Journeys to Wisdom: Festschrift in Honour of Michael Pearson

By Newbold Academic Press

A selection of essays and sermons on the matter of Christianity, spirituality and ethics to mark the retirement of Dr Michael Pearson. By demonstrating their impact on fellow sojourners, this Festschrift attempts to mirror the breadth and depth of Mike's thinking, teaching and writing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newbold Academic Press
• Release date: Mar 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9780993218811

Book preview

Journeys to Wisdom

Andreas Bochmann

Manuela Casti Yeagley

Jean-Claude Verrecchia

(Editors)

Journeys to Wisdom

Festschrift in Honour of Michael Pearson

Newbold Academic Press

Editors:

Andreas Bochmann

Manuela Casti Yeagley

Jean-Claude Verrecchia

Copy editors:

Jonquil Hole

Harry Leonard

Margaret Whidden

Graphic design:

Any Kobel, Switzerland

Layout:

CAB-Service, Germany

Photo:

Alex Bodonyi

Printing:

INGRAM

©Newbold Academic Press, 2015

Bracknell

Berkshire RG42 4AN

United Kingdom

newbold.ac.uk

Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, with the prior permission of the publisher, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of a licence issued by The Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to Newbold Academic Press, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG42 4AN, UK.

ISBN 978-0-9932188-0-4, Softcover

ISBN 978-0-9932188-1-1, e-Book

Contents

Contributors

Foreword

Michael Pearson: Select Bibliography

Lynda Baildam and Per Lisle

Introduction

Man’s Spiritual Thirst

Radiša Antić

Modernism and Post-Modernism in Western Thought and Culture

From ‘buttoned-up tight’ to ‘ad hoc tattooed’

David J. B. Trim

The Necessary Resuscitation of the Nietzschean Dionysian Spirit in the Adventist Church

Jean-Claude Verrecchia

Apocalyptic Spirit and

Spirit of Adventism

Wim Altink

Counter-Revolution, Adventist Apocalyptic, and Conservative Ethics

Keith Lockhart

A Prophetic Minority

Reflections on Adventist Social Ethics

Gerald R. Winslow

Two Divine Command Theories

of Ethics

and the Killing of My Friend George

David R. Larson

Filmosophy

Imaginative Moral Visioning

Through Film-Thinking

Zdravko Plantak

‘Spiritual - not Religious’

Towards an Adventist Response to a

New Spirituality

Bjørn Ottesen

Knowledge, Reason and Understanding As Elements of Christian Spirituality

Harri Kuhalampi

Reflections on the Erupting Space

of a Closed Grave

Weiers Coetser

God the Mother?

Reflections on Gender Language

Aulikki Nahkola

The Still Small Voice

A Homiletical Reflection

Laurence Turner

Lux Lucet in Tenebris

There is Light in the Cellar

Johann Gerhardt

With Boldness we Say: ‘Our Father’

A Few Thoughts on the Lord’s Prayer

Reinder Bruinsma

The Loneliness of the

Long-distance Runner

Andreas Bochmann

Contributors

Wim Altink is President of the Netherlands Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. He is currently completing his PhD at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David with a thesis on ‘Spirit as designation for the Deity in the Book of Revelation’.

Radiša Antić is Principal Lecturer in Systematic Theology and Director of the Ellen G. White Research Centre at Newbold College of Higher Education. Among other publication are The Way, The Truth and The Life (Belgrade: Preporod, 2007) and In His Will is Our Peace (Belgrade: Preporod, 2014).

John Baildam is Principal of Newbold College of Higher Education.

Lynda Baildam is Associate Librarian at the Roy Graham Library, Newbold College of Higher Education.

Andreas Bochmann is Head of the MA in Counselling Programme at Friedensau Adventist University, Germany, and visiting lecturer for pastoral care and counselling at Newbold College of Higher Education. He has published primarily in the area of marriage and family in both English and German.

