Mark Goodacre is an English New Testament scholar currently teaching at Duke University in the US and his NT Blog and his companion sites NT Pod and NT Gateway are all very worth a visit.

Mark  has pointed out on his blog that it is now possible to watch the entire PBS series From Jesus to Christ on line. Mark says about the series:

Back in 1998, there was a lot of talk among American e-listers about the PBS series From Jesus to Christ, a four-part exploration of the origins of Christianity that was generally thought to be a well produced documentary. The programme made a bit of an impact overseas too, partly because of a fantastic website and partly because it was repackaged and sold abroad. In the UK, we had it on Channel 5, with Terry Waite providing extra linking materials. I have always been a fan of the website, and I continue to recommend parts of it to my students to this day.

The blurb about the series says: “From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians” tells the epic story of the rise of Christianity. The four hours explore the life and death of Jesus, and the men and women whose belief, conviction, and martyrdom created the religion we now know as Christianity. Well-known scholars discuss Christian origins and there are visuals of the areas in which the events took place. As well as looking at orthodox Christianity, it also explores the origins of other strands. The discovery of the Nag Hammadi documents is dealt with in Part Two, Chapter 7, Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries.  Mark also links to a Youtube clip of somewhat dodgy quality that talks about the discovery of the Nag Hammadi documents with footage of the Egyptian farmer who made the discovery and several of the important early scholars of the Nag Hammadi texts – James Robinson, Gilles Quispel and Elaine Pagels.

NT Blog contains posts about issues that Mark finds interesting, so some of them are probably of limited interest to those who are not engaged in the academic study of New Testament/Christian origins. I read it regularly, though.

NT Pod contains podcasts (not surprisingly) that Mark describes as “ Condensed comment from an academic perspective for everyone interested in historical approaches to the New Testament.” They don’t require an academic background but they do give you an understanding of what academic scholars think and know about the New Testament.

NT Gateway is “an award winning web directory of internet resources on the New Testament.” It enables you to both browse and search annotated links on “everything connected with the academic study of the New Testament and Christian Origins.”

Creation’s house rules: take only your share; clean up after yourself; and keep the house in good repair for others. Sallie McFague, “Intimate Creation” (see below)

This post provides background and extended reading for the presentation that I did at the 2009 Armidale Sustainable Living Expo. There are also links to useful webpages.  I decided that this would be a better way of doing things than printing out pieces of paper which might or might not be used.

If you have not done any reading in this area before, I would suggest that Barry Leal’s book the Environment and Christian Faith is a good place to start.  It’s part of  the St Paul’s Press “Windows Into…” series and doesn’t assume particular familiarity with either the field or theological language.  Then try Sallie McFague’s “Intimate Creation”, which provides a good, short overview of the various models of God that have been prevalent in Christianity and the problems they cause for human relationships with the world we live in.

