‘Church and Civil Society in the Reformed Tradition: An Old Relationship and a New Communion’

‘Church and Civil Society in the Reformed Tradition: An Old Relationship and a New Communion’. Reformed World 61, no. 3 (2011), 195–210

‘Mission and the Priesthood of Christ’

‘Mission and the Priesthood of Christ’. Candour 7 (May 2013), 7–11

‘Fighting Troll-Demons in Vaults of the Mind and Heart – Art, Tragedy and Sacramentality: Some Observations from Ibsen, Forsyth and Dostoevsky’

‘Fighting Troll-Demons in Vaults of the Mind and Heart – Art, Tragedy and Sacramentality: Some Observations from Ibsen, Forsyth and Dostoevsky’. Princeton Theological Review 13, no. 1 (2007), 61–85

‘Bitter Tonic for our Time – Why the Church Needs the World: Peter Taylor Forsyth on Henrik Ibsen’

Abstract: Why does the Church need the world? This paper seeks to explore what today’s Church might learn from secular ‘apostles’ and ‘prophets’ as part of its ongoing mission to, for and with the world that God so loves. In particular, it will investigate the role that poets, dramatists and other artists might play in identifying humanism’s problem of downplaying moral realism – a problem that Church has often failed to critically grasp. The excursion will proceed via the engagement of the Scottish Congregationalist theologian Peter Taylor Forsyth (1848–1921) with one of his contemporaries, the Norwegian poet and dramatist, Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906). Forsyth provides us with a model of how we might engage our world with candor, humility and gospel courage

‘Holiness in Victorian and Edwardian England: Some Ecclesial Patterns and Theological Requisitions’

This essay begins by offering some observations about how holiness was comprehended and expressed in Victorian and Edwardian England. In addition to the ‘sensibility’ and ‘sentiment’ that characterised society, notions of holiness were shaped by, and developed in reaction to, dominant philosophical movements; notably, the Enlightenment and Romanticism. It then considers how these notions found varying religious expression in four Protestant traditions – the Oxford Movement, Calvinism, Wesleyanism, and the early Keswick movement. In juxtaposition to what was most often considered to be a negative expression of holiness associated primarily with anthropocentric and anthroposocial behaviour as evidenced in these traditions, the essay concludes by examining one – namely, P. T. Forsyth – whose voice called from within the ecclesial community for a radical requisition of holiness language as a fundamentally positive reality describing the divine life and divine activity. The relevance of a study of the Church’s understanding of holiness and how it sought to develop its doctrine while engaging with larger social and philosophical shifts endures with us still

Euthanasia: Some theological considerations for living responsibly

This article articulates some of the main arguments both for and against euthanasia under the circumstances being envisaged by the Victorian Parliament’s Legal and Social Issues Committee. More particularly, its concern is to attend to some of the theological issues germane to the subject. To this end, it identifies and discusses six arguments for and six arguments against legalizing voluntary euthanasia. It concludes with an appeal to the economy of the divine life as the most responsible lens through which the Christian community thinks about and engages with this issue

‘John Calvin: Servant of the Word’

‘John Calvin: Servant of the Word’, Pages 13–40 in Calvin: The Man and the Legacy. Edited by Murray Rae, Peter Matheson and Brett Knowles. Hindmarsh: ATF Press, 2014

The Catholicity of Time in the Work of George Mackay Brown

This essay introduces and explores some explicitly theological concerns in the work of the Orcadian poet, novelist, and dramatist George Mackay Brown (1921–96). More specifically, its interest is with Brown’s presentation and treatment of the notion of time. Drawing on examples from a wide selection of his work, it is argued that Brown’s conversion to Roman Catholicism, and in particular his delight in the enchantment of the Mass, allowed him to exploit a distinctly Catholic sacramental theology and aesthetic of creation – its location, people, and history – appraised in light of the Eucharist

‘“That God May Have Mercy Upon All”: A Review-Essay of Matthias Gockel’s Barth and Schleiermacher on the Doctrine of Election’

‘“That God May Have Mercy Upon All”: A Review-Essay of Matthias Gockel’s Barth and Schleiermacher on the Doctrine of Election’. Journal of Reformed Theology 2, no. 2 (2008), 113–30