Reinder Bruinsma is a retired church administrator, author and lecturer. His research interests are issues in epistemology and Adventist studies. Besides many popular publications in Dutch and English he has written The Body of Christ: A Biblical Understanding of the Church (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 2009).

Manuela Casti Yeagley was Lecturer in Pastoral Studies at Newbold College of Higher Education. Her research area is Practical Theology, with a specific focus on the relationship between institutional and lived forms of religiosity. In her capacity as director of the Euro-Africa and Trans-European Divisions Centre for Youth Ministry she led the European Valuegenesis Research, a quantitative study on youth retention in the Adventist Church that involved 6,000 young people in 17 countries. Its results have been published in a monographic volume of the journal Spes Christiana (24/2013).

Weiers Coetser is working as a pastor in the Irish Mission of Seventh-day Adventists, Northern Ireland. He has a keen interest in reflective pastoral practice, ethics, spirituality, and re-imagining pastoral theology.

Johann Gerhardt is retired Professor of practical theology and former Rektor of Friedensau Adventist University, Germany. He is interested in the relationship between religion and psychology. Among his publications is the book Angstfrei glauben [Faith without Fear], (Lüneburg: Advent-Verlag, 2004).

Harri Kuhalampi currently is on a Sabbatical, planning to complete a book on spirituality. Furthermore his current research interests include issues related to religious freedom and ecumenism.

David R. Larson is Professor of Religion at Loma Linda University, USA, teaching theological, biomedical and sexual ethics. He has written many chapters, articles and reviews, and edited Abortion: Ethical Issues and Options and Christianity (Loma Linda University, 1992. He is currently editing for publication essays by Jack W. Provonsha.

Per Lisle is Librarian at the Roy Graham Library, Newbold College of Higher Education.

Keith Lockhart is co-author of Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007).

Aulikki Nahkola is Principal Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Newbold College, teaching Old Testament and Hebrew. She has a special interest in hermeneutics and orality. She authored among other publications Double Narratives in the Old Testament: The Foundations of Method in Biblical Criticism, BZAW 290 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2001) and ‘Amos Animalizing: Lion, Bear and Snake in Amos 5.19’, in Aspects of Amos: Exegesis and Interpretation, ed. by Anselm C. Hagedorn and Andrew Mein (London and New York: T&T Clark, 2011).

Bjørn Ottesen is Lecturer in pastoral studies and Head of the Department of Theological Studies at Newbold College of Higher Education. His DMin dissertation for Fuller Theological Seminary, A Strategy for the Adventist Church to Reach the Increasingly Secular and Postmodern Danish Population will soon be published by Newbold Academic Press.

Zdravko Plantak is Professor of Religion and Ethical Studies at Loma Linda University, USA. Among his many publications is The Silent Church - Human Rights and Adventist Social Ethics (London: Macmillan, 1995). He has a keen interest in social justice and theology of compassion, intersection of ethics and cultural and artistic expressions, bioethics, and developing ethical leadership.

David J. B. Trim is Director of Archives, Statistics and Research at the World Headquarters of Seventh-day Adventists and an adjunct professor at Andrews University. He has edited and co-edited a number of books, among them The Huguenots: History and Memory in Transnational Context (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2011), and with Brendan Simms, Humanitarian Intervention—A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).

Laurence A. Turner is Principal Lecturer in Old Testament Studies at Newbold College of Higher Education with research interests in Old Testament narrative and biblical preaching. Among his recent publications are Genesis, 2nd edition, in Readings: A New Biblical Commentary (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2009). He is co-editor of ‘He Began with Moses ...’: Preaching the Old Testament Today. (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity, 2010).

Jean-Claude Verrecchia is Principal Lecturer at Newbold College of Higher Education, teaching New Testament, Hermeneutics and Second Temple Literature. He has recently published God of No Fixed Address (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2015). His areas of interest are sacred space, messianism and orality.

