The resurrection renews the world. It opens it and keeps it open and it makes it new so that it is a new world. The resurrection has transformed the world in which we live. Of course it is not until w…
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Good Friday – The Tree of the Cross
‘Behold the wood of the cross,’ we say on Good Friday. ‘Touch wood,’ we say on any day of the year, reaching out for the nearest piece of wood as an extension of the wood of the cross. When we cross o…
Continue readingPrayers for Here and Now Morning Prayer, Midday Prayer and Evensong in two minutes
Prayers for Here and Now Morning Prayer, Midday Prayer and Evensong in two minutes Here are short versions of the daily prayers said in this church. You can read them and pray them out loud here and n…
Continue readingIntercessions for Here and Now
Monday True Worship I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34.1). I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I prai…
Continue readingJanuary - Epiphany
2018 is Year B in the Revised Common Lectionary. Year B is the year of the Gospel of Mark, interrupted and supplemented by the Gospel of John. Although the Church of England introduces its own idiosyn…
Continue readingVIGIL 2016 Prayers 1
O Lord open thou our lips – And our mouths shall shew forth thy praise O God make speed to save us – O Lord make haste to help us Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it …
Continue readingEucharist - What does taking part in the Eucharist mean to me?
In the Eucharist we come into the presence of the Lord and all his redeemed creatures. In the Eucharist God comes to us, to mankind. Heaven comes down to earth, and the two are joined. This reveals us…
Continue readingMission - What is the mission task facing the Church of England?
The task of the Church of England is to proclaim the Gospel, now and always. Christians are blessed. We have been made happy, and we are glad to share this happiness. It would be strange if we did not…
Continue readingVocation - What is the calling of a priest in the Church of England today?
Let us start with ‘vocation’. Who calls, and who is called? The Lord calls. He calls us. Along with all creation, he calls us into existence, and we have our existence just because God calls us. The L…
Continue readingIntro to The Christian Year – Around the year, through the Lectionary
The Church follows the Lord on a public year-long pilgrimage through the fasts and feasts of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity. The Church is the body of Chri…
Continue readingLent & Easter 5. Palm Sunday - Entry to Jerusalem
The sixth Sunday of Lent is Palm Sunday. The Lord rides into Jerusalem. We will read the short version of this entry from Mark, but here is the longer one from Matthew: When they had come near Jerusal…
Continue readingLent & Easter 4. Lifted Up, Raised - and true Mothering
The Passover was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He went into action on our behalf. He rode in to the rescue, to take us back out of the power of those who held us captive. John telescopes the wh…
Continue readingLent & Easter 3. Christ must suffer and be rejected
We are on our way through Lent to Easter, looking at the Sunday readings and learning something about the public contribution of Christian witness. Though we are going through Lent, we already enjoy E…
Continue readingLent & Easter 2. The Law, the Command and the Freedom
We are under the covenant and so we settled. We are members of a robust and confident society, culture and nation. And we are on the move, following Abraham, who is following Christ. We alternate betw…
Continue readingLent and Easter 1 The Covenant
We are on the way to Easter. We travel around the Christian year, each Sunday hearing a new reading from Scripture that tells us who we are, where we have come from, where we are going, what the obsta…
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Easter Sunday 2010 He must rise from the dead John 20:1-18, Psalm 118, Acts, 1 Corinthians 15:9-28 St George the Martyr Holborn Christ is risen, he is risen indeed . Early on the first day of the week…
Continue readingChrist the King
Here we are at Christ the King. Every Sunday the Church reads a piece from the gospel. A very large part of the worldwide church reads the same portion of Scripture on the same day, so Christians acro…
Continue readingChrist our Ransom
Our gospel is from Mark. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10.45). Week by week we have been walking through the gospel of Mark, f…
Continue readingNaming the powers – Christians and the challenge to our culture
Why is our economy in trouble? Could it be that our economy is in trouble because our culture is in trouble? One reason that our culture might be in trouble because it has adopted a dramatically reduc…
