters in the English one (which to me seemed the most straightforward – purists might not agree)

ʾădônay 97f, 113, 154
ʾădônay yhwh ṣĕbāʾôt 98
’ašer 45
ăšērâ & ăšērîm 168
ʾašĕrê 132
’aštārôt 168
ʾēl 96, 113
’elʿelyôn 96, 166
ʾel šaddai‘ 96f, 166
ʾĕlāh 97
ʾēlîm 125
ʾĕlôah 97
’elohê ’abraham 97
’elohê ṣĕbāʾôt 97
ʾĕlôhîm 96f, 106, 125, 174,203 note 2
ʾemet 114
’ĕmûnāh 111, 14
’et 45
ʾimrāh 137
bārak etc 41, 152, 203 note 2
bĕnê-ʾēlîm 112
dābār 137
derākîm 137
hālal 40, 41, 203 note 2
hallĕlû- 35, 152f
hallĕlû ͗et YHWH 38
hallĕlû – yāh 37f
hôdāh 40, 41, 203 note 2
zibĕḥê & zibĕḥî 106
ḥānan 94
ḥaṭṭāʾt 100
ḥesed 54, 57, 61, 62, 72, 94, 111, 114, 137,154f, 160, 161, 165, 204 notes 3 & 6
ḥēṭ 95, 100, 107
ḥuqqîm 137f, 144
yāh 97, 13
yhwh ’elohê-ṣĕbāʾôt 98, 113
yhwh ʾĕlôhēnû yhwh eḥād 167
yhwh ṣĕbāʾôt 97
kinnôr 197 note 3
lĕ 22, 26
lĕdāwīd 25-27
lēṣ/lēṣîm 133
malʾāk 156
māšiaḥ 110
maśkīl 24, 75, 176
mĕnaṣēaḥ 22, 185
miktam 19, 23f, 176
minim 197 note 3
mišpāṭ 114, 151, 170, 172
mišpāṭîm 137f, 155
miṣwōt 137
mizmôr 10, 24
nĕbāl 197 note 3
nepeš 56f
selāh, see General Index
sēper tĕhillîm 9, 33
‘awōn 95, 107
ʿēdōt 137f
ʿelyôn 96
‘ǔgāb 197 note 3
pĕšāʿîm 95, 107
piqqûdîm 137
ṣalmāwet 58
ṣedeq/ṣedāqāh + ṣidĕqōt etc 54, 57, 72, 114, 155, 204 note 5
ṣelṣĕlȋm 197 note 3
qayiṣ & qēṣ 104
qĕdôš yiśrāʾē 113
qĕdošîm 112
raʿ 100
rāḥûm etc 94, 154f
rešaʿ 100
rûaḥ 95, 106
rûaḥ ʾĕlôhîm 106
šaddai‘ 97
śākal 24
šĕmaʿ 167
šôpār 197 note 3
ta’ămînû & tĕ’ămēnû’ 104
tĕhillîm 38
tĕrāpîm 168
tĕrûʿâ 113
ṭôb 138
tohû wā bohû 104
tōp 197 note 3
tôrâ 137, 143, 145
tôrat yhwh 132
tôrôt 131, 144ff

dike 81
doxa 111
eis to telos 21, 185
thēos 81
logos 111
makarios 131
nomos 145
Psalmoi 10
Psalterion 10

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