Gerald R. Winslow is Vice President for Mission and Culture for Loma Linda University Medical Centre. He is also Professor of Religion, at Loma Linda University School of Religion, studying, teaching and writing about Christian ethics, especially in relation to human biology and health care. He has published over one hundred articles or book chapters. His books are Triage and Justice (University of California Press, 1982) and Facing Limits, Ethics and Health Care for the Elderly (with James W. Walters) (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992).

Foreword

Newbold College of Higher Education has recently set up its very own Newbold Academic Press (NAP), with a view to encouraging colleagues and friends of the College to produce regular publications of staff research, essays, papers, and monographs under the NAP label. I am grateful to the members of the initial publications panel, namely Manfred Lemke (chair), Andreas Bochmann, Per Lisle, Emma Lowe, Laurence Turner, Jean-Claude Verrecchia, Kirsty Watkins and Manuela Casti Yeagley. How exciting that they have overseen the birth of this very first publication, a Festschrift or volume of essays prepared in celebration of the major contribution made by Dr Michael Pearson for more than forty years to the world of Seventh-day Adventist Christian education. It is my honour and pleasure to write these few introductory words to this important and ground-breaking tome.

Mike first realised that he had a gift for teaching when he spent a year teaching in an Adventist primary school. He then took a BEd (Hons) degree in French and Philosophy at the University of London and after two years of primary teaching in the state sector (where he realised the teacher’s responsibility to ensure that learning is actually taking place!), Mike joined the Newbold College staff in August 1972.

Mike furthered his qualifications with an MTh from King’s College London, and a DPhil from Oxford in ethics within Adventism. During his long years of service to the College, Mike achieved the top teaching rank of Principal Lecturer and has recently been appointed Principal Lecturer Emeritus in recognition of the part that he played in the development of the College and its students. Mike has taught (and continues to teach) many different modules, including Ethics, Spirituality, and the ambiguously titled Men and Women in Transition. He has also served Newbold at various times as Head of the Department of Theological Studies; as Director of the MA Education and MA Leadership programmes; as Vice Principal (with particular responsibility for staff, strategic planning and learning resources); and as Acting Principal (2001-2002). This volume endeavours to represent some of the many facets of Mike’s professional life and his personal interests.

Mike is proud of his involvement in the College’s move in the early 90s into the UK higher education landscape – something he describes as ‘a game-changer in Newbold’s establishment of itself within the sector’ – and of his hand in building the body of current staff (‘a professional, committed lot who are good to work with’).

Many former Newbold students and staff to whom Mike was close have gone on to obtain doctorates and/or to play important roles within and outside the Church. Mike feels that he is part of their academic and professional success, and is thankful that many stay in touch and have positive memories of their Newbold years. A constant flow of new student cohorts and visiting former students and colleagues passing through has helped to keep things fresh for him.

As a self-termed exponent of radical orthodoxy and as a critical friend of the Church, Mike was always at his best when students and staff could be themselves with him. He encouraged students to subject sermons to critical analysis and not always to believe everything expounded from the pulpit just because the preacher happens to be wearing a dark suit. And he is grateful that successive Newbold principals have encouraged openness of thought and academic freedom.

Always a popular teacher at Newbold, Mike’s methods were often unconventional. A class on Existentialism may have found him teaching while standing on a desk – and a young student endeared herself to him when she famously claimed that ‘you are always at your most interesting when you get off the subject!’.

Former students and colleagues will recall Mike’s Flanders and Swann duets with Harry Leonard (bewailing the loss of their French Horn?); his many contributions to Big Saturday Night entertainment; and – always a great team player – his contributions behind the timbers for the Newbold Cricket Club.

As friends and colleagues within the Newbold College community for over forty years, Mike and I have shared many joys. I continue to discuss with Mike topics ranging from inventing quadrisyllabic words with which to abuse the officials at Reading Football Club games to exploring the delicate collision of the spiritual and the erotic in Wagner. We anticipate that such discussions will continue for very many years to come.

