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Written by: Tim Watson

Created: 20 August 2015

Reflection: A cracker, a treasure trove, a particular joy

Tim Watson had a good time at the Anglican Future Conference. He shares what he especially appreciated.

Tim Watson is the Deputy Principal of  Roseville College, a K-12 Anglican School for Girls in Sydney.

What a cracker of a conference. And what a keynote speaker, Ashley Null—never has a surname been such a misnomer—it was a treasure trove he opened and held up for us. Would that we be worthy of our fathers, those who struggled to cut through the thicket of tradition and the trappings of the church to release the Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah found in the unfettered Word of God.
In unpacking elements of our church history the past was remembered so that the future may not be forgotten––the future we have in Christ.  It was a delight to examine the way the past plays out in our present and future selves. And this is true of us individually and as a denomination, a point of reflection not to be overlooked.

We look to the Scriptures, we look to the formularies, and we look to our current practices, context and culture as we seek to be authentically Christian, authentically Anglican followers of Jesus. It was this of which we were reminded.

As we think on our future we can’t forget our past, nor must we be trapped by it––the formularies are directed by and direct us to the Scriptures, the Scriptures direct us to the Lord, and the Lord directs us to the harvest.

A particular joy for me was to go to the Discipling Believers workshop with Kara Hartley and Pete Smith. Pete was my Bible study leader in my senior years at school, and being at the workshop felt like I was the “here’s one that I prepared earlier” example.

Harvest where you are. Go out to the harvest. Harvest across cultures. Harvest across cities and across organisations. Invite people to the banquet to which we have been invited. Staging posts ought to include schools, parachurch organisations, small groups, universities, and yes, churches. It was lovely to hear Peter Adam talking about the role of the church beyond the church.

Let us be us, real us, broken and contrite, but saints in the service of the King.

Let us be serious about what we believe and clear about what we know. Let us profess the hope that is the only hope as we offer the kingdom to those in need of the King. Come Lord Jesus.

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Written by: Ed Surrey

Created: 20 August 2015

Book Review: Raised Forever Jesus’ Resurrection and Ours
Rory Shiner
Matthias Media, 2014.

As one would expect from the author of One Forever – this is a good book. The introduction is grabbing and gripping. The first chapter on Acts 17 is a touch wordy, but gets you out of today’s mindset of ‘of course 1st century simpletons believed in the resurrection, they hadn’t invented test tubes yet’. Chapter 2 brings the resurrection back into the Old Testament and the hope of Israel, carefully balancing on the one hand the lack of direct resurrection prophecies and on the other hand the meta-story of Israel being one of a resurrected people. To combat the resurrection-sceptic, chapter 3 gives the evidence for an empty tomb a fresh coat of paint that is a model for how to handle this topic in an apologetics series. There is a surprising omission of Lazarus, and the need for personal belief in Jesus as the resurrection and the life (John 11:25-27). I wonder if the book would have a sharper evangelistic edge if personal judgment and need for repentance was clearer in the first half of the book (p36-38).

The second half of the book is where Shiner starts to shine. He is strong on the centrality of the image of first-fruits for understanding Jesus’ and our resurrection, doing a good job of unpacking 1 Corinthians 15. My favourite quote of the book: ‘Investing a life in sin is like investing money in VHS video shops’ (p.100). It’s here, where Shiner links theology, humour and real-life-insight, that this book repays reading. There is also some now-and-not-yet stuff thrown in for good measure.

An interlude provides a gentle rebuke and reminder that we’re not really going to heaven forever. This is NT Wright for dummies, seen in the multiple references to his work. It helpfully tells you not just what not to believe about heaven, but what to believe instead. And this is done in such a way so as to not crush the hopes of the average church member, but re-educate them on what the Bible is really on about. Do not read this book if you want to keep your false notions of the afterlife intact. Mine are now shattered on the floor where I read it.

