The political use of the Bible in Early Modern Britain

Dr Gai Ferdon, April 2013

Price: FREE

"..Why should twenty-first century Christians take the time and effort to learn about how seventeenth-century Protestants thought about politics?..."

from the foreword by John Coffey, Professor of Early Modern History and Cambridge Papers writer. He continues:

"... I can think of three reasons. First, it is a means of resourcement. In the contemporary climate, Christians are strongly tempted to follow secular ideologies and neglect the resources of their tradition. .....And while reflecting on the political thought of previous generations of Christians can be taxing, there is no better way to enlarge our reference group and learn from the wisdom (and folly) of past generations. ..... Ferdon's paper does just that, convening an animated and rather fractious seminar in which we hear some powerful and utterly distinctive voices: Sir Robert Filmer, John Milton, James Harrington, John Lilburne.
A second reason to look to the past is that there are certain perennial issues and tendencies in Christian political thought. We still find ourselves divided over questions of political power - Who holds it? Where does it originate? To whom are the powerful accountable? How can they be removed from power? ..... Understanding the past helps us to make sense of our present.
Finally, this study gets us to wrestle with the problem of biblical hermeneutics. We see how different factions in the English Revolution turned to different parts of Scripture as they sought to answer fundamental issues about power. ..... This study shows that there are no easy answers when it comes to reading the Bible politically, and it ought to make us more self-critical in our own hermeneutics. Yet we also find evidence of deep and serious engagement with the Bible, and see how the reflecting on the Old and New Testaments was once an integral part of European political thinking. Reading the Bible with the dead can be a valuable exercise. It highlights strands of Scripture that we may have neglected, and suggests levels of meaning that we may never have encountered. Past thinkers cannot do our thinking for us. But by reading them, we will learn to think more carefully and more deeply about politics. In the light of current controversies over religion in the public square, this could hardly be more necessary."

Category: Reports

Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Government & Foreign Affairs, Worldviews & Culture

New way to access Jubilee Centre podcasts

Jonathan Tame, April 2013

Price: FREE

Unfortunately the media company which was uploading our podcasts to iTunes is no longer working with audio files. As a result there are currently two Jubilee Centre accounts in iTunes, and all podcasts up to the end of 2011 are on the old account, which is accessible here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jubilee-centre/id319798824

Until we have resolved this problem, please access all pre-2012 podcasts directly by using the above link, as the buttons on the individual resource pages will send you to the new Jubilee Centre account, which only has the most recent podcasts.

We apologise for this inconvenience, and hope you can still find the recording you are looking for!

Category: Multimedia

Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Crime & Justice, Education, Finance & the Economy, Government & Foreign Affairs, Health, Lifestyle Issues, Science & Technology, Sex & Families, The Environment, Worldviews & Culture

Word as talisman - on the utopianism of the Jubilee Centre

James Williams, March 2013

Price: FREE

"I have heard several people say, for example, that the work of the Jubilee Centre is 'utopian'."

In this enjoyably well-written paper, James Williams questions why people might use such a word and to what end. He looks at historical and recent views of 'perfect societies' and considers both the writers' motivations and their solutions. Some considered that the answer was to create separate societies by withdrawing (such as the Anabaptists or the more recent Branch Davidians) or by seeking their vision in the New World. Others wished to reform existing but corrupt polities. Was Milton right, he asks, when he criticised such efforts as a distraction from real world social reform?

This paper compares broad political ideas where right criticises left for being utopian and vice versa. James Williams, as he highlights Karl Popper's critique of Marxism, enjoys the irony that Marxism itself was prompted in response to what Marx and Engels described as 'utopian socialism'.

So, is the work of Jubilee Centre 'utopian'? James Williams reviews the practical outcomes of much of Jubilee Centre's work (and that of its associated charities) and also what he calls the more theoretical publication output and observes:

"The reliance of the Jubilee Centre on modern applications of Old Testament Law is central to its whole endeavour...... [T]heir approach to the Law sees it as a paradigm, not a blueprint. This rules out the ('utopian'?) extreme position of theonomists, or Reconstructionists, who wish to implement the Law as statute today. By looking at institutional norms and relationships within Israelite society the Jubilee Centre also avoids the ('utopian'?) sole reliance on 'Kingdom Ethics' (beloved of the Christian Left) as a guide to the activity of unbelievers and secular governments."

