BibleMesh

Introducing The Alexandrian Institute

agraham — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 06:00:50 +0000

After five years of careful development and prayer, we’re thrilled to share a significant milestone in our journey of providing trusted theological education for the global church. The Alexandrian Institute is here.

What began as the delivery of a Master of Arts in Theology program has now matured into the Alexandrian Institute—a comprehensive theological institution offering world-class education rooted in Scripture and drawing from the Great Tradition.

From Success to Expansion

The success of our MA in Theology program demonstrated the hunger for rigorous theological training across the global church. Building on this foundation, we’ve expanded our offerings with an MTh in Theological Ethics and multiple Pillar Certificates in Scripture, Theology, and Culture. For those beginning their theological journey, we’re launching Foundations Reading Groups to provide accessible entry points into serious theological study.

This is just the beginning. Our vision encompasses programs “from the pew to PhD,” with particularly significant developments taking shape at the doctoral level that will be announced soon. Whether you’re a pastor seeking deeper grounding, a missionary needing robust doctrinal formation, or an aspiring scholar requiring accessible pathways to advanced degrees, The Alexandrian Institute stands ready to serve.

Why “Alexandrian”?

This year we celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. The road to Nicaea was paved with the legacy of Alexandria. Our name honors the city that shaped theological giants like Athanasius and Cyril, and their pivotal role in defending orthodox Christianity.

But we also seek to honor our founder Emmanuel Kampouris. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, he carries a personal connection to the city whose heritage shapes our Institute’s name and mission.

Our Continuing Partnership with BibleMesh

As The Alexandrian Institute launches, BibleMesh continues its vital work equipping mission agencies worldwide, teaching Biblical Hebrew and Greek, and providing certificate pathways to accredited degrees while expanding our resources for local churches.

Both institutions work hand-in-hand to serve the global church—BibleMesh providing foundational resources and training, The Alexandrian Institute offering comprehensive degree programs and advanced theological education.

Join Us on This Journey

The Alexandrian Institute represents more than institutional growth—it embodies our deepening commitment to forming students in Christ’s Word for true wisdom. We’re equipping leaders who will strengthen the church and engage culture with biblical fidelity.

Explore our programs and discover how The Alexandrian Institute can serve your theological formation at alexandrianinstitute.org.

Thank you for your continued partnership in the mission of theological education.

The BibleMesh Team.

The Alexandrian Institute offers programs from foundational certificates through doctoral pathways in partnership with Union Theological College Belfast. Learn more about our comprehensive approach to theological education rooted in the Great Tradition.

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Seven Reasons Why Young Adults Give Me Hope

agraham — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 14:06:17 +0000

Written by Bonhoeffer Scholar and BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow: Dr. Brant Himes.

In addition to my ongoing work as a university professor, for the past year and a half I’ve had the privilege of leading the Young Adults ministry at my church in Bend, Oregon. Now, serving as a professor is certainly ministry, but my engagement with fully online students admittedly is different than the experience of being immersed in a diverse group of people connected to each other through a growing church-community. And it’s this up-close-and-personal journey with the young adults of Central Oregon that has given me a new-found hope for what God is doing in and for the world.

In our hyper-connected, algorithm-driven culture, it has become too easy to sit in cynicism. We can doom scroll to our heart’s content, and in so doing become convinced that hope is naïve, grace is irrelevant, and the future is bleak. But get around a group of young adults who are pursuing Jesus (at least the ones that I get to hang out with), and you may see a world that is colored with the truth and beauty of the gospel.

So, what is it about young adults that gives me hope? Recently, I’ve been reflecting on seven characteristics of this group that fuel a deep sense of wonder, peace, and hope for the coming generations.

1. Young Adults Lead with Authenticity

I think the coronavirus pandemic traumatized most of us—and particularly young adults—enough into admitting that everyone goes through hard things in life, and the point of community is not to act like everything’s always okay. There’s a vulnerability now, and vulnerability can lead to authenticity because young adults realize that they are not alone in going through whatever real difficulties they’ve faced. There’s also a magnetic dynamism that comes as they learn to lead from a place of authentic vulnerability. This isn’t a shallow voyeurism, where people gawk at each other’s hardships; but rather an honesty that says, “you don’t have to pretend to have it all together in order to be part of this community. We can figure it out together, under the grace of God.”

2. They Respond to the Work of the Holy Spirit in Their Lives

The young adults that I get to share life with are all at different places in their lives. They range in age from 18 to over 30, they may be college students, professionals in a career, wanderers looking for their next adventure, single, married, new to town, never left town, and so many other things. And while each person has their own story and is on their own journey, I see them seeking the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They are realizing that following Jesus has to mean an openness to being surprised by God’s work. Young adulthood is all about trying to figure out life. But it gives me hope to see a generation of young people who realize that they will really only figure out life if they allow the Spirit to take the lead.

3. They Care about Community

Loneliness is now considered an epidemic. And young adults feel it. They are trying to launch independent lives in the midst of great economic challenges, and what feels like the void years of 2020 to 2022 trained them to live in isolation. They feel the weight of trying to make it in the world, and the muscles of community atrophied during the pandemic. Loneliness and isolation are real and significant challenges. But because they have experienced the sadness and even depression of loneliness, they see the necessity of community. They know that being alone isn’t healthy, and so they are that much more committed to doing their part to build communities where they can gather as their authentic selves and experience the joy of living life together.

4. They Love Following Jesus

Young adults are discovering that what the world offers them is insufficient for a truly abundant life. Even those who seemingly have it all together can come to a point where the grace of Jesus just overwhelms them. They may not have realized they were even looking for Jesus, but when they meet him, they fall in love and realize that life only makes sense if they learn to follow him. Jesus changes everything. He always has, and he always will. Jesus is transforming the lives of young adults around me every day. And when Jesus is there, we can’t help but feel an abiding hope for the future.

5. They want to Learn

Young adults are working to build a faith that is all their own. They are at a place in life where the beliefs of their parents are not enough—they need to figure out what following Jesus means for themselves. And so they have a lot of questions, they are eager to learn new things, and they realize that exploring faith is less about squelching doubts and more about allowing those doubts and questions to fuel an authentic relationship with Jesus. Being a disciple means being a learner, and learning is an act of hope.

6. They want God to do Big Things for His Kingdom through their Lives

Young adults are eager for adventure, and as they learn to love and trust Jesus more, they realize that God wants to use them to change the world. They see an open future, one that is often too open and too scary for them to try and navigate alone. But then they see the bigger gospel-scheme of a life centered on Jesus, and they realize that God is calling them to be part of his story of hope and redemption. Their lives can be part of showing God’s grace, goodness, acceptance, and love to those around them. And that’s the best adventure of all.

