Essentials

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Written by: Chris Appleby

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse continues its work in Newcastle as this issue of Essentials is being prepared. All dioceses of Australia have been affected by the Commission and its requests for information and its public hearings.  It is painful to hear how the Lord’s sheep have been so badly abused and mistreated. As well some feel as though it has “sucked the oxygen out” of the leadership of the church.

There is a strong motivation to retreat from it all. Not to hear any more reports. To retreat to whatever spiritual comfort zone we prefer and get on with an un-engagement with the bad world out there.

Child abuse is not the only stress point for us. The ongoing debates about marriage, sexuality and, more so now, gender add further motivation to keep our heads down. What seemed to be a simple matter of redefining marriage turns out to be part of a much larger social reconstruction of identity and human relationships. Where did this come from some of us ask? And what do we do with it?

In this issue we have some helpful examples of how to apply the scriptures to these issues. It is encouraging that applying the scriptures is still a good idea. More than a good idea. We should expect that the Creator who has revealed himself in word and deed, and spoken by his Son, should have provided sufficient revelation for us to be able understand how to respond to these changes.

But it is apparent that applying the scriptures is not always a simple matter. This is partly because often “the issue is not the issue”. That is why thoughtful analyses of the issues, such as we have in this Issue of Essentials, needs to go hand in hand with applying the scriptures.

Although it feels that we are reacting in these debates, they are also exposing open doors for the gospel as they reveal how some people are thinking. It may look a lot like Romans 1 but Romans 3 still describes what God can do. And wants to do. And is doing. Through disciples who have the scriptures and the Spirit.

Dale Appleby

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Written by: Daniel Patterson

A Brief History of Gender and its Significance

Daniel Patterson

Dan Patterson is an Australian writing a PhD on gender at the University of Aberdeen School of Divinity, History and Philosophy. He co-ordinates www.embraceidentity.org

Introduction

The topic of gender has recently captured the public’s attention. One reason for this is the radical attempt by some organisations and theorists to “queer” gender. What follows describes, albeit in brief, the historical and theoretical backstory that has lead to the development and use of queer theory to achieve this end. Evangelical responses to this issue will be greatly enriched by better understanding the history that has brought us to this point. This article is not an attempt to engage the debate, but is focussed on the more modest task of explaining the historical and theoretical parameters of the debate. 

A Very Brief History

Questioning gender norms in the past has catalysed significant changes to culturally embedded gender norms. Following is a brief recount of how gender has been under question for over 100 years, and how each new wave of questioning of gender norms can be characterised by distinct emphases falling under the broad banner called feminism. The historical questioning of gender norms can be divided broadly into three feminist waves, each offering a depth of social analysis the previous wave did not achieve. 
It is not accurate to say that queer theory is feminism or even a kind of feminism, but one is able to identify queer theorisation as having emerged from and in response to perceived inadequacies of a particular formulation of feminism of the 1980s.¹  

Read more: A brief history of gender

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Written by: Chris Appleby

Essentials Winter 2017

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Written by: Chris Appleby

Essentials Spring 2017

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Written by: Chris Appleby

Essentials Summer 2017

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Written by: Sally Shaw

Sally Shaw urges evangelicals to recognise the importance of creation care, pointing out some of the ways that some evangelicals are becoming more involved.

Sally Shaw is studying post-grad theology and is involved with A Rocha Australia

Now is the time for Evangelical Christians to get more involved in creation care. Now is the time to reflect on the implications of our theological interpretations when it comes to caring for God’s creation. The Paris Climate Change Agreement in December 2015 has shown us that significant action to curb climate change needs to happen not just with Governments but with each of us.  Evangelical Christians in Australia are starting to recognise the importance of creation care, but there is still much to be done. In July 2015 Gospel, Society and Culture: Creation Care was published by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia in NSW.  It is an important report that leaves no room for complacency. It quotes Beisner et al who argue “To reject environmental stewardship is to embrace, by default, no stewardship. The only proper alternative to selfish anthropocentrism is not biocentrism but theocentrism: a vision of earth care with God and his perfect moral law at the centre and human beings acting as his accountable stewards.”   This paper complements the 2012 Lausanne Global Consultation on Creation Care and the Gospel, which built on the 2010 Lausanne Cape Town commitment, and is a significant voice from which we can learn.  

I had the privilege of being invited to join this Consultation. It was a gathering of theologians, church leaders, scientists, and creation care practitioners from 26 countries, who met to develop a more deeply biblical understanding of creation care.  Our aim was to create a document, ‘a call’, that the evangelical church around the world would be able to hear and respond urgently at the personal, community, national and international levels.

The final Statement made a number of specific calls for action, including the need for:

• an integrated theology of creation care that can engage seminaries, Bible colleges and others to equip pastors to disciple their congregations
• a theology that examines humanity’s identity as both embedded in creation and yet possessing a special role towards creation
• a theology that challenges current prevailing economic ideologies in relation to our biblical stewardship of creation and
• a theology of hope in Christ and his Second Coming that properly informs and inspires creation care.

Hearing these calls requires us to put aside our presuppositions and re-read God’s word through a new lens, recognising that it is the Christian worldview that gives the only viable basis for care of the natural environment. On this basis we should not withdraw from environmental concerns simply because we feel that other approaches to environmental care are flawed. Rather, we should be all the more concerned about the issue, just as other world-views give people reasons to be concerned about the environment. Like all genuine moral responses, these are signs of God’s common grace.  We, as Beisner et al say “should be ready to enter the debate, to present and to act on the clear Christian reasons for creation care, since they can provide the metaphysical basis that ecologists are yearning for.”   

Organisations such as A Rocha Australia  and Hope for Creation   are examples of evangelical Christians taking wholistic action to help curb the environmental injustices of this earth. In addition, the Seminary-Stewardship-Alliance, a consortium of evangelical seminaries and theological colleges in the USA and Australia, is seeking to take on this challenge, both in the curriculum, on campus and in other ways.

These calls and examples should compel us in our passion for justice and our love for God, our neighbours and the wider creation to urgent and prophetic ecological responsibility, seeing the biblical doctrine of creation as an essential part of the gospel story.    

Sally Shaw