• Birch, Charles. 1993. Regaining compassion for humanity and nature. Kensington, NSW, Australia: New South Wales University Press. Birch is a former Challis Professor of Biology at the University of Sydney, now an internationally recognised process theologian.
• Carmody, John. 1983. Ecology and religion: toward a new Christian theology of nature. New York: Paulist Press.
• Church of England. 1986. Our responsibility for the living environment: a report of the General Synod Board for Social Responsibility GS718. London: Church House.
• Edwards, Denis, and Mark William Worthing (eds). 2004. Biodiversity & ecology: an interdisciplinary challenge. Interface (Adelaide, Australia), v.7 no.1. Adelaide, Australia: Australian Theological Forum Press. – Australian editors with international range of contributors
• Galvin, Ray. 1993. Christ and the good earth: an introduction to ecological theology. Red Beach, Orewa, New Zealand: Colcom Press. – A New Zealand author.
• Granberg-Michaelson, Wesley. 1984. A worldly spirituality: the call to redeem life on earth. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
• Granberg-Michaelson, Wesley. 1987. Tending the garden: essays on the Gospel and the earth. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.
• Granberg-Michaelson, Wesley. 1988. Ecology and life: accepting our environmental responsibility. Issues of Christian conscience. Waco, Tex: Word Books.
• Habel, Norman C., and Peter L. Trudinger. 2008. Exploring ecological hermeneutics. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. Norman Habel is an Australian Lutheran biblical scholar who has worked internationally but is now resident in Adelaide.
• Habel, Norman C. 2009. An inconvenient text: is a green reading of the Bible possible? Hindmarsh, S. Aust: ATF.
• Habel, Norman C., and Peter L. Trudinger. 2009. Water: a matter of life and death. Hindmarsh, S. Aust: ATF.
• Leal, Robert Barry. 2004. The environment and Christian faith: an introduction to ecotheology. St. Paul’s windows into, 3. Strathfield, N.S.W.: St. Pauls. – a good place to start if you have never read in this area. An overview by an Australian author. The Uniting Church chaplaincy owns a copy which Armidale people or UNE students could borrow.
• Leal, Robert Barry. 2006. Through ecological eyes: reflections on Christianity’s environmental credentials. Strathfield, NSW: St Pauls. – an expansion on the previous book
• Ledger, Christine, and Stephen Pickard (eds). 2004. Creation and complexity: interdisciplinary issues in science and religion. Adelaide: ATF Pres.- again, Australian editors with international contributors.
• McFague, Sallie. 1987. Models of God: theology for an ecological, nuclear age. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. Not as specifically ecotheological as The body of God but an excellent critique of traditional models of God from the perspective of a feminist with a respect for creation.
• McFague, Sallie. 1993. The body of God: an ecological theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. – ecotheology from a feminist perspective – an expansion on  Models of God
• McFague, Sallie. 2001. Life abundant : rethinking theology and economy for a planet in peril. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
• McFague, Sallie. 2002. “FEATURES – Intimate creation – God’s body, our home”. The Christian Century. 119 (6): 36. – looks at different models of God and why they are problematic for sustainability, then outlines one in which the creation is seen as God’s body. This is available electronically through the UNE library if you are a student or member of staff.
• Santmire, H. Paul. 1985. The travail of nature: the ambiguous ecological promise of Christian theology. Theology and the sciences. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. – one of the classics in the field.
• Santmire, H. Paul. 2000. Nature reborn: the ecological and cosmic promise of Christian theology. Theology and the sciences. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
• Scullion, John J. et al. 1981. God’s creation and human responsibility for the earth. Melbourne: Polding Press- four Australian Jesuits present biblical, theological and ethical perspectives on the role of human beings in caring for the earth.
• White, Lynn. 1967. “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”.  Science 155: 1203-1207 http://aeoe.org/resources/spiritual/rootsofcrisis.pdf – the famous article that critiques Western Christianity’s use of the environment.  It also shows that there is another strand of Christianity that could be followed.
• The Earth Bible Series – Australian scholars.
  • Habel, Norman C. 2000. Readings from the perspective of Earth. The Earth Bible, v 1. Cleveland: Pilgrim Press.
  • Habel, Norman C., and Shirley Wurst. 2000. The earth story in Genesis. The earth Bible, v 2. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic.
  • Habel, Norman C., and Shirley Wurst. 2001. The Earth story in wisdom traditions. The Earth Bible, v 3. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
  • Habel, Norman C. 2001. The Earth story in the Psalms and the Prophets. The Earth Bible, v 4. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press.
  • Habel, Norman C., and Vicky Balabanski. 2002. The Earth story in the New Testament and apocalyptic. Earth Bible, v 5. London: Sheffield Academic Press.

Web resources

There are a number of places on the web where you can find extensive reading lists.  The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University has a downloadable resouce brochure and Earth Ministry also has a very, very extensive resource section. Uniting Earth Web has some more practical Australian resources.  The Uniting Church in Western Australia’s Green Church website and Maroubra Junction Uniting Church’s Project Green Church webpages provide more Australian and practical resources. The World Council of churches also has some useful and interesting resources.  Go to their website and search for “ecology” and “ecological” and/or scan down the list of news items for their most recent statements and most recent news of their projects.

Since the beginning of semester, the campus bible study group has been looking at the Global Food Crisis. We have participated in the 40 Hour Famine and mounted a display at Open Day raising awareness of the problems that people in developing countries experience  as a result of the recent sky-rocketing food prices. Below is the text of a handout we produced to encourage people to take steps to improve the situation:

The Global Food Crisis

How can I help?

