Worldviews and Their Implications
PCNV member Graham Ogden discusses how each world-view dictates what we find in any text:
Click here to download the document prepared by Graham.
Sea of Faith in Australia Conference 2015
The 2015 Sofia Conference will take place at Coolangatta, Queensland on the weekend of 22 to 24 May. The Conference theme will be “Religion in Education: Children, Ethics, Faith and Meaning.”
The conference brochure notes:
In this conference, participants will reflect on some of the changes in the religious and educational fabric, and the political, social and religious issues arising from them. Sessions will deal with: the contested place of religion in Australian politics and education; the increasingly diverse nature of the Australian population; the need for compulsory courses in religion and ethics; the control and funding of the various school sectors; and the national chaplaincy program.
Click here to download a copy of the Conference flyer.
The audio file from Greg Reynold’s address to the PCNV is now available.
Click here to go to the entry where both text and audio files can be accessed.
Bernard Brandon Scott Audio File: The New Paul
The audio file from Bernard Brandon Scott’s presentation on the above title are now available from here.
Audio Files from Progressive Wisdom Ways Presentation Now Available
The audio files from Graham Ogden’s and Coralie Ling’s presentation on the above title are now available as follows:
Click here to the download the text of Graham’s address
Click here to access the PCNV Download Store to access the audio files of the presentations.
Lloyd Geering’s New Book: Reimagining God – The Faith Journey of a Modern Heretic
From the Westar Institute…
Described by the BBC as “the last living heretic,” Lloyd Geering has spent much of his life wrestling with God. Of late, however, he finds himself struggling with the absence of God. The rise of nonreligious, secular culture around the world testifies that he is not alone, that the concept of God has become problematical. Should God be abandoned altogether? Can God be reformed, so to speak?
Audio File from David Tacey’s June 2014 Presentation Now Available
Click here to go to the PCNV download store to download the audio file..
A New New Testament – by Hal Taussig
Over the past century and a half, numerous lost scriptures have been discovered, authenticated and celebrated. These are not the work of shunned sects or rebel apostles, or alternative histories or doctrines. They represent the very voices that sparked the rise of Christianity. We have much to gain by bringing these documents back into conversation with the traditional New Testament.
Bill Loader’s “Sex in the 1st and 21st Centuries” Audio File is now available…
Download the PDF file by clicking here
The audio file can be downloaded by visiting the PCNV File Download Store by clicking here
Audio and text files are now available from the February 2014 Meeting: The Relevance of Jesus for Us Today
To access the files click here
To download the audio files from the presentations, visit the PCNV download store by clicking here.
St Andrew’s on The Terrace, Wellington, seeks a full-time minister
From our friends at St Andrew’s on The Terrace, Wellington, NZ
We are looking for a minister to lead and inspire the progressive faith community of St Andrew’s on The Terrace.
St Andrew’s is a vibrant Presbyterian church and a spiritual, cultural and intellectual hub in central Wellington. We are looking for an energetic minister who welcomes lay participation in worship, motivates people on their faith journey, and has a strong commitment to pastoral care and outreach to the wider community.
Key attributes and skills include:
- Theological rigour and intellectual openness
- Integrity, courage and a passion for social justice
- Personal warmth and ability to build and maintain strong relationships
- Ability to communicate and connect at multiple levels
For a parish profile please contact the Convenor of the Ministry Settlement Board, Rev. Sharon Ross Ensor, sharon.rossensor@gmail.com. We need to receive expressions of interest, including a CV and a covering letter, by 30 May 2014. You can find out more about St Andrew’s at: www.standrews.org.nz
Biblical Wisdom Literature and Christian Theology
Hebrew Testament student, researcher, translator and teach Graham Ogden has penned the following essay which he has made available for reading by friends of PCNV.
