INSIGHT Volume 2 Issue 3 by Matt Adcock

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

We serve a truly faithful God and now, more than ever, LST is at the forefront of faithfully resourcing people to build His Kingdom across the world. This year to celebrate our 70th Anniversary there are many exciting initiatives taking place including our Rising Theologian and Summer School programmes. Dr Krish Kandiah from The Evangelical Alliance who writes in this issue of INSIGHT said: “All of us are theologians, the only question is whether we are good ones or not.” At the London School of Theology our goal is to prepare people to use their theological training to make a real positive difference for Christ.

LST is still the place to access the cutting edge of transforming theological education – we have come a long way from when we were established as London Bible College (LBC) in 1943 but our core remit remains the same. I hope you can join us on 29th June this year for our major 70th Year Celebration, but now please have a read of these articles from faculty and friends of the college both old and new. Prepare to be challenged and inspired, I look forward to your feedback.

Matt Adcock Editor

CONTRIBUTORS Matt Adcock Insight Editor & Director of Communications

Miriam Bier Lecturer in Old Testament

Siku Artist, theologian, musician, former LST student

nerv (nerv.co.uk) Designers

Jean-Marc Heimerdinger Lecturer in Hebrew and Judaism

Tom Wade Religious Educator

Tony Lane Professor of Historical Theology

Dr. Krish Kandiah Executive Director: Churches in Mission and England Director for the UK Evangelical Alliance.

Kirsty Annabel Theology and Counselling Lecturer

Special thanks to... Sam Hargreaves, Laura Robinson and Lyn Powell

interact 4

Email editor@lst.ac.uk Web www.lst.ac.uk

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

Facebook /LondonSchoolOfTheology twitter @LSTheology

contents 6 - 9

s u f f e r i n g

f a i t h f u l n e s s

10-13

r e n e w i n g

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20-23

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24-29

t h e o l o g i c a l

t h r o u g h

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t h e o l o g y y e a r s

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c o v e n a n t o f

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l s t t h i n k i n g

a r t

c h r i s t i a n

r e a c t i o n

t o

m a s t e r ’ f a i t h f u l n e s s

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4 0 - 4 3 r e v i e w s

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

ne of the things I love about the Old Testament is that it doesn’t shy away from real life. It tells it how it is, showing us people of faith who are trying to work out what a life lived with God looks like in all the nitty gritty of daily reality. So as an Old Testament scholar, who believes in the whole witness of the whole Bible, it dismays me that parts of the Bible have been “edited out” of our churches and our worship. There are little-plumbed depths of the Old Testament that I’m willing to bet you’ve never heard in church! Sure, some of those parts of the Bible are edited out for good reason – they’re gory, violent, or seemingly just plain irrelevant. But I reckon there’s a breadth to Scripture that, if allowed, can connect with a whole range of human experience. As preacher Barbara Brown Taylor puts it, “Our book has everything in it — wonder and terrors, worst fears and best hopes — both for ourselves and our relationship with God.”1

I suggest that engaging with some of the lesser-known bits of the Bible can help to shed light on parts of life we’d really rather didn’t exist. One of these lesser-known books of the Bible is the book of Lamentations, a collection of five short prayers of lament. Each of these prayers expresses something of the pain and grief associated with the destruction of Jerusalem and her temple, and the exile to Babylon in 587BCE. It is a book that is caught in the clutches of indescribable suffering, and yes, it is depressing. But Lamentations can also offer profound comfort to those who are suffering, by inviting us to share in its prayers of grief, lament, and complaint. So I invite you now to open up your Bibles to Lamentations 3 and read along with me as we meditate on one of these complaints. Here we find the lament of a man who found that his preconceived idea of God came crashing down when it started to conflict with his day-to-day reality.

Lamentations 3 begins with the outburst: “I am one who has seen affliction.” This first-person “I” perspective immediately allows us, as individuals, to read ourselves in to the poetry. We find ourselves aligning with the heart cries of this “one” as the chapter continues. But there is more to his opening statement than this. The Hebrew word translated “one” in the NRSV – geber – has connotations of being a strong man, a mighty man, perhaps even a warrior. But more than that, a geber is a man in right relationship with God– a giant, if you like, of faith. Right from the start the speaker declares himself to be a particular kind of person: a strong man, a man of faith, a man in good standing with God. This is remarkable, in light of all that follows: I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath (v. 1), says the strongman. He, that is to say, God, has driven me into darkness, without any light (v. 2). He has turned his hand against me (v. 3). He has wasted my flesh and broken my bones (v. 4). He’s swallowed me up with bitterness (v. 5) and abandoned me to darkness (v. 6). He has walled me in so there’s no escape (v. 7). He has blocked out my prayers, he won’t even listen when I call out to him (v. 8). He’s twisted my path into confusion and misdirection (v. 9). He has torn me apart like a wild animal, a lion or a bear! (v.10). He has made me desolate (v. 11). Like a warrior, he has used me for target practice (v. 12). He has filled me with bitterness, and made me drink poison (v. 15). He has broken my teeth and made me cower in the ashes (v. 16). He, that is to say, God, has done all of this to me.

Barbara Brown Taylor, ‘Preaching the Terrors’, Journal for Preachers 15/2 (1992)

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

From where this man sits, it seems like God is not simply absent, not even distant, but actively against him. It is, of course, hyperbole, but I wonder whether we too can sometimes relate to the state of mind that we find in the strongman’s tirade. Who of us, in all our human frailty, cannot at times identify with his cry: “My soul is bereft of peace – I have forgotten what happiness is” (v. 17)? Now, knowing the back story of Lamentations, and recognising that in the rhetoric of the Old Testament the fall of Jerusalem is explained as punishment for sin, helps to explain why this man is so reduced. He is a by-product of the inglories of war, left with the poor in the ruins of Jerusalem after everyone important has been taken off to Babylon. But there is a hint of woundedness here too. There is a ring of the “why me?” in this complaint. And this is perhaps because, before the exile, there was a particular brand of popular theology that resisted any hint that the city of Jerusalem could ever be taken by an enemy. Just like any good heresy, this Zion theology had a kernel of truth that lent it an aura of authenticity. On a good day, Zion theology affirms that God reigns from his temple on the holy hill in Jerusalem. But taken to its extreme, this Zion theology had become a kind of lucky charm, a talisman. There was a mistaken notion that the temple was there to serve and protect the city, without any corresponding recognition of the need for Jerusalem’s inhabitants to act like the people of God, in doing justly, and loving mercy, and walking humbly. But with the Babylonian invasion, this theology, like the temple and the city themselves, had crumbled. And here is the strongman, brought down to the ground by a God who now seems to be acting like an enemy – instead of the immunity idol the people had made him out to be. But despite all this – despite the litany of complaint – the strongman has still asserted that he is a geber; a strongman, a man of faith. I am a man of faith – even though, for the moment, it feels like I am beaten down by the God I thought was for me. I am a man of faith – even though, at the present time, I am utterly humiliated. I am a man of faith – even though I dwell, for the time being, in darkness and desolation. This is a faith that, despite the apparent absence and opposition of God, and the dissolution of all his ill-informed theology, will not easily be given away. Finally, after twenty verses of no-holds-barred complaint we come to a moment of hope. The strongman, sitting amidst the stones of his ruined city, lifts his heart and

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

his eyes, and this is what he calls to mind: “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (vv. 22-23). Suddenly, unannounced and with no explanation, something’s changed. After all that complaint, what is it that makes the difference? Well, notice that from the very beginning of chapter 3, this man has been talking about God in the third person. He has done this to me, he says, over and over again. And he has been talking about how he has been experiencing God in this time of darkness, how God appears in relation to his pain. But in verses 22 and 23 the strongman turns, and focuses directly on God – not in relation to how he has been experiencing him, but simply on God as God is: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end. There is no longer any “me” in the statement. There is just the Lord, who is love, and his mercy. The strongman then turns further, from describing who God is, to directly addressing the God of heaven: great is your faithfulness. He turns from introspection to a bigger vision of reality. He turns from the reality of his situation to the reality of God’s unchanging nature, and lifts his heart, his eyes, and his voice to the God of heaven. He recognises that through it all, these three remain: love, mercy, faithfulness. So, what can we take from this little known bit of the Bible? Well, for one thing, it is important to acknowledge, I think (in a way that is often not recognised in churches today) that the “dark night of the soul” is still within the range of the life of faith today. From the midst of terrible suffering and long complaint this man still claims to be a person of faith, suggesting that we too can entertain doubt and question God without faith having to fall away entirely. But more than that, when we look up out of the reality of our everyday situations, and focus on the reality of who God is, what we find is that God is – and has been – with us all along, whether we recognised it or not. For the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, and his mercies never do come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. Miriam Bier Lecturer in Old Testament. A keen preacher and teacher, Miriam is also committed to resourcing and raising biblical literacy in the local church.

