Author Archive

Posted on February 8, 2011 - by Calvin L. Smith

Earn a B.Th. degree for less than £2000 a year!

British Higher Education is fast becoming prohibitively expensive, with the government recently passing legislation allowing universities to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year. Neither does it end there, with accommodation, subsistence, travel and other expenses associated with attending a degree programme at a university, you could easily add another £3,000-5,000, again every year that your degree course runs. Multiply that by a three-year course and that’s an awful lot of cash to repay once you finish your degree. And while degrees in Law and Medicine can potentially earn graduates a tidy sum during the course of a lifetime, a degree in Theology is somewhat further down the potential earnings pecking order.

Yet taking a fully accredited degree in Theology at King’s costs nowhere near that amount, working out at well below £6,000 in total. (That’s not £6,000 per year, you understand, but rather for the entire degree!) Our Bachelor of Theology programme, validated by the University of Chester, is delivered completely online, allowing you to study from home or wherever, without the need to raise funds for accommodation and other costs associated with a traditional taught course. Access course materials wherever you have an internet connection, submit assignments electronically, and stay in touch with students and faculty by email, ‘phone, through the eCampus forum and Skype. Our B.Th. degree (a specialist qualification in Christian theology arguably equivalent in standard and scope to a U.S. M.Div.) is also highly flexible, allowing you to organize your studies and pace as you see fit. With a special focus on hermeneutics this degree is ideal for anyone seeking formal accreditation in Theology, whether for ministry, higher study at a later stage or purely out of interest in the subject. So why not visit our B.Th. page and see what we have to offer?

Posted on November 3, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

Press Release: Israel and the Church (8 – 9 Oct 2010)

PRESS RELEASE
Israel and the Church: A Common Heritage and an Uncertain Future
(London, 8 – 9 October 2010)

The aim of this two-day conference, held at the London School of Theology, was to raise awareness within the Church of an alternative to the often polarised debate between supporters of Israel and the Arab population in Israel and the disputed territories. Speakers were Drs Darrell Bock (Dallas Theological Seminary), Mitch Glaser (Chosen People Ministries), Jules Gomes (Liverpool Cathedral), Richard Harvey (All Nations Christian College), Barry Horner and Calvin Smith (King’s Evangelical Divinity School). The event culminated with a concert by Nashville Messianic artist Marty Goetz. Jointly organised by Chosen People Ministries and King’s Evangelical Divinity School, the conference eventually involved most of the evangelistic works among the Jewish people in the United Kingdom. The conference hall was packed, and the presentations were at once direct and conciliatory in tone. The final session, modelled on the BBC’s Question Time programme, permitted delegates to raise questions with a panel comprising the various speakers.

During the conference, responses among speakers to the current Middle East conflict (including issues such as the land) were varied and nuanced. Yet all speakers were united in their challenge to supersessionism, affirming instead God’s continued plan and purpose for the Jewish people. The speakers also highlighted and eschewed the highly polarised and divisive nature of the current debate between supporters of both Israel and the Palestinian people, calling for greater objectivity and Christian charity towards fellow brothers and sisters in Christ holding opposing viewpoints. The conference also explored the detrimental impact caused by the unnecessarily pejorative language of the current debate, including how polarisation of opinion is causing Church disunity, how polemical anti-Israel and anti-Christian Zionist rhetoric is impacting Messianic Jewish identity and its relations with the Church, and the effects upon Jewish evangelism. All speakers also affirmed the need to share the gospel with both Jews and Muslims.

A conference volume is planned and additional papers to complement those delivered at the conference have been commissioned. Audio and video recordings and further details of the event are available through the websites of both host organisations (see below). It is our hope that as people become aware of this conference the tone of the debate will change somewhat, while replacement theology will give way to a greater appreciation of God’s continued plan and purpose for the Jewish people.

www.chosenpeople.org.uk
www.kingsdivinity.org

Posted on October 4, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

Brazilian Politics and Evangelical Studies

It looks like the former Marxist rebel, Dilma Rousseff, poll favourite and heir apparent to Brazil’s President Lula da Silva, is going to have to face a runoff ballot for the Brazilian presidency next month. Despite a series of opinion polls suggesting she commanded well above the 50% of support needed to avoid a runoff, instead a last-minute surge of support for the Green candidate Marina Silva, who secured nearly a fifth of total ballots cast, resulted (as things stand at the moment) with Rousseff some 2-3 % shy of what she needed for an outright victory.

This result – if confirmed – is significant for Evangelicals for various reasons. First, Brazil counts one of the largest Evangelical – predominantly Pentecostal – populations in the world, with figures of between 40% and 50% regularly cited by commentators (though it is important to treat with care some of the inflated figures often bandied about, usually by Marxists and Catholics fearful of an Evangelical invasion, or else driven by Pentecostal triumphalism). Such a powerful bloc cannot be ignored in any election, and it seems in this instance Rousseff failed to convince Brazil’s Pentecostals that she planned to liberate the country’s abortion laws, together with introducing other social policies which Pentecostals would have found hard to swallow. Interestingly, many Evangelicals switched support to Marina Silva, likely explaining in part her surge of support at the last minute.  Significantly, the Green candidate Marina Silva is herself a Pentecostal belonging to the Assemblies of God. (more…)

Posted on September 13, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

KEDS Question Time

I’ve previously posted here concerning a joint King’s-CPM conference, to be held at London School of Theology on 8-9 October, entitled Israel and the Church: A Common Heritage and Uncertain Future. Recently, myself and Mitch Glaser were discussing how we might encourage those attending to raise some thoughtful and probing questions so that all of us – speakers, attendees and several attending members of the Christian press – get the very most out of this aspect of the conference. I, for one, genuinely believe this conference, which seeks to take a somewhat fresh approach to the whole Israel-Church-Middle East issue, will raise all manner of questions, and therefore we want to maximise the time and importance given to the Question/Answer aspect of the event.