7. They Don’t Expect Themselves or Each Other to be Perfect, but they Believe in the Depth of God’s Transformative Grace

These young adults, who have experienced so much, and who are yearning to experience so much more, are learning that life in community and in the grace of Jesus is not about a faith-performance. They want to be authentic, and they want others to be authentic, because then they can celebrate the transforming work of Jesus all around them. And gospel-centered transformation is contagious—it draws others into community who also need to experience the grace of God. And if God’s grace is not a reason to hope, then I don’t know what is.

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A Significant Change in the Roman Catholic World of Apparitions

agraham — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 11:59:12 +0000

Written by Lauren Moore, BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow in Theology and Mission.

Lauren is also a doctoral candidate at Union School of Theology (Wales) and VU Amsterdam, studying Roman Catholic Mariology from an Evangelical perspective, and is a fellow of the Rome Scholars’ and Leaders’ Network.

As Evangelicals we do not tend to closely follow what is happening in the world of Roman Catholic Mariology. Outside of Christmas and the occasional tweet from Pope Francis, we pay little attention to this aspect of the Roman Catholic faith.

But when it comes to Mary, the mother of Jesus, there is an important phenomenon we need to grapple with: apparitions. Since the early centuries of the Church, thousands of people have claimed to see visions or apparitions of the Virgin Mary. The majority of us are familiar with the formally recognised apparitions: Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico), Our Lady of Fatima (Portugal) and Our Lady of Lourdes (France) which attract millions of pilgrims annually. Across the globe and throughout the centuries, thousands of Marian apparition stories have influenced the faith of billions of Roman Catholics.

Classification of Apparitions

Because of such an influence, the Roman Catholic Church has sought to discern, recognise and reject different apparitions through the ages. The most recent effort in May 2024, when the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) released new Norms for proceeding in the discernment of alleged supernatural phenomena. Defining a new process to classify apparition events outlining how local bishops ought to respond to the phenomena. This document, the first since 1978, includes a significant and revelatory change.

The 1978 Norms determined three possible judgments for apparitions:

constat de supernaturalitate (recognised as supernatural)
non constat de supernaturalitate (not recognised to be supernatural)
pro nunc nihil obstare (nothing stands in the way)

This last judgement allowed devotional practices to continue, even without official recognition as supernatural. The major problem being the length of the investigative process; it was too long and arduous for the local Bishop to undertake. As a result, the majority of 2400 apparition events have no ruling.¹ Less than 20 have received recognition constat de supernaturalitate. The 1978 Norms aimed to offer a rapid official response to the “fast” mass media of the 1970s, but the responses were still too slow.

Problems Arising Around the Validity of Supernatural Origin

This was the case for Medjugorje, a small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1981, some young children started to claim regular apparitions of the Virgin Mary. News spread quickly, pilgrims flocked to the town and local church authorities tried to respond: were these apparitions of supernatural origin or not? The continuous nature of the apparitions created challenges within the approval process. What if the apparitions are recognised as supernatural, but later apparitions were clearly false or worse, demonic? The 1978 Norms could not sufficiently handle such complexities.

In addition, even though the Norms were outlined by the Vatican (the DDF), it was the bishop who made the final decision. The Medjugorje apparitions have continued for over 40 years, with each new bishop varying the official response. The challenging problem of approving the Medjugorje apparitions has only been truly resolved by the new Norms.

Major Changes to the Approval Process

The 2024 Norms brought two major changes to the approval process for apparitions. Firstly, where previously the local bishop was discouraged from including the Vatican in the process or from cosigning any formal declarations with the DDF, the 2024 Norms prefer declarations to be signed off by the Vatican. In this way the new Norms recentralise the approval process to Rome. The local bishop alone no longer holds the final say over apparition events in his diocese.

Secondly, and most significantly, the judgement of constat de supernaturalitate is no longer to be declared. The 2024 Norms contain six declarations. The highest recognition that an apparition event can now receive is Nihil Obstat (nothing stands in the way).² In other words, the Vatican will no longer be declaring definitively whether an apparition is supernatural or not.

A Shift in the Importance of Supernatural Origin

This accomplishes two things: firstly, as in the case of Medjugorje, it gives the Vatican an exit plan should new information come to light about an ongoing apparition. Secondly, it gives more freedom to the believer. Strictly speaking, a Roman Catholic is not obligated to believe in an apparition, but a declaration of supernaturality from their local bishop is difficult to contradict. The nihil obstat allows a person to decide for themselves, rather than the Roman Catholic Church deciding what is supernatural.

In a recent congress on the new norms Cardinal Fernandez, author of the 2024 Norms explains that the central principle of the new Norms was to shift from the question about supernaturality, and to focus on the fruit and the messages of the apparitions. The emphasis is now on the fruit produced by an apparition event, proclaiming a message that is consistent with Roman Catholic teaching, rather than confirming the event is truly of supernatural origin.

The End Result takes Precedence

This introduces an interesting question: can the end justify the means? Does it matter if the apparition event is true or false if it bears the fruit and shares a message that the Roman Catholic Church approves of? No, the new Norms do not go this far, but they do communicate that the end (the fruit and the message of an apparition event) is more important than the means (the veracity of the event itself).

The new Norms are doing their job already. In the first few months since May, the DDF has published new judgements on apparitions on its website every few weeks. The new Norms have enabled a faster response rate to apparitions and have made it possible to officially respond to complex cases such as Medjugorje and the apparitions in Amsterdam, Netherlands (Our Lady of All Nations).

An Obstacle to the Truth?

This might seem to be an explanation of some administrative changes at the Vatican, but it has far more significance. It is a description of how the Roman Catholic Church tries to influence the narrative of faith and channel popular piety to itself, through the Virgin Mary. Every time the Roman Catholic Church declares a Nihil Obstat, it is essentially an official encouragement to Roman Catholics to devote themselves to an event centred on Mary rather than Christ, to continue seeking fruit from apparitions rather than the Holy Spirit, and to meditate on the messages of an apparition rather than on the Word of God.

¹ The Vatican does not have an exhaustive public list of supposed apparitions, but researchers have put together massive works like Dictionnaire des “apparitions” de la Vierge Marie by René Laurentin and Patrick Sbalchiero.

² The other 5 determinations are (in order) Prae oculis habeatur (important positive signs, but some confusing elements to the event that needs to be monitored) Curatur (spiritual fruit is present in relation to the event, so a ban is not advised), Sub mandato (under mandate, that is, the event has positive elements, but there are issues surrounding the event that means it needs to be kept under control), Prohibetur et obstruatur (the apparition is banned, so as not to erode the faith of ordinary people) and Declaratio de non supernaturalitate (the apparition has been proven to be false). Fernandez, “Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena.” §16-23.

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A Bonhoeffer Scholar’s Take on the New Bonhoeffer Film

agraham — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 15:37:49 +0000

Written by Bonhoeffer Scholar and BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow: Dr. Brant Himes.