Continue readingWorship 6 The Whole People of God
Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory In these talks we have seen that the Christian people is gathered and that it hears the Word of God. It asks for judgm…
Continue readingWorship 1 Gathering
The Lord be with you Every Sunday morning Christians gather together in worship. What are they doing in these worship services? What is this meeting and praying and singing all about? I am going to lo…
Continue readingWorship 2 Hearing
This second talk on Christian worship is about what Christians hear when they worship. Last time we said that the Church is this people gathered together, and that they are the people gathered by God.…
Continue readingWorship 3 Singing
In my first talk I said that that the Christian community is gathered. The Lord God brings us here before all these other people and holds us together, making us one. This community is an entity of lo…
Continue readingWorship 4 Praying
We have been looking at the Christian service of worship. So far we have said that Christians gather, that they hear the readings from Scripture and they sing. The next thing is that they also pray an…
Continue readingWorship 5 Eucharist
Christians are gathered together, they hear God's Word, they pray, and they worship God. These four elements are part of every Christian service. Traditionally, each service has two parts to it – the …
Continue readingPope Benedict on Jesus and sacrifice
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI is a pastor. He preaches and teaches around the Church year, his homily at every feast telling us something about Christ and something about us. Through his Easter and C…
Continue readingZizioulas on eschatology
The Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas is most often associated with the Christian doctrine of the person. The concept of the person holds together the two issues of communion and freedom. Zizioulas a…
Continue readingThe Whole Christ and the Eucharist
Just as crucial as the concept of substance to our account of the eucharist is the concept of persons. With this concept we can understand that we are both distinct and particular persons, and that th…
Continue readingHoly Week 4 Maundy Thursday Having given all things into his hands…
4 Maundy Thursday Having given all things into his hands… Exodus 12, 1 Corinthians 11, John 13 1. Upper Room The readings for today, Maundy Thursday, are from Exodus 12, the Passover, 1 Corinthians 11…
Continue readingHoly Week 3 Wednesday After receiving the bread...
3 Wednesday After receiving the bread… Isaiah 50, Psalm 70, Hebrews 12, John 13.21-32 We have been following the readings for each of the days of Holy Week. We said that every day of Holy Week is a re…
Continue readingHoly Week 2 Tuesday Unless a grain falls…
2 Tuesday Unless a grain falls… Isaiah 49.1-7, Psalm 71, I Corinthians 1.18-31, John 12.20-36 Yesterday we said that the whole world is full of the glory of God. The glory of God is not visible everyw…
Continue readingHoly Week 1 Monday The house was filled…
1 Monday The house was filled… Isaiah 42.1-9, Hebrews 9.11-15, John 12. 1-11 1. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume Each day of Holy week is a lesson in the resurrection. The resurr…
Continue readingOn the way to Easter - Lent 5
Fifth Sunday of Lent Ezekiel 37.1-14 Psalm 130 Romans 8.6-11 John 11.1-45 In our journey towards Easter we have seen that Christ is anointed and made king by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has brought us…
Continue readingOn the way to Easter - Lent 4
Fourth Sunday of Lent 1 Samuel 16.1-13 Psalm 23 Ephesians 5.8-14 John 9.1-41 At Easter God completes his act of creation by raising one of us to the full definition of humankind. In Christ the whole w…
Continue readingJohn Zizioulas Lectures in Christian Dogmatics - Editor's Introduction
In these lectures the celebrated Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas introduces the Christian faith. Zizioulas shows that the living Christian community is the demonstration of God's love for the world…
Continue readingOn the way to Easter - Lent 3
Exodus 17.1-7 Psalm 95 Romans 5.1-11 John 4.5-42 In our preparation for Easter we have been looking at the different aspects of the resurrection that are presented to us in the Scripture readings for …
Continue readingOn the way to Easter - Lent 2
Second Sunday of Lent (Year A) Genesis 12.1-4 Psalm 121 Romans 4.1-5, 13-17 John 3.1-17 We are practicing our gospel. This is what we are doing in Lent. We are explaining what we mean when we say at E…
Continue readingOn the way to Easter - Lent 1
First Sunday of Lent (Year A) Genesis 2.15-17, 3.1-7 Psalm 32 Romans 5.12-19 Matthew 4.11 I On the way to Easter We are on our way to Easter. On Easter morning we will say that ‘Christ is risen’. East…