Creeds, Calvin and the Christian life are in view as the book closes. Especially balanced is the treatment of ‘labour in the Lord’. Raised Forever gives us resurrection-motivation for gospel centred work in all we do, in or out of a pulpit. The implications for ministry are spelled out helpfully in Conversion as Resurrection (142-6).

I have two questions from reading this book, and then a comment on who it is great for.

Question 1: There’s that intriguing verse in Romans 4:25, that Jesus was raised for our justification. Here’s my question: can we have a bit more on that? Can there be more on 1 Cor. 15:17 and the relationship between the cross and the tomb? Because while there are many books on the cross that don’t do enough to the resurrection, I was hoping this would be a book on the resurrection that didn’t short-change the cross.

Question 2: why is Shiner so sure that we’ll be ‘building cities, making music, enriching communities’ for eternity (p139)? Revelation is pretty clear that the city is already there (Rev. 21-22), the song sheet is already printed (Rev. 19) and the community is going to be rich already (21:18)! While the book rejects unbiblical claims we have about the afterlife, it’s possible that it gets replaced with an equally non-biblical (but not necessarily unbiblical) one.

These were two distractions for me from an otherwise excellent book. It was on our high school camp bookstall this summer. It should be on your church bookstall too for the newcomer and senior leader. And it should be on our bookshelves as well, to ensure that we are teaching rightly the great hope we have in the risen Jesus, because the ‘same power that raised Christ from the grave is with you all the way’ (p.151).

Ed Surrey , Shenton Park, WA.

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Written by: Dale Appleby

Created: 20 August 2015

Book Review: The Locust Effect
Why the end of poverty requires the end of violence
Gary Haugen & Victor Boutros
OUP 2014.

In 1875 trillions of locusts weighing 27 million tons bore down on 200,000 square miles of the American Midwest and wiped out every living plant. Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros show that a similar effect is happening to the world’s poor. As much as they try to work, save for their children’s education, buy small houses (or rooms) to live in, their efforts are consistently and effectively thwarted by an epidemic of violence.

The authors don’t focus on war zones or civil conflicts, although these are devastating enough. They illustrate in pitiful detail the ordinary criminal violence that afflicts the world’s poor – especially in developing countries.

Sexual violence (a “medical emergency” according to Medicine Sans Frontiers), slavery (there are more slaves in the world now than there were during the whole period of the 18th century slave trade), land grabbing, arbitrary detention and torture are some of the features of this violence.

One of the chief reasons it continues mostly unabated is that the poor do not live under the protection of the law. For a number of reasons: the public justice system in the developing world is broken. The police are under trained, under resourced, under paid, and scarce. There are too few prosecutors. There are not enough judges and the court systems are dysfunctional and hopelessly back logged.
Numerous reports by the United Nations, the World Bank and others, report the locust effect on  real capital earnings (GDP reduced by up to 14%); human capital (9 million years of disability adjusted life years lost each year); social capital (destroys social fabric and relationships); mental illness.

One big reason the criminal justice systems of the developing world are dysfunctional is that they are carry-overs from the colonial era when police forces were developed to protect the colonial powers, not to care for the ordinary people. The amazing thing is that in many countries no changes have been made after independence.

Private justice systems, (private security, alternative dispute resolution) are being used by elites in the developing world to protect their people and property. Public justice systems continue to decline in usefulness. The biggest obstacle to change is that the elites benefit from the broken public justice system because it protects them from being held accountable.

The massive global movement to address poverty in the developing world over the last 50 years has not made a meaningful effort to address the problem of criminal violence against the poor.  Overall almost nothing has been spent on helping criminal justice systems that benefit the poor. So it hasn't been tried and found wanting it has been found hard and left untried.

However there is good news (sort of). The kind of corruption and dysfunction at present in the criminal justice systems of developing countries is pretty much the same as it was in US Japan France and other countries 100 years ago. This is normal. But change happened because of: local ownership and leadership of intentional efforts to change; each situation needed its own specific solutions; community leaders and reform minded elites played a critical role; the priority was to prevent violence; building a well resourced law enforcement capacity was risky; change can happen quickly but usually in punctuated bursts. So there is hope.