Angel Studios recently released the new film Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. As a Bonhoeffer scholar, I have been tracking with great interest the development of the film. The scholar in me is always cautious to see just what kind of “Bonhoeffer” will emerge from a new project, whether it be a new Bonhoeffer book, biography, documentary, or film. The history of Bonhoeffer interpretation from the 1960s until the present day has often been tempted by ideology. Bonhoeffer was such a compelling, nuanced, and historically complex and contextual individual that interpreters have been able to find ways to make Bonhoeffer into a supporter of their own agendas—whether or not those agendas are faithful to Bonhoeffer himself. Stephen Haynes has a wonderful book, The Bonhoeffer Phenomenon, exploring the many ways various schools of thought and interest groups have sought to make Bonhoeffer their own.

So, when I was contacted in January of this year about consulting with the lead producers of the new film to create an online Bonhoeffer course for BibleMesh, I wondered what kind of Bonhoeffer I would find. Was this going to be a right-wing Bonhoeffer? Or perhaps a liberal-activist Bonhoeffer? Or would the film actually do the hard work of mining the historical and theological complexity of Bonhoeffer to portray something more real? To my relief, from our first conversations it quickly became clear that the filmmakers were interested in the same question that drew me to Bonhoeffer years ago: “who is Jesus Christ for us today?”

My work with Bonhoeffer through graduate school and now professionally as an assistant professor for Los Angeles Pacific University has been focused on the question of discipleship. I’ve been driven and challenged by Bonhoeffer to discover what it means to follow-after Jesus in every area of my life. My goal is to be faithful to Bonhoeffer’s historical context and to his theology while bringing his ideas into cross-disciplinary conversations about public theology, culture, and discipleship. This is the heart of my two books currently contributing to Bonhoeffer scholarship: For a Better Worldliness: Abraham Kuyper, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Discipleship for the Common Good and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Neo-Calvinism in Dialogue: Perspectives in Public Theology, edited with George Harinck.

So, what do I think of the new movie?

I first saw a screener of the Bonhoeffer film in March, when it wasn’t quite locked down in its final version. I’m honestly not much of a film aficionado, but I was determined to try to watch the film as both a scholar and a general audience member. Scholars are great at nitpicking—after all, that’s what we’re trained to do. At one point during my second viewing, I pulled out my copy of Eberhard Bethge’s Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography to double-check some of the timeline and plot development in the film. I kept thinking, “did that happen then? Wasn’t that later? Did this meeting happen that way?” I quickly realized that those questions missed the whole point of not only this film but of filmmaking in general.

Filmmakers are storytellers. They have the incredible challenge of distilling historical complexity and nuance into a few trackable plot lines. This film is not a documentary; it’s not aiming to walk us step-by-step through Bonhoeffer’s life. It’s a biopic, a dramatization of a historical figure. For this project, the filmmakers dramatize Bonhoeffer’s story with the genre of a spy-thriller.

This was certainly a stylistic and artistic choice, but I think it works very well in how it tells a compelling story of a complex life. The film captures key moments and themes from Bonhoeffer’s life and presents his nuance and complexity in an accessible way to a popular audience. Now, I’m not sure how many Bonhoeffer scholars will be able to step out and commend the film. There’s a lot at stake to steward and protect Bonhoeffer’s legacy, and so the Bonhoeffer guild is understandably cautious about the intent and message of the film. Certainly scholars will find things to critique. They wouldn’t be scholars otherwise, and we need their deep insight and knowledge in order to really understand the implications of Bonhoeffer’s life and thought.

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Here’s what I don’t see in the film

I don’t see any justification whatsoever for Christians to take up arms or exhort to violence in support of an ideology. This is actually the biggest worry of Bonhoeffer scholars, the film’s actors, and even the family of Bonhoeffer about the film. They do not want to see Bonhoeffer co-opted into a mascot for far-right Christian nationalism. And rightly so.

I can’t imagine watching this film and getting motivated to partake in political violence. In fact, I see the opposite. In the film, Bonhoeffer is concerned with the reality of the lordship of Jesus Christ. This is the great struggle of the Confessing Church—that Jesus, not Hitler, is lord. The integrity of this conviction is what leads him down the dangerous path of opposition to the Nazis. Bonhoeffer was horrified by violence, and he knew it was antithetical to the way of Jesus. He knew his participation in the conspiracy was an act of guilt. And he knew that taking on that guilt was an act of solidarity with Jesus, on behalf of the victims of violence.

The risk of telling Bonhoeffer’s story has always been the possibility of misappropriation

That phenomenon is nothing new. Our historical and political environment puts us in a precarious place, and so the responsibility to tell his story in a way that points people to the peace of Jesus remains of vital importance.

I, for one, am looking forward to the countless conversations that this movie will raise about what it means to wrestle with the question, “who is Jesus Christ for us today?” This film is worth watching because it gets us talking about the way of Jesus.

A moment of hope

I also hope this film will spark a movement for people from all backgrounds to learn more about how Jesus is calling them to a life discipleship. Along these lines, I wrote a devotional, When Christ Calls: A 30 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for movie-watchers to continue reflecting on how the legacy of Bonhoeffer points them to the reality of Jesus’ calling on their own lives. The call to discipleship is not easy, but it’s where we finally find true life. The book will be available at Angel Studios.

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Mary: An Evangelical Review of Netflix’s Somewhat-Catholic Film

agraham — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 11:46:33 +0000

Written by Lauren Moore, BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow in Theology and Mission.

What do Anthony Hopkins, Netflix and Joel Osteen have in common? The Virgin Mary. It sounds like the start of a joke, but this Christmas, in the midst of the movies filled with snowstorms and over-worked business executives who rediscover the magic of Christmas in small town America, Netflix have released Mary, a feature film about the mother of Jesus.

As an Evangelical Protestant mariologist, I was intrigued to see what Netflix would put together with a Catholic director (DJ Caruso), Joel Osteen as (one of many) Executive Producers, Anthony Hopkins as King Herod and Los Angeles Bishop David G. O’Connell as the film’s spiritual advisor. What angle would they take? Biblical? Traditional Roman Catholic? Historical? Feminist? The possibilities seem endless.

This article will help navigate this movie and offer some insight into the origins of the narrative they have put together about Mary.

A Marian Backstory

“Mary, your birth was a gift for your mother and I, it was a miracle.” This line from the trailer was the first indication that the film would follow a Catholic narrative. The narrative comes from the Protoevangelium of James an apocryphal text that was formally rejected by the Catholic Church as early as the 5th century, but nonetheless has left its influence. To this day, the nativity of Mary is celebrated on 8th September and the feast day of her parents Anne and Joachim is celebrated on 26th July every year. And while there is no historical evidence supporting the story told in this apocryphal text, the narrative of the nativity of Mary has stuck in the hearts and minds of Catholics and Orthodox to this day.