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

There are times in life which become, through a combination of circumstances, times of transition: a new job, a new boss, a new team, a new house. Nature itself shows us that we live in a world of constant transition and change: birth, growth, death, and renewal. LST too has gone through many times of transition in its 70 years of existence, and it is fair to say that it is now in a time of transition, a time characterized by new technologies, new fast modes of communication, new educational delivery methods, new religious contexts, a changing faith environment, and a new harsh economic climate. The most challenging aspect in managing transition is the psychological one. Any life transition calls for psychological adjustment. Specialists have suggested strategies that will develop creative resilience and that will help people thrive in the new situation. They advise to develop a sense of optimism, finding meaning and purpose in the midst of uncertainties, taking control, and improvising.

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

But how does one manage life-transitions in the company of God? The book of Deuteronomy seems to be a good starting point to answer this question as it portrays the people of God ready to cross the Jordan and to change their nomadic existence under tents for a settled life in villages and towns. It is significant that it is at this juncture that God invites Israel to renew her covenant with him. It is on the boundary between wilderness, the land, and home, that Moses recalls the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s story, restates the terms of its existence as a community of faith under God and reaffirms its commitment to a future with God. This solemn formal commitment made by two parties to one another has a profound impact on the life of the people of God.

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

Covenant is a source of courage

Covenant is a source of optimism

Biblical covenant always has a story in its background and the story is always remembered and re-told as a preliminary to the renewal of the covenant; it is the exodus out of Egypt for Israel in Deuteronomy, but in another classic covenant text, Jeremiah 31:1-40, exiled and dispirited Israel is invited to think of her present time in terms of her ancient journey. There has been no time at which God’s love for Israel had ceased: it persists into the present time of exile and God’s purposes and commitment to his people are shown to be intact. The continuity for Israel is to be found in God. God’s covenant commitment spans even the divide of exile and hardship.

In job-seeking manuals, writers often invite their readers to see the skills they possess as ‘transferable’.

Even in this century, when human beings have decoded the genome and taken pictures of the birth of galaxies, there is one thing not even the greatest Nobel prize-winning scientist knows: what tomorrow will bring. We live with complete uncertainty. But the knowledge that we are guided and protected by a committed and trustworthy God must give us the courage to live in the midst of uncertainty, insecurity and even threats. Covenantal faith is not certainty regarding the future or what will happen to us tomorrow, but it is the courage to live and to meet any challenge that the future will bring, because we know that we depend on a God who is faithful and committed.

When they return, ten of the spies advise that it would be impossible to conquer the land. Only two of the twelve believe that success is achievable. The two optimistic spies did not argue with the report, but only with the recommendation. The basis for their different opinion was their trust in God’s covenant fidelity. They declare: ‘God is with us. You shall not fear them’ (Numbers 14:9). They knew that it would be hard, but their faith led to their optimism, to the willingness to take a risk for the sake of freedom and a better life. Just as we need to see our talents as transferable, we also should regard our experiences of God’s covenant-faithfulness as being so. For their trust in God, and their optimism, the two spies were given the opportunity to fulfill their vision. The other ten spies, the messengers of doom and gloom, perished in the desert, together with the whole generation of moaners. As with Israel, the covenant invites us to strive to remember the lessons learned about God’s faithfulness in one situation and apply them in new circumstances. If God has proven trustworthy in one circumstance, he can be trusted in another.

Whatever happens, we are never out of God’s reach. To be in covenant with God is to be from a different world while living in the real world. It will be scary at times and there will be times when we feel alone and overwhelmed but remembering our committed God gives the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Franklin Roosevelt famously said, ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself’. Remembering and renewing our covenant with God defeats fear, and gives us the courage to survive every transition and begin again.

“the same God who has supported us in the past, who met our needs, who faithfully took care of us... will guide us in all our challenges and provide for us as we take steps of faith.” 12

LST INSIGHT --the thefaithfulness faithfulness issue issue

Someone who has been successful as a waiter, for instance, has learned abilities which can be employed in more challenging situations. They have interpersonal and communication skills which could be used in management or teaching positions. To be in covenant with God encourages us to think along similar lines. Just after the covenant at Sinai, Moses selects twelve people to go and spy the Promised Land. They are instructed to check the land, the cities, and the strength of the inhabitants.

The ability to transfer the lessons learned from one experience to another is at the heart of all successful Christian living. This is the sort of thinking that is at the heart of authentic faith and the manner of thinking we will need to apply to all the challenges LST will face in the future. For us, it boils down to a simple but encouraging point: the same God who has supported us in the past, who met our needs, who faithfully took care of us - this same God will guide us in all our challenges and provide for us as we take steps of faith. There is scarcely a more significant thought that we can grasp than this one. We will take great encouragement from it and be inspired by the God of the covenant to live with confidence.

Covenant is a source of Cooperation Covenant is not merely a model for a relationship with God, but it has horizontal dimensions too. It applies to the way we live with other humans beings. The human side of covenantal life is embodied in a human quality called ‘steadfast love’ or ‘commitment’ to others. It is pledging oneself to other people – those we share life with, at home, at work, in a love that consists essentially in being loyal and ready to help. In covenant-life, people come together to pledge themselves to principles of mutual loyalty, support and protection, out of a recognition that no one can achieve their ends in isolation. To live in covenant-love consists in being responsible for the good of the other and for the common good of the group. Such an attitude is not held in place by power or rule but by an internalized sense of respect for the other, by kindness and cooperation. Covenant-born cooperation is a key to a flourishing communal and relational life and in many ways it is exemplified by what happens in support groups. People facing a major illness, stressful circumstances, lifechanging or other tough situations, do not have to go it alone. The support group helps; its members typically share their experiences and skills; they offer one another emotional comfort and moral support; they may also offer practical advice and tips to help hurting people cope

with their challenge. In the unity of God’s people, the good that one person does makes the task easier for all the other members. None of us has all the virtues and the knowledge and all the gifts. Even a Moses needed an Aaron. The work of a team, a partnership, a collaboration with others who have different gifts or different ways of looking at things, is always greater than any one individual can achieve alone. It is in the renewal of the covenant that Israel discovered a new way of being together, and so they committed themselves to become ‘one’, that is, to work and care for one another for the common good of all. Covenant is a commitment that endures through time. It embraces the duty to preserve the best of the heritage of the past as well as to work in the interests of future generations, in fidelity to God and his key values. After 70 years, LST is ready to renew the covenant. Jean-Marc Heimerdinger Lecturer in Hebrew and Judaism Areas of special interest: Biblical Hebrew; Discourse Analysis of the Biblical Text; Hebrew Poetry; Psalms; Pentateuch: Exegesis and Theology; Jewish interpretation of Scripture.

“The work of a team with others who have different gifts or different ways of looking at things, is always greater than any one individual can achieve alone. it is in the renewal of the covenant that Israel discovered a new way of being together, and so they committed themselves to become ‘one’, that is, to work and care for one another for the common good of all.”