Mike stepped off the Newbold shore at the end of 2013 to spend time with his two young grandchildren; to progress his work on a collection of essays on spirituality; and to indulge his interests in theatre, cinema, art galleries – and (intriguingly for a man whose thinking is never monochrome) black-and-white photography! Nevertheless, I know that he will continue to invest much of his life in the all-absorbing Newbold community of which he regards it as an immense privilege still to be a part.

Gandhi exhorted us to dig one deep well rather than many shallow ones, and Mike did just that at Newbold. He often expresses a deep sense of indebtedness to the Newbold community, and is grateful for the opportunities, encouragement and support which he experienced over so many years.

I wish you, the gentle reader, much pleasure as you reflect in the following pages on the multifarious and multifaceted aspects of the life of Dr Michael Pearson.

Dr John Baildam

Principal

Newbold College of Higher Education

March 2015

Pearson_5.7x8.55.jpg

Michael Pearson: Select Bibliography

Lynda Baildam and Per Lisle

The Select Bibliography includes books, articles, reviews, papers, lectures and chapters and sections in books written by Michael Pearson.

Thesis

‘Seventh-day Adventist Responses to Some Contemporary Ethical Problems’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Oxford, Wolfson College, 1986).

Books

Millennial Dreams and Moral Dilemmas: Seventh-day Adventism and Contemporary Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990; repr. 2008).

Book Translation from French to English

Verrecchia, Jean-Claude, God of No Fixed Address: From Altars to Sanctuaries, Temples to Houses (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2015)

Chapters and Sections in Books

‘Control of the Body, Control of the Mind: Autobiographical and Sociological Determinants of a Personal Abortion Ethic in Seventh-day Adventism’, in Abortion: Ethical Issues and Options, ed. by David R. Larson (Loma Linda: Loma Linda University Center for Christian Bioethics, 1992), pp. 143-53.

‘The Problem of Secularism’, in Cast the Net on the Other Side...: Seventh-day Adventists Face the Isms, ed. by Richard Lehmann, Jack Mahon and Børge Schantz (Bracknell: European Institute for World Mission, 1993), pp. 90-101.

‘Covenant’, in Remnant & Republic: Adventist Themes for Personal and Social Ethics, ed. by Charles W. Teel, Jr. (Loma Linda: Loma Linda University Center for Christian Bioethics, 1995), pp. 51-63.

‘Adventism’, in Dictionary of Ethics, Theology and Society, ed. by Paul Barry Clarke and Andrew Linzey (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 4-6.

‘Contemporary Youth Culture’, in Re-visioning Adventist Mission in Europe, ed. by Erich W. Baumgartner (Berrien Springs: Andrews University Press, 1998), pp. 82-87.

‘Harry Leonard – A Tribute’ (with Helen Pearson), in Cross, Crown & Community: Religion, Government and Culture in Early Modern England 1400-1800, ed. by David J. B. Trim and Peter J. Balderstone (Bern: Peter Lang, 2004), pp. xvii-xxi.

‘Goodbye Good-buy! Towards an Adventist Approach to Responsible Consumerism’, in Exploring the Frontiers of Faith: Festschrift in Honour of Dr. Jan Paulsen, ed. by Børge Schantz and Reinder Bruinsma (Lueneburg: Advent-Verlag, 2009), pp. 235-324.

‘Adventists and the Imagination: You May Say I’m a Dreamer... (John Lennon)’, in Faith: In Search of Depth and Relevancy: A Festschrift in Honour of Dr Bertil Wiklander, ed. by Reinder Bruinsma ([St. Albans]: Trans-European Division of Seventh-day Adventists, 2014), pp. 469-85.

‘The Virtues of War’, in The Impact of World War l on Seventh-day Adventism, ed. by Rolf Pöhler (Friedensau: Theologische Hochschule Friedensau, 2015), forthcoming.