The film follows this story and recounts the miraculous conception of Mary to Joachim and Anne, who were married, desperately praying for a child, and who both received a visit from an angel promising them a child. In return they make a promise to give their child to God, (Prot. Jas. 4:1) by giving her to the Temple in Jerusalem to become one of the daughters of the Hebrews (Prot. Jas 7:2-3).

In the film this looks very similar to a scene from the Handmaid’s Tale, young girls dressed in red robes, walking two-by-two in the Temple, being trained by an older woman, the Prophetess Anna. Mary becomes one of these girls, a “handmaid of the Lord” (Luke 1:38 KJV) before being betrothed to Joseph, who was chosen by God, even though he was old and had his own children (Prot. Jas. 9:2). At this point, the film deviates from the Protoevangelium of James and from the broader Roman Catholic narrative, by implying a romantic relationship with a young, single (not widowed), childless Joseph.

Eschewing Roman Catholic Doctrine

Although advised by a bishop and directed by a Catholic, there are many aspects of this film that will likely disturb Roman Catholics. Again, as an evangelical Protestant, I’m more surprised than bothered by these, given how the film is largely created by and for Catholics. The dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary teaches that Mary remained a virgin before, during¹ , and after the birth of Jesus, and by default, so did Joseph. Romance between the two of them in the film implies their marriage was more than platonic.

The birth scene of Jesus also poses a problem for Catholics, in the same way that the Christmas episode to The Chosen did, by portraying Mary in the pangs of childbirth. Pain in childbirth is a consequence of original sin, (Genesis 3:16) and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary declares that Mary was born without the stain of original sin². Without original sin, its consequences (both death and pain in childbirth) ought to elude her. And yet, the film Mary portrays a scene of a normal, painful labour and birth. In this sense, while not fully rejecting the dogmas of the perpetual virginity and the immaculate conception, the film does not adhere strictly to these Catholic teachings.

Although it does somewhat follow the Protoevangelium of James, it also picks up on historical elements, like King Herod’s paranoia³. It takes some creative license to suggest that he saw Mary (in the Temple he built) and developed a paranoid fixation on her, making it a storyline fit for any modern thriller: a young, innocent girl and her child escaping the grasps of a violent, obsessive king. And like all thrillers, there needs to be a level of heroism. Some online sceptics were concerned that the film would take on a feminist “Girlboss” tone, portraying a warrior-like Mary who conquers her foreign oppressor by sheer woman power. While there were hints of this, it was not the central message of the film.

A Profoundly Secular Film

And herein lies the intrigue of the film: it was profoundly secular. It followed some of the narrative of the Catholic tradition, while not fully proclaiming a Catholic message. It had hints of feminism, while not fully pushing a feminist agenda. It had a small pinch of the “believe in yourself” message, but didn’t go further. It had all the makings of a Game of Thrones-Handmaid’s Tale mashup epic, while still maintaining a tone of innocence and beauty. It was careful to not be too religious, using the somewhat generic “God” rather than referencing terms such as the Holy Spirit, or the Jewish Adonai. It tries to play it safe, perhaps to gain a wider audience and greater revenue.

But in the quest to gain a wider audience, Mary has diluted its message. What is the message of this film? What does it teach us about Mary or the Gospel? It does perpetuate the refuted story of Mary’s nativity but it doesn’t seem to use this narrative to elevate or venerate Mary, using it rather to fill in Mary’s back story not found in Scripture. In that sense, perhaps we need to be careful not to dig too deeply into the backstories of people for which we do not have details in historical accounts or Scripture. But this is a minor critique.

What I found most disappointing was the lack of message, the lack of philosophical or spiritual depth which many of us seek around Advent. Don’t get me wrong, the film was wonderfully entertaining, well-acted and with beautiful cinematography. I would thoroughly enjoy watching it again, but simply as a refreshing change from the latest Christmas RomCom.

Meaning that Jesus was born miraculously, without passing through the birth canal.
Pius IX, “Apostolic Constitution: Ineffabilis Deus,” December 8, 1854, https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-ix/it/documents/18541208-costituzione-apostolica-ineffabilis-deus.html.
Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, trans. William Whiston (Gutenberg, 2001), https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2848.

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John Owen’s Pastoral Blessedness

agraham — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 15:15:49 +0000

This post comes from Wesley Lassiter, student in the MA in Theology degree and conference presenter at the International John Owen Convention at Union Theological College, Belfast

John Owen (1616-1683) was a British minister known as a leading figure in the Puritan tradition. While much of his leadership was during tumultuous times in England, he wrote many theological books and participated in many controversial conversations. However, a side of Owen that is often neglected and rarely spoken about is his pastoral heart and motivation. Owen was one of the most learned and esteemed theologians of the day, and yet his work consistently shows the care and concerns of a pastor. Therefore, is shouldn’t be surprising that for his readers today, one of the most important things Owen offers us is a pastoral plea for the saints to look to Jesus for the most blessed state in this life and the life to come.

Owen as Pastor

One will find no shortage of debate concerning Owen’s theological methodology; even Owen’s preaching has been growing in attention. An account of John Owen as pastor is more difficult to find. Particularly in his view of the Beatific Vision, more recent debate has focused on the exact placement within Reformed Scholasticism and Thomistic influence. Reading Owen positions the reader face-to-face with a pastor’s heart and not a mere academic musing of the subject. Pastor Owen understands the importance of theology, yet Pastor Owen also pleads with the saints to look to Jesus as the present hope in sin and suffering, for this will also be the object of eternal blessedness.

The thrust of Owen’s pastoral ministry is found in turning his congregants’ eyes to the face of God in the incarnate Jesus for hope and satisfaction in all circumstances. For Owen, “a constant view of the glory of Christ will produce this blessed effect in us”¹ which, though it is in part, will be the transformative action of eternal blessedness at Christ’s return. How fitting in God’s providence that the man so focused on the eternal state of blessedness would receive word of his work so focused on the subject just before death. Pastorally, Owen shepherds his congregants to understand “that one of the greatest privileges and advancements of believers, both in this world and unto eternity, consists in their BEHOLDING THE GLORY OF CHRIST.”²

Beholding and Blessedness

Such beholding of the glory of Christ is often described as the Beatific Vision, the spiritual seeing of God’s glory as our highest and final good, our greatest goal of blessedness. Many pastors and churches today would do well to understand the significance of the Beatific Vision as John Owen implored saints to do in his day. Owen was motivated to turn all his congregants’ eyes to behold the glory of God in Christ—both now and in eternity. For if the saints seek to behold the glory of Christ, they will find themselves looking face-to-face with God. Owen was a pastor who exemplified the importance of beholding God through the face of Christ, separating his theology from being a mere philosophical exercise to a practical theology in the life of the saints.