Continue readingThe Son and the Spirit in the Providence of God – John Zizioulas on time and communion
Every Christian doctrine is an exemplification of the Christian doctrine of God. The Christian confession of God and that God is for us, requires an account of the generous provision of God, which is …
Continue readingFather, Son and Holy Spirit – Colin Gunton and the doctrine of God
There are just two theological tasks. One is to say what Christian doctrine is, and the other is to offer it to the world. The second depends on the first. First, Christian doctrine must be done for i…
Continue readingChrist, religion and ‘other religions’
In this paper I will argue that the Christian faith creates and sustains the public sphere. Christianity creates a distinction between faith and the public sphere, religion and politics, church and wo…
Continue readingIntroduction to 'The Eschatological Economy: Time and the Hospitality of God'
This book invites you to hear what Christian theology has to say to the contemporary world. Christian theology is the creature of the Church, and the Church is the creature of God. When the Church liv…
Continue readingNo lack of love – the Fulcrum sermons of Oliver O'Donovan
Oliver O'Donovan is one of the most exciting theologians in the UK. He writes on current issues, like bioethics, just war, sexuality and the church. But his great strength, and the source of his evang…
Continue readingCatholicity
In the Western part of the Church we have this basic and very deep assumption of a oneness or unity that occurs at the expense of diversity . Although the diversity is expressed, Western theology does…
Continue readingAbout this website
This website offers essays on systematic theology, Scripture, Christian doctrine, biblical hermeneutics and contemporary theologians. It also has a number of papers by Professor John Zizioulas, many n…
Continue readingThe Eschatological Economy
“No attentive reader of this book can fail to be impressed by its scope, boldness and sheer theological energy. As he moves across the fields of historical and systematic theology, biblical studies, a…
Continue readingOn this website
1. Christian thought is political. Christian doctrine is at war with other systems of ideas. There is a real encounter and contest of world-views. Modernity is a religion. It is contested by Christian…
Continue readingJohn Zizioulas - Ecclesiological presuppositions of the holy Eucharist
Thus in the office of the Bishop we encounter at least two fundamental paradoxes which are also paradoxes of the Eucharist. One is that in him the One become Many and the Many becomes One. This is the…
Continue readingPreface to The Eschatological Economy
This is a book of Christian theology. Theology is what the Church does when it checks that it is fully expressing and passing on the word it receives from God. This book relates our understanding of t…
Continue readingThe Theology of John Zizioulas - Introduction
John Zizioulas is one of the best known theologians of the contemporary Orthodox Church, a central figure in the ecumenical scene and one of the most cited theologians at work today. This volume demon…
Continue readingPreserving God's Creation 3
In our previous lecture we saw how the Christian Church through her main theological representatives in the early centuries viewed the world as God's creation. Against Gnosticism she stressed the view…
Continue readingPreserving God's Creation 2
In our previous lecture we emphasized the seriousness of the situation with which humanity, indeed our planet as a whole, are faced because of the ecological problem, and tried to look briefly at hist…
Continue reading5 Office in the Church
What is the purpose of hierarchy? What is the purpose of ordination? 1. The labour of the people 2. Priesthood 3. Ordination 4. Handing on the tradition 5. The rights of the labourer 6. The lack of ri…
Continue reading4 The Office of the Church to the world
The Christian commonwealth and the rule of the people of God Go in peace to love and serve the Lord… Calling the Twelve to him he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits… ‘T…
Continue reading3 Eucharist
For the baptised, purified community the things of the world announce their maker to us. So for the Christian community, water and bread and wine are God’s opening gambit. By them we learn that these …
Continue reading2 Worship
We worship God. He is God: we are not. We confess that the God of Jesus Christ is the only God. We concede that there are rival gods, alternative authorities and divinities, but declare that none of t…
Continue reading1 Gathering
