Tag Archives: Christian growth

Suse McBay on spiritual growth through her PhD

The Revd Suse McBay Here’s the second piece on how someone grew spiritually through doing a PhD, this time by Suse McBay, who is awaiting a viva shortly (if you’re a person who prays, say one for her, please). Interestingly, she and Gabby Thomas (who wrote the previous piece) were at St John’s College, Nottingham training for ordination at the same time. Suse is now associate rector for adult education at St Martin’s Church, Houston, Texas. My warm thanks to her for being willing to Continue reading →

Gabby Thomas on ‘The Gift of a PhD’

The Revd Dr Gabby (Gabrielle) Thomas I recently read a fascinating piece on the excellent Thesis Whisperer blog by a Hindu lady (I presume, since she talks about the Bhagavad Gita), giving her reflections on the spiritual growth she is experiencing in doing a PhD, and that prompted me to wonder aloud on facebook what Christian reflection on the process would look like. A couple of people responded, and have kindly agreed to provide guest blog pieces. This is the first, by the Revd Dr Gabby Continue reading →

Thinking theologically about sport—guest post by Ben McNamara

I’m delighted to present a guest post by my former student Ben McNamara about the recent conference in York on Christianity and sport. Ben is a fine up-and-coming rugby (union) referee, and spoke at the conference from that perspective. Those who know me will know that I’m a (very) retired international volleyball referee and trainer of referees, so I’m delighted to present this thoughtful post. Here’s Ben… I was directed to the Inaugural Global Congress on Sports and Christianity (IGCSC) by a fellow Vineyard churchgoer, Continue reading →

Matthew L. Skinner’s Intrusive God, Disruptive Gospel

Here are some extracts from a review that I’ve done of Matthew Skinner’s new book—the full review is forthcoming in Themelios later this year. I’m grateful to the review editor, David Starling, for permission to share these extracts in advance here. Matthew L. Skinner Intrusive God, Disruptive Gospel: Encountering the Divine in the Book of Acts Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2015. xix + 206 pp. £11.22/$16.99 Matthew Skinner has written extensively and intelligently on Acts, and so this new book is to be warmly welcomed. Continue reading →

Learning and church structures: a stimulating book by Claire S. Smith

This book addresses a really important topic, the ‘learning’ nature of the Pauline communities (especially in Corinth, Ephesus and Crete)—although the title is technical rather than inviting—and it’s stimulated me to write about a particular point arising from it. In general, I’ve enjoyed reading Claire Smith’s book and a full review (I wrote almost 2500 words) will appear on the excellent Review of Biblical Literature in due course (I’ll post here when the time comes). The particular point that I want to note here is Continue reading →