Daily Archives: March 20, 2024

(Church Times) Tom Bullimore reviews “Into the Heart of Romans: A deep dive into Paul’s greatest letter” by Tom Wright

Wright takes us through Romans 8 as a summary of the whole letter and of Paul’s theology more widely, and finds it to be about a call to become genuine human beings by being filled with God’s own life.

The chapter is read as a recapitulation of the schema of Creation, Passover, Exodus, and Covenant. Not all scholars of Romans have been persuaded by the tidiness of this reading, but it is, none the less, compelling when set out in detail, and chimes with elements of patristic exegesis. Wright uses “platonism” as a shorthand for an earth/heaven dualism, but he would find allies in Christian Platonist writers who would also foreground recapitulation, the corporate dimension of salvation, and Paul’s synergism. Indeed, as Wright shows, Romans 8 is one of those passages that show that God does not like to do anything for us without us. Rather, what he does for us he does as one of us, with us, and through us.

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Posted in Books, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Theology: Scripture

(Lifeway) Hispanic Protestant Pastors Face Unique Congregational and Community Needs

Pastors of Hispanic Protestant churches in the United States maintain immense gratitude for their role, but many face financial struggles. Their congregations reflect diverse worship styles, but they have a unified desire to reach and serve their communities.

Lifeway Research partnered with numerous denominations and church networks to survey Hispanic Protestant pastors in the United States for a study sponsored by Lifeway Recursos, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse. This study follows a Lifeway Research study of U.S. Hispanic Protestant pastors last year focused on the congregations and their evangelistic outreach.

“The response from pastors and leaders about the first study we did last year was overwhelming,” said Giancarlo Montemayor, director of global publishing for Lifeway Recursos. “The goal with this second study is to dig deeper into some of the nuances of the Hispanic church in the U.S., such as worship and outreach. We also wanted to pay close attention to the particular needs of the pastors serving in these communities who often struggle with cultural and political issues that are not present in an English-speaking church.”

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Posted in Parish Ministry, Religion & Culture, Sociology

(WSJ) U.S. No Longer Ranks Among World’s 20 Happiest Countries

The U.S. has fallen out of the top 20 happiest countries for the first time since a global ranking began in 2012, due in large part to a drop in happiness among younger adults.

Americans fell to 23rd place in happiness, down from 15th a year ago, according to data collected in the Gallup World Poll for the World Happiness Report 2024. Costa Rica and Lithuania were among the countries that reported being happier than Americans, according to the annual survey, which asks respondents to rate their current lives on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the best possible life for them. Nordic countries dominate the top 10, with Finland at the top.

In the U.S., self-reported happiness has decreased in all age groups, but especially for young adults. Americans 30 years and younger ranked 62nd globally in terms of well-being, trailing the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Guatemala. Older Americans ranked 10th.

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, America/U.S.A., Health & Medicine, Psychology

(Nature) A landmark moment’: scientists use AI to design antibodies from scratch

Researchers have used generative artificial intelligence (AI) to help them make completely new antibodies for the first time. The proof-of-principle work, reported this week in a preprint on bioRxiv, raises the possibility of bringing AI-guided protein design to the therapeutic antibody market, which is worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Antibodies — immune molecules that strongly attach to proteins implicated in disease — have conventionally been made using brute-force approaches that involve immunizing animals or screening vast numbers of molecules. AI tools that can shortcut those costly efforts have the potential to “democratize the ability to design antibodies”, says study co-author Nathaniel Bennett, a computational biochemist at the University of Washington in Seattle. “Ten years from now, this is how we’re going to be designing antibodies.”

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Posted in Health & Medicine, Science & Technology

A Prayer for the Feast Day of Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

Merciful God, who didst call Cuthbert from following the flock to be a shepherd of thy people: Mercifully grant that we also may go without fear to dangerous and remote places, to seek the indifferent and the lost; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Posted in Church History, Spirituality/Prayer

A Prayer for the day from W. E. Orchard

O God, who by the example of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ hast taught us the greatness of true humility, and dost call us to watch with him in his passion: Give us grace to serve one another in all lowliness, and to enter into the fellowship of his sufferings; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

Posted in Lent, Spirituality/Prayer

From the Morning Bible Readings

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men; and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.

–2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Posted in Theology: Scripture