The doctrine of the Church starts from the doctrine of God. Who God is will decide what the Church is. Whatever we say about the Church must be controlled by the Church’s own teaching about God. We wi…
Continue readingPreserving God's Creation 1
The subject of these lectures has to do with one of the most pressing and critical issues of our time. It is becoming increasingly evident that what has been named ‘the ecological crisis’ is perhaps t…
Continue readingBaptism and Christian worship
1. Christian worship is public 2. Christian worship is the service of God to us 3. The Son makes the good confession 4. Rival liturgies 5. The Church names the gods 6. Being made persons in time What …
Continue readingThe Confession of the Son
The Confession of the Son , by Douglas Knight, published in Stephen Holmes & Murray Rae eds. The Person of Christ , London: T&T Clark, 2004 For a summary of this paper, see The Confession of the Son -…
Continue readingOn the Holy Spirit - at a glance
Summary of John Zizioulas on the Second Ecumenical Council (Constantinople) and Basil on the Holy Spirit 1. Basil is saying that if one professes the Spirit is not a creature, then one does not have t…
Continue readingOn the Holy Spirit
John Zizioulas The Second Ecumenical Council on the Holy Spirit in Historical and Ecumenical Perspective Introduction 1. From Nicaea to First Constantinople. The crucial issues and the new theological…
Continue readingOne Single Source
East and West can easily continue dialogue also as regards the Filioque question providing there is full acceptance of the doctrine of tradition on the monarchia of the Father. The monarchia of the Fa…
Continue readingProprietors or Priests of Creation?
Our ecological crisis is due not so much to a wrong ethic as to a bad ethos; it is a cultural problem. In our Western culture we did everything to de-sacralise life, to fill our societies with legisla…
Continue readingThe Holy Spirit and the other spirits - at a glance
The Holy Spirit is the God of Israel who has distinguished himself from us by raising Jesus from the dead, and now distinguishes us from one another, securing our diversity and uniqueness 1) The Holy …
Continue readingGod and the gods: Christian theology and the modern constitution of knowledge
The argument of this essay is that we must speak about God in the face of the many gods. The Western tradition does not do this. It assumes that is that one God may or may not exist. The Christian acc…
Continue readingFuture directions in systematic theology
Future directions in systematic theology – there’s a title that invites a big answer. I am going to start though by giving you a modest account of what is being done, and from that we can see what the…
Continue readingThe Descent of the Son
God comes to us. The Son has set out to fetch us. We need two accounts of this coming. We need an account of the coming of the Son to us. And we need an account of the coming into being of the Son. Th…
Continue readingThe Holy Spirit and the other spirits
God is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the God of Israel who raised Jesus from the dead. There are other spirits. Spirits may be understood as natural forces, some moral authorities. Some of these…
Continue readingWorship as binding and loosing
The liturgy is the speech of God. The speech of God opens us up and closes us down, blesses and curses. God’s speech finishes and makes good what we start but cannot finish, and undoes what we have do…
Continue readingShow us Jesus – The Holy Spirit and the procession of Christ
Christ is our pioneer. He has ascended to where we cannot go, to the right hand of the Father. His Spirit holds together the whole long train of the people of the Son. The whole procession, and all th…
Continue readingPentecost
From today we are under the Son direct. We have his whole and undivided attention. All the powers we identified individually with his men in the Old Testament, are available to us. The Spirit is the c…
Continue readingThe plot of Scripture according to Mark
The king comes back at the end of the year to see how his managers have fared with the estate he gave them. The well-being of the whole people is the criterion by which they will be judged. …
Continue readingThe Victor and his people - at a glance
1) God has come to man. But the world had been divided by rival lords.Each is at war with every other, the unprotected are taken captive, and the war of all is directed also against God. 2) God set hi…
Continue readingWorship as binding and loosing - at a glance
1) The liturgy is the speech of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The work of the Son and the Spirit is to bring us into being within this liturgy. 2) The speech of God creates speakers, who can ask God an…
Continue readingThe Confession of the Son - at a glance