• Consume less and reduce your environmental footprint on the earth!
• Eat more veggies and dig deep! By eating organic meat, and beans, nuts, seeds and other environmentally-friendly sources of protein you can slow down climate change. Starting a veggie garden is also a great solution. Create sustainable food sources in your own backyard.
• Avoid grain-fed meat
• Take public transport, ride your bike or just walk! When you do need to use a car, car pool whenever possible
• Become a locovore! Buy locally-made and grown products and reduce your own dependence on oil and bio -fuel. Buying organic and in-season produce also reduces your impact on the environment. Local farmers’ markets are a great place to start. In Armidale a farmers’ market and car boot sale on the first three Sundays of every month starts Sunday 1st November 2009 in the grounds of Armidale City Public School. Local fresh produce is also often available at The Food Shed in Beardy St and at The Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market in Rusden St.
• Be a fair trader. If you can’t find Australian-made products, buy fair trade instead to make sure all food producers get a fair go. Encourage places where you shop regularly to stock fair trade items.
• Refuse, re-use, recycle – take green bags when you shop; if something is recyclable, recycle it – which may mean rinsing it and removing the lid. Consider buying second-hand goods rather than new.
• Support aid agencies that are working in the two-thirds world to improve farming techniques
• Encourage the government to spend more money on overseas aid that supports poor people
• Encourage the government to spend more money on research into non-food sources of bio-fuels (most Australian bio-fuel uses non-food sources eg sugar cane waste, but as demand increases, more sources need to be found)become informed about the issues and encourage others to follow your example.

Where on the web can I go?

Here are some places to start if you want to become informed and do something to make a difference:

http://www.tear.org.au/ – TEAR Australia (non-denominational – aid, development and education, gifts with a difference)

http://www.worldvision.com.au/ – World Vision (non-denominational – aid, development and education)

http://www.unitingworld.org.au/ – Uniting World (Uniting Church – aid, development and education)

http://www.caritas.org.au/ – Caritas (Catholic – aid, development and education)

http://green.wa.uca.org.au/ – Green Church (Uniting Church – sustainability)

http://www.mjuniting.org.au/greenchurch/ – Project Green Church (Uniting Church – sustainability)

http://www.micahchallenge.org.au/ – Micah Challenge (ecumenical, advocacy – the Christian arm of Make Poverty History)

http://www.earthbasics.com.au/ – Earth Basics (secular – eco friendly products for home and business)

Tim Bulkeley, who teaches Hebrew Bible at Carey Baptist College and the University of Auckland, has recently published some really useful information on the differences between and uses of “Bible dictionaries” and commentaries. Tim’s blog has a range of other really useful information about the Bible as well as tech tips for use of a range of software in teaching the Bible and putting things up on the web.   If you go to the subject index, you will be able to find this fairly easily. He is also committed to justice and has a particular interest in the situation in Burma.

The Sophia Network is, according to their blog, for women in youthwork and ministry, and the blog provides really useful resources for this.  However, it also has a range of interesting and useful articles for anyone who is interested in equality for women and men within the leadership of the church.

For those who are UNE students, a warm welcome back for Semester 2 (even if it’s not all that warm outside). I’d like to share something that caught my attention this morning.

A former colleague of mine, Cheryl Lawrie, works for the Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania as the project worker for their alternative worship project.  She blogs at  hold :: this space and yesterday”s blog  reproduces a piece that she wrote for Melbourne’s Age newspaper, where she’s a semi-regular contributor of opinion pieces.

In it, she reflects on her experience of visiting Port Phillip men’s prison, where she works with the chaplains to conduct worship. In it she says:

Every visit to the prison converts me. I’m reminded that the assumptions by which I live my life outside are the product of privilege. What I so glibly think is achievable, for both humans and any God I can imagine is beyond hope inside. Sometimes love doesn’t conquer all. Sometimes justice doesn’t come. There are some places hope can’t exist.

It’s made me an awkward Christian – bad company, I fear, in the circles of faith. If truth be known, by most definitions, I couldn’t be called a Christian. I’m not at all convinced by the being of God, though the event of God – the actions and transformations that have been traditionally attributed to God – entice me. But much as the label ‘Christian’ doesn’t fit, I’m loathe to give it up. It’s not for nostalgia, it’s certainly not because I’m superstitious, it’s not even because I have a need to belong or be part of a group. It’s because I need to be held to an expectation that is way beyond myself, and I’m compelled by the expectation that Christianity has of me: that I will live as though everyone can begin again, and that I will act as though the impossible might one day be true.

