Saturday, September 08, 2007
The Roving Theologian - Roving Again - Edinburgh and the 12th Rutherford Dogmatics Conference
The Roving Theologian was unable to post for a period of time, because I was, well, roving. This time to Edinburgh and then London for the 12th Rutherford Dogmatics Conference. This is a great theologicla conference, with some of the best papers that one gets to hear, and this year was on a topic of major focus for me.
Going to Edinburgh
Once again I was astounded by the way that some travelers believe that the world revolves around them. When checking into my flight to London at DIA (Denver’s very clean airport), I was checking in next to a man who was berating the United staff because, he as a Premier 1K flier, had been told that since he was trying to check in with only 30 minutes before his flight left, would not be allowed to check in - baggage searches, and all. He readily admitted that he was late, but, well, he was a 1K flier. So instead of it being his problem for not obeying the rules, it was United’s fault for not breaking the rules (which are in part governmental because of security). I love this about us human beings - we all think the rules should apply to someone else. Me - I was there 2.5 hours early. Doesn’t make me more virtuous, but it does mean I know that the rules do not bend to meet my personal needs and desires.
The Opening Ceremonies
Aside from that, a truly great flight - both to Chicago and then onto London Heathrow - which has to be the dirtiest airport in the modern world. Then an easy flight on BMI to Edinburgh, a nice bus ride to get the key to the flat where we were staying (I went with Quinn Fox, my friend and pastor and his son Jon, who is the coolest 19 year old I have met in a long time - they both ended up with lost luggage at this point). That night opening ceremonies were at Greenside Parish Church. The opening ceremony - a service of worship with a sermon, was...well interesting.
The organ player yelled at us. Yep, yelled because we were not singing right (never mind I am no choir member, had no music before me, and had never heard the tune). Needless to say, the idea that worship is for God...slightly lost on the fellow. An environment of grace...non existent.
The sermon, by The Revd Dr Bob Fyall, the then leader of Rutherford House (which as I understand it is going out of existence), was on Phil 2:6-11 (the conference was on The Person of Christ (aka Christology). His conclusion was that since we know in the end every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord that people should be told they ought to do it now. In other words, it was back to “covert or go to hell” preaching. Yikes. While it is true, it probably is not going to be heard, even by people with whom God is at work right now drawing them to himself.
Day One
Anyways things really got going the next day. The schedule was:
09.00am Prayers
09.30am The Limits of Christological
Speculation Professor Stephen Williams
10.45am Coffee
11.15am The Eternal Begetting of the Son Professor John Webster
12.45pm Lunch
02.00pm Christ in the Old Testament Dr Jamie Grant
03.15pm Tea
03.45pm The Divine Identity of Christ Professor Richard Bauckham
07.00pm The Humanity of Christ Dr Oliver Crisp
Now, the room where the conference was held was amazing. My pictures are not the best, but this at least gives you some sense of the room.
A great room for thinking and hearing about theology. And the papers on the whole were quite good. Dr. Williams, who was my external examiner, and who along with Dr. Stephen Holmes is one of the two greatest minds in U.K. systematic theology today, delivered a paper that dealt primarily with methodology (how we talk about Christ theologically) that created the boundaries of so much of the rest of the discussion. Dr. Webster was unable to be there, but had his paper read by another of the presenters, and to be honest, it was a paper I found much to disagree with, not least because he attacks Wolfhart Pannenberg (who was the subject of my own doctoral thesis) in a way that showed he was either intentionally misreading him or else did not get his theological program. Dr. Jamie Grant’s paper was amazing, as he walked us how important it was to Jesus’ own identity and how he was both God and human in his use of Psalm 22 (the great lament Psalm that has the lines, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me"). It was the highlight of the papers to be honest, not least of which because it is one that actually preaches in my own life. I will be re-reading that paper a number of times in the coming years. Jamie, like Dr. Stephen Williams, is also a very kind, outgoing, and approachable person - which is all too rare in scholars.
I ended up bolting for the afternoon, taking in a pint and shopping, dinner and a glass of wine before listening to Oliver D. Crisp’s paper on the Humanity of Christ. Can I be honest - I hate philosophy! I think it leads to speculation and artificial boundaries that do not necessarily exist. And his paper was full of such. Look, there is a fair bit of theological envy for me directed to Oliver. He has more brilliance in his left pinky toe than I have in my whole head. I simply could never write the paper he wrote (though, to be fair, I would not want to!). But his paper angered me - it was so...well, useless in the end. It gave me a headache as well. All of Oliver’s work that I have interacted with leaves me either angry or with a headache (or both), and yet, he must be heard because he is brilliant and he does challenge one to think.
Anyways, its hard to be too angry when you have this view out the window at the conference:
Anyways, that was the way things went. Hard papers, great talks over tea with various people - theologians, students, pastors, and ordinary people (trust me, pastors and theologians are not ordinary people). The next day the schedule was similiarly tough:
Day Two:
09.00am Prayers
09.30am A Comparison of Luther’s and Calvin’s
Christologies Dr Henri Blocher
10.45am Coffee
11.15am Christ and Adam Professor Andrew McGowan
12.45pm Lunch
02.00pm Christ and Kenosis Professor Bruce McCormack
03.15pm Tea
03.45pm Christ and Discipleship Professor Donald Macleod
Henri Blocher, who runs the PhD program at Wheaton College, had a great paper, though a bit too focused on obscurity for my taste. He also, during the Q&A attacked Pannenberg, and showed either he had not read Pannenberg (and thus was going off of the bit in John Webster’s paper) or he did not understand him. But a great paper all and all (hey, any paper on Luther is a great paper!). Dr. McGowen, who during my first year as a doctoral student gave me a dressing down at Tyndale for placing the doctrine of the Trinity against the Bible on the subject of penal substitution (though his note to me this year showed he actually thought I made a good point and adjusted his work somewhat to take into account my complaint) presented a paper on covenant theology by another name (a duck is a duck in my book). Bruce McCormack, who is both very tall and very very smart, did a good job on kenosis, even where I disagreed with him. And Donald MacLeod did his bit of pastoral theology. By the end of the day, I was shot. So I walked the grounds of the great Castle Mound of Edinburgh:
Day Three:
The final day, which started too early because all the revelers from Festival Edinburgh (aka , a month of partying and weird people doing weird things) kept us up until 4am, had Stephen Holmes presenting his paper on Christ and the Church. I love Stephen’s work, and he is very affable and very kind to those of us who are still only getting our shoes wet in this whole theology business. Needless to say, it was a great paper, but again I found much to disagree with him on (I am far more what is called a social or relational Trinitarian than he is).
All and all the conference showed me the following:
1) There are some very brilliant theological minds out there in the evangelical world.
2) I am not one of them.
3) That study is an ongoing part of life - getting a PhD only ends the part where you pay for learning, the rest of life is about going deeper.
4) That speculation makes for great papers, interesting theology, and very little practical difference in people’s life.
5) That philosophy is just plain wrong (I think it was the great early Christian thinker Tertullian who asked, “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Nothing!”
6) That the church in Scotland is in deep trouble because their orthodoxy, as sharp as it is, does not communicate to the people around them.
7) That Edinburgh is a great city!
More on the conference upcoming.