Owen the Exemplar

In an age in which our culture no longer sees the role of pastors as counselor to the lives of congregants and their communities, Owen might actually cast a vision for resurrecting that model. Owen serves as an exemplar when he points his readers to the ability and sufficiency of Scripture to bring healing to our minds and hearts. He offers the hope of Christ to minister to those who are hurting and suffering. Owen models for pastors how to suffer well in the face of turmoil, loss, and opposition. He models for all saints the need to fix our eyes on Jesus regularly. No matter if the state is against you, your family members pass away, or you lose your ministry position, Christ is sufficient, and the glory of God in Christ is your hope.

Owen also models for pastors how to be a well-rounded pastor, one who can boldly stand on orthodox and essential doctrines of the faith while at the same time shepherding the flock by carefully exegeting and applying the text aimed at the experience of seeing God as the source of satisfaction. Owen does not minister as one who tells his congregation to put up as best as possible with the sufferings of the day, for one day there will be relief. Instead, he pleads with the saints to look to Christ now, and while we only have in part what we will experience in full later, it is sufficient for Christ to be our eternal enjoyment of the glory of God. We do not live as those without hope, for Owen centers all Christian hope on the present realities of Christ and the fullness of that reality in eternity.

Pastor Owen Leads us to See and Savor Christ

John Owen is widely read and recognized; however, contemporary readers have only begun to plum into the depths that are offered concerning his pastoral heart. Owen is certainly a polemicist and a scholar. He is all these things, and yet Owen sees each as serving his greater role as pastor. Owen offers us a model of a pastor-theologian in a world where one is often compromised for the other. Even greater, he models an under-shepherd offering the glory of God as the satisfaction the saints are looking for. While Owen’s understanding of the object the saints will see in eternity is important and must be discussed, the end of this doctrine is what he was after: to lead people to this vision themselves. Much like his methodology of moving from theology to application, Owen offers a robust and pastoral doctrine of blessedness for the saints to experience through Christ to the glory of God for all eternity.

Wesley Lassiter is Senior Pastor of The Rock Church and Director of Spiritual Development at Trinity Christian School in Sharpsburg, Georgia. He is an MA in Theology student interested in the theology of John Owen, the beatific vision in the Reformed tradition, and Reformed Baptist studies. He lives in Thomaston, Georgia with his wife and children.

Footnotes:

1 John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. W.H. Goold, 23 vols (Edinburgh, 1850-1853), i.651.

2 ibid., i.413.

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Introducing BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow Lauren Moore

Brian Pinney — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 18:30:58 +0000

We’re delighted to introduce Dr. Lauren Moore, BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow in Theology and Mission.

Tell Us a Bit about Yourself

I’m an Australian and for the past 16 years have been serving in local church ministry in southwest France with Pioneers and WEC International.

I’m doing a PhD where my focus is on apparitions and visions of the Virgin Mary, how they influence Roman Catholicism, and how Roman Catholicism influences apparitions. Particularly, I am looking at the dynamic of how these events that have developed over time interact with Catholic theology and how they have impacted the church in the long term.

What Are Marian Apparitions and Why Are You So Interested in Them?

Marian apparitions are visions people have of the Virgin Mary in various places, like shrines or churches. While there are many famous stories about apparitions throughout church history, in the past two centuries accounts of such visions have become more prevalent, and the place they play in many Catholics’ faith has increased.

The short answer for why I’m interested in this has to do with the Catholic pilgrimage in the city of Lourdes, which is widely known in southwest France. I serve as a missionary in this area, and I’ve long worked to understand not only what people believe, but also how they believe in the practices of pilgrimage and veneration.

One might think that Western Europe is increasingly secular, and therefore anti-religious. But the first time I saw hordes of people coming to this place as pilgrims to seek Mary, my perception of Western Europeans was deeply challenged.

In particular, the view that Europe is secular and therefore atheist might lead us to conclude that Western European worldviews are unspiritual. But being in Lourdes and seeing people bowing down in front of statues of the Virgin Mary completely shifted my understanding of Western Europe, and even what it means to be secular.

I was always curious to understand the Catholic underbelly of Europe and how this historical aspect influences the foundation of Western Europe. Having spent several years church planting in Lourdes, I have a desire to understand the local culture and the impact those roots have on Western Europe.

Is This A New Phenomenon?

We often think that the Western European belief system has changed a lot, but what I’ve noticed is religion has only become a taboo topic in secular society—it’s not actually gone away under the surface. This is partly due to the increase of Islam over the past 20 or 30 years, on top of a difficult history for the Jewish population (particularly in France) after World War II. All of these things have made religion a very sensitive topic that people talk about less and less. So, while the Catholicism element is rarely discussed in everyday conversations, it’s still part of their understanding of faith and all things spiritual.

Once you engage more deeply with people, you realize they are familiar with words like sin. In such cases, as missionaries, we’re not entering a culture that doesn’t have an awareness of God or the faith. These are people surrounded by churches and crucifixes daily, and the vocabulary and concepts are there. But they have a very malnourished and often negative understanding of faith.

Even though France is becoming more religiously diverse and the Catholic heritage of France not well known, there is still an interest in spiritual things like the phenomenon of Marian apparitions and the pursuit of spiritual experiences like pilgrimage offers a connecting point for us to share a Protestant evangelical Gospel.

France is Secular, and Yet the Country is Riveted with the Rebuilding of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Why?

I find it scandalous that these days people don’t know who God is or what Jesus did. But in some ways this poverty of general knowledge is an open door. In my conversations (and I think this would be true across secular Europe) people want to talk about faith, they have questions, but there’s no longer the context to do it.

By coming in as a local church, it gives us an opportunity to share who God is. As a foreigner, locals feel freer to ask questions they’d never ask of another local, but as an Australian or an American they assume we know about religion. This is helpful to break down local cultural barriers and opens the door to engage with their questions.

While they see religious symbols daily and have an awareness of conflict in the Middle East, many French people haven’t set foot in a church, and so they are missing that environment, or that person in their life to whom they can ask questions. That’s what those ministering in such context can provide.

I think ultimately people want to have a real-life relationship with a person to ask questions and learn about how to find meaning in life and make sense of their spiritual hunger. The priority is to create an opening for conversations by paying attention to the unexpected ways faith still comes in cultural or spiritual practices.

What are some other things you’re interested in exploring this year as a Research Fellow?

I am really interested in the intersection of theology, sociology and culture. My particular field of interest is of course Mariology, and I definitely look forward to exploring how Evangelical Mariology can be defined and how it could be effectively used in apologetics and missions. We don’t need to wait until Christmas to talk about Mary! But in a broader sense, we are noticing an increased interest in the Church Fathers, Thomas Aquinas, and understanding the deeper roots of our Christian faith as evangelicals. There is so much to explore in this area so that we can strengthen the foundations of our personal and communal faiths.

