Opinion

JESUS OF NAZARETH was a person of a particular time and place, whose saving deeds were accomplished in time. The Christian reckoning of time therefore focuses on the events of Jesus’ life – His birth, baptism, ministry, arrest and trial, death, resurrection and promise to come again. Our calendar is actually comprised of two overlapping […]

Bonaventure (1221 – 1274) BONAVENTURE IS ONE of the most important theologians and spiritual writers in the 13th century. Born Giovanni di Fidanza in 1221, he entered the prestigious University of Paris in 1235 and came into contact with a group of mendicants known as the Franciscans. Impressed by their simplicity and embrace of poverty, […]

  WHEN I WAS ASKED to write an article about our country’s National Day for the August issue of Methodist Message, I honestly did not have a clue what I was supposed to write about. I am not the most patriotic citizen you could find, and to me, the only thing that I like about […]

FOUR PRINCIPLES Four principles to guide churches towards a music ministry that glorifies God: § Music supports the Word of God and the sacraments § Music in Christian worship is primarily vocal § Music is for the whole assembly § Music derives from the local culture IN RECENT TIMES, Christians have engaged in spirited disagreements […]

“Worship cannot just be a somewhat-Christian rock concert-cum-comedy routine – expressions of consumerism and our addiction to entertainment …worship cannot ignore culture, since worship must inevitably rely on the words and customs of culture to express the Gospel (contextualisation).” PREVIOUSLY, WE STATED THAT RITUALS convey religious or cultural meaning. Because every culture is different, each will […]

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) A consummate preacher and teacher, Bernard also authored numerous theological treatises on topics as diverse as the doctrine of God, grace and free will. IN BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX we encounter a decidedly different sort of thinker from the theologians we discussed in the previous two articles. As monk, mystic, theologian and […]

HUMAN LIFE is full of rituals. The national anthem is played on television and radio at 6 am. Students sing the school song at morning assembly. Couples have their ritual goodbye kiss in the morning before departing for work. Protestants have traditionally been wary of rituals that seemed unbiblical or erroneous. Yet rituals have been making […]

Peter Abelard (1079-1142) THE FIRST HALF OF THE 12TH CENTURY produced many outstanding theologians and writers, whose works continue to influence Christian theology in one way or another: Anselm, Peter Lombard and Bernard of Clairvaux (to name just a few). e most colourful figure in this period is surely Peter Abelard. Born in Brittany in […]

ANSELM OF CANTERBURY is one of the most important theologians in the medieval period. Hailed by scholars as the founder of scholasticism, a critical and rational approach to theology, he is the author of significant treatises on the Incarnation and on grace and free will. Anselm was born in the Piedmont near Aosta, a Burgundian […]

Gregory the Great (540 – 604) ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT FIGURES in the history of the Western Church at the dawn of the Middle Ages is Pope Gregory the Great. Born of wealthy parents belonging to the senatorial nobility, he received the best of the classical education of his day. However, the young Gregory […]

BOETHIUS WAS A CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR and philosopher who lived at the time when the classical world of late antiquity was receding and what scholars call the early Middle Ages was about to dawn. His full name, Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, indicates that he belonged not just to the aristocracy of Rome, but also to the […]

  “I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word”. – Psalm 119:16.   SOLOMON TOLD IT RIGHT when he said, “Of making many books there is no end” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). The number of books extant today would dwarf any library Solomon ever saw or imagined. We have old books, new […]