Articles in Journals and Periodicals

‘Abortion: The Adventist Dilemma’, Ministry, 61.1 (1988), 4-6.

‘Sustaining an Adventist Ethos’, Spectrum, 18.4 (1988), 37-38.

‘Faith, Reason and Vulnerability’, Dialogue, 1.1 (1989), 11-13, 27.

‘Control of the Body, Control of the Mind: A Personal Abortion Ethic’, Spectrum, 19.4 (1989), 55-58.

‘Never the Same Again’, Adventist Review, 169.22 (1992), 23.

‘In Capital We Trust’, Adventist Review, 169.46 (1992), 23.

‘No Miracles’, Adventist Review, 170.27 (1993), 23.

‘Images of God’, Adventist Review, 171.42 (1994), 23.

‘Conference on Harmful Religion’, Messenger, 101.2 (1996), 4.

‘Seventh-day Adventists... and Opinions on Controversial Issues: Notes from the Diary of a Christian Ethics Teacher’, Messenger, 104.13 (1999), 2.

‘Marriage, Yes!’ (with Helen Pearson), Adventist Review, 178.22 (2001), 14-15.

‘A New trinity’, Dialogue, 25.2 (2013), 8-10.

‘More than Liberty, Rights and Respect’, Messenger, 119.6 (2014), 16.

Addresses and Lectures

‘Modern and Theological Foundation of Ethics: A Case Study’, given at the International Symposium on Scientific and Religious Knowledge, Novosibirsk State University, Siberia, USSR, 1990

‘On Corporate Moral Consistency’, given at the National Bioethics Conference, Sydney, Australia, 1990

‘On Moral Consistency’, given at the National Bioethics Conference, Sydney, Australia, 1990

‘The Abortion Pill – RU486’, Pomona College, Claremont, California, USA, 1990

‘Secularism’, given at the Conference on World Mission, Freudenstadt, Germany, 1991

‘The Ethics of the End – The End of Ethics?’, King Alfred’s College, Winchester, UK, 1997

‘Bread for the Journey: Some New Ideas in Christian Spirituality’, Tromsø, Norway, April 2002

‘Ethics and Resurrection’, ‘Ethics and Mystery’, ‘Ethics and the Outsider’ and ‘Ethics and Forgiveness’, given at Conferences held in France, Romania and Germany, June – July 2002

‘Christian Spirituality in Mid-Life’, co-presenter of workshop, Örebro, Sweden, 7-9 March 2003

‘Adventist Spirituality in the Post-Modern Age’, retreat for pastors, Norway, 13-17 March 2003

‘God Plays Jazz’, series of lectures given in Frankfurt, Germany, 2003

‘Christian Spirituality as Foreign Language Learning’, Adventist Forum, New York, 2004

‘An Ethical Matrix’, series of lectures given at Sázava, Czech Republic, April 2005

‘The Ethics of Homosexuality’, Sázava, Czech Republic, April 2005

‘Manna or McDonalds’, Adventist Kinship, Dunblane, Scotland, October 2005

‘You Shop, They Drop: Christians and Ethical Shopping’, Centre for Religious and Cultural Diversity, Newbold College of Higher Education, England, 10 November 2009

‘The Translatable Gospel’, keynote speech for the European Theology Teachers’ Conference, Middle East University, Beirut, Lebanon, April 2013

‘The Translatable Gospel: Mission in a Pluralistic World’, Centre for Religious and Cultural Diversity, Newbold College of Higher Education, England, 9 April 2013

‘The Virtues of War’, given at The Impact of World War l on Seventh-day Adventism, Institute of Adventist Studies, Friedensau Adventist University, Germany, 12-15 May 2014

Introduction

When the idea of this Festschrift was born more than eighteen months ago we had only agreed that the official retirement of our colleague and friend Michael Pearson after forty-two years of service to Newbold College was too momentous an event to ignore and needed something to mark the occasion. During his time Michael has formed and influenced whole generations of students, has challenged, encouraged and guided hosts of colleagues. We adamantly suggest Newbold College would not be the same, perhaps not even be at all, without his quiet, at times almost invisible, certainly gentle and yet persistent and very hard work of a lifetime for this institution.