He continues:

"for [Jubilee Centre's] mandate rests on their belief that the Bible does speak to the ordering of societies and that Christians should heed that and work to improve the flawed structures around them and to ameliorate the effects of sin."

Recommended reading.

Category: Reports

Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Government & Foreign Affairs, Worldviews & Culture

The Family and Sexual Ethics: Christian Foundations and Public Values

Sally Bertlin (Editor), February 2013

Price: FREE

'The Family and Sexual Ethics: Christian Foundations and Public Values' was an international conference held in Hong Kong in May 2011, organised by the Hong Kong Baptist University and the Jubilee Centre.

In recent years there has been a growing international interest and concern about the pressures of the environment and the consequences of this for the long-term survival of the planet. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the breakdown of the family and its consequences for the ecology of the planet. Family breakdown is being driven partly by divorce and partly by today's sexual ethics, which then impact on rates of family formation and disintegration.

On the strength of Jubilee Centre's sexual ethics work over recent years, we mobilised a team of scholars, including Jonathan Burnside, Jeremy Ive, Dale Kuehne, Jennifer Roback Morse and Michael Schluter, who presented papers together with a group of Chinese academics.

This report is a collection of ten short papers from the conference, each under two pages long to ensure as wide a readership as possible.

Category: Reports

Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Lifestyle Issues, Sex & Families, Worldviews & Culture

The Jubilee Roadmap

Guy Brandon, February 2013

Price: £2.95

This booklet offers a brief but comprehensive introduction to the Jubilee Centre's work - a kind of 'primer' to our thinking.

The Jubilee Roadmap shows two alternative directions of travel for eight major themes in biblical law: Family, Property, Community, Government, Finance and the Economy, Welfare, Rest, and Justice. One direction reflects the prevailing thinking based on individualism, while the other - the road less travelled - points towards a society based on good and right relationships. The booklet explores the differences between our modern secular approach and the biblical ideal, and how we might start to move from one to the other.

Category: Books

Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Crime & Justice, Finance & the Economy, Government & Foreign Affairs, Sex & Families, Worldviews & Culture

Christianity: the true humanism

Jon Thompson, January 2013   2 comments

Price: £0.99 (free online)

This paper argues that Christianity is the most coherent form of humanism. By contrast, secular humanism is historically and philosophically dependent upon Christianity's view of the human person. In a survey of the origins, emergence and development of secular humanism, this paper explores that historical connection before examining some of the implications which flow from a divorce of human values from Christian belief.

Category: Cambridge Papers

Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Worldviews & Culture

Jubilee Lifestyle - Users Guide

Jubilee Centre, October 2011

Price: £1.49 (free download)

Building on our 2010 biblical lifestyle book, Free to Live, Jubilee Lifestyle encourages participants to explore how they might more fully allow their faith to shape how they live seven days a week, at work, at home and in the community, not just on Sundays at church. Do you dare take the seven-week Jubilee Lifestyle challenge?

Category: Bible Studies

Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Lifestyle Issues, Worldviews & Culture

Jubilee Lifestyle - Leaders Notes

Jubilee Centre, October 2011

Price: £1.49 (free download)

Building on our 2010 biblical lifestyle book, Jubilee Lifestyle’s radical approach is grounded in the Bible’s central principles of love for God and love for neighbour that have shaped the emphasis on relationships that lies at the heart of all the Jubilee Centre’s work. Contains everything needed to run the course in your church!

Category: Bible Studies

Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Lifestyle Issues, Worldviews & Culture

Outside the frame: Postmodern art

Anne Roberts, July 2011   3 comments

Price: £0.99 (free online)

This paper focuses on the scope and characteristics of recent conceptual and installation art, looking first at the early development of this genre, and then examining four major aspects: the exploration of visual language and appropriation of images; art based on autobiography; work which deals with social and environmental issues; and finally art which appropriates religious imagery. The paper concludes with reflections on finding a Christian voice in response.

Category: Cambridge Papers

Keywords: Worldviews & Culture

London Lectures 2010 #3: Thinking Relationally about Justice

Jonathan Burnside, November 2010

Price: FREE

Author of God Justice and Society, Jonathan Burnside concludes the 2010 series of three London Lectures by 'Thinking Relationally about Justice'.

Category: Multimedia

Keywords: Crime & Justice, Worldviews & Culture