General
Essentials 2017
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
To look through the collection, see the article list on the left. Publishing of Essentials is made possible by a paid membership so if you're not currently a paid-up member/subscriber we encourage you to become one so we can continue to fund this very worthwhile journal. Our Membership form is here.
Essentials 2018
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
To look through the collection, see the article list on the left. Publishing of Essentials is made possible by a paid membership so if you're not currently a paid-up member/subscriber we encourage you to become one so we can continue to fund this very worthwhile journal. Our Membership form is here.
Essentials 2019
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
To look through the collection, see the article list on the left. Publishing of Essentials is made possible by a paid membership so if you're not currently a paid-up member/subscriber we encourage you to become one so we can continue to fund this very worthwhile journal. Our Membership form is here.
Editorial Summer 2015
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- Written by: Dale Appleby
Enjoying God's Work
What better thing to remember in the midst of our manifold concerns, than that God is at work?
Evangelicals seem to have their heads facing in lots of different directions. This could be seen as a bad thing, but this issue of Essentials shows it to be a good thing. We have reminders of great biblical scholars and leaders, and the way they helped strengthen the roots of our traditions. We have reflections on addictions, sexuality and holiness. And reports and recommendations about our Indigenous brothers and sisters and God's work in Africa.
Plus reviews of a wide variety of books for summer reading. Books that cover a wide range of issues and interests. Evangelicals are thinking and working on so many fronts.
Although, as the Bible Study this issue reminds us, “Far more important is the fundamental recollection that God is the one at work.” And that is cause for thanksgiving and encouragement. At a time when biblical Christians seem to be under pressure to conform to the beliefs and practices of the culture, we see that God is still at work in his church and through his word. Despite a culture that seems to have banded together against the Lord and his people, the Lord may still be laughing at their futile efforts (Psalm 2).
Is still laughing. And sending out his word and messengers. Building up his church. Strengthening and empowering his servants. Bringing his elect from all the nations into the body of his Son. How wonderful.
The End of Gender?
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- Written by: Rob & Claire Smith
Rob and Claire Smith begin to address what you have probabaly noticed—that there is a continuing and deepening advocacy in our culture for further revolution in our attitudes to gender and identity.
Rev Rob Smith is an Anglican Minister at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. He teaches theology at Sydney Missionary & Bible College and works for the Department of Ministry Training & Development.
Dr Claire Smith is women's Bible teacher and the author of God's Good Design: What the Bible Really Says About Men and Women (Matthias Media, 2012).
The transgender tipping point
In May 2014, a year before Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner became headline news around the world, the cover story of TIME magazine declared that we’ve now reached a ‘transgender tipping point’. Sociologically speaking, a tipping point is that point in time when a minority is able to bring about a significant change in the minds of the majority, such that long-held attitudes are reversed and the momentum on an issue begins to move in a completely new direction.
That new attitude and direction is, in essence, a new way of thinking about gender. And it really is new. Much of the discourse on homosexuality over the last 40 years has been about the fluidity or variability of sexual orientation, but not about the fluidity or variability of gender itself. In fact, both sides in the same-sex ‘debate’ have tended to view gender as something that is not only binary (i.e., you’re either male or female) but also as something that is fixed (i.e., it’s determined by your biological sex).
Editorial Spring 2015
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- Written by: Dale Appleby
Bringing the Gospel to our World
Are we tempted to trust more in methods for gospel growth, than in the gospel itself?
The Anglican Futures Conference in Melbourne in March was a great time. Lots of people (465) from all states and New Zealand, excellent organisation, stimulating plenary sessions and a great variety of highly appreciated workshops. And finished with a financial surplus. The Conference touched on a number of important areas in our life as Anglican Christians and this issue of Essentials follows up more of those matters.
We have more summaries of some of the papers and discussions of other issues as well. Jude Long continues to give us some insights into Indigenous matters and Peter Brain critiques the significant General Synod Report of the Viability and Structures Task Force. (Peter has further material in Facing the Future: Bishops Imagine A Different Church Stephen Hale (Ed), Andrew Curnow (Ed) ISBN 9780908284900).
Plans, methods, schemes and models continue to proliferate in the attempt to bring the gospel to our world. Many of them represent ways in which God has blessed the work of his servants. However evangelicals know better than to trust in the repetition of things that worked somewhere else. What we ought to continue to trust in is the gospel itself and the Lord who continues to spontaneously expand his church, to use the words of Roland Allen.
Allen has wise words for a generation entrenched in method. “By spontaneous expansion I mean something which we cannot control. And if we cannot control it, we ought, as I think, to rejoice that we cannot control it. For if we cannot control it, it is because it is too great for us, not because it is too small for us. The great things of God are beyond our control. Therein lies a vast hope. Spontaneous expansion could fill the continents with the knowledge of Christ...” That was in 1927. It seems that he was right. A number of our book reviews highlight the same story.
In the face of competing stresses, opposition, and white-anting, evangelicals are under pressure to be ashamed of the gospel. But most evangelicals are unlikely to give it away. We are more likely to be tempted to trust in gospel methods than in the gospel.
Dale Appleby, Essentials Editor