As an example of something I look forward to researching is the work of Leonardo de Chirico and Gregg Allison. They have worked hard at developing a framework to understand Roman Catholicism as a system. Having a systemic understanding of Roman Catholicism has a profound impact on our approach apologetics, church-planting and missions and this is something I am interested in exploring.

I’m also interested how to navigate Pre-Reformation thinkers. On one hand they have some profound insights to offer us, and there is a treasure trove for us to discover these works. On the other hand, however, the devotion that some of these thinkers had to the Virgin Mary and the saints, and the strange mystical practices some of them had can’t be justified by Scripture. What do we do when our pastors tweet a quote Saint Catherine of Sienna, without taking into account her deep mystical devotion to Mary? It is a complex question that I look forward to exploring.

Interested in theological education? Find out more about getting seminary-level biblical and theological training with BibleMesh. an online experience, integrated with a personal teaching fellow.

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Get to Know Research Fellow Courtney Veasey

agraham — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 12:03:06 +0000

We’re delighted to introduce Dr. Courtney Veasey, BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow in Biblical Languages and Biblical Interpretation.

I’m Courtney Veasey, and I currently live in the Florida Panhandle of the US. I’m so glad to be joining the BibleMesh Institute as a Research Fellow for the coming year! As a communications major years ago at Florida Southern College, my life path back then was set on a career in sports journalism. Before graduating, however, I came to discover the Lord had a different plan.

During my final college semester, God redirected my path into a ministry calling to teach His word. So, rather than attend grad school for another communications degree as originally planned, I instead went to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to pursue an MDiv in Biblical Languages.

From there I went on to attend Gateway Seminary in California, completing a ThM in New Testament before returning to New Orleans for a PhD in Biblical Interpretation. I’m grateful for how this educational journey has now brought me to such opportunities as this current fellowship.

Tell us a little bit about your area of expertise.

Pursuing a PhD in Biblical Interpretation allowed me to study both the Old and New Testaments equally. I felt this direction would best equip me for both my narrow area of research as well as aiding other Christians in their understanding and personal study of Scripture.

My ministry background includes service in the local church, seminary faculty, and various leadership roles in parachurch organizations such as Young Life and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. These ministries all speak to my passion for helping other Christians, especially women and teen girls, to better study the Bible for themselves and understand God’s message to us and its meaning for our lives.

Formally, my specialty is in the theology of 1 Timothy wherein my doctoral research focused on a single, rare Greek word that occurs in 1 Timothy 2:9. Translators often interpret my focal word, katastole, as “clothing.” That is, English translations of v. 9 present Paul as saying Christian women are to likewise be in “proper clothing.” Years of observing this term within its wider ancient usage, however, led me to argue that katastole represents a behavioral virtue quality of “self-restraint,” with no sense rather of physical clothing in view. This work demonstrates the critical importance and value of comparing biblical usage of terms with relevant outside writings of the same period for determining original meaning of words.

A mastery of Greek and Hebrew was necessary for being able to make this biblical comparison with other contemporary literature of the New Testament period and earlier. Such a skill was not something I had anticipated. I first came to seminary and the study of biblical languages pretty green, not knowing the first thing about Greek or Hebrew, or how learning these languages can impact Bible study. I’ve since experienced the importance that such an awareness bears on proper biblical interpretation, and now aid others in learning and utilizing the biblical languages, something I believe all Christians can access on some level.

What are Some Ways Christians Can Develop Better Biblical Interpretation Skills?

Good biblical interpretation involves paying attention to background. Context and accurate understanding of meaning matters, for us as much as the ancients. We want to approach Scripture, then, with faithfulness to the intent of the original authors to their original audiences. Along with historical context, attention to the literary context is also important, that is, observing content situated before and after a focal passage, and even the general placement of books within the Bible. This last aspect leads to also taking genre of a text into account as well.

These noted study elements, combined with consideration of the original languages, brings meaning and theological insight of a text into focus for the interpreter. To illustrate, consider this example from II Tim. 1:10. From his final Roman imprisonment, Paul began this letter by encouraging Timothy to get in the game, not giving mind to the “scuffing up” that comes with being a minister of the Gospel.

Paul roots the ability for such courage in the reality that Christ “abolished death and brought life…” (v. 9). This notion of “abolished” translates from the Greek term katargesantos. In the middle of this word is the suffix “erg,” which means “work,” where we get our English words of “ergonomic,” and “energy.” To make a Greek word negative, an ‘a’ is placed at the front (e.g., theos is the word for God, therefore, “atheist” means “not God,” or “against God”). Noticing the ‘a’ in front of “erg” in our focal word, we realize that Paul was declaring that death no longer works, Christ put that joker out of a job! With the assurance of eternal life in Christ, Paul, Timothy, and all Christians have every reason to get in the game and go all out.

Reading with Humility

This approach with consideration of background, language, genre, and more, can be summarized as demonstrating humility. With a stance of humility towards Scripture, we confess that we still have more to learn and a need for deeper study. Even when reading our English Bibles, a good practice of humility is sentence annotation, or, marking the text and/or circling terms that repeat or stand out as unique. From there, we can begin to incorporate resources for deeper digging. I regularly study this way and love utilizing accessible online tools for further enhancement such as Bible Hub and Blue Letter Bible!

Resources abound, however, for anyone to take the bigger step of learning Greek and Hebrew. Gaining this knowledge better equips us to encounter the text on its own terms and more accurately discern its message for our lives.

I look forward as a research fellow to exploring practical ways for students at every level to grow in biblical interpretation skills, especially with application of the biblical languages!

Interested in learning Hebrew or Greek? Check out BibleMesh Biblical Languages. A five year project with a dedicated team of scholars, offering you a better way to learn Hebrew and Greek.

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The Complicated Jewish Reception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

agraham — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 10:40:24 +0000

Written by Bonhoeffer Scholar and BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow: Dr. Brant Himes.

On May 26, 1996, the United States Holocaust Museum honored Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a Righteous Gentile who helped save Jews during the Nazi regime.

In October 1998, the Yad Vashem holocaust memorial in Jerusalem denied the request to name Bonhoeffer as Righteous Among the Nations.

What are we to make of these two opposing decisions? Did Bonhoeffer personally risk his life for the Jews in Germany, or not? And if not (as Yad Vashem argues), should contemporary Jews and others bother caring about a Christian pastor and theologian who got himself wrapped up in assassination attempts against Hitler?

As we navigate these questions, we’ll discover Bonhoeffer’s continuing call and legacy is to advocate for victims of hatred, injustice, and violence—including victims of racism and antisemitism.