This Festschrift is an attempt to mirror the breadth and the depth of Mike Pearson’s research, teaching and writing, by demonstrating the impact it has had on fellow sojourners, students and colleagues alike. A glance at the list of selected publications and presentations will suffice to suggest the challenge of this task, so vast and diverse are his interests and contributions.

In all these works it is not so much the answers he provided but rather the questions he raised that are so remarkable. They were honest, uncomfortable, urgent questions, never asked in a threatening manner, but certainly requiring serious reflection and disciplined thinking to move towards being a virtuous human being, as the ethicist Mike would probably put it. And it is exactly this approach to teaching which started journeys in people he taught and challenged, at times even dared. These journeys were not simply focussed on accumulating knowledge for some self-serving intellectualism (as important as reason is to a philosopher); these journeys went beyond ethics as abstractly discerning right and wrong; these journeys were journeys to wisdom, integrating rigorous and vigorous thinking, virtuous living and spirituality as an ongoing quest for truth beyond assent to a set of beliefs.

In trying to mirror such journeys and to honour the complexity of Mike’s ministry as thinker and person, we decided to blend scholarly papers pursuing the challenges opened by Mike’s work in the area of Adventist history and thought with sermons and personal reflections that highlight his interest in spirituality and everyday living.

As contributions for this book started to come in, not only did we find that despite the wide range of topics they all somehow fitted ‘Mike’, but also they represented what Mike stands for: a great loyalty to his church as a precisely scrutinising, critical observer and compassionate supporter of Adventists at the fringes of his church whom he accepted and dialogued with, whether or not he was in agreement with them, gaining their respect no matter if they found common ground.

The first paper in this book, written by Newbold’s current ‘philosopher in residence’ Radiša Antić takes us on a turbulent ride through the history of philosophy with a Balkan flavour, starting with Ecclesiastes 6 and going straight through to Sartre, using the story of the woman at the well (John 4) to illustrate man’s thirst for wisdom – which ultimately can only be quenched by the living water Jesus Christ offers.

The historian David Trim considers the nature of modernity and postmodernity, especially in Europe. He demonstrates that if both postmodern and secular attitudes are increasingly prevalent around the world, another term – post-Christian – fits best to the European setting. Where Americans and Brazilians are simply abandoning Christianity for irreligion, Europeans have rejected Christianity. The sound and clear historical analysis provided in this chapter explains how this radical and dramatic change occurred. It also gives some guidelines to the church in its attempt to share the good news.

In a powerful and imaginative essay Jean-Claude Verrecchia analyses contemporary Adventism through the lenses of Nietzsche’s creative tension between the Dionysian and the Apollonian. It is in the necessary dialectic between the disorderly flow of life and the orderly stability of norms, between innovation and normativity, doubt and certainty, openness and boundary seeking that Adventism can remain a fertile movement.

The paper by Wim Altink looks with attention to linguistic detail at the use of the word pneuma in the book of Revelation and thus at texts which are at the core of Adventism’s self-understanding. What appears to be somewhat technical and abstract at first leads the author to intriguing and liberating conclusions in the end, arguing for a fresh look at Revelation, in the spirit of openness, acceptance, inclusiveness, joy, diversity, peace, hope and love.

In his lively and fascinating exploration of the historical and cultural roots of Adventist social and political thinking, Keith Lockhart identifies in early Adventists’ apocalyptic reading of French and American revolutionary movements the roots of their strong rejection of progressive ideas on human sexuality, marriage and divorce, women’s equality, trade unions and even democracy. 

Gerald Winslow explores the crucial issue of the contemporary understanding of Adventism’s identity as a prophetic minority.  The paper builds upon Troeltsch’s basic types of church and sect to articulate a passionate plea for a mature appropriation of Adventist ‘sectarian’ identity inspired by Adventist history, denominational scholars and theologians John H. Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas.

Starting from the loss of a friend killed by a mother who claimed to be inspired by God, ethicist David Larson explores the contribution of Karl Barth’s and C. Stephen Evans’ theologies to understand the broader issue of the ethical nature of God’s commands.    

Zdravko Plantak, yet another Adventist ethicist and former Newbold Student, takes us into the little explored world of ‘filmosophy’. The medium of film has been a controversial issue among Christians and certainly Adventists, yet deserves serious investigation. Somewhere between condemnation and glorification there may be room to tell stories of the Good and of God and allow for moral visioning through this creative and imaginative medium.

In his paper Bjørn Ottesen explores the dwindling influence of formal religion and increasing interest in ‘spirituality’ in Europe. Taking Denmark as an example Ottesen presents data from the European Values Study (not to be mistaken for the Adventist Valuegenesis Study) and other empirical studies, pleading for understanding of a unique situation within the world church. Yet he maintains that not so much a change in doctrine is needed, but a leadership that adjusts to the spiritual and relational needs of a secular world.

As the concept of spirituality is so important today, Harri Kuhalampi explores its meaning and relationship to the knowledge and doctrine of a church. In his thoughtful essay he passionately pleads for understanding and reason, yet challenges the reader to go beyond mere intellectualism ‘daring to have faith’. He thus concludes ‘strong, well-defended convictions must not replace the faith which enables us to leap into the darkness’.

Weiers Coetser starts his paper in a little village graveyard in Ireland where the author, a South African world traveller, was confronted to a challenging experience: the funeral of a returning Irish immigrant from the United States, who had become in that foreign country a Seventh-day Adventist, but whose return and death in his traditional Roman Catholic village largely frustrated his non-Adventist family. This chapter offers an articulate reflection on the notion of space. According to Coetser, the Kingdom of Heaven opens spatial thinking to the realm of possibility. He claims that practical theology could draw on and seek to interact redemptively within the realms of space.

Old Testament scholar Aulikki Nahkola confronts the reader with a number of female imageries used for God, some of which are quite surprising and little known, let alone talked about. Whilst the author maintains that ‘the Old Testament de-emphasises gender and sexuality in relation to God’ she discusses possible implications of such examples as God ‘giving birth’ or ‘God as a midwife’ or ‘kinship language’ in general. Ultimately the author admits that ‘every metaphor only provides a glimpse of God’s being and confirms its own inadequacy’, yet will inspire our various journeys.

The sheer beauty of the language used by Laurence Turner in this ‘homiletical reflection’ about the Elijah experience at Mount Horeb in parallel and contrast to that of Moses should not distract the reader from the depth of scholarly thought this contribution offers. The theological insights about our view of God are intricately woven into issues of present day Adventism, with a clearly implied call to action, a gentle but firm provocation.

In a similar manner, though different in tone and imagery, Johann Gerhardt in his sermon, using the Waldensian motto lux lucet in tenebris as part of his title, encourages the church to be light bearers, by pointing to the creation story – where God first turned on the light, the promise of Isaiah 9.2 and Jesus the light of the world. The practical applications inserted time and again inspire hope and are truly enlightening.

Reinder Bruinsma in his scholarly meditation on the Lord’s Prayer offers some fresh insight on a well-known text. The journey starts with church fathers of the early church and ends with a quote from an Orthodox theologian of the last century. Despite the author’s roots in Adventism – or because of them – he suggests ‘we can find an abundance of inspiration and spiritual strength by exploring the prayer practices of fellow-Christians in past and present’.

The essay by Andreas Bochmann is based on Alan Sillitoe’s book, The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner. It profoundly reflects on the imagery of long-distance running and loneliness. The former is well-known by the readers of the