I’d encourage you to visit the site and read the rest of the article, which isn’t very long. And if you’re a Christian, to think about what that means for you.

The Uniting Church works as a series of interconnected Councils, the national one being Assembly.  The Assembly meets once every three years and that meeting is happening at the moment. We are a quite young church – this is only our 12th Assembly.  Yesterday, Rev Alistair McRae was installed as the new president  and his sermon can be veiwed on the Assembly website, together with ongoing reports of the proceedings. Why would you read the sermon? The theme of this Assembly is Living Water, Thirsty Land and Alistair preached on this theme and on the woman at the well in John’s gospel.  He says:

Friends, what a gospel we have to share. Not imperialistically, but in humility and joy. We don’t possess it — we have been possessed by it! Can we exorcise our demonic preoccupation with survival and risk losing everything for the sake of the gospel, the pearl of great price? Can we cease being anxious about so many things and concentrate on the one thing needful? To call thirsty people to drink, bathe, wash and play in the living water poured out for all in and through Jesus Christ?

I was impressed by what he had to say.

Julia M O’Brien is an Old Testament scholar whose blog looks at the Bible and culture. She has a series on why one should bother reading the Old Testament. She says reading it will give you background about Christianity and lots of themes in art, music and literature and different ways of thinking about God, access to some big ideas and great stories.  There are lots of other things on her blog as well.  Another place worth visiting on the internet.

I just found a blog written by Timo S. Paananen, a Finnish Evangelical Lutheran doctoral candidate. It’s called Salainen evankelista (the name means “Secret Evangelist” in English)  and he says that it “will feature discussion of early christianity, extra-canonical early Christian writings and the New Testament, and contemporary conspiracy theories, most probably in reverse order of importance”. Some posts are written in Finnish with an English summary, others entirely in English. I so wish that I wrote in my second language as well ans Timo does in English!!!

The two posts that caught my attention are the beginning of a series on a lecture by American Richard Schusterman given in Helsinki on 8 June, and its followup. They talk about the place of intelligent questions in contemporary Christianity.  I’ve subscribed to the feed so I don’t miss the next one. I have no intention of attempting a summary, but two sentences that I resounded with in his second post are:

From the [church] tradition we will have to pick out consciously those strands that support life, freedom and unity and discard those strands that oppose them. If we don’t do the cherry-picking this way, it will nonetheless get to be done and the consequences could be worse for humanity in general.

Well worth a visit.  Even if you are supposed to be studying.  Just bookmark it for some other time.

Life in developing countries is often harder for women and girls. They face higher levels of discrimination, abuse and violence. They often have less opportunity to participate in education and civic society. In many developing countries women are unable to own property. It’s a very tough life.

Consider this:

• Seventy percent of all people living in poverty are women.
• Medical complications from pregnancy are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to  19 worldwide.
• Seventy-five percent of 15 to 24 year olds living with HIV in Africa are female.
• One quarter to one half of girls in developing countries become mothers before the age of 18.

But people are beginning to realise just how important women and girls are in the fight against poverty. In particular, educating women and girls often means they marry later, have fewer children and are able to find work outside of the family.

A recent report by the Center for Global Development states: “Most important, girls matter because they are human beings.”

• An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10-20 percent.
• When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.
• Countries with greater gender equality tend to have lower poverty rates.

But there is something more important than all of these statistics. As a recent report, Girls Count, by the Center for Global Development, stated:

Most important, girls matter because they are human beings. Girls have equal rights to human dignity, self-determination, freedom from violence, good health, education, and participation in economic and political life.

Find out more. Have a look at http://www.girleffect.org/ but if you’re at all musically sensitive, turn off the sound first (inconspicuous button in top righthand corner). I hadn’t realised that this was possible so I forced myself to watch the first video to the end although the soundtrack behind it made me feel unwell.

The Girl Effect is sponsored by the Nike Foundation.  This provides me with an ethical dilemma because I am unhappy about a number of Nike’s practices (see this info at the Oxfam site), but I believe strongly in this cause and The Girl Effect provides some excellent info and resources. I personally am not suddenly going to start buying Nike because of this site. YMMV.