Bonhoeffer and the Jewish Question

In April 1933, just weeks after Hitler came to power and started imposing anti-Jewish laws, Bonhoeffer wrote an essay, “The Church and the Jewish Question.” This essay is challenging for two reasons. On the one hand, we see an early Bonhoeffer repeating traditional German Lutheran theology that draws a sharp distinction between the realms of church and state, trusting the state to make decisions regarding law and order. Lutheran theology also had anti-Jewish stereotypes that emphasized the role of Jews in killing Jesus, and called for their conversion to Christianity as their only hope of reconciliation. This is one of the specific reasons Yad Vashem cites in their explanation of denying Bonhoeffer the status of Righteous Among the Nations.¹

On the other hand, Bonhoeffer’s essay is challenging because it starts to frame a case for when the church should get involved in opposing the state. Specifically, Bonhoeffer writes that “the church has an unconditional obligation toward the victims of any societal order, even if they do not belong to the Christian community.”² He then describes three possibilities for action that the church can take concerning the state, including caring for and binding up the wounds of the victims of the state, and also jamming a spoke in the wheel of the state itself.³ This argument foreshadows Bonhoeffer’s own involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler during the war.

So, we see in this essay two things happening. First, we see Bonhoeffer as a theologian and pastor of his historical context: uncritically a traditional Lutheran, writing to a Lutheran pastoral audience, summarizing some of the key assumptions of the faith.

But we also see Bonhoeffer beginning to push things further. He is unwilling to just let the state do whatever it wants to the Jewish people—whether they are part of the Christian church or not. He also begins to outline a compelling argument for when the church needs to break out of its comfort zone and actually confront the state through direct political action.

This was a radical stance at the time, and Bonhoeffer’s colleagues wouldn’t hear much of it. It took more than a year for the church to put out a statement separating themselves from the Nazi-led Reich Church. For Bonhoeffer, this was much too slow.

New Course

Bonhoeffer and the Life of Discipleship.

Dive into Bonhoeffer’s life and writings with our expert-led 8-unit course, and grow in your own life of discipleship.

The Unfortunate Complexity of History

Any historical understanding requires a willingness to engage in nuance. History is complex; theological writings are complex; lives are complex.

We often want our heroes to be flawless, to never have to develop, and to see clearly what we see with the benefit of hindsight.

The U.S. Holocaust Museum admitted as much during the ceremony to honor Bonhoeffer as a Righteous Gentile. They wrote: “Although repudiating Nazism, Bonhoeffer also expressed the anti-Jewish bias of centuries-old Christian teaching.”⁴ This was the reality of his theological and historical situation.

Bonhoeffer can’t be defined or understood by what he wrote in one essay in 1933. Just as he can’t be defined or understood based on any one episode or writing. That’s what makes his life so compelling—he’s human, like us, with flaws and also with learning, development, passion, and decisive action.

Bonhoeffer did in fact have incredible foresight in seeing the importance of the Jewish question as a central part of the church’s faithful witness. He would live this through to the end, when he was arrested for his part in the successful smuggling of 14 Jews into Switzerland.⁵

And then we have his legacy. Students and scholars of Bonhoeffer have applied his life and thought in the service of the struggle against hatred, racism, and antisemitism. Bonhoeffer’s Christ-centered theology demands that Christians step into the gap for any and all who suffer, and proclaim the love and grace that God has for all people.⁶

Whether or not Bonhoeffer deserves the designation as Righteous Among the Nations is up for Yad Vashem to decide. They have their standards, definitions, and processes, and if in their eyes Bonhoeffer doesn’t meet those, then he doesn’t merit the designation. Plenty of scholars disagree, but that’s not the point.

Instead, any attempt to learn about Bonhoeffer is an invitation to discover how his call as a Christian demanded care for the victims of oppression and violence—including and especially the Jewish people.

History has shown us that Bonhoeffer’s legacy is worth engaging because his life and thought challenges us to live a life that is faithful to God’s calling.

Further Reading

Rubenstein, Richard L. “Was Dietrich Bonhoeffer a ‘Righteous Gentile’?” International Journal on World Peace 17, no. 2 (June 2000): 33-46.

Zerner, Ruth. “Church, State, and the ‘Jewish Question.’” In The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ed. John W. de Gruchy, 190–205. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Footnotes:

1 https://www.yadvashem.org/press-release/02-october-2003-10-25.html

2 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The Church and the Jewish Question,” in Berlin: 1932–1933, vol. 12 of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, edited by Larry L. Rasmussen. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009, 365.

3 Bonhoeffer, “The Church and the Jewish Question,” 365–66.

4 As quoted in Ruther Zerner, “Church, State, and the ‘Jewish Question’” in The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ed. John W. de Gruchy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, 195.

5 Zerner outlines a “chronicle of compassion and courage” of Bonhoeffer’s actions for the Nazi targets of persecution. See “Church, State, and the “Jewish Question,’” 197–8.

6 See, for example, Jennifer McBride, The Church for the World: A Theology of Public Witness. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

The post The Complicated Jewish Reception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer appeared first on BibleMesh.

Introducing BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow Brant Himes

Brian Pinney — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 08:29:52 +0000

BibleMesh is pleased to announce Dr. Brant Himes as Research Fellow in Public Theology and Culture. This article is adapted from a conversation between Dr. Dennis Greeson, Dean of the BibleMesh Institute, and Dr. Brant Himes.

Tell Us a Bit about Yourself

I’m an associate professor at Los Angeles Pacific University, where I teach online courses in Bible, history and theology. I’ve been doing that for quite a while and really enjoy working with students in that context. I also serve at Westside Church in Bend, Oregon, where I oversee the young adults ministry. I really appreciate the opportunity to bridge the theology and the ministry aspects of what I do and bring those into both the academy and the church.

In my writing and research, I’m particularly drawn to German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer. When I was first starting my graduate studies, I took a Bonhoeffer course which really set me on the trajectory of studying him. Bonhoeffer’s approach to theology has been really compelling for me. It not only challenges me, but also it always draws me closer to Jesus and calls me onward in my own life of discipleship.

Even though I’ve studied it so much, it’s so hard to imagine Bonhoeffer’s context and what his suffering must have been like. In my relatively comfortable life, I’ve been challenged to see his faith carrying him through in such a compelling and profound way. I often wonder if I was ever faced with something, would my faith be strong enough to carry me through like his?

Why are You So Interested in Bonhoeffer’s Faith?

What has always stood out to me about Bonhoeffer is his faith. He takes very public and political stances, and yet his foundation is always in his reasoning and his ethics are always so centered in Jesus. I don’t think I can look at his political action apart from how his discipleship has developed.

For me, one of the questions in my research, writing and thinking has been, “What was it about his own understanding of his faith that equipped him to take the stands that he needed to take during that time?”