The authors provide worked examples of changes that have happened. The authors are part of the International Justice Mission which arose out of a Christian conscience but works with all kinds of people in all sorts of communities. Structural Transformation is one of its methods where coalitions of local people work together to bring about change. Collaborative Casework is an aspect of this. IJM and others have seen wonderful changes take place in a variety of countries. This part of the book is a very encouraging contrast to the horror of the first few chapters.

The authors say that what needs to happen now is to transform the conversation about global poverty so that violence is seen to be a devastating factor; integrate expertise about criminal justice into the conversation; experiment with Projects of Hope which will provide models, examples, and hope for other communities. Especially using versions of Collaborative Casework. 
An amazing book. Worth reading, discussing and working out what to do.

Dale Appleby, Willeton WA

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Written by: Dale Appleby

Created: 20 August 2015

Book Review: Grassroots Asian Theology Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up
Simon Chan
IVP Academic 2014.

Simon Chan is Earnest Lau Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Theological College in Singapore. This book is an attempt to identify and discuss grassroots theologies in Asia. In doing so Chan aims to draw from Catholic and Orthodox sources because “they offer a broader and more solid basis for contextual theologies compared with what goes on in much of mainline Protestantism and evangelicalism today.” (8). His method is to use traditional theological loci and sketch elitist theologies and compare them with the writings found in sermons and other grassroots sources. This opening statement gives a clue to the critique he offers of the old European liberal theology that sometimes seems to masquerade as Asian.

Chan dislikes the terms 'Western' and 'Eastern'. Too often they just disguise one's likes or dislikes. His presupposition is that “an Asian theology is about the Christian faith in Asia.” (10). This means that the apostolic tradition is normative. To start a new trajectory apart from this tradition produces a gnostic church which, while appearing open and tolerant to other faiths is incapable of serious dialogue with them.
Chan wants to develop contextual theologies that are true to the lived experience of ordinary believers. This  “ecclesial experience constitutes the primary theology of the church.” (16). He takes this approach to avoid two pitfalls: it avoids conceiving theology as purely objective facts or propositions; and it does not consider individuals as the primary agents of doing theology.

He distinguishes ecclesial experience from cultural experience, and in so doing provides helpful critiques of various liberationist and other culture-specific theologies.  This section of his opening chapter is worth the price of the book, as it helps undermine the false claims of much of what has posed as Asian theology. He says it is elitist theology with an enlightenment base.

He has quite a bit to say about Folk Christianity, especially the Pentecostal-charismatic version. It is  “an example of perhaps the most successful contextualization of the gospel the world has ever seen.” (31). He sees that it has much in common with folk religion in general. He offers a helpful critique of it and shows how it sits in a 'middle zone' between ultimate questions handled by the 'high religions' and the observable world handled by science. To label it syncretistic and superstitious is to fail to see how it has adapted to its environment. Chan acknowledges that this is complex but claims “that folk Christianity has more to teach us about Asian theology than what elitist Asian theologians are saying.” (35).

He takes up the question of social engagement, which elitist theologians regard as the main subject and shows that there are other ways than direct engagement. He uses Barth and Tillich as different models of social engagement to discuss how Christians are engaging on the ground (he prefers Barth's approach).  All of that is in the first chapter.

The rest of the book uses the traditional centres of God, Humanity, Christ, Holy Spirit etc. to discuss how grassroots theology deals with its contexts. So the doctrine of God is discussed in relation to an Asian Islamic context (such as Malaysia), an Indian Hindu context, Chinese religions and God in relation to primal religions.

The strength of the book is that it is earthed in the real world of Christianity in Asia and grapples with the ways in which Christianity has been adapted and shaped by its contexts and the challenges it poses to those contexts. The book is a theological book because it keeps on going back to the apostolic tradition of the scriptures to evaluate and critique. It will be very helpful to anyone who is involved in an Asian context, whether actually in Asia or in an Asian expatriate context.
Dale Appleby, Willleton WA