The summary of the article is:
Jesus, whatever else he was, was a Sage. His pithy sayings and parables indicate that he belonged to the ancient Israelite Wisdom tradition. That tradition must have been fully integrated into Israel’s broad theological scene, but modern Christian theologians have found it nigh on impossible to incorporate that tradition into their theological structures. This is perhaps more true of the Protestant or Reformed tradition than of the Roman, but the overwhelming problem for Christian theology generally is that the Wisdom perspective cannot be made to fit into its narrower view. This is because of the essential nature of the Wisdom perspective given its international, and seemingly more “secular” approach to its advice, dependent upon shared human experience rather than on an external source of revelation. The essay will look at the many issues raised by Israel’s Wisdom tradition and its possible contribution to a more “progressive” theology.
Click here to download the full essay.
Alex McCullie’s Lecture Series Continues at the Melbourne Centre for Adult Education
March: JESUS: ZEALOT, MIRACLE WORKER OR MYTH?
May: ATHEISTS – ENLIGHTENED, MISGUIDED OR DANGEROUS?
Scholars Study Book of Acts as Second-Century Myth of Christian Origins
Have a look at this blog entry at the Westar site and some of the significant discussion that it generated:
Polebridge Press recently released the final report of a decade-long study on the biblical book of Acts carried out by the Acts Seminar, a collaborative research effort led by scholars affiliated with the Westar Institute. Acts and Christian Beginnings: The Acts Seminar Report was launched at Westar Institute’s “Early Christianity: Heritage or Heresies?” Conference in Santa Rosa, California, on Friday, October 25th. Members of the Acts Seminar were present to comment on the report. The Acts Seminar scholars set out to answer the questions, “When was Acts written? What historically can Acts tell us about Christian origins?”
See more by clicking here.
Second Episode of Audio Interview with Author of “A Scandalous Jesus”
A continuation of the conversation with Joseph Bessler, author of A Scandalous Jesus: How Three Historic Quests Changed Theology for the Better. In this second episode the conversation explores the “renewed quest” led by Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar.
We explore the reasons for this quest and the forces that drove it.
Click here to access the second episode
Audio Interview with Joe Bessler: Author of “A Scandalous Jesus”
Click here for information about the book A Scandalous Jesus:
How Three Historic Quests Changed Theology for the Better and an audio interview with the author Joseph Bessler from the Westar Institute website.
The website notes:
The question of the historical Jesus is not only a historical question but also a historic one. And historic questions can be the most scandalous, says Joe Bessler, because they challenge the assumptions governing societies. Like Galileo questioning the Ptolemaic universe, historic questions transgress the limits of authority, belonging, and institutional legitimacy. Each of the three quests of the historical Jesus from the original quest in the early 20th century, through the new quest, to the renewed quest in the late 20th century has opened up new questions. In A Scandalous Jesus, Bessler seeks to capture the historic questions that surround and shape research on the historical Jesus and assess the impact of the differing quests on theological and cultural life.
Revelations, a lecture by Elaine Pagels
Early “Christians” seized on the Book of Revelation as a weapon against heresy and infidels of all kinds—Jews, even Christians who dissented from their increasingly rigid doctrines and hierarchies. But were they its original targets? Elaine Pagels persuasively interprets Revelation as a scathing attack on the decadence of Rome. She argues that its author, John of Patmos, was taking aim at the Roman Empire following the “Jewish War” in 66 CE, when militant Jews in Jerusalem, fired with religious fervor, waged an all-out war against Rome’s occupation of Judea, and their defeat resulted in the desecration of Jerusalem and its Great Temple.
Available from Polebridge Press.
Elaine Pagels is Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion at Princeton University and bestselling author of several books, including The Gnostic Gospels (1979), Beyond Belief (2003), Reading Judas (with Karen L. King, 2007), and most recently presented the lecture Revelations at the Spring 2012 meeting of the Westar Institute.
Val Webb and David Tacey Audio Files Now Available
Audio files from recent Val Webb and David Tacey presentations to the PCNV have been added to the PCNV Download Store.
Click here to go to the store and purchase the audio files.
Emerging Church 2013
What does the Emerging Church say about Good Friday, Resurrection, Pentecost and Jesus’ teaching? Why is it different?
Come along and find out!
Worship on 3rd Sunday of each month, February to November
Manningham Uniting Church, Anderson’s Creek Rd
East Doncaster. Melways 34 E6
Time: 5:00 – 6:30pm, including meal
Please bring food for a shared light meal following the service