LST INSIGHT LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness -the faithfulnessissue issue

The

Theology Adoption

It wasn’t until I was 15 that I discovered I was adopted. Until then it was kept a closelyguarded secret. Nobody mentioned it. In fact even today it is hardly ever discussed. I don’t blame my parents – they didn’t know either! I only found out when a friend at school pieced the puzzle together for me. It turned out that when I became a Christian, I was adopted into God’s family, and even my church had forgotten to mention this to me. Surely faithfulness to Scripture would mean that we should not only talk about but also celebrate this vital facet of our Christian experience. We are very clear in our teaching on the Fatherhood of God, yet there is a deafening silence when it comes to us talking about adoption into his family. The God who created the Universe, the constellations, Italian coastlines and, if it exists, the Higgs Boson particle, wants to include us into his family. It’s hard to think of a greater privilege. We who betrayed and ignored him, and messed up not just our own lives but his world, are clearly taught that God wants to permanently include us into his family. This means we get royal status, a name, an

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

inheritance, a seat at his table, a room in the family home, a share in the family business, an invitation to family gatherings, and not forgetting brothers and sisters which includes our Lord Jesus Christ himself. The more we think about it, the more we realise that the doctrine of adoption is a startlingly powerful one. As God’s chosen, adopted children, we don’t need to win our heavenly Father’s favour, earn our guaranteed inheritance, or sneak around in the shadows of fear or doubt with feelings of inferiority or inadequacy. We have been legally adopted by a God who loves perfectly and will never break his word. This is such a sparkling doctrine yet it is virtually ignored in our sung worship, in our liturgy, and in our preaching. There is one exception – an 80s classic worship song that remains in general regular usage in the UK church: Father God I wonder. Even recently I met someone whose journey to faith revolved around hearing the moving line: “Now I am your child I am adopted in your family and I can never be alone, because Father God you’re there beside me.” Where else do we regularly declare our theology of adoption? Dr Timothy Trumper writes: “If you look more broadly, however, you’ll find that adoption is conspicuous by either its absence from or its scant attention in the theological texts, the creeds and the confessions of the church. Contrast its treatment with that of its neighbouring doctrines. How seismic and mature have been the treatments of justification and sanctification by comparison!”

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The more we think about it, the more we realise that the doctrine of adoption is a startlingly powerful one... We have been legally adopted by a God who loves perfectly and will never break his word.â&#x20AC;? LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

Why in our bid to be faithful to Scripture do we often omit this central and most powerful of doctrines – that God has adopted us into his family? Here are three possible reasons, and I hope that by drawing attention to them we may overcome whatever barriers there may be to rediscovering our own identity and destiny.

It doesn’t make us look good

It doesn’t rhyme with much

We tend to describe our conversion in terms of “making a decision for Christ” or “letting Jesus into our heart”, or “responding to the Holy Spirit”. These phrases betray a natural tendency to put ourselves centre stage, and our testimonies highlight our own wisdom or good sense or power. Adoption on the other hand is all about what God has done for us, how he “chose us”, how he “found us”, how he “rescued us”. There is no space here for self-flattery; rather, by recovering adoption language, attention is drawn to God’s grace and mercy. This is not only more faithful to the language of Scripture, but also more conducive to our own development in humility and gratitude.

Our worship leaders have a huge influence on the theology, mood, ethos, and language of our churches. I know many worship leaders take this responsibility very seriously and submit their songs to rigorous theological evaluation. However I wonder, do we not sing about adoption because we don’t preach about adoption, or do we not preach adoption because we don’t sing about adoption? Is it simply down to a difficulty in finding something to helpfully rhyme with “adopted”?

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

“Over the last few years God has planted a passion for adoption in my heart. I believe that the church desperately needs to recover a vision of our adoption if we are going to correctly relate to God.” It might challenge us to think about adopting someone Preachers are very good at faithfully teaching us to apply certain doctrines of Scripture. We have been forgiven, therefore we should forgive. We have been loved, therefore we should love. We have been enlightened, therefore we should be light. It is much rarer to hear the challenge – we have been adopted, therefore we should adopt. There are 4,000 children waiting for adoption in the UK. The need has been in our faces on the front pages of our newspapers regularly over the last year or so. It’s a number so daunting that most of us can’t bear to think about it. Reflect on it the next time you pick your children up from school. Pause for thought the next time you see your grandchildren, or nephews, or neighbours off to a school production or school sports day. Imagine that those children had no permanent place to come home to, no parents there to cheer them on. If we were regularly reminded about our adoption into God’s family it would change the way we felt about those 4,000 waiting children. God didn’t make excuses why he couldn’t adopt us. God didn’t come looking for perfect children that would complete his family. God didn’t refuse to take us in because we were messed up and broken. No. Despite our needs and our demands, and at huge sacrifice, God offered us a forever-home with him. It might not rhyme easily, and it might not make us look

very good, but the main reason I believe that we don’t sing or talk about adoption is for fear that it might break our hearts for the children that need adopting near us. Five years ago I was in court, holding our foster daughter in my arms. With a smile on his face and with just a few words the judge transformed our foster daughter into our adopted daughter. It reminded me of the moment when God transformed me, when at the age of 15 through the witness of my schoolmate, I was “ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven” – and adopted - by the judge of all the universe. My own experience and theology of adoption motivated me to adopt a daughter, and now my adopted daughter reminds me daily of that wonderful humbling privilege that I have been adopted into God’s family. Over the last few years God has planted a passion for adoption in my heart. I believe that the church desperately needs to recover a vision of our adoption if we are going to correctly relate to God. I also believe that the church desperately needs to recover a vision of our adoption so that God will soften our hearts to the need of the vulnerable ‘home-less’ children in our nation.

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

home good for

The Evangelical Alliance, Care for the Family, and the Churches Child Protection Advisory Service are working together to catalyse a movement to challenge the church about adoption under the title of “Home for Good”. Here’s how you can be involved: 1. Preach, Sing, Declare…

4. Celebrate

Let’s start a trend to recover the language of adoption in our worship and devotion of God, and let’s begin to teach our congregations to appreciate the wonderful transforming doctrine of adoption.

Have your church celebrate ‘Adoption Sunday’ joining with thousands of churches around the world, from Ukraine to Zambia to the Philippines, as we celebrate our own adoption into God’s family, but also learn about God’s compassion for widows and orphans.

2. Pray Pray that we would see a culture change across the UK church, so that together we can find homes for good for all the children currently waiting for one in the UK, and pray that our churches can become welcoming spiritual homes for the good of carers and vulnerable children alike.

5. Discover There are lots of resources about adoption and fostering available in bookshops. For a Christian perspective, why not order the ‘Home for Good’ book by Krish and Miriam Kandiah, published by Hodder, via your local Christian bookshop?

3. Champion

Dr. Krish Kandiah

If you care about adoption and fostering would you consider championing the needs of vulnerable children? Look up www.eauk.org/homeforgood to see how you can sign up to become a Home for Good Champion.

Executive Director: Churches in Mission and England Director for the UK Evangelical Alliance.

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

Rising Theologian is a major competition to champion and raise the awareness of theology in the UK. The prize is the chance to win a place on a fully funded BA or MA in Theology from London School of Theology (LST) worth c£20,000.

Rising Theologian is a partnership between: - Evangelical Alliance - Christianity Magazine - The London School of Theology (LST)

You show us that you’ve got an imaginative, hungry, theological mind we’ll provide the course to take you into a deeper knowledge of God and the Bible. For more details visit: www.lst.ac.uk

you don’t

get to Naturally, the ethos of the college has changed considerably over forty years and a couple of examples will illustrate this. When I first started, the faculty all sat for lunch on a high table and students were allocated by a rota to sit with them and serve them. Mercifully that practice ended before long and staff and students sat together on the same tables. Also, when I first arrived students were expected to address faculty by their surnames. (Apparently a few years previously it was also the practice for faculty to address students by their surnames.) I still cherish the day when it was decided that everyone in the LBC community should address everyone else by their first name. Some saw this as proof that we had become a more Christian community, but I doubt that. It reflected a cultural change, witnessed by the fact that some African and Asian students continue to be uncomfortable with it.

