Note

Opinions expressed in these resources are those of the authors and are not necessarily representative of Irish Bible Institute. 

     

Darwin, Creation and the Fall: Theological Challenges

A Review Article on R.J Berry and T.A. Noble (eds.), Darwin, Creation and the Fall: Theological Challenges ed., Nottingham: Apollos, IVP 2009 

By Dr Peter Childs, Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Chemistry. University of Limerick.

This book was published in 2009 to mark the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth. It consists of 8 chapters, each by a different author, a mix of scientists and theologians. It looks at the theological challenges posed to Christians by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and its subsequent development and elaboration over the last 150 years. The topics covered by the chapters include: God and origins; Original sin and the Fall; The theology of the Fall and the origins of evil.

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Interview with Scot McKnight 2010

Patrick Mitchel interviewed author, speaker, blogger and lecturer Scot McKnight on his recent visit to IBI.
 
Patrick Mitchel: Scot, you are here in Ireland talking about ‘The Earliest Christian Gospel’ (which will be a new book In the Beginning was the Gospel). In the last couple of days you’ve unpacked the pretty provocative thesis that the ‘traditional evangelical gospel’ has distorted the biblical gospel. Can you summarise your argument in a nutshell?

Scot McKnight: Now I’m going to spill the beans. I think Tom Wright got this right; we equate the word ‘gospel’ with our understanding of the ‘plan of salvation’ which means ‘how I personally can respond to the offer of salvation in Christ’. I think most evangelicals think that is the gospel.

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Interview with Chris Wright at IBI 2010

Mission of God in the 21st Century

Chris, you’ve been here in Ireland speaking about The Mission of God and the work of the Langham Partnership. From your first-hand experience of global Christianity, what are some encouragements that you praise God for and what are some challenges that you observe?

I’m praising God for the phenomenal growth of the Christian community around the world in places like Africa, Latin America and Asia. The church in the West in now a minority of the world church (perhaps about 25%). The great majority of the world’s Christians now live in countries that we used to think of as the mission field but we need to stop thinking that way.

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The Murphy Report and the future of Christianity in Ireland

Thought piece by Patrick Mitchel

It‘s hard to know where to begin and what to say in light of Judge Yvonne Murphy’s report into the systemic failure of the Dublin Diocese to deal with the cancer of child-sex abuse within its boundaries. (www.dacoi.ie)   In one sense there is little new – and perhaps that is one of the worst comments that could be made. The findings follow an all too familiar pattern of previous reports like Ferns and Ryan: silence, avoidance, complicity, self-protection, incredible levels of incompetence (and worse) by those in leadership, a culture of deference, the strange impotence and at times complicity of the Gardai, too little too late done by church and state, and the awful reversal of the supposed carer for souls becoming the abuser of the most vulnerable people under its care – young children.
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Mutual Encouragement in Gathered Worship

In recent times, the purpose and content of gathered or corporate worship have been under discussion. While traditionally views regarding the purpose of gathered worship have tended to focus on the worship aspect, recently many have been exploring mutual encouragement as the primary purpose of church gatherings. If encouraging one another is one of the main purposes of gathered worship, the following questions are worth exploring:

  • What is the biblical picture of worship?
  • What is the connection between gathered worship and day-to-day life?
  • How might the content of gathered worship better facilitate mutual encouragement to live whole lives of worship?
  • Does any particular model of gathered worship better foster such encouragement?
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Lyric Praise: Theology in Verse is Nothing New

...Beautiful are the pines which make music for me, unhired; through Christ, I am no worse off at any time than you... (9th century Irish verse)

The use of poetry and descriptive verse is an ordinary part of the Irish monastic tradition. Yet, we may wonder what impact this might have on our present corporate times of worship. Ruth Robinson here presents examples of lyrical praise from several authors, encouraging creativity in whatever groupings we find ourselves in these days as we worship the Lord together. Further Detail

     

God, the President and Consumerism

When the President recently suggested that Ireland had been ‘‘consumed by consumerism’’ many reactions were negative, if not hostile. To some, Mary McAleese was symptomatic of religiously-minded people gloating rather heartlessly over the devastating fallout of the Credit Crunch, naively hoping disillusioned consumers would turn to God. To others, she was poking her nose in where it did not belong, telling ordinary hard-working people how they should spend their own money.
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The Shack Part 2

The sheer success of The Shack, combined with the controversy it has provoked, has meant that the book has been dissected, deconstructed, defended and derided by a phalanx of bloggers and commentators.
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The Shack Part 1

What sort of God do you really believe in? How do you relate to God emotionally? Do you ever consider how the three persons of the triune God interact with each other? How do you square God being an all-powerful being of infinite love with the reality of unimaginable continuous suffering and injustice in this broken world? Why does the church so often seem very unlike Jesus? How will God treat all those people who are not Christians? How can I forgive those who have done great evil to me and my family?

If these sound like questions in the syllabus of a theology course, you begin to get the picture that The Shack by William P Young is no ordinary story of fiction.
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Blomberg on Loving God with all your mind

Taking advantage of Craig Blomberg’s recent visit to Dublin, IBI launched the first meeting of a Research Group on 6 Nov, when Craig addressed the group on the topic ‘Loving God with all your mind’.

Craig directed our attention to Deut. 6:4, a central text for Hebrew life and thought, where readers are exhorted to “love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength,” and he pointed out that in Jewish thinking although the heart was perceived as the seat of the affections, thought was often included in the understanding of the word.

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Irish Attitudes to sin and guilt

Irish attitudes to sin and guilt which were part of the fabric of life in past generations, including the evangelical community, have been impacted by the rapidly changing contemporary Irish context. These changes give rise to a number of interesting questions:

  • What are the changes affecting Irish society?
  • How do these impact the beliefs and attitudes of young Christians in the 18-30 age bracket
  • Are there changes in theological perspectives on sin and guilt?
  • How aware is the evangelical community and its leaders of such social and theological changes?
  • How can evangelical leaders best support and equip young people facing the challenges of contemporary life and how frequently are young people involved in core leadership thinking and decision-making or are they restricted to organising youth programmes?

For reflection on these issues click

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