November 2008 – Render to Constantine?

Today was the day that citizens of New Zealand had the opportunity to influence the make-up of the government. Hence, today, the discussion among the editorial committee over lunch focused around who voted for what, whom, and why, or why the person did not vote. So, how should citizens of the kingdom of heaven operate as citizens of New Zealand? How should they vote? There are, of course, as many opinions in the Church on this question as there are parties on the voting form!

August 2008 – Just the way things are at the end of history?

Pardon me if I don’t clap my hands and shout for joy. If this is the end of history, then it is a “pretty” bleak place. If this is the terminus of the world-spirit’s evolution, the conclusion must be that the demonic is ubiquitously incarnate. Francis Fukuyama wants us to settle for what he believes to be the completed, final, global, ideological victory of capitalism. But, if the world has arrived, then ever-increasing masses of poor people have found their destination to be an empty table.

May 2008 – Knock knock

Our editorial gatherings can get a bit random towards the end of proceedings; such is the evolution of many “carefully-crafted” issues of this publication! So, as we write, David Cashmore practises his Fender chops, while Howlin’ Wolf, distinctively intones the Blues out of Cashmore’s other sound system.

“You wonder why any of those white boys bothered to imitate,” David muses. Our response: Because the likes of the Stones and the Yardbirds were British, and because, in North America, the Blues wasn’t for white boys. It is the same reason, the same need to respond, that has moved David to plug in his own guitar, adjusted his effects, and improvise along.

 A purpose of an editorial is to entice the reader to engage with the offerings, something like the uncovering of a need. An editorial is somewhat like the opening joke of a long lecture. (It is also an opportunity for the editors to put in their fifty cents. Fifty cents doesn’t buy much cheese these days, so it is better invested here.)

February 2008 – Why is Lloyd Geering still important?

It is 2008, and the world is well into a century which looks like being dominated by climate change, by China, and by the challenges of religious pluralism in a religious age. New Zealand is slowly turning its attention to all three. It is ill equipped to understand the third, because it has been ill-equipped to understand religion.

Overall, our small country has shallow intellectual soil – we rely heavily on a few voices canonised by the media to interpret the wider world for us. This is especially true for the wider world of ideas. Generally, we have been shaped by an unreflective pragmatism which has its strengths, but also makes us vulnerable; we can too easily accept the assumptions and confident assertions of others about the state of intellectual play in the rest of the world. Nowhere have we proved more vulnerable to this than in the field of religion.

November 2007 issue – “Imagining a healed world”

Christians in the twenty-first Century need to heed especially the call to a renewed inner relationship with the natural world, and to resist the cultural mandate to control. As one phenomenologist has said, “The idea of a universe that is selfsubsistent – standing entirely on its own, fully operational and intelligible, independent of anything outside itself – is both odd and modern.” If Christians retreat to an other-worldly preoccupation it does no good to ourselves or the world.

The core papers presented in this issue of Stimulus are from a one-day Colloquium on Creation Care at Bible College, Henderson, on May 22nd. This Colloquium was jointly sponsored by A Rocha, an emerging Christian environmental organisation now affiliated with A Rocha International, and TANSA (Theology and the Natural Sciences in Aotearoa), a centre for science and faith dialogue within the Tyndale/ Carey Graduate School, partly funded by Metanexus.net.

Check out the issue here.

August 2007 issue of Stimulus out now

The August 2007 issue is being mailed out. Maurice Andrew discusses forgiveness, identity, and Christian witness. Murray Rae continues the theme of forgiveness and considers whether it can be part of foreign policy for a nation. Mike Mawson considers that old chestnut – Christendom – in the works of two seminal writers, John Howard Yoder and Oliver O’Donovan. Edmund Little responds to previous discussions in Stimulus about re-engaging with the Bible. Mike Grimshaw re-reads Romans 1 to 2:16 “after postmodernity”. And we have lots of book reviews… including Chris Marshall on Michael Baigent’s The Jesus Papers: Exposing the Greatest Cover-up in History (!) Read the editorial and see a couple of the articles here.

May 2007 issue of Stimulus out now

The May issue of Stimulus is out now. The focus of the issue is on the challenge of Islam. Douglas Pratt provides an historical introduction to Islam as it has challenged and is now challenging Christianity. Peter McKenzie provides an expert analysis of Sharia law. Duncan Roper provides an overview of modern Islamic thought regarding the West and society as enunciated by Sayyid Qutb. Chris Beard shares some personal reflections regarding contact and friendship with Muslims in New Zealand. Peter Stuart presents some perspectives on religious freedom in a pluralist world. Tom Smail presents perspectives on trinitarian atonement.

February 2007 issue now out

The February 2007 issue is now out. The issue continues several of Stimulus‘ ongoing themes. A number of the articles engage overtly with our increasingly postmodern contexts and sensibilities.

February, May, August 2007 Issues

Stimulus is currently planning the next issues. February 2007 will include the annual Clyde Vautier lecture. This year it was Chris Marshall talking about re-engaging with the bible in a postmodern world. We also have Peter Stuart sharing some of the theological foundations for the ministry of preaching.

 We are currently proposing that the May 2007 issue be focused on the issues of Islam and Christianity. Further out, we are currently looking to have August 2007 looking at issues of ecology and the gospel. More to come…

November 2006 Stimulus now in the mail

Stimulus 14-4 is now available.   In this issue we look behind Dan Brown’s story and its pseudoscholarship at some of the considerations in scholarship implied by The Da Vinci Code. All but one of the “Christianity and the feminine: The Da Vinci Code phenomenon” articles were given as papers at a colloquium of the same name, organised by the Wellington Theological Consortium, on Saturday 8 July 2006, at the Mercy Centre, Wellington.  

August 2006 Stimulus now available

Stimulus 14-3 is now available. It presents papers given at the Forum of the Christian Left (FOCaL) Conference 2006. The conference, entitled “Church and Society after Election 2005”, featured papers from a number of New Zealand commentators including: Dr James Harding, FOCaL trustee and Old Testament lecturer at Otago University; Prof. Peter Lineham, Associate Professor of History at Massey University, Albany Campus; and Dr Anthony Dancer, Social Service Commissioner, Anglican Church New Zealand. Enjoy.

Stimulus 14-2 May 2006

 The May issue has come back from the printer. Lots of interesting stuff – Da Vinci Code, Parmenter, Baxter, Paul and leadership, etc. When you get a chance to read it, feel free to add comments below to this posting regarding the May issue. You will be able to see the editorial, table of contents, and selected articles on the website here. The lead article is Mark Strom’s Paul and the reframing of leadership. Excellent article. Enjoy.

Stimulus 14-1 February 2006

 Welcome to dialogue regarding the February 2006 issue of Stimulus. Feel free to comment. You can find the editorial, table of contents, and some selected online articles here. My own favourite was Daniel Oodshoorn’s article on Speaking Christianly in the midst of Babel. Enjoy.