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Writings on Christian Topics

www.abxn.org

Andrew Basden

Here is a brief index of my writings on various Christian topics. Enjoy them, whoever you are. I have tried to write them avoiding Christian jargon. They are intended to help our thinking about a wide range of issues. Please feel free to comment, by emailing, post or phone.

If you are wanting to get to know me, look at my Spiritual Journey (mostly complete but a first, unchecked version).

New

The Sacred-Secular Divide" - Mark Green's excellent booklet 'The Great Divide' about overcoming the Sacred-Secular Divide, and how the New View can assist and take it further. - ** New 17 January 2011 **
The King James Version: its literary impact, with C.S. Lewis' argument and some comments. -** New 1 January 2011 **
The Blair v. Hitchings debate about whether religion is good in the world. - ** New 12 December 2010 **
Eruption of Icelandic Volcano Eyjafjallajökull - An Act of God, warning us to reduce our air travel? - ** New 18 April 2010 **

(Question: Is it OK for 'Christian' web pages to be hosted on 'demon.co.uk'? See Answer: Yes.)

Systematic Thought

A New View: Theology + Practice - Theology as if the rest of creation matters: a theology for an age of climate change, global economy, and the Internet.
A developing website attempting to forge a new theology of the creation, the place of humanity, the fall, redemption, etc. in which Romans 8 completes the circle back to Genesis 1.
A Brief History of God - Looking for the 'big messages' in Scripture.
A growing and developing website looking at what God has tried to teach humankind since we started. A history of God's activity in and communication to the world.
'Imagine' - God's words to the information technology profession, and others, on Judgement Day. A few pieces as yet.

God's Ways Work

I believe that God's ways ('laws' etc.) should not be seen as onerous constraints to condemn us. Instead, God's ways work. For the good and bad alike, for the religious and non-religious alike. God's laws are diverse, not just moral codes. They work, not just for self but for others, society and environment. Especially over the longer term. Here I am collecting a number of examples of God's ways working. It is part of an attempt to work our a new view in theology.

Farming God's Way in Kenya. - ** new 22 November 2009 **
On Retribution and Forgiveness.
God's Ways Work; Human Ways Don't - Some Examples.
Repentance and Forgiveness in South Africa.
In Defence of Marriage - Some reasons you might not have thought of.
Sex, Marriage, Friendship, a thougtful insight from Guy Brandon.
Some interesting figures on crime.

Trying to See Things God's Way

These pages suggest a different way of seeing things we have known for ages, or perhaps some new things. Designed to make us think.

An easy-to-read, stimulating look at Purpose of Church leadership.
Abolition of Slavery, Reduction of Climate Change - a table showing many parallels
Resistance to tackling Slavery and Climate Change - a list of the common excuses
Seeking God's Heart (Hand-Face-Heart)
Struggle with jealousy.
Prayer is Not an Ought
Salvation - A richer way of seeing it?
Why Atonement? - the reality of sin and 7 ways of dealing with it.
God's New Agenda
Politics with Eternal Significance - the positive politics of tsedeq-radah.
Why Christians should be 'Green' - An argument from Scripture; see if you agree.
How should Christians respond to the Green Movement? - (Originally linked with the New Age response above, and a version was published in Third Way back in 1996 or so.)
How should Christians respond to the New Age? - I had to tackle this some years ago.
Genetically Modified Foods - Three levels of this issue.
On Food, Kosher, and the U.K. BSE Crisis.
Some ideas on Success - in business life etc.
A framework for understanding prosperity.
Why did God allow September 11th 2001?
Steps in Unrepentance - The U.S.A.
Making Sense of Israel - pages not ready yet.
Serbia, Milocevic and War Crimes

Understanding Biblical Principles and Themes

Again to make us think, these pages take biblical themes are re-examine them. Of they try to clarify biblical concepts in today's context.

On The Death of a (non-Christian) Friend, Heinz Karl Klein.
Some relfections on Why Revival Happens that goes beyond the obvious ones.
On Engaging with Secular Thinking as a Christian.
The Creation Matters to God - Some arguments from Scripture.
Justice and Righteousness are the same thing, 'tsedeq'. Why we have misunderstood them. Some word counts!
On the Hebrew word, radah, often translated 'have dominion'.
What is Idolatry? - How does it relate to us today?
Why God had to take the initiative in redeeming us.
Why the much maligned Doctrine of Original Sin is a good one.
Matthew Fox's famous book 'Original Blessing' - An Appreciative Critique.
Why Atonement? - the reality of sin and 7 ways of dealing with it.
sin.html - Some notes; thinking about the topic of 'sin'.
shit.html - A fun quote from George Melly on how some world religions think about sin and trouble - and an extension of it.
A look at some of Jesus' Sayings. (Page only started)

Discussion Points

Bob Goudzwaaard's Socioeconomic Paradoxes - our affluent lives are characterized by unresolvable paradox, whose roots lie in idolatry
Creating a Relational Society - Comment: A Discussion response on Michael Schluter's Cambridge Paper
On Engaging with Secular Thinking as a Christian.
Real Life versus Fiction - a quotation from Simone Weil - and now also Billy Connelly.
On Punishment
On Child Labor
On What 'Worldly' Means
'Thought For The Day' on Animals
'Thought For The Day' on Is God Warning Us?