The most recent presidents have been Baroness [Caroline] Cox, well known for her advocacy of the persecuted church throughout the world, and Lord [George] Carey, the former archbishop. In my time at the college I have taught around 2000 students. Some of these have gone on to do great things — and of these some gave little indication of their potential while students. Some of our students have attained a high profile, as peers, ambassadors, archbishops and martyrs — to say nothing of reaching the Guinness Book of Records for growing the largest ever apple! Probably LST’s greatest contribution to worldwide Christianity has been the considerable number of former students in leadership roles in para-church organisations and in theological education.

40 years

at LST Tony Lane

Some things don’t change — though fortunately the salaries have. In the 1970s the slogan was developed that LBC was ‘inter-denominational, international, academic and evangelical’. These four remain as characteristics of LST. I have drawn up a list of 100 countries from which we have had students, and I am sure that the list is not complete.

Professor of Historical Theology, LST, MA BD DD (Oxon)

Areas of special interest: Doctrine: especially Justification, Sacraments, Scripture & Tradition Historical Theology: especially Bernard of Clairvaux, Calvin, Moltmann.

LBC/LST owes a considerable debt to the Laing family and to other benefactors. Sir John Laing gave LBC its London premises, which covered the cost of the move to Northwood. He also served as President of the college for almost twenty years until his death in 1978, a position to which his son Sir Maurice Laing succeeded in the 1990s.

without seeing

a few

changes LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

It is forty years since I first came to the London Bible College, as it then was, to talk about joining the faculty. I duly began in September 1973, with a starting salary of £100 per month! I have never quite managed to escape, though we did spend a year away (1989-90) during which I taught in Nairobi for two terms and had a sabbatical in America for the third. One or two things have changed during these forty years. For a start, the name. From the beginning the name ‘Bible College’ caused some embarrassment, since for Americans that implies an academically low grade institution. In the 1980s we added the explanatory subtitle ‘Centre for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Theological Studies’. In the 1990s we shifted towards the name ‘LBC’, without spelling that out. Finally, in 2004, we grasped the nettle and made the change to London School of Theology. Apparently there had already been serious discussions about changing the name way back in the 1960s. The anticipated protests did not take place and the volume of approval was unexpectedly high. The campus has also changed over the years. In the 1980s the Student Centre was built at one end of the football pitch and in the 1990s the Guthrie Centre was built at the other end. These changes are trivial compared with the change that had taken place shortly before my arrival the move from Marylebone Road to Northwood in 1970. After the extremely cramped quarters in Central London the large campus in suburban Northwood must have seemed like the Promised Land. I cannot judge for myself as I have never seen the original building, except from the outside. I came onto the staff because of the move from the old London University BD (an external exam) to our own BA degree, which was validated by the CNAA (Council

for National Academic Awards). LBC was the first independent theological college to make this move, which in due course was copied by almost every other such institution. Alongside the first cohort of the BA (197275) there ran the last cohort of the London BD, a small group of six students who chose not to enrol for this newfangled degree! Among these was Mark Beaumont, who has recently returned to LST to join the faculty. The next significant move was the introduction in 1983 of the MA in Aspects of Biblical Interpretation. Again, LBC was the first independent theological college to do this. In the early years LBC was not in a position to offer research degrees, but some staff were able to supervise students for theses submitted elsewhere. H. D. MacDonald (‘Derry Mac’), the vice-principal, supervised a certain George Carey for an MTh, submitted in 1964 at King’s College, London. The link with the CNAA brought the opportunity to offer our own research degrees. First to take advantage of this was Mary Evans, with an MPhil which was later published by Paternoster Press under the title Woman in the Bible. Initially take up was low and by the end of the 1980s just twelve students had completed research degrees through LBC - four PhDs and eight MPhils. This changed rapidly in the 1990s, with a further twenty-one PhDs and thirty-seven MThs and MPhils being completed. In the new millennium the research department has grown further, thanks especially to links with some US seminaries - Asbury Theological Seminary, Bethel Seminary and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. We also broke a world record when in 2004 Edgar Dowse became the oldest person ever to be awarded a PhD, at the age of 93. I was the internal examiner and during the viva it struck me as amazing that at that age he could not just remember his name and the day of the week but also go through the considerable mental effort of writing an original thesis and defending it lucidly.

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

Naturally, the ethos of the college has changed considerably over forty years and a couple of examples will illustrate this. When I first started, the faculty all sat for lunch on a high table and students were allocated by a rota to sit with them and serve them. Mercifully that practice ended before long and staff and students sat together on the same tables. Also, when I first arrived students were expected to address faculty by their surnames. (Apparently a few years previously it was also the practice for faculty to address students by their surnames.) I still cherish the day when it was decided that everyone in the LBC community should address everyone else by their first name. Some saw this as proof that we had become a more Christian community, but I doubt that. It reflected a cultural change, witnessed by the fact that some African and Asian students continue to be uncomfortable with it. Some things don’t change - though fortunately the salaries have. In the 1970s the slogan was developed that LBC was ‘inter-denominational, international, academic and evangelical’. These four remain as characteristics of LST. I have drawn up a list of 100 countries from which we have had students, and I am sure that the list is not complete. LBC/LST owes a considerable debt to the Laing family and to other benefactors. Sir John Laing gave LBC its London premises, which covered the cost of the move to

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

Northwood. He also served as President of the college for almost twenty years until his death in 1978, a position to which his son Sir Maurice Laing succeeded in the 1990s. The most recent presidents have been Baroness [Caroline] Cox, well known for her advocacy of the persecuted church throughout the world, and Lord [George] Carey, the former archbishop. In my time at the college I have taught around 2000 students. Some of these have gone on to do great things and of these some gave little indication of their potential while students. Some of our students have attained a high profile, as peers, ambassadors, archbishops and martyrs; to say nothing of reaching the Guinness Book of Records for growing the largest ever apple! Probably LST’s greatest contribution to worldwide Christianity has been the considerable number of former students in leadership roles in para-church organisations and in theological education. Tony Lane Professor of Historical Theology, LST, MA BD DD (Oxon) Areas of special interest: Doctrine: especially Justification, Sacraments, Scripture & Tradition Historical Theology: especially Bernard of Clairvaux, Calvin, Moltmann.

“In the 1970s the slogan was developed that LBC was ‘inter-denominational, international, academic and evangelical’. These four remain as characteristics of LST.”

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

Theological

Thinking Through Art I sat there in the interview session. I was ready. For 10 years I had toyed with the idea of actually studying theology. I had been a believer for most of my life. And for much of my life, I had been an avid bible student. But I knew I had taken my personal studies as far as I could. I knew I had hit some sort of esoteric buffer. So when one day, in a theological dispute with my then fiancée, I affirmed my credentials as a knowledgeable bible student, she said, “So why don’t you go to Theological School and get a degree to confirm that?” Exactly two weeks later I’m sitting in front of four LST faculty members. On the far left of the panel an American faculty member is smiling... a lot. I’m thinking he knows something I don’t. I would

later find out he was determined to be at this particular interview. The four were from distinct Christian traditions; a Lutheran, Baptist, a Pentecostal, and Presbyterian/Anglican. I thought to myself they must have very interesting lunches, talk less of prayer time! Once the introductory pleasantries were done, the firing of questions could begin. They would probe my overall general knowledge of the bible. I knew I was solid on that. I was a fully persuaded Calvinist. Calvinists tend to know their bible... very systematically too! For me, this was comfort zone. Then the American Lutheran you know as Dr Conrad Gempf, fired off his question. He had been waiting all day to ask this. I know because of the enthusiasm with which he asked.

