Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 85 (October 2015)

Sacred Treasure

• This is serious – Turkish Protestant churches sent death threats – directly affects a number of churches that I’ve regularly spent time with in Turkey. PRAY.
• My former All Souls colleague Jo Jackson has written a couple of great posts about weakness: 1. Willingly Weak and  2. Wonderfully Weak
• Phil Whittall (aka the Simple Pastor) has a great post on ‘We are alone in the universe‘

Q Combinations 6: Auden and Brueghel (a bit of a cheat, this time)

So I should be upfront about this one. It’s a cheat – because I’m not the instigator of this particular combination – the poet was. And it’s one of his best-loved – although the subject matter is not cheering, it’s certainly all too real. Despite being inspired by a renaissance painting of a greek myth!

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 84 (September 2015)

Sacred Treasure

• Did God Betray You? Really helpful piece about suffering and faith.
• We’re all sadists now: Carl Trueman on provocative but insightful form
• Tim Neufeld on cracking form about U2’s current tour: Ancient Psalms for a State-of-the-Art Tour

Q Combinations 3: Thomas, Spencer and the Tangible Kingdom

So here’s the 3rd Q Combination. I don’t know how well known these two geniuses are beyond British shores – but they are true 20th Century greats. In their different ways, both articulate a deeply earthy, incarnated spirituality.

Q Combinations 2: Jyoti Art Ashram & Angelou

So here’s the 2nd Q Combination. This time much more contemporary. Maya Angelou was a truly remarkable, versatile writer, who died only last year. I’ve nowhere near read enough of her stuff, but everything I have has blown me away.

Q Combinations 1: Rembrandt & Herbert

Have been thinking of different things I can do on the blog, and one of them is to offer occasional juxtapositions of creativity that warm the heart, stretch the mind, quench the soul. So here is the first: a bringing together of two masters (to whom I’ve returned more than once on Q).

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 83 (August 2015)

Sacred Treasure

• Prof Gary Habermas has made his 90-page book, Evidence for the Historical Jesus available as a free pdf.
• Gabe Lyons and Andrew Sullivan have a remarkable conversation about the pain of Church/LGBT (can’t they find a vowel!!?) relations
• She doesn’t mince her words here – it’s necessarily shocking – but this is important – Gail Dines TED talk on Growing Up in a Pornified Culture

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 82 (July 2015)

Sacred Treasure

• Ding Dong the witch is dead: if you’ve missed this, it is a must read – a harrowing account of a pastor who is a survivor of horrendous child abuse
• Turkish Armenians with previously hidden Christian heritage are returning to Christianity from Islam
• Phil Whittall has a very good piece on the issue of transhumanism (after the discussion between Peter Thiel and NT Wright)

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 81 (June 2015)

Sacred Treasure

• Philip Yancey has a good piece on the value of small churches… he also passes on a lovely John Ortberg story about a bus driver in San Francisco.
• Eddie Arthur has a consistently thought-provoking blog – this piece particularly good: Go to where God is Not at Work!
• Krish Kandiah on 7 reasons why preaching is dead and 7 reasons why it lives

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 80 (May 2015)

Sacred Treasure

• Tolkien and the Long Defeat: this is such a powerful piece from Dec 2013 – so counter-cultural in our utilitarian world.
• Phil Whittall makes some helpful points about the strong tides of ethical change
• Did the early church believe in substitutionary atonement? Michael Kruger has a look
• 9 Traits of Church bullies – sadly very true

Don’t be afraid… an Emmaus snapshot

No one expected it. Few believed it. Even when they had it on good authority. Even when they’d been forewarned and forearmed (see Mark 8:31; 9:30-32; 10:32-34).

But still it didn’t sink in. Not immediately. And it wouldn’t, would it. After all, dead men simply don’t rise. They just DON’T. OK?

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 79 (April 2015)

Sacred Treasure

• Emma describes how she and her husband Phil found themselves planting a church in Stockholm
• Cranmer has a bold but perceptive take on the Phobia culture that we find ourselves in
• Google CFO retires with an important challenge about work/life balance

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 78 (March 2015)

Sacred Treasure

• Josh Byers over at Visual Theology has produced a GREAT infographic summarising all the arguments for the historicity of the Resurrection
• Cranmer rightly notes the increased levels of Christian engagement in the next UK General Election (see last month’s Q treasure). And here’s his great reflection on Andy Flannagan’s book Those Who Show Up.
• Ian Paul covers the ground on Stephen Fry and God

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 77 (February 2015)

Sacred Treasure

• Show up: a fantastic campaign endorsed by scores of different outfits – to encourage Christian involvement with politics generally, and May’s General Election specifically.
• It isn’t a battle; it’s a pilgrimage: helpful wisdom for anyone, not just those struggling with porn issues
• Michael Wenham is someone with Lou Gehrig disease and so uniquely qualified to consider the Stephen Hawking movie, Theory of Everything.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 76 (January 2015)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Have a fab 2015

watch this space because there are some big changes afoot for Quaerentia in the coming months…!!

Sacred Treasure

• AN Wilson on cracking form: it’s the Gospel truth – so take it or leave it
• Ministry through the dark night: very helpful consoling piece by someone (!?) about depression and despair in ministry
• Interesting piece in the Washington Post: Gay Christians choosing celibacy emerge from the shadows

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 75 (December 2014)

Hurrah! Q Treasure Maps have reached a 3/4 Century!

Sacred Treasure

• I know a number of the people involved in making this doc on Jesus’ claims to be the Son of God – made in Turkey for those from that part of the world. Looks great!
• The Pope draws in Tom Wright, Rick Warren, Michael Nazir-Ali and others to the discussion about family. Unprecedented?
• In particular, here is fmr UK Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks’ remarkable speech in full.
• Ros Clarke is an old friend who recently completed a PhD on the interpretation of the Song of Songs – she’s set up a great website to offer the fruit of all her labours more widely.

Abandoned and Unexcavated: the charms of Termessos

Amidst a fairly busy schedule in Turkey this week, managed to occupy a day off with a trip into the mountains above Antalya to the abandoned city of Termessos. It’s power and wealth derived from controlling the only local pass through the mountains – but its construction, so high and so elaborate (temples, theatre, agora, civic buildings, many houses etc), must have been an astonishing feat of engineering and endurance.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 74 (November 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• Emma Scrivener on form yet again her: lovely piece on the Both/Ands of the Christian life.
• She’s also got a great A-Z of Christianity – check it out!
• Nell Goddard writes beautifully and poignantly on When Christians cause the suffering
• The importance of plural leadership – yet another interesting thought from Chris Green

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 73 (October 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• C S Lewis on Friendship
• Are the Apocryphal Gospels true? Ian Paul picks up Simon Gathercole’s address at the recent British NT conference
• If you missed it, this is an extraordinary episode of BBC’s Panorama about the Christians working in North Korea for Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (30 minutes – definitely worth watching in full).

U2’s Songs of Innocence (1): Opaquely Specific: SONG FOR SOMEONE…

To be opaque is to be beguiling, provocative. You need to be hooked, of course. But once I’m hooked, I never want everything on a plate. I want to be made to work a little. It is one of the most compelling things about U2’s songs.