Some Comment

I have begun to comment on ...

The King James Version: its literary impact, with C.S. Lewis' argument and some comments. -** New 1 January 2011 **
The Blair v. Hitchings debate about whether religion is good in the world. - ** New 12 December 2010 **

Possible Words from God ('prophecy')

God speaks into our situations today. What might God be saying? A reflection on what kind of things God might say, and a number of possible warnings. First, some general things:

What is God Saying? - to us at the start of the 21st Century?
What Is God Doing - in the world today, at the start of the 21st Century?
The nature of God's 'punishments' - or in this case, signs.

Now some specific things:

Eruption of Icelandic Volcano Eyjafjallajökull - An Act of God, warning us to reduce our air travel? - ** New 18 April 2010 **
A warning to the affluent of the world to change attitudes and lifestyle. (draft)
Warnings about agriculture and floods in the U.K. and Mozambique in 2002.
Is this a Word for American Christians? (written 2001)
For Information Technology Professionals? (my own profession).

Relating to my Work

Christian Philosophy and Information Systems - a substantial paper presented to the Toronto Institute for Christian Studies that attempts to provide a coherent, integrated philosophical underpinning for all four areas of concern in information systems, bearing in mind the high failure rate of information systems.

Links

Some of Elaine Storkey's 'Thoughts for the Day', which she has presented, over a period, on BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, put up here with her permission. The first one, which started me on this was 'On the Petrol Crisis', which was an excellent, stimulating and clear statement of the issues.
Eemlandhoeve - Sustainable Farming based on Christian World View. Some papers ..
- "Sustainable Agriculture is the most compatible with a theocentric worldview" by Dr. Ronald J. Vos.
- "New Professionalism for 'Rural Entrepreneurship'" by Ir. Jan Huijgen.
UK Christian Academic Network
Main Street Chapel, my church.
Coalition for Christian Outreach - a useful group
- Their resource page
- Their list of Christian Perspective and Jubliee articles
Agape.

These pages are offered to God as on-going work. Comments, queries welcome.

Part of his www.abxn.org pages, that open up discussion and exploration from a Christian ('xn') perspective.

Number of visitors to these pages: Counter . Written on the Amiga with Protext.

Created: 1999. Last updated: 21 November 1999. 8 January 2000. 16 January 2000. 2 October 2000 Elaine Storkey's page. 7 February 2001 email. 24 February 2001 Rearranged contents list, provided meanings, and added green and america. 4 March 2001 removed most page file names. 25 March 2001 added link to What Is God Doing, Warnings, Animals. 7 April 2001 Weil and corrected link. 3 May 2001 ccojubilee links. 18 May 2001 Link to new site Elaine Storkey. 30 June 2001 link to milocevic. 22 July 2001 link to salvation. 8 September 2001 crime.engels link. 22 September 2001 USA Attack. 23 September 2001 israel. 1 December 2001 spiritual journey moved earlier; CPIS paper link. 20 January 2002 Seeking God's heart and radah.html; many of the links rearranged, added counter. 1 March 2002 Eemlandhoeve. 8 September 2002 new link to 9/11. 19 January 2003 politics added. 12 May 2003 link to gweg r.t. pride.html to broaden it from pride to God's ways. 19 October 2003 links to God's New Agenda, and Prayer, slight reformatting. 14 December 2003 New View; and gna moved into discussion/. 1 August 2004 unrepentance. 24 November 2004 On engaging with non-Christian thought; removed old 'new's. 28 November 2004 some rearrangement. 14 June 2005 corrected nv link. 19 October 2005 jealousy. 25 March 2007 Slavery and climate change. 18 April 2007 link sex, marriage, friendship. 24 May 2007 like.slavery. 5 August 2007 paradoxes, discn/creatingrelnlsoc. 5 January 2008 discussion/evil. 9 February 2008 persecution+peace. 15 March 2008 revival. 20 November 2008 discussion/warning, copyright. 29 December 2008 atonement, hkk. 1 January 2009 otg, new .end, america to discn. 22 November 2009 fgw. 28 December 2009 tidy up; better into of NV, BHG. 18 April 2010 volcano, and some rearrangement; sections. 25 July 2010 corrected links to nv, bhg; added .nav! 12 December 2010 blair.hitchings, c-a-n link. 1 January 2011 kjv.cslewis. 17 January 2011 sacred.secular. 30 January 2011 demon. 16 May 2011 link to eeml made http. 6 June 2011 link to leadership.