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

“So do you want to study Theology so you can apply it to your art?” He obviously noted my professional background as stated on my CV; 2000AD, Judge Dredd, Video Games, Marvel Comics, TV, etc. Now I knew why he was smiling. I would later find out that he was a creative himself; the clever typefaces he used for his lesson notes, the narrative approach to his lectures and theology, turned on a light switch in a room in my head that I did not know existed. Along with the likes of the unreadable (no, really, you

couldn’t read him! Whatever you thought of him would be wrong!) Dr Deryck Sheriffs, the possibilities of theological thought became exponential. But I am jumping the gun here. Dr Gempf had asked me a question to which he expected an enthusiastic answer in the affirmative, with a passionate and extensive addendum to the said affirmative. It was a question to which I roundly and enthusiastically replied, “No.”

GUYS, PLEASE OKAY! THAT’S THE INTRODUCE HOUSE-KEEPING YOURSELVES. DONE. YAAY! HOSEA

AMOS

MICAH

JOEL

OBADIAH

HAGGAI

ZECHARIAH

YAAY! EVENING FOLKS, WELCOME TO THE ORIGINAL SATIRICAL AL SLOT; ‘THE ORIGIN DAILY SHOW’.

NAHUM

HA HA! WE HAVE ASSEMBLED A MOTLEY CREW OF ISRAEL’S MOST AUDACIOUS TROUBLESHOOTERS.

...FIREBRANDS ER; OF THE FIRST ORDUGH T ONE OF THEM BROINS T A LAWSUIT AGA THER JERUSALEM! ANO LY CHIDED THE PRIEST CLASS...

ED A ...AND ONE MARRI PROTEST OF HIS PROSTITUTE INIMM LITY... ORA COUNTRY’S TLEMEN, KIDS, LADIES AND GEN NTLY ARE APP WELCOME THE 12PHETS! MINOR PRO YO, MOSES; A BIT OUT OF YOUR TIMELINE DON’T YOU THINK, BUDDY?

NEVER MIND THAT.A NEVER HEARD OF TRANSFIGURATION BEFORE, AMOS?

HABAKKUK

ZEPHANAIAH

NOW, I DON’T GET THIS...

...WHY ARE YOU GUYS CALLED MINOR AN, THE PROPHETS? I MEDOE SN’T WORD, ‘MINOR’ TICE TO SEEM TO DO JUS S DO. I THINK OF GUY YOU AT WH YOU GUYS AS ‘THE UPSTART BRIGADE’.

HAHAHA! ...KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN PAL...

...BUT IN FACT, L ICA WE ARE THE RAD SPINE OF HEBREW THOUGHT...

MALACHI

...SAYING AND DOINGIN OUTRAGEOUS THII NGS SPOKE THE PROCESS... ICE AT AGAINST INJUST AEL’S ISR OF GHT HEI THE Y. RIT PROSPE

...WE GUESS ‘MINOR’ REFERS TO THE SIZE OF OUR WRITINGS. ...I EMBRACED USA JER LEM’S FALL...

...ANYWAY, BEFORE WERS START EAGLED-EYED VIEYES , I CAN COUNT... S, WRITING ME LETTER HAVE 12 ‘MINOR’ TE QUI I KNOW WE DON’T E... JONAH WILL BE PROPHETS HER ER AS A GUEST APPEARING LATPONDENT. CORRES

“Criticised at every turn by those who thought of my chosen path as either a choice to opt out of society or as satanic, I had decided never, ever, to taint my gift with Christian work!” 26

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

“Once the introductory pleasantries were done, the firing of questions could begin. They would probe my overall general knowledge of the bible. I knew I was solid on that.” THANKS GUYS. SAY HELL O TO THE BIG GUY.

...I MARRIED ANE TO ACTIVE PROSTITUT ’S DEMONSTRATE GOD AEL’S FIDELITY AND ISR Y. INFIDELIT

...AND I OFFERED HOPE WITH EARLY APOCALYPSE WRITINGS.

YOU SAY THE SYSTEM IS T WORTHLESS WITHOU FAITHFULLNESS.AEL ISR Y WH THAT WAS . WAS IN JUDGEMENT

OF COURSE TRUE RELIGION IS SIMPLE...

N IS ISRAEL’S RELIGIO L LAYERS BUILT ON SEVERA ATE, DEB , ION DIT OF TRA LOT RITUALS...BUT YOU ING, SAY NG, ALO E HAVE COM K! JAC IT AIN’T WORTH T THE JUS IT’S SAY YOU BEGINING!

IT ...ER, WHY WOULD DOES BE ANYTHING ELSE? LS CEL Y GRE H WIT E ANYON GOD’S NEEDS ACTUALLY THINK ICE E GIV S? RIF SAC L ANIMA ME A BREAK!

YEP, RELIGION IS SIMPLE. FIDELITY FIRST!

LOVE, AND...

NOW TALKING ABOUT DEMOLISHING TABOOS ’S AND PARADIGMS, LET TALK COMEDY.

I CHALLENGED ISRAEL’S RELIGION! ...YOU GUYS KINDA DEMOLISHED THE WHOLE SYSTEM! YOU US CONDEMED RELIGIO P AND EXCLUSIVITY, POM OUR FAV CEREMONY IN Y. OF SIMPLICIT

THINK ABOUT IT... WHY WOULD GOD CARE ABOUT WHAT PLATE YOU SERVE MEATS OR VEGETABLES IN?

...MERCY.

To understand this answer you’ll have to understand where I came from. My Christian and African roots never cherished my gifts as an artist. Criticised at every turn by those who thought of my chosen path as either a choice to opt out of society or as satanic, I had decided never, ever, to taint my gift with Christian work! I came to theological college so I could grow as a believer and become a pastor/teacher.

...THEY GET AWAY WITH STUFF YOU AND I WOULD BE DRAWN AND QUARTERED FOR.

OKAY, TELL ME JONAH, THIS THING ABOUT COMEDY, WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

COMEDIANS HAVEE ALWAYS BEEN ABL TO TACKLE TABOO SUBJECTS...

IAL TWIN TOWERS, RAC TABOO TOPICS, SEX ... OOS TAB

YET, FOR ALL THE JESTING, COMEDIANS LIKE, CHRIS ROCK, KE CONTINUE TO MA SERIOUS SOCIAL TO RY NTA ME COM DEVASTATING EFFECT.

HT COMEDY CUTS RIGHEA RT THROUGH TO THENO EGOS R... TTE MA THE OF S GOE NE RYO TO BRUISE, EVE BUT LATER HOME LAUGHING‘WA HE S WONDERS, ?’ TALKING ABOUT ME

...OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, JONAH, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.

THANKS, MOSES.

WELCOME, JONAH.

OKAY, LET’S SEE THIS STORY...

IT REALLY IS MR BEAN-ESQUE...

WHEN GOD CALLED ME ON A N, SIO SCANDALOUS MISUSE HE DECIDED TO L TEL TO COMEDY THE STORY.

It wasn’t an answer Conrad expected. I was passionate about this artificial distinction; following Luther, Calvin and Barth’s suspicion of Art... I in turn suspicious of Christianity’s view of the very thing I was best at. I did not know how to ‘marry’ these two worlds.

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

Something Dr Gempf could not have known was how his enthusiasm resonated with an exchange I had with an old friend a few years before. This friend walked up to me one day after service. “God spoke to me about you” he said. “Never assume your art could never be used for my work.” And then he walked off, as if to say, ‘Don’t even think this is a discussion, kiddo.’ I had absolutely no idea how this could be done. LST, however, taught me how it could be done – how I could begin to harmonise the two.

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

In the final year of my degree course at LST I submitted a dissertation proposal to the scrutinising eye of Dr Sheriffs, and with the smiling approval of Dr Gempf. That dissertation would mark the beginning of my work of theological thinking through art. That dissertation would become The Manga Bible. Siku Artist, theologian, musician, former LST student and one of Britain’s leading comic book creators and conceptualists.

“God spoke to me about you” he said. “Never assume your art could never be used for my work.” And then he walked off, as if to say, ‘Don’t even think this is a discussion, kiddo.’ I had absolutely no idea how this could be done. LST, however, taught me how it could be done.” The artwork on these pages is an exclusive early look at Siku's new youth resource 'DRINK IT - Liquid Bible Study System' which utilises his comic book and manga styles to deliver biblical messages in a contemporary format. LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

A Christian Reaction to ‘The Master’ “If you figure out a way to live without a master, any master, be sure to let the rest of us know, for you would be the first in the history of the world.” For me, in 2012 there was no better film than The Master. Yes other films arrived with more of a bang, more superheroes and more sequel goodness, but no other film came close to matching The Master for pure cinematic achievement. From the creative brain of Paul Thomas Anderson (that’s Oscar winning Paul Thomas Anderson, not the awful Paul W.S. Anderson of Resident Evil fame), The Master is a stunning exploration of the human mind

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

and asks the dangerous question of whether we flourish more when we are free and self-directed, or when we have a master ruling over us. Anderson forces us to question who the master is in our lives: are we subject to an idea, a philosophy, or a religion? Indeed, The Master has uncomfortable questions that Christians should be asking themselves. I wonder if many are ready to take the challenge?

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

Before its release, The Master became known as THE Scientology film, a provocative story that perhaps mirrors the tale of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the Hubbard role, a character named Lancaster Dodd, the leader of a sort-of-but-not-quite scientific self-help program called “The Cause.” Dodd is known to his followers simply as the Master, a name that links into the philosophy he is preaching. Dodd teaches that to master oneself is the ultimate goal, an idea not too uncommon, and an appealing one to those struggling in life. Dodd holds some other beliefs as well. The Cause teaches that (and this is where the Scientology links really start) human spirits (in Scientology: Thetans) are trillions of years old, reborn repeatedly into various ‘vessel’ bodies. Through a therapy-type practice they call “processing” (in Scientology: “auditing”), these beings are able to purge themselves of the traumas, baggage, and animal behaviour that keep them from progressing to their perfect state. The process is harsh, invasive, and not without odd moments. Upon joining The Cause you’d receive questions such as: “Have you killed anyone?” “Have you ever had sex with a member of your family?” and “Do you believe God will save you? Dodd’s goal for his flock is complete selfmastery, where “psychological” issues and even health problems are cured through focused mental processing. Think of a new spin on Reincarnation and Karma and you’re halfway there. Set during postwar America in the early 1950s, it’s not hard to see the appeal of Dodd and his group during a time where many felt lost and without purpose. Dodd is everything that we look for in an inspiring leader. He’s charismatic, well liked, a family man (being wealthy helps too!) and a captivating speaker. Dodd deals in dramatic soundbites to rally those around him, “We fought the day, and we won!” and his confidence never waivers in public. He’s the sort of guy that you could imagine leading a Christian mega-Church or selling some Holy Water on religious TV. He’s backed by a beautiful, supportive wife (Amy Adams) and children who seemingly look up to him. Dodd teaches his followers that, “the source of all creation, good and evil, is you,” and in The Cause the human being can reign sovereign and master over himself with no need for a deity. He is a man who has all the answers, a man you can put your trust in, a man with a vision, a man ready to lead the lost. Sound familiar?

“The Master shows the dangers of cults and the way they prey upon people’s weaknesses.” 32

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

We witness events in The Master from the perspective of Freddie Quell (the ever interesting Joaquin Phoenix), a complex man who perhaps just craves some love in his life. Freddie is lost after World War 2, he has postwar trauma, and his large alcohol consumption makes for a volatile mix. Freddie can’t manage a job as a store photographer and he is unable to resist attractive women. There’s no doubting that Freddie’s a vulnerable, impressionable man at the lowest ebb when he meets Dodd. The question is, therefore, whether the new belief system can help him take control of his life or not. The Cause is not without its sacrifices and when skeptics dare to challenge Dodd’s belief system, Freddie assaults them. As the movie progresses it become apparent that perhaps the relationship of one needing the other is a two way process between Freddie and Dodd. I wonder if this reveals anything about Anderson’s belief about God and his creation? Speaking of Anderson, he is perhaps the biggest success of The Master. If his previous work wasn’t evidence enough of his talent (he’s won Oscars and somehow got a meaningful performance out of Adam Sandler) then The Master is the cementing of his status as Hollywood’s premier auteur. Anderson can create powerful art like no other in the business today and his latest work allows itself to be picked apart, interpreted, and debated endlessly. The style of the film echoes back to the techniques fans love Anderson for, his long tracking shots, clashing orchestral music and fine acting performances, while his use of repetition in various scenes ends up making you question what is real and perhaps imagined. Anderson is busy trying to get into his audiences’ heads. Perhaps through The Master we can begin to see some of Anderson’s own beliefs on religion too. Though up to interpretation, there is no denying that The Master shows the dangers of cults and the way they prey upon people’s weaknesses. We see Dodd, a man seemingly with all the answers, swiftly adapt and change his beliefs and practices in order to keep control over his followers. What seemed to be held convictions suddenly appear up for negotiation, a position the Christian Church has found itself in quite a lot recently. Anderson also seems to imply that the idea of The Cause is an incredibly appealing one, perhaps in particular to the masculine idea of domination. Dodd’s ideals feed on our sense of pride and belief that we can make our own destiny, finding all the answers within ourselves.

“Religion and human nature appear to be in constant tension in Anderson’s filmography, and ... religion is merely a mask that we wear in order to hide our most basic state of natural instincts.” But to pigeonhole The Master into just a film about cults would be to do it a disservice. Of course the worldview of such beliefs is a big feature, but Anderson, much like he has done with his previous films such as There Will Be Blood, seems more interested in the broader questions of man’s nature and the function of religion in general. Religion and human nature appear to be in constant tension in Anderson’s filmography, and after sitting through an Anderson film marathon you’d perhaps come to the conclusion that religion is merely a mask that we

wear in order to hide our most basic state of natural instincts. Dodd as a religious figure is never really offered as anything other than a con man, a phony who uses religion for personal and financial gain. He’s a classic example of not practicing what he preaches, his belief system is simply one he uses to subdue others to his own benefit. We’re left with a sour taste in our mouths with Dodd, the same we might feel if we have ever witnessed a leader fall from grace in our own lives.

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

Christianity, after all, is perhaps at times dangerously close to tipping into Dodd territory. Is Christianity a belief about finding help in a transcendent God and giving up any notion that the self can ever help itself, guilty of drifting into the ‘make you, the best sort of you!’ selfhelp territory? Do we rely more and more on big popular figures such as Todd Bentley and Mark Driscoll to make Christianity relevant to the masses, and what happens if and when they fall from grace? Do movements such as the Prosperity Gospel offer little more than ‘get rich quick’ schemes? Christians may laugh and snort at the seemingly ‘craziness’ of cults around the world, but they’d also have to accept that many view Christianity in exactly the same way. Anderson may not be directly challenging Christianity but it’d be foolish to not ask the questions of ourselves. Maybe The Master holds a mirror up to all of our failings and it’s time we started to do something about them. One person who’d agree with the notion that Christianity comes with equal amount of danger as other religious ‘cults’ is Richard Dawkins, the good friend of Christians worldwide. Dawkins has explored the idea that, while religion might provide some limited protection from stress related diseases, religion is a by-product of the selective advantage of brains in children which possess the general rule of believing without question what parents and elders say. To survive, children need to put their trust in those who look after them, and so will naturally suppose that any received body of knowledge passed on is true. Religion thrives on this kind of assumption. Dawkins argues that we may be ‘psychologically primed’ for religious faith. For instance, children are ‘native teleologists’, meaning that they ascribe purpose to everything. If it is natural to suppose that all things have their purpose, then this could lead one to the (mistaken) assumption that everything must have been made for a specific purpose, by God. Dawkins then builds an analogy: religion is like a ‘virus of the mind’ which ‘infects’ vulnerable people. For Dawkins, this analogy works because it reflects the tendency of religion to spread virulently among the susceptible and is passed on through exposure to the ‘virus’. Dawkins also suggests that religion survives as a ‘meme’ - a unit of cultural inheritance which gets passed down through the generations (the cultural equivalent of a gene). Religion contains a set of ideas which can mutate and, if they work well in an environment, they will continue to be passed on.

