Theopolis Podcast: Ascension and Seventh Sunday of Easter

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Alastair Roberts

In this episode of the Theopolis Podcast, Peter Leithart and I discuss both the subject of the Ascension and the lectionary readings for the seventh Sunday of Easter: Acts 1:12-26, 1 John 5:9-15, and John 17: 11b-19. My recent Politics of Scripture post on Judas is also mentioned in the course of the discussion.

You can follow the Theopolis podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, and on most podcast apps. You can read show notes over on the Theopolis podcast website. You can also see past episodes I have contributed to by clicking the ‘Theopolis’ link in the bar above.

Posted in 1 John, Acts, Bible, John, NT | Leave a comment

Podcast: Augustine’s ‘Confessions’, Book 9

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Alastair Roberts

Mere FidelityOnce again, Mere Fidelity is discussing the topic of Augustine’s Confessions. This week, Derek, Matt, and I move on to a discussion of book nine, the final part of the more autobiographical portion of the work.

You can also follow the podcast on iTunes, or using this RSS feed. Listen to past episodes on Soundcloud and on this page on my blog.

If you would like to support the production of the podcast, you can do so over on Patreon.

Posted in Christian Experience, Church History, Theological | 4 Comments

Andrew Wilson on the Exodus and the Sacraments

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Alastair Roberts

Andrew has written a number of posts on various sites to publicize Echoes of Exodus. I’ve linked to the various articles, blog posts, videos, and talks that we have both produced that relate to the book here.

Andrew’s latest is on how the theme of exodus connects to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. You can read that here.

If you haven’t already done so, you can buy a copy of our book here. It is written to be an accessible introduction for a wider audience, whetting people’s appetites for biblical typology, so that they will look deeper into the themes it highlights. The chapters are short, with questions following, designed in part to make it suitable for use by Bible study groups.

Posted in My Books | Leave a comment

The Habitation Made Desolate

Posted on May 7, 2018 by Alastair Roberts

I wrote a reflection on Acts 1:15-26 over on the Political Theology blog. Within it I discuss some of the significance that the biblical accounts of the suicide of Judas should have for our political theology:

The gory manner of Judas’s death and Peter’s application of imprecatory psalms to him sits uneasily with many modern Christian sensibilities, so much so that verses 18-20 of this passage are generally excised from our lections. Yet, unsettling as such themes may be to our ears, it is difficult adequately to understand Luke’s vision of Christ’s mission without an appreciation of the deathly ‘shadow’ that Christ casts over his opponents.

Whether in Judas’s prophetically foretold suicide (1:18-20), the Holy Spirit slaying Ananias and Sapphira for their attempted deception (5:1-11), Peter’s cursing of Simon the sorcerer (8:9-24), the angel striking Herod and condemning him to a gruesome demise (12:20-24), or Paul’s blinding of Elymas the sorcerer (13:6-11), Luke repeatedly presents the Spirit’s mission as one that can have devastating and even fatal consequences for those who oppose it, who seek to claim God’s power for themselves, or who attack his people. Christ will place his enemies under his feet, will overcome the nations that rage against him, and will judge his wicked servants. While Christ is good, he is far from safe.

Read the whole piece here.

Posted in 1 Kings, 2 Samuel, Acts, Bible, Guest Post, NT, NT Theology, OT, Politics, Theological | 1 Comment

Theopolis Podcast: Sixth Sunday of Easter

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Alastair Roberts

In this episode of the Theopolis Podcast, I joined Peter Leithart to discuss this week’s lectionary readings.

You can follow the Theopolis podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, and on most podcast apps. You can read show notes over on the Theopolis podcast website. You can also see past episodes I have contributed to by clicking the ‘Theopolis’ link in the bar above.

Posted in 1 John, Acts, Bible, John, NT, Podcasts, Theopolis | Leave a comment

Exodus Poem

Posted on May 3, 2018 by Alastair Roberts

My friend Burl Horniachek wrote the following poem, inspired in part by Echoes of Exodus. He kindly gave me permission to share it with you all.

 

Exodus

God was sent from the garden land
To tread our cursed loam,
Where, under the threat of a pharaoh’s hand,
He made his newfound home.

Made to lie in in a basket frail,
Surrounded by a flood
Of cosmic powers that would prevail
Against his holy blood.

Grown, he climbed upon the mount
To promulgate a law
To which he soon would give account
Though being without flaw.

Alas, alas the time then came
When God to God must serve
The utmost dish of death and shame.
He ate those bitter herbs.

God went down to death’s dark womb
To rescue those who died
With all the joy of a tender groom
New catching up his bride.

Now blood is smeared on hell’s dark doors
And hell itself gives birth
And out pour all the many scores
Of saints beneath the earth

The mighty rod of Calvary
Bears down upon the rim
And splits that elemental sea
From brim to darkling brim.

