Tag: quotation

Quotes to Note 14: Christian Hedonism in The Shepherd of Hermas??

~ Bob Hayton ~ 4 Comments

I’ve been reading through a nice little edition of The Apostolic Fathers recently put out by Moody Press. Today, I came across a section in The Shepherd of Hermas that sounds a bit like what John Piper might say. I’m not endorsing everything in The Shepherd of Hermas, there are plenty of reasons why it shouldn’t be considered to be canonical (or part of the NT), but this little bit caught my attention. Let me know what you make of it or what you think of this quote.

I’m quoting from the 10th commandment which focuses specifically on grief caused by the inability to do something through doubt or grief after getting wrongfully angry over something.

Both these are grievous to the Holy Spirit– doubt and anger. Wherefore remove grief from you, and crush not the Holy Spirit which dwells in you, lest he entreat God against you, and he withdraw from you. For the Spirit of God which has been granted to us to dwell in this body does not endure grief nor straitness. Wherefore put on cheerfulness, which always is agreeable and acceptable to God, and rejoice in it. For every cheerful man does what is good, and minds what is good, and despises grief; but the sorrowful man always acts wickedly…. For the entreaty of the sorrowful man has no power to ascend to the altar of God [because] grief… mingled with his entreaty, does not permit the entreaty to ascend pure to the altar of God…. Cleanse yourself from this wicked grief, and you will live to God; and all will live to God who drive away grief from them, and put on all cheerfulness. [pg. 222 of the 2009 Moody edition of The Apostolic Fathers]

Quote to Note 1: Theology and Preaching

~ Bob Hayton ~ 5 Comments

From time to time, I’ll be bringing Quotes to Note. Most often they will be quotes good enough to stand on their own two feet. And hopefully they will indeed be quotes worth noting.

Today’s concerns theology and preaching.

“Theology without proclamation is empty, proclamation without theology is blind.“

— Gerhard Ebeling

After providing this quote in his article “Preaching and Biblical Theology” for The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (IVP, 2000), P. J. H. Adam elaborates:

So theologians should never be satisfied when their theology serves only the needs of the academy. Any theology, including biblical theology, must serve the Christian ministry of the word. Likewise preachers should not be satisfied when they have communicated only their own insight, the ideas of contemporary sociologists, or even current theories of Christian or church life. Nor should they be content with ritual repetition of a text of Scripture, reference to a token Bible verse, or preaching on a text to which they have not first applied Paul’s instruction to Timothy: “Reflect on what I am saying” (2 Tim. 2:7).

The dangers of the Western academic tradition are its assumptions that knowledge can be discovered only by those who share secular, naturalistic, or contemporary world views, and that knowledge is a satisfactory end in itself. These are damaging assumptions for any Christian academic to adopt, but particularly damaging for the theologian. Many preachers today, even many who know the Bible, do not use it in their preaching, or use it in a trivial way. We should not meet the challenge of postmodernism by abandoning the Bible, but by using it carefully, theologically and effectively. If we abandon theological reflection on the meaning of the text of the Bible, we will indeed be blind guides. ¹

 ¹ Pgs. 105-106, The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, edited by T. Desmond Alexander, Brian S. Rosner, D. A. Carson, Graeme Goldsworthy & Steve Carter (Inter-Varsity Press: Downers Grove, Illinois, 2003).

 ² P. J. H. Adam is the Vicar of St. Jude’s Carlton, Melbourne, Australia. The quote by Gerhard Ebeling is from his book Theology and Proclamation (London, 1966), pg. 20.