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

A key argument for Dawkins concerns ethics; he claims that religion is immoral or, at least, less moral than is often claimed. On the one hand, he appeals to the Bible and other sacred texts as sources of dubious values: vindictiveness, prejudice, intolerance, etc. Yet, he also looks at the contemporary social impact of religion, controversially describing faith as a potential source of child abuse. Dawkins finds the indoctrination of children to be perhaps the worst aspect of religion, and perhaps it is here that the most uncomfortable parallel with The Master is made. Do Christians, via youth groups and children’s ministry, end up becoming manipulative masters? Are young children told what to believe and forced to accept dubious religious moralities without choosing for themselves? Why should faith be imposed when children are at an impressionable age? In regards to the quote from The Master regarding our perhaps innate need for a ‘master,’ Dawkins offers this, “Does religion fill a much needed gap? It is often said that there is a God-shaped gap in the brain which needs to be filled: we have a psychological need for God - imaginary friend, father, big brother, confessor, confidant - and the need has to be satisfied whether God really exists or not.” The God Delusion, p. 388 With The Master, Anderson offers his most narratively obscure and thematically complex film to date. It won’t be to everyone’s taste. There isn’t really any plot to speak of, and instead we have an exploration of complex characters and provocative themes. But this is exactly the sort of film that Christians should be watching and discussing. The Master will unnerve you, it’ll get under your skin, and scariest of all, it’ll make you ask questions. Hollywood should thank the Lord for Paul Thomas Anderson. ‘Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and also the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of spiritless conditions. It is the opium of the people.’ Karl Marx

Tom Wade Tom is a religious educator who is immersed in contemporary culture - he speaks at GreenBelt and writes for several publications including YouthWork Magazine.

“anderson may not be directly challenging Christianity but it’d be foolish to not ask the questions of ourselves. Maybe The Master holds a mirror up to all of our failings and it’s time we started to do something about them.”

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LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

‘We are fairly sure you have a rare carcinoma that we don’t know much about…’ It was my second night in hospital with serious and unexplained bleeding after the birth of our third child. I stared at my 3 month-old son who was being cradled by my husband while doctors and nurses buzzed around. I didn’t realise it at the time but I was dying. My body was fighting hard, but was so weak. It turned out that I had a very rare but aggressive type of cancer called Choriocarcinoma. Despite the odds being against his survival, my son had miraculously survived growing alongside a tumour in the womb. With further tests it was discovered that the tumour had rapidly progressed to my lungs. To beat the disease would require me to have many gruelling weekly treatments, with the good news being that this type of carcinoma was highly responsive to chemotherapy.

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

But worse than the gruelling treatment was the moment when I was told that I was to be transferred to another hospital, meaning I would have to hand over my son to be cared for by my husband and mum; Daniel and I had never been parted for more than a couple of hours. As I breast fed him for the last time I had no idea whether either of us would be ok. I had gone from being a strong carer and protector to being as weak and vulnerable as he. The pain of loss I felt was unbearable, and the moment I handed him over was one of the hardest of my life. In some ways it would have been easier to tell me to tear out my heart, which is how it felt handing him over that night. Sitting in the A&E of Charing Cross Hospital, which specialises in this kind of cancer, I felt stripped of everything I found comfort and security in, I was in immense pain, and mental torture. When eventually taken to my room, I curled up in the foetal position and cried out from the deepest part of my soul to know His Spirit was with me. Honestly, nothing happened. The room remained bare, cold, and dark, perfectly reflecting my state.

What followed from that point was what can only be described as the hardest journey of my life thus far. I went to places within myself and had experiences that there really are no earthly words for. As the chemo took its toll I felt at times as if I was in a kind of hell. And yet, at the same time, I have never experienced such a profound and glorious sense of God’s presence. The time that stands out most is the night the hospital lost my chemo. I was in complete pain and turmoil about my situation, but as the night wore on I came to realise there was a lady in the last hours of her life in the bed next to me. I could hear her agony from behind the curtain and knew that it was an honour to be able to pray for her as we lay side by side in pain. It was then I saw how even in the darkest night His Spirit calls us to reach out, and I have never felt so sure of my calling to simply be His hands and feet whatever the circumstances. I must also add that I saw His love through friends and family stepping in and filling the gaps made by my inability to care for our family and myself. I was often dumbfounded as people, Christian, Non-Christian, family, friends, strangers came and showed abundant love and grace to us.

Of course, I did (and still do) use my skills as a therapist to help deal with the trauma happening in my body, mind, emotions, and spirit. But what most impacted my experience of the diagnosis and treatment of cancer was what I believe about God and who I am in relation to Him. I also couldn’t deny the repeated experience of what I could only describe as ‘Spirit saturated’ times with hospital workers and others in treatment. Unfortunately much of what happens in life does not come with an instruction manual, and yet we need to respond, somehow, to what we experience. What informs our responses seems, to me, to be vitally important. We need to know what we believe, and why, as this affects how we see the world and how we respond to it. Our minds need robust and vigorously thought-out views which make sense of and support the rigors of life - either to help us process events in our own lives, or when we spend time working with others. For the Theology and Counselling course at the London School of Theology (LST) we teach that the most effective tool a counsellor takes into the counselling room is themselves. Therefore self-awareness - knowing what we think, believe, and why - is fundamental in the ability to walk in the sacred path of the care of others.

You might think that as a counsellor it would be my skills as a therapist that would have come to the fore. But in that first dark night, and the ones that followed, what remained when I was stripped to my core was a deep profound belief, a sense of God’s sovereignty, and the pervasiveness of His Spirit.

“What followed from that point was what can only be described as the hardest journey of my life thus far... As the chemo took its toll I felt at times as if I was in a kind of hell. And yet, at the same time, I have never experienced such a profound and glorious sense of God’s presence.” LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

So there I was, with the words “We are fairly sure you have a rare carcinoma we don’t know much about” echoing around me. In that moment, when I was faced with the ultimate question which demanded an answer, in the face of possible death, of everything being stripped away: what stands? I stared at my young son and felt shock and horror but amazingly, underneath it all, a profound clarity. I found that what I was experiencing was supported by the theology I had studied at LST. Themes such as: God’s sovereignty, my purpose even in the face of death, the pervasiveness and persona of the Holy Spirit, healing and what it means, the ecclesia, and the call to care for a broken world… I could go on, yet it would suffice to say, I experienced each of these in a new and profound way with thanks to the exceptional grounding I received as a student at LST. Rather than feeling tossed around by my illness and all it entailed I experienced what I can only guess it might have been like when Jesus calmed the storm for his disciples. The trauma of my illness did not disappear, and yet there was a calling of order in a chaotic and scary world through my understanding of the nature of God. I love being a counsellor, and teaching counselling is a gift and privilege. I fervently believe in the body of Christ being

an effective healer in the world. The tools of therapy we teach through the various counselling courses at LST are equipping people to be Christ’s hands and feet in a hurting world. However, without knowing what we believe and why, I wonder how truly effective we are? I believe that it’s not what happens to us in life, but what we believe about what’s happening, that affects our experience of it. Our underpinning philosophies and beliefs will affect how we connect to God, others and ourselves. The Theology and Counselling team is passionate about training well-equipped and skilled counsellors, pastors, missionaries, youth workers and carers grounded in a profound understanding of God and His word. We are inspired by Christ’s words calling His followers to be ‘like a wise man who built his house on the rock’ (Matthew 7:24). Some people I talk to question whether they can afford to do the LST Theology and Counselling course. My reply: Can you afford not to…? Kirsty Annabel Lecturer on the Theology & Counselling course at LST and at CWR. Described by her colleagues as ‘Real, warm, caring, pastoral and funny, sometimes irreverent but having a deeply spiritual core.’

