The Great Commission in Quadriphonic Sound

As we explore the similarities and differences between the four Gospels in the freshman Bible class I teach, just about every semester one of my students will ask, \u27Why is the \u27Great Commission\u27 mentioned in all four Gospels? Normally in the charts we use, when the same miracle or teaching is included in more than one Gospel, it appears in a list other than those containing material unique to a particular Gospel. But not so with the Great Commission. It occurs within each of the four Gospels-and yet in fascinating, different ways

The Formative Spirituality of John Punshon (1935-2017)

John Punshon has been one of the premier Quaker historians and spokespersons over the last four decades. Serving as Quaker Tutor at Woodbrooke, Visiting Professor of Quaker Studies at George Fox University, and the first Geraldine Leatherock Chair of Quaker Studies at the Earlharn School of Religion, John Punshon has contributed greatly to present historical and theological understandings of the Quaker movement, and he will be greatly missed. From his childhood experiences in a local church whilst living with his grandparents during the War to his education at Oxford, his public and political service and his development into a leading interpreter of Quaker history, faith, and practice, his own reflections, shared at Milton Keynes Friends Meeting in 2003, provide a basis for understanding the origins of his thought and convictions as represented more extensively in his writings and spoken ministries. He will be greatly missed, but his contributions extend beyond the boundaries of space and time

A Theology of Presence

Excerpt: One Sunday morning after I had delivered a sermon on prayer, a woman came and shared with me about several unfortunate events in her life. I tried God, she said, it didn\u27t work

When Tempted by Sanity...

Excerpt: In the well-known musical Man of La Mancha, Don Quixote sets off as a knight-errant on a quest to right the world\u27s wrongs and to fight for the truth no matter the cost. He is joined, of course, by Sancho Panza, who believes that he will profit from sharing the spoils of their adventures. Jousting at windmills and challenging passersby as evil knights to be dealt with, however, Quixote comes across as a poor fool who is out of touch with reality. His image has even been stamped indelibly upon the English language in the form of an adjective: quixotic;\u27 which implies the foolhardy pursuit of lofty ideals

A Member of the Crew

Excerpt: When I was a high school senior seeking direction as to what to do with my lik my pastor, Joe Roher, said to me, Paul, your direction in life is already decided for you:\u27 Good! I thought. Will it be a law career or art? He went on. You are to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Now, the way you invest your energies and earn your subsistence should be the means by which you are the most effective disciple possible

Incidents Dispersed in the Synoptics and Cohering in John: Dodd, Brown, and Johannine Historicity (Chapter Ten of Engaging with C. H. Dodd on the Gospel of John: Sixty Years of Tradition and Interpretation)

Excerpt: Between C. H. Dodd’s two landmark magna opera on John, addressing the religious background behind and the historical tradition within the Fourth Gospel (1953; 1963), Raymond Brown published several essays in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, later appearing in his New Testament Essays.1 In doing so, Brown picks up where the appendix to Dodd’s first major work left off – the central subject that Dodd expanded in his second volume. Both Dodd and Brown challenged inferences that similarities between John and the Synoptics suggest John’s literary dependence upon one or more of the Synoptics, inferring instead John’s essential autonomy as a historically grounded rather than derivative tradition. While Dodd sought to demonstrate the many ways in which Johannine similar-yetdifferent parallels to the Synoptic accounts argued for the Fourth Evangelist’s use of independent historical tradition of comparable historical value as that which underlay the Synoptic traditions,2 Brown worked more with analysing the character of the similarities and differences among the traditions, making critical deductions as a result. Lest it be imagined that Johannine narratives were cobbled together out of synoptic-type material, serving the theological interests of the Evangelist rather than historical ones, Brown’s early analyses effectively challenge several of the bases for preferring Synoptic over Johannine historicity, thus bolstering Dodd’s overall programme