Between the walls of endless strife
He leads those slaves of sin
Now loaded with eternal life
Up to the very chin.

The finest trick on death was played;
Hell’s pharaoh was despoiled;
The dragon’s lust for bloody trade
Upon himself recoiled.

God gathers up these treasures
There to his father’s side,
Singing in sweetest measures:
“It was for these I died”

Man cannot trust in upright deeds;
He only can adhere
To the sign of the lamb that ever bleeds
Above his household door.

All teaches us that he who serves
Is he who is made free,
For only a slave of eternal love
Could conquer from that tree.

Burl Horniachek is a writer and teacher living near Winnipeg, Manitoba. He has a degree in Ancient Near Eastern Studies (Ancient Israel) from the University of Toronto and studied creative writing with Nobel laureate Derek Walcott at the University of Alberta.

Posted in Bible, Exodus, NT, Poetry | 1 Comment

New Positions with the Davenant Institute and Theopolis Institute

Posted on May 2, 2018 by Alastair Roberts

The Davenant Institute and the Theopolis Institute have both just announced my hiring to positions in their organizations, alongside the Greystone Theological Institute, for which I am a Fellow of Scripture and Theology. I will be an adjunct Senior Fellow with Theopolis and a Teaching Fellow with Davenant.

I have had the privilege of working with both Davenant and Theopolis already in a number of different ways. I have taught in Davenant’s Summer Programmes (there are still places available for this summer!), delivered lectures for them, written essays for a number of their publications, recorded videos with them, along with other things. I recently taught Theopolis’s spring intensive course on the Theology of the Sexes. I have also written for the Theopolis blog on over twenty occasions.

I am delighted to be involved with each of these organizations. Each organization in its own way enables me to develop aspects of what I have long considered to be the vocation that has been given me, while leaving me a hand free for my own personal projects. A further blessing has been that of enjoying the stimulation and encouragement of spending time with the gifted and gracious people who run these organizations, people who have been significant inspirations and influences in my own Christian developments, friends of several years, and/or new friends with whom I very much look forward to working. It is a blessing to work with people with whom I can enjoy deep common vision and strong fellowship.

One of my new commitments with Theopolis will be regular participation in its podcast (which you can follow on Soundcloud, on the podcast website, and on most podcast sites). I am very much looking forward to this, as it will mostly be devoted to reflection on the texts of the lectionary. It will be wonderful to get into the text of Scripture like this every week.

They posted a recording of mine on the subject of Exodus recently:

I am also featured in the most recent episode:

If you like biblical theology, I highly recommend that you follow!

Posted in My Doings, Podcasts, Public Service Announcement, What I'm Doing | 17 Comments

A Few Remaining Places for this Year’s Davenant Summer Programmes!

Posted on May 2, 2018 by Alastair Roberts

There are still a few remaining places for two of the Davenant Summer Programmes I will be leading:

June 11-16, 2018 near Lake Lanier in South Carolina: Protestant Primer: a five-day primer in Protestant Philosophy, Ethics, and Politics.

July 31—August 10, 2018 near Lake Tahoe in California: Protestant Wisdom Summer Program: a ten-day study program in Christian wisdom and faithful citizenship.

Being involved in the summer programmes last year was a real delight. We enjoyed a great many stimulating conversations and wonderful fellowship, in spectacular natural surroundings. You can read feedback from people who attended last year’s programme in South Carolina here.

You can learn more about the work and philosophy of the Davenant Institute and its Summer Programmes in the following interviews, one with me and G. Shane Morris and another with me, Brad Littlejohn, and Jake Meador.

If you would like to attend this year, it may not be too late to apply if you are quick!

Posted in Public Service Announcement | 1 Comment

Priest, King, Prophet

Posted on May 2, 2018 by Alastair Roberts

While it is very far from the most articulate or well-ordered treatment of the subject (like the rest of my videos it is done without any notes or preparation, off the top of my head), the following is a brief introduction to the priest-king-prophet paradigm for understanding Scripture. Hopefully some of you will find it helpful.

Posted in Bible, Christian Experience, Ethics, OT, OT Theology, Theological, Video | 2 Comments

A New Book!—God of Our Fathers: Classical Theism for the Contemporary Church

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Alastair Roberts

The good folks at the Davenant Institute—who are now employing me—have just released a new book, God of Our Fathers: Classical Theism for the Contemporary Church (available on Amazon here), which contains a series of essays arguing for classical theism and its contemporary relevance.

There are some truly outstanding essays in the book and a foreward by Fred Sanders. E.J. Hutchinson’s work on Melanchthon alone is worth the price of entry, for those who are interested in this area of theology. I also have an essay on the subject of the eternal subordination of the Son debate and the troubled relationship between biblical and systematic theology. You can see a preview of some of the material in the book here.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments