Mission and Minor Prophets, Vulnerable Children in a digital age, and how students should (not) read

Welcome to my newsletter, ‘Bible, Mission, and More’, where I share what’s on my mind as I teach, research, and write on the Bible and mission, children-at-risk in the Bible and contemporary society, Psalms and Wisdom Literature, and a range of other topics. I teach at All Nations Christian College in the UK, though views are my own.

Each Friday I’ll share something I’ve read, something I’ve written or recorded, something on learning and teaching, and a quote to take into the weekend.

Something read – Jerry Hwang on mission and the Minor Prophets

In this freely accessible Tyndale Bulletin article, Jerry Hwang explores the missio Dei (the mission of God) as a unifying link between the major themes of the Minor Prophets; that is, ‘land, kingship, the move from judgement to salvation, and the relationship between Israel and the nations’.

Building on developments in missional hermeneutics (or missional readings) in recent years I’m always interested to see how this way of approaching Scripture works with parts of the Bible that, traditionally, have been less associated with mission. ICYMI, my PhD was on a missional reading of the book of Job, but we’ll dig into that another time!

Although Jonah has often been linked to mission (with varying degrees of success) most of the rest of the Minor Prophets (or Book of the Twelve as they are often referred to) tend not to come up much in work connecting the Bible and mission. Hwang’s article does a great job at showing how we can trace a missional thread through this much-overlooked collection of books. As such, in Hwang’s words, ‘the missio Dei in the Minor Prophets not only provides a reading strategy for interpreting the collection as a unified Book of the Twelve; it also shows how the Minor Prophets make a unique contribution to an OT theology of mission.’

Read Jerry Hwang, "'My name will be great among the nations': The Missio Dei in the Book of the Twelve." Tyndale Bulletin 65 (2014): 161–180.

Something written – children-at-risk and God’s mission in a digital age

There is a lot of talk at the moment around the implications of digital technologies for Christian witness; a case in point being the Lausanne Movement’s State of the Great Commission report released this week. But what do digital technologies and culture mean for children-at-risk, and how should this inform the mission thinking and practice of the Church? In a 2020 chapter called, ‘Vulnerable Children and Missio Dei in a Digital Sphere’ I explore some of these concerns and responsibilities. I hope this will be helpful for those working with and on behalf of vulnerable children, as well as those thinking through issues of church, mission, advocacy, and technology.

The chapter is taken from the volume, Missio Dei in a Digital Age (ed. Jonas Kurlberg and Peter M. Phillips, London: SCM Press). I’m grateful to the publishers for giving me permission to share it for free on my Academia page: Vulnerable Children and Missio Dei in a Digital Sphere

Learning and teaching - how (not) to read

One of the most common struggles in studying, especially as you move on to postgraduate work, is the challenge of managing the reading. This excellent post by Katherine Firth is one I’ve often referred to when discussing the reading dilemma with students. In her view the five biggest mistakes we make are:

1. You read every text the same way: journal article, seminal book, original source, further reading, tables of data.

2. You don’t want to miss anything out.

3. You want to remember it all.

4. You think ‘skim’ reading is cheating.

5. You believe speed reading is the same as close reading, just faster.

She concludes with a plea to ‘read like a pirate’, a memorable phrase that I hope has genuinely helped students over the years. It has certainly helped me. To learn more visit her Research Insiders blog or check out her co-written book, another great resource for students, How to Fix Your Academic Writing Trouble (Open University Press, 2018).

Quote

“We, Aaron’s parents and brother, relatives, friends, will fulfill our responsibility whenever, through our words and actions, he feels how infinitely precious he is in God’s sight, whenever we enable him to glimpse something of God’s dream when forming him in the womb, when through us he glimpses the beauty that he, and he alone, can contribute to the glory of heaven.”

Ellen Davis in Preaching the Luminous Word: Biblical Sermons and Homiletical Essays, (Eerdmans, 2016, p. 36). Preaching at a young boy’s baptism.

Thanks for joining the journey and see you next week,

Tim