Archive for the ‘Calvin L. Smith’ Category

Posted on December 11, 2009 - by Calvin L. Smith

Poll on Spiritual Gifts

I have a new poll on spiritual gifts over at my blog. Details can be found here: http://www.calvinlsmith.com/2009/12/poll-result-and-new-poll-on-spiritual.html Feel free to come over and vote.

Posted on December 11, 2009 - by Calvin L. Smith

Ten Features (8 good, 2 bad) of the Current AGW Debate

In the lead-up to the forthcoming Copenhagen summit, man-made climate change (also known as Anthropogenic Global Warming, or AGW ) is being even more ubiquitously reported in the media than usual (if that were possible), with a flurry of apocalyptic scare stories and grave pronouncements by government officials. Deliciously, the climate change ideologues have become more apoplectic of late, as Copenhagen looms and, one suspects, in the wake of the highly damaging so-called “Climategate” leaked emails scandal. Anyway, not wishing to be left out of the current media frenzy, here’s my ha’penny’s worth… Ten features (eight bad, two good) of the current AGW debate.

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Posted on November 24, 2009 - by Calvin L. Smith

Stephen Sizer as Anti-Replacement Theology Champion?

I note Stephen Sizer will be speaking at Bethlehem Bible College’s Christ at the Checkpoint conference (March 2010), aimed at promoting a reading and reflection upon Scripture from a distinctly Palestinian perspective. The title of Sizer’s paper is “Israel and the Church: Challenging Zionism, Anti-Semitism and Replacement Theology.”

Let’s leave aside for the moment the supercessionist-heavy list of speakers (excluding, of course, Walter Kaiser, a respected theologian taking the opposite view), which suggests there is unlikely to be a much-needed Evangelical theological breakthrough on the Israeli-Palestinian issue at this conference and instead yet more preaching to the choir and plenty of back-slapping. If only those critical of Christian Zionism could intelligently disengage it from supercessionism, they might find they’d command wider support.

Anyway, the notion of Stephen challenging replacement theology appears somewhat incongruous. In the past, several other supercessionists have tried (not very successfully) to distance themselves from the label “replacement theology”. You see, ditching punitive supercessionism while holding to variations of either economic or structural supercessionism (see R. Kendall Soulen’s useful book The God of Israel and Christian Theology for definitions of the terminology) doesn’t qualify as having eschewed replacement theology. True, there are technical differences between these variations of supercessionism, nonetheless all mean the same thing semantically and theologically: whether one maintains Israel has been replaced or subsumed by, or redefined/extended in light of the Church, however one chooses to word it, it is still replacement theology in concept and outcome. God’s historic people are superceded.

Thus, given how, in our correspondence last year Stephen stated categorially the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people, I will be interested to see how exactly he intends to challenge replacement theology. At the very least his paper’s title is disingenuous, even misleading. It is certainly amusing. At the risk of sounding pejorative, it’s like the Pope presenting a paper challenging Catholicism, or Benny Hinn criticising the excesses of Charismaticism. Though no doubt it will be embraced with gusto at the conference, it just won’t wash across the wider theological world.

Originally posted on www.calvinlsmith.com
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Posted on October 29, 2009 - by Calvin L. Smith

Intercultural Theology: Pluralist Relativism or Democratic Asolutism?

Several weeks back I asked for definitions of intercultural theology from both postmodern and Christian perspectives, offering a guest blog post for the best answer in 200 words or less. There were no takers (!) so I thought I’d better wrap up this one so we can move on. Here are my 200 words on the topic.

Intercultural theology is a broad term which can generally refer to the study of religion and cultures and often forms part of a missions/missiology degree. But more specifically it has two distinct meanings, closely related but quite different, within postmodern and Christian settings. Drawing on postcolonial theory and thus challenging Western theology’s automatic privileged position, both seek to explore how local factors, culture and worldviews shape theological inquiry. (Actually there is a delicious irony here, given the fundamentally Western nature of postmodern thought.) But whereas a postmodern understanding of intercultural theology emphasises pluralism and relativism, so that the outcome is a collection of various local theologies, none of which is right or wrong, a Christian approach to intercultural theology, though still emphasising pluralism and local theological engagement, nonetheless ditches relativism. Instead the focus is on how different cultures represent equal stakeholders in the formulation of theology (a view expressed by the pioneering scholar of Pentecostalism Walter Hollenwegger), so that it is not just a Western stronghold, yet in keeping with the Christian concepts of absolutism and truth there still exists such a thing as good and bad theology. In short, the postmodern approach regards theology as a pluralist, relativist exercise, while Christian interculturalists instead emphasise a democratic yet absolutist approach (that is, they are pluralist to a degree as long as the ultimate outcome is truth). So while both take a similar starting point (postcolonial theory), their outworkings they are poles apart.

Posted on October 20, 2009 - by Calvin L. Smith

Any Suggestions?

I’m currently working through Acts (yet again) and today was reading about Herod executed James the brother of John, imprisoned Peter, placing him in charge of various soldiers, and then how Peter was miraculously freed by an angel (Acts 12:6-19). As a result of Peter being freed by God, Herod interrogated the soldiers who were guarding him and then ordered their execution, which raised some questions for me (funny how you read something in the Bible over and over but catch something new each time). It seems somewhat harsh (“not quite cricket” as my English forebears might have observed) that Peter’s salvation resulted in a bunch of innocent, working class soldiers having to die, particularly with all this meant for their families in terms of honour and economics (especially in those days). Then I began to ask if they were indeed innocent. Perhaps they had tortured Christians and God was exacting judgement, or maybe even they were the Sanhedrin’s own soldiers, maybe even those bribed to deny Christ’s resurrection (Mt 27:65, 28:11-15). Or perhapsthey were among those arresting Christ at Gethsemane. Then I wondered if, after all, although Herod had ordered them executed the punishment never actually took place at all. Finally, I came full circle and began to wonder if my endless speculation was merely a device to defend a personal view of God, a form of idolatry if you like, in the sense that I had created my own image of a God I was comfortable with, leading me to find possible solutions which somehow made me feel better.

Actually, I don’t think there is an answer. The scriptural report is meagre and possible solutions are highly speculative. So I am left with accepting a just God acted justly (and I can honestly accept that). Nonetheless, out of curiosity I would really be interested to learn if anyone else has thought about this particular issue, any alternative suggestions they might have considered to those I outline above, and what conclusion you have reached on the execution of these soldiers. In the famous words of an old advert for a telephone company, it’s good to talk.

Posted on October 17, 2009 - by Calvin L. Smith

New Paper on Christian Zionism

I have a new paper on Christian Zionism which was recently delivered to a postgraduate group and which I’ve since been written up and added to my The Church and Israel B.Th. module (it is now posted on that eCampus page). It can also be found here (there is also a PDF version available at the end of the article). I hope you find it useful, and, as usual, comments are much appreciated.