The Son makes the good confession of the Father in the face of all rival masters. Other masters are also allowed a limited responsibility; when they attempt to set up rival jurisdictions, they are bro…
Continue readingOne testament many witnesses
Why when Christians each have a copy of the Scriptures, do they need each other? Why are they still members of the Church? It is not only Scripture, but also the Church, that is God's witness to us. S…
Continue readingEucharist - at a glance
The Church is the exercise of the generosity of God: it feeds people the whole message of God, intercedes for them, puts the words of God into their mouth and teach them to intercede for themselves. T…
Continue readingTowards an Eschatological Ontology
The consequences of this thesis for system theology deserves special emphasis. In the first instance it is no longer possible to treat eschatology as the last chapter of dogmatics, as it has been the …
Continue readingThe Christian faith
The Christian Faith is the most exhilarating thing in the intellectual marketplace. Christianity is not well known. It is a secret. The world has no idea what Christianity is. The place of the Church …
Continue readingJohn Webster on Scripture authority and action
John Webster calls for a scriptural hermeneutic and doctrine of episcopacy subordinate to the doctrine of God. In an article on scripture he argues that the God who addresses the world does not lose c…
Continue readingOliver O'Donovan on political theology
Two views of modernity The political theology of Oliver O'Donovan and the political philosophy of Leo Strauss In the last couple of papers I read to you I tried to suggest that theology is a mode of p…
Continue readingJohn D. Zizioulas on the eschatology of the Person
It is an open secret that John Zizioulas, representative of Greek Orthodoxy on the international ecumenical scene, is himself one of the theological giants. He has not published much more than Being i…
Continue readingRobert W. Jenson on Time
Robert Jenson is a pioneer of the strong ecclesiology. He has put Israel in her proper place as the object of the election of God and established the trinity as the tool that keeps theology Christian.…
Continue readingColin E. Gunton and the concept of mediation
The doctrine of the Trinity is the means to talk about the world of action for God and man together that God has opened for us in Jesus Christ. Gunton champions the atonement as the medium of that enl…
Continue readingThe confession of the Son
We are preceded by a conversation, the conversation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Like any other piece of theology this essay attempts to set out some of the logic of that conversation. It is going …
Continue readingThe Eucharist
The eucharist asks us hard questions. It asks if our contemporary Church passes on the word of God to the world, or if withholds that word and leaves the world hungry. If the Church does not pass on w…
Continue readingThe Victor and his people
The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. He planted his vineyard, making it the place in which his people could deal with each other with the generosity th…
Continue readingSacrifice
Sacrifice is a catch-all concept. I will use it to mean the action of God that sanctifies and teaches us sanctification, which we could call the process of making the holy nation of God. so I am first…
Continue readingThe Death of Christ
Jesus Christ died for us. This piece sets out some of the logic of this basic Christian confession. The Son performs a complete act of reciprocity. He supplies the work and effort that it costs. 1. He…
Continue readingThe Letter to the Romans
God is righteous. He has published his righteousness to all. The pronouncement of the righteousness of God has come to Rome. It has arrived in the heart of the unrighteous idolatry of Caesar, the rule…
Continue readingThe Single Testament of the People of God
A testament is a witness statement. God has given us his witness statement and testimony. He is our lesson, our teacher, and he provides the time in which to learn him, and from him to learn about one…
Continue readingThe Christian Body in 1 Corinthians
The Christian community is given the work of witnessing to the oneness of God. Everything the community and its individuals members do serves the unity of the Church for the sake of the worl…
Continue readingMark on the cross and resurrection
The vineyard the virtuous and the vicious circles the work of the Israelite the gospel is two messages to two audiences  …
Continue readingFrom Mark to Revelation
These compilations of course handouts comment on verses of the books read in class. They are followed by pieces that give an overview of themes. Mark Corinthians James Hebrews Matthew Revelation…
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