The Salvation Army is a holiness movement. It’s radical commitment to sanctification as the privilege of every believer has impacted it’s emphasis on the Priesthood of all Believers. Introduction and Context The Salvation Army has historically understood itself as a movement of saved and sanctified people committed to a world war against evil to usher…
There are lessons to be learned for ministry, particularly church leadership, from military history. Here are seven lessons for ministry from military history highlighting key elements of church leadership and ministry more generally. 1 – Thermopylae and the 300: Not Everyone in Ministry is Remembered. Remembered in films and comic books, the final stand of…
This is the fourth and final part of a series on the inclusion debate. You could read this as a standalone, but it will make more