John Bunyan · Christian allegory · 1678
…ading because different stages of Christian's journey become more recognisable as our own pilgrimage continues. Read it as a Scripture-saturated allegory, not as a substitute for Scripture. Editions vary: an unabridged edition which retains Bunyan's biblical references is the bes…
View recommendation →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…am, “Paul’s Christology of Divine Identity”; Larry W. Hurtado, “Bauckham’s Christological Pilgrimage”, especially the discussion of principal-agent traditions and early devotion to Jesus. The latter provides a substantive qualification from a scholar who also argues for an early…
Read article →History, heresy, and the temptation of private Christianity
…e elevate the knowing self over the church, inward experience over sacrament, escape over pilgrimage, and an enlightened minority over ordinary baptised Christians. The resemblance can be unsettling. It is also easy to exaggerate. The word Gnostic now functions too often as a the…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…braham and Ishmael with Mecca and the later connection of the sacrifice with the rites of pilgrimage reinforce the identification. That is a genuine argument from Qur'anic sequence. It should not be reduced to a baseless assertion. But it remains an inference. The Qur'an never na…
Read article →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
…Catch the Fire: Soaking Prayer and Charismatic Renewal. Simon Coleman, “The Morphology of Pilgrimage in the ‘Toronto Blessing’”. Time, “Laughing for the Lord,” a contemporary report from Holy Trinity Brompton. Christianity Today, “Revival: Pensacola Outpouring Keeps Gushing,” a c…
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