Reconsideration of "The Rood"

After I finished writing my last Blopost here, I walked downstairs to make a coffee, and immediately realised I’d missed a whole area of reflection. I’d taken a completely negative view of the contextualisation implicit in The Dream of the Rood, missing the (very obvious) positive aspect, and the necessary nuance (and risk) involved in any attempt at contextualisation.

False Contextualisation: The Dream of the Rood

 The Dream of the Rood (available here) is a classic piece of Anglo-Saxon poetry, from the 8^th or 10^th centuries. Rood is the old English word for ‘rod’ or ‘pole’, and came to be used of the Cross. The poem narrates a dream sequence, in which the author sees a tree being cut down, and eventually used in the crucifixion of Christ.

The Church in Wales

We visited a Church of Wales service while on holiday. There was an assortment of locals and tourists. No singing, because of Covid; just the liturgy. A lay-leader explained to us, that they had a tradition of supporting pilgrims, passing through, some as corpses for burial, to the holy island of Bardsey, which was known as a “thin place”, to be near the resurrection.

The Spiritual Dimension of Mission

I was challenged to think missiologically by the recent City-to-city conference, on reaching Europe, especially its cities. I was impressed, particularly, by their honesty about the difficulty of the task, faced with the indifference and even hostility towards the gospel in secular Europe. So, I written several blogs reflecting on what it might take to do mission here. One factor, which I think much western missional thought misses is the role of the Holy Spirit in mission, and especially the Pentecostal dimension: that is, signs and wonders.

Capitalism, Modernity, and the Gospel

Reflecting further on why the gospel is hard to communicate in Europe today, it is not only that Christianity is old, but that it is now identified with power, with the establishment. This is in part due to the Constantinian settlement, whereby church and state became allied in a co-dependent system of ideological legitimation, which eventually produced Christendom. 

New Beginnings for the Gospel

Building upon my last blog, how can we make the gospel fresh again, refresh our presentation? Writing about apologetics, Os Guiness comments that people are not really asking questions; they are simply not interested in what we have to say. We must, he says, find ways to intrigue them, awaken their curiosity, and provoke thought.

Failing the Gospel in Europe

I’m listening to some of the discussion in City-to-City’s Evangelism Project. Specifically, their honest inquiry into why it’s so hard to share the gospel in Europe, and if there are any lesson from the European experience? There is a perception that evangelism is difficult in Europe, both to do, and to get any results, in terms of conversions.