Australia’s first saint?

The Vatican has all but proclaimed Mary MacKillop to be Australia’s first saint. We congratulate our Roman Catholic friends on this recognition of the accomplishments of a remarkable woman and her potential elevation to her Church’s “hall of fame”. It makes a pleasant change from the incessant focus on our sporting heroes. I don’t even quibble with this use of the word “saint” as many Protestants do. Words mean what people use them to mean and it is churlish of Protestants to claim that we alone have the true definition of a “saint” just because some English Bibles use this word as a translation of hagios, applied in the NT to all followers of the Lord Jesus, while we use different words for our “worthies”. Words are capable of more than one meaning, of broader and narrower definitions, and we regularly use words in senses other than their NT uses.

What is curious is the way the media have on the whole suspended their usual healthy questioning — regarding her alleged miraculous posthumous activity. Disturbing, at least at the level of folk religion, if not the official Roman Catholic position, is the attribution of the miraculous cures to Mary, rather than Mary’s God. All prayer other than that directed to God in the name of Christ, is misplaced. Sadly, I fear we are in for a rather confused time as superstitious popular corruptions supplant Biblical truth in the guise of honouring a great Australian woman. We might have opportunity gently to point people to the one in whom true healing is to be found.

PTC Anagrams

Truth and wisdom can sometimes be anagramaticaly concealed in a name. What happens when you take the blender to

Presbyterian Theological Centre?

The year we started, one could imagine a small paragraph in our denominational magazine headed

Tiny college trains preacher-to-be

Or perhaps, thinking of 1 Timothy 5:17, we might get

Ace preaching? Only better toilers!

Or a variant, based on 2 Corinthians 4:7 might be

Clay preachers — one toiling better

A vision statement, mission statement and action plan in one might be

One in Christ — A better college — Pray

Our world missions perspective finds expression in

Yearn to etch clear gospel in tribe

Orthodoxy and orthopraxis blend in

Listen to grace in brotherly peace

It would be interesting to see if other colleges can yield some apt anagrams.

Ageless Dinosaurs

No, I’m not referring to the PTC Faculty. A recent children’s book on dinosaurs boasts that it avoids the question of how long ago these lovable monsters roamed the earth and so should be acceptable to evolutionists and creationists alike.

What a great marketing idea! We could extend this please-all approach to future editions of the Bible. We could have a collapsible or expandable canon, with clever fold-out pages which could remain discreetly hidden for Protestants. There could be a version of the ten commandments which allowed a set of checkbox options as to which ones the reader would like included/omitted. The one on coveting might have some extra letters in brackets —You shall not co(n)ve(r)t — for those with an aversion to evangelism. The Song of Songs could come with brown paper wrapper, and instructions for gaining access once one has learned the meaning of the word allegory.

The gospels could come in the usual fourfold form, as well as a composite form for those who want to save the effort of hearing their different voices. The resurrection could be made an optional outcome in a choose-your own-ending to the life story of Jesus. There could even be some blank pages to describe the Christ of your own experience. It would be very handy to have a version of Paul’s letters which relegates to footnotes (only to be read by those with a peculiar bent for trying to understand the whole of his complex thought) all the troublesome bits and sticks to the ‘safe’ passages in the text.

There could be a high church liturgical account of the meetings of the early Christians, and one that doesn’t mention worship at all, so as to appeal to contemporary evangelicals.

The Book of Revelation could come with alternative sets of charts marked PRE-, A-, and POST-, and perhaps to cover those keen on the idea of Christ’s rule, but not sure of the other options, one marked PRO-. There’s no end to the possibilities this strategy opens up.

Divine flu: a health warning

Ben Myers has a recent post with an excerpt from an article by Kim Fabricius on the dangers of both neo-liberalism and conservative evangelicalism. While some of the critiques of the latter will take some readers of this blog beyond their comfort zone (and I'm not agreeing with all of the comments), it is well worth reflecting on the matters raised. We need to see ourselves as others see us and ask whether we have simply identified an evangelical subculture with revealed truth. 

Visit of Paul Helm

The British philosopher and theologian, Paul Helm, will be giving guest lectures at PTC (77 Shaftesbury Road Burwood, NSW) from 3pm till 5pm on Tuesday 15^th September dealing with aspects of

• The age of reason (17th century); 

• The enlightenment (18th century); and

• The appropriation by Luther and Calvin of 16th century philosophy

(or whateveer else he is in the mood for!).

These lectures are open to all at no cost and no registration required. Just turn up.

Paul Helm is Professor in History and Philosophy at Kings College, University of London, and holds the J.I. Packer Chair in Theology and Philosophy, Regent College, Canada.

Amongst numerous other interests, Dr Helm has special expertise in the links between Calvin's thought and its development among Calvinists of the 17th century and is the author of Calvin and the Calvinists, 1982. 

Blog Conference on Women in Ministry

Dave has written to let our readers know that over at the Ryde Presbyterian Church site a blog conference on women in ministry has started. The first post, by Peter Barnes (part time lecturer at the PTC) is up.
Future contributors include John McClean and a couple of past PTC students.

Scope of the Atonement

There is an interesting series of posts (here, here, here and here) over at Euangelion on the extent of the atonement, with concise statements of what approximate to three classic views. John McClean and I have both posted comments.