As such, we’re adjusting the timetable slightly so that an extra session will be added at the very end of the second day (Saturday 9th October), so that we have a panel of all the speakers to answer questions fielded by those attending the conference. The aim is to make this aspect of the conference very similar to the BBC’s Question Time in order to encourage wider debate and offer something not always found at similar academic conferences. I will chair the event (though I admit, after attending several Question Time events and meeting David Dimbleby, I can’t promise to be quite as slim, elegant and fluid as he), while speakers will take turns responding to questions fielded by those attending the conference (we’ll even have introductory music to make it feel like the real thing, composed by our very own Chris Lazenby, B.Th. worship modules tutor!).

Cards will be issued at Registration for people to write their questions down, and we will try to get through as many questions as possible (panel members will not see questions beforehand). Questions which are brief, to the point and interesting (regardless of the ideological/theological stance they take) will likely go to the top of the pile, and each panel member will be asked to respond in turn. Where relevant, we will come back to panel members and the person asking the question to widen the debate. This will be a great way to end the paper aspect of the conference.

It’s not too late to book for the event. Full details can be found here, and we really hope you can join us. (For King’s students, so far I can confirm Andy Cheung, Chris Lazenby and myself will be there throughout the entire event and we’d love to catch up with you.)

Posted on August 26, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

“It’s Human Nature, Stupid!”

Remember Bill Clinton’s famous observation concerning what winds people’s clocks when they vote? “It’s the economy, stupid!” This little phrase came to mind this evening while encountering two small bits of news. First, the Guardian speculates that Jerusalem’s forthcoming light rail company may offer several segregated carriages along gender lines to appease the city’s strictest Haredi (ultra orthodox) Jews. Later, BBC’s Newsnight ran a package exploring why women wear the niqab, including an interview which featured three highly radicalised young women in sinister-looking garb. Newsnight also interviewed a young Muslim woman wearing a hijab (headscarf) who explained how, at university, she likewise had become radicalised and wore the niqab to prove her Islamic credentials within the group she was involved with, but had since shifted away from this radicalised position. (more…)

Posted on June 24, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

Christians and Personal Finance

An area I find intriguing and have wanted to blog about for some time is Christians and personal finance, specifically a biblical theology approach to handling personal finance. A Reformed Protestant focus upon thrift, evidence that better money management following conversion has contributed to Pentecostal upward social mobility in regions such as Latin America, and biblical theology themes such as good stewardship, all demonstrate the relevance of this subject for everyday Christians. The current economic climate, too, and what may yet transpire in, for example, the Eurozone (together with a wider global knock-on effect), arguably make it even more relevant. Today’s brief post, then, will be the first of several thoughts on the issue over coming months. Of course, when it comes to personal finance there are so many issues to explore, but rather than spend time writing one or two lengthy, detailed essays offering a comprehensive biblical theology of personal finance I thought I would simply share brief thoughts as and when, beginning with the suggestion that wise management of personal finance is indeed a Christian principle. (more…)

Posted on May 18, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

Televangelism

With a looming major validation event and a couple of publication deadlines this month, I’ve not beeen a very good blogger of late. Apologies for that. That said, one of the things I’ve been asked to write for a forthcoming dictionary-type academic publication on Pentecostalism was a short essay on televangelism, which I just finished. I thought this might be of interest, so I’m posting the pre-edited version below. Hope you find it useful.

Televangelism, by Calvin L. Smith

While not an exclusively Pentecostal phenomenon (for example, the Catholic priest Charles Coughlin’s weekly radio broadcasts in the 1930s reached audiences of millions, while more recently Jerry Falwell and Robert Schuller are firmly outside the movement), nonetheless from the outset Pentecostal preachers were quick to recognise the opportunities religious broadcasting offered. Clearly, there are doctrinal reasons for this. Already strongly conversionist by virtue of its revivalist roots, early classical Pentecostalism’s eschatological interpretation of its pneumatology and pneumapraxis, associating the movement’s inauguration with the ‘last days’, contributed considerably to a sense of evangelistic urgency. Thus, it was a logical step for revivalist Pentecostal preachers such as Oral Roberts and Aimee Semple McPherson to exploit radio in order to reach wider audiences than could be accommodated in buildings or tent meetings. Likewise, with the arrival of television Pentecostals quickly embraced the new medium, so that even by the early 1950s Rex Humbard, one of the pioneers of televangelism (a term coined by Jeffrey Hadden and Charles Swann, 1981), was broadcasting church services weekly, while just a few years later Oral Roberts had developed the infrastructure necessary to reach most of the U.S. television audience. (more…)

Posted on March 2, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

The Church and Israel Teaching Day

I’ll be doing an all-day seminar exploring various aspects of the relationship between the Church and Israel on Saturday 17 July (11 am – 4 pm) in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, organised by King’s Evangelical Divinity School. Further details later, but we’ve hired a suitable church hall and places are limited, so if you plan on attending you should express your interest as soon as possible by emailing the college office at office(a)kingsdivinity.org.