We don’t know what kind of situations we’re going to face in life, or what God has for us. But if we’re going to be equipped all that we may encounter, especially when Jesus tells us to expect to suffer for his name sake, then we need a faith and a discipleship that can really prepare us for what’s coming.

Bonhoeffer offers us an inspiring example through his life and his model of faith, but he also gives us biblical and theological resources through his writings to help lead us deeper into following Christ in our own times and places.

How Do You Recommend Getting to Know Bonhoeffer’s Writings?

All theologians and people need context, but with studying Bonhoeffer in particular, his historical context is really important. Some of the questions that he faces, the decisions that he makes may seem confusing or even contradictory for us. Bonhoeffer is a pastor and a theologian, he’s also an assassin and a spy. How do we put those things together? His life is a gripping story, and we can’t answer these questions unless we understand the context in which he lived.

For resources on this context, there are some good biographies of Bonhoeffer. Butthe one I recommend the most is the Eberhard Bethge’s book.

On Bonhoeffer’s writing itself, there is such a wide variety of writing to the things he wrote, and often they can seem inaccessible or too academic. I’d recommend Life Together as a great place to start. It’s a little book on community that is short and easy to read, and very pastoral. It offers a vision of how the church and its shared life in community is central to becoming a faithful disciple of Christ.

Additionally, he builds out what he means exactly by being such a faithful disciple of Christ and what it takes to follow Christ in The Cost of Discipleship.

These two are, I think, the most applicable to life and faith to everyday Christians and are a great entry-point into Bonhoeffer’s works.

Finally, the new course I’ve developed with BibleMesh takes you through a selection of Bonhoeffer’s writings over 8 lessons to highlight what he says about faith and following Christ. I think this would be a great next step for exploring what Bonhoeffer has to say to us today and how to make sense of his difficult context.

New Course

Bonhoeffer and the Life of Discipleship.

Dive into Bonhoeffer’s life and writings with our expert-led 8-unit course, and grow in your own life of discipleship.

What is Public Theology and What Does Bonhoeffer Offer Us in This Conversation?

When I think of public theology, I think of the common good and discipleship. The common good is one of the outcomes of discipleship. When we’re talking about personal spirituality and personal development, it can become a very kind of insulated thing. We need spiritual disciplines, and need to develop and cultivate our personal faith.

But if we only focus on these interior spiritual dynamics of discipleship, we neglect what Christ’s calling to become his disciple has to do with all the rest of life. Public theology, then, this reminder that our faith draws us into the public sphere, and it seeks to relate the faith to every part of life.

I like this idea of the common good because that’s a very broad term that could refer to politics, social issues, or even simple neighborliness. But its broadness can be a bridge to the good news that Christianity brings to culture. Christ brings life and flourishing and justice. The common good as an idea therefore anchors how we see God’s work in the world, and his gracious work in all areas of life.

Bonhoeffer is a natural conversation partner for public theology, in part because his story ends up being so political and it has a very public outcome. He’s arrested by the Nazi state. He languishes in a German military prison. He’s executed by the order of Hitler. And his brave actions that set him on that trajectory of suffering, to try to fight back against the injustice of the evil Nazi regime come from his discipleship, stemmed from deep convictions about Christianity’s importance for public life—for the common good of all people.

Another area in which I’ve researched and written is Dutch Neo-Calvinism and the thought of Abraham Kuyper. I like to compare Kuyper and Bonhoeffer because Kuyper is another example of someone who has much to offer Christian public theology. He was a Dutch theologian and prime minister in the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905. His theology and his discipleship leads him to the height of political power—very different than Bonhoeffer’s life and theology leading him to a prison cell. But Kuyper’s passion was to mobilize ordinary Dutch people to make Christ’s presence and kingdom rule felt throughout all society in order that Christ might bring life and flourishing to all as every square inch of culture is ordered to Christ’s ways.

Both Bonhoeffer and Kuyper’s examples help show that public theology is not always about the practical political outcome or being something only the elite of society are able to do. Its aim is to help ordinary people in engaging their faith and discipleship with the domains of ordinary life for the common good. Whether we’re called to be a prime minister or if our faith leads us into a prison, the goal is the same: to seek Christ and be his faithful disciple no matter the cost.

Brant Himes’ writings on faith, culture, and public theology will appear on the BibleMesh blog throughout the 2024-2025 term of the Research Fellowship.

The post Introducing BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow Brant Himes appeared first on BibleMesh.

BibleMesh

Introducing The Alexandrian Institute

From Success to Expansion

Why “Alexandrian”?

Our Continuing Partnership with BibleMesh

Join Us on This Journey

Seven Reasons Why Young Adults Give Me Hope

1. Young Adults Lead with Authenticity

2. They Respond to the Work of the Holy Spirit in Their Lives

3. They Care about Community

4. They Love Following Jesus

5. They want to Learn

6. They want God to do Big Things for His Kingdom through their Lives

7. They Don’t Expect Themselves or Each Other to be Perfect, but they Believe in the Depth of God’s Transformative Grace

A Significant Change in the Roman Catholic World of Apparitions

Classification of Apparitions

Problems Arising Around the Validity of Supernatural Origin

Major Changes to the Approval Process

A Shift in the Importance of Supernatural Origin

The End Result takes Precedence

An Obstacle to the Truth?

A Bonhoeffer Scholar’s Take on the New Bonhoeffer Film

So, what do I think of the new movie?

New Course

Here’s what I don’t see in the film

The risk of telling Bonhoeffer’s story has always been the possibility of misappropriation

A moment of hope

Mary: An Evangelical Review of Netflix’s Somewhat-Catholic Film

A Marian Backstory

Eschewing Roman Catholic Doctrine

A Profoundly Secular Film

John Owen’s Pastoral Blessedness

Owen as Pastor

Beholding and Blessedness

Owen the Exemplar

Pastor Owen Leads us to See and Savor Christ

Introducing BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow Lauren Moore

Tell Us a Bit about Yourself

What Are Marian Apparitions and Why Are You So Interested in Them?

Is This A New Phenomenon?

France is Secular, and Yet the Country is Riveted with the Rebuilding of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Why?

What are some other things you’re interested in exploring this year as a Research Fellow?

Get to Know Research Fellow Courtney Veasey

Tell us a little bit about your area of expertise.

What are Some Ways Christians Can Develop Better Biblical Interpretation Skills?

Reading with Humility

The Complicated Jewish Reception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Bonhoeffer and the Jewish Question

New Course

The Unfortunate Complexity of History

Introducing BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow Brant Himes​

Tell Us a Bit about Yourself

Why are You So Interested in Bonhoeffer’s Faith?

How Do You Recommend Getting to Know Bonhoeffer’s Writings?

New Course

What is Public Theology and What Does Bonhoeffer Offer Us in This Conversation?

Introducing BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow Brant Himes