“Rather than feeling tossed around by my illness and all it entailed I experienced what I can only guess it might have been like when Jesus calmed the storm for his disciples. The trauma of my illness did not disappear, and yet there was a calling of order in a chaotic and scary world through my understanding of the nature of God.” 38

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

m u S m er Sch 2013 oo 23rd - 26th July 2013

2013

Stretch your thinking, sharpen your skills AND shape new friendships for life & ministry. The LST Summer School offers four days to go deeper in the Bible and apply this teaching to your life and ministry. Building on the success of Summer School 2012, this year we are continuing to offer morning gathered sessions for all delegates, and are focusing on the book of Ephesians with Steve Motyer.

Here you can delve into a specific aspect of these subjects, drawing on our specialist expertise and experience as Europe’s leading theological college.

In the afternoons you can choose a ‘stream’ relevant to your gifts and interests, whether they be in Music and Worship, Counselling or Theology.

For more information please visit www.lstsummerschool.org

All of this takes place in conversation with others and making use of our excellent facilities.

Money, Business and the Church: A Coffee-Time Conversation Written & Illustrated by Charlie Comerford (LST Student)

“In medieval times the tallest and most extravagant buildings in the world were owned by the Church. This was a symbol of their influence over society, and also of the people’s devotion to it. Today, the tallest and most extravagant buildings are owned by businesses and banks, and their authority and influence is felt all over the world…” This is something a little different to ponder over your coffeetime conversations. LST student Charlie Comerford has created a cool bite-sized kindle-friendly comic book which looks at the issues around money, business, and of the Church’s involvement (or lack of) in an area that the secular world has often occupied dominion over. Charlie comes at the topic with an open-minded Christian perspective, challenges some of the common-held beliefs that Christianity continues to maintain, and asks whether, in a time when modern businesses have such a huge influence on the shaping

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

and transforming of our world, can the Church really afford to take a backseat? The black and white comic artwork is engaging and well drawn. The concept of looking at this unsettling issue through the lens of a comic allows for many and various viewpoints to be engaged throughout. Food for thought - and a real bargain at under £1 - now available via www.amazon.co.uk Published by Instant Apostle - a great new way of getting ideas flowing, between followers of Jesus, and between those who would like to know more about his Kingdom. Find out more here: www.instantapostle.com Reviewed by Matt Adcock, Editor of Insight and Director of Communications at LST

where the birds sing - wild places for the soul Written by Jane Upchurch

I was intrigued to be asked to review this new book of contemporary Christian prose, with its captivating sub-title hinting at the deeper and unexplored areas of spirituality. As a lover of Ignatian-flavoured spirituality, the mystery of faith, and the greatness of our God, I appreciate the challenge of presenting an acceptable approach to a creative spirituality in this postmodern and rational age. This book bravely and humbly sits within this integration and provides an open door through which we can explore. Through a series of reflections, we are invited and encouraged to awaken our Spiritual eyes and ears to find God in the detail of the ordinary, the quiet, and the unexpected places of our environment. The reader is led progressively, in stages, through the seasons from spring to winter, following the natural flow of awakening, rising, fruitfulness, and onto inevitable rest and stillness. The wonder of God-inspired festivals is skilfully integrated with earthy rejoicing and the integration of Mother Nature. So springtime, Easter, equinox, and new birth beautifully blend; summer, solstice, fullness of life, and flowers celebrate the height of the glorious uplifting sunshine season. We are then guided through to the gentle, quiet, womb of the day when the sun withdraws, life fades, and the autumnal bones of life lead us on to the dark night of winter. Here lies stillness and the waiting hope of rebirth. In this hurried and technological age it is not easy to find the peace and stillness that is required in order to hear that still small voice. But this will be required of you in order to appreciate this collection to the full. So then, we are encouraged to choose another way and not to miss the precious signs of Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s love and abiding presence

that surround us in the common place. In connecting with The Wild our souls are nurtured and our spirits healed. The book is beautifully produced and presented with care making it a joy to handle. The prose is misleadingly simple, thoughtful, reflective, and honest. It is an uncomplicated yet strangely magical read; an inspiring book to be dipped into and returned to. For me it promised more than it delivered and did not scratch the itch that is the longing for the wild place, as it was mostly located in garden imagery, which I found parochial. The book would best suit the bedside table of the person beginning their journey into a contemplative style of spirituality, as a gentle read and a guide to quiet meditation. I found the cover off-putting and would suggest it needs changing. My concern is that many people who could find this an excellent introduction to the mystical, inspirational, and contemplative forms of meditative spirituality will also be put off by the cover, and so potentially miss this treat. REVIEWED BY LYN POWELL, Psychotherapist & counselling lecturer at LST. Her passion is the integration of theology & psychology and her special interests are creative therapies and kataphatic spirituality (especially Ignation & Benedictine.)

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The book would best suit the bedside table of the person beginning their journey into a contemplative style of spirituality, as a gentle read and a guide to quiet meditation.â&#x20AC;? LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

child of light Music by Matthew White

This is the sound of a musician straining at the edges of the ‘contemporary worship’ genre to see where it might go, as Matt brings his love of great music and his love of God together in an engaging and refreshing album. Songs knock on the 6 and 7 minute mark, giving him time to explore alternative textures and arrangements. The opener ‘139’ (based on that Psalm) is a fairly mainstream, U2like worship song with chiming guitars and an anthemic chorus, but book-ended with experimental noises and interesting time signatures. Other songs push further musically– for instance, a version of ‘And Can It Be’ in a post-dubstep, James Blake-esque feel, complete with looped, vocoded vocals (more like this please, Matt!), or the relaxed R’n’B of ‘Hope’. His strong vocals are highly reminiscent of Muse’s Matt Bellamy, although at times he overplays the growls and swoops and doesn’t always nail the tuning (one place where this selfproduced CD could have used an outside ear). Otherwise the music is very strong and draws you back for further listens.

fragile world - an anthology Written by Lucy Mills

A compassionate and impassioned anthology, ‘Fragile World’ offers the reader sympathetic poems evoking a range of emotions, from the innocent and delicate Childish Things, to the social commentary of Age of Apathy, or the darker prose of Night Walking and Torn.

Lucy’s passion for those in need, in whatever form need may take, radiates through her poetry. With the proceeds going to support World Vision’s work in Darfur, it is evident that the beauty of her compassion extends beyond the page.

My personal favourite, Ebony, conjures images of searching through the wilderness of life ‘So striking out and stumbling with grazed fingers, shaking limbs we continue to walk.’

Reviewed by Laura Robinson, LST graduate BA Hons Theology & Counselling

LST INSIGHT - the faithfulness issue

Lyrically this CD is mostly material designed for corporate worship, with words that congregations could make their own. They don’t particularly surprise, but explore their themes adequately. ‘Love Will Set You Free’ moves more into performance song territory, and here the lyrics get more interesting and fresh, for example: ‘Eat of these pages whose words always fill/they satisfy more than bottle or pill/comfort and nourish your heart and your head/with a love that surpasses all that you’ll find in bed.’ It is exciting to hear such creativity within the usually formulaic world of contemporary worship. Matt’s album is highly listenable and deserves to be heard widely, and I hope to hear some of the songs in church services (and beyond) soon. Reviewed by Sam Hargreaves, lecturer in music & worship. sam co-leads resoundworship.org and, with his wife sara, co-leads the ministry engageworship.org.

WIN A COPY OF CHILD OF LIGHT INSIGHT has 5 copies of Matthew White's Child of Light CD for readers to win. In order to register your chance simply email: editor@lst.ac.uk or call 01923 456240 with your name and address. Winners will be picked at random on 01 July 2013. The editor's decision is final.

“Matt’s album is highly listenable and deserves to be heard widely, and I hope to hear some of the songs in church services (and beyond) soon.”

LST INSIGHT -the faithfulness issue

Something new from LST. An event like none before. Graduation. Music Festival. A day celebrating graduates, alumni, friends and family with music, food and so much more.

For more information, visit www.lst70years.co.uk

London School of Theology Green Lane, Northwood, HA6 2UW tel: 01923 456000 email: celebrate@lst.ac.uk Registered Charity No. 312778