I didn’t make this myself, although I wish I did.
From Peter Hardy, Chaplaincy Assistant:
After our Bible For Bluffers session on the Biblical Canon I was wondering to myself what happens if you skim through the Bible, focusing on verses corresponding to pi (that is, 3.14)? What would the Bible be like if we were limited to these passages? (more…)
In the last session we explored the Biblical canon in the context of the non-canonical ‘gospel’ of Thomas. Here we look at the issue that different groups of Christians always tend to focus upon and prioritise their own particular parts of the Bible creating a kind of ‘canon within the canon’.We imagined that we were forgetful Christians who had crash landed on a desert island. Four different bands of survivors settled on different parts of the island and each could only remember a few small parts of Scripture. Despite this they are committed to carry on living their Christianity guided by these few passages. (more…)
The sources of discussion/language about God.
What then is theology? What do you think of when you hear the word?
Etymologically it is the study of God, and if we confined ourselves to that original meaning then the stereotypical derision of it as not a ‘proper’ discipline would be quite understandable. After all, there isn’t any way that we could study God like a pharmacist studies chemicals, and as a result it is often supposed that theology is all made up opinions. Theology cannot be straightforward and descriptive because religion is inexorably mysterious- God is fundamentally ‘other’ and cannot be adequately described in human language. (more…)
The Risen Christ
We began the previous discussion on Jesus’ biography by listing various titles that he had. Two of these are especially famous- 1) the Christ, i.e. the Messiah, the ‘Lamb of God’ and Saviour of the World, and 2) the Son of God; God the Son. We will look at the first of these -what God does in Jesus- in future discussions on salvation. In this session we will continue looking at who Christians believe in, concentrating on the image of the Son of God. (more…)
From Mark Laynesmith, Anglican Chaplain:
“Abraham had faith and obeyed God… he left for a country he had never seen” (Hebrews 11.8)
What does it mean to ‘believe in God’? (more…)
From Miroslav Maťavka, Chaplaincy Assistant:
The discussion in last week’s Theology and Doughnuts has been once again very interesting and there was one particular thing that stuck with me the most. We have been discussing Jesus as God the Son. (more…)
From Sabine Schwartz, Catholic Chaplain:
In our secular society, religious people in general and we Christians especially tend to have a bad reputation. We seem to be perceived by some as people who believe that they are in possession of absolute truth and therefore are entitled or even obliged to impose this truth on everyone else. 
(more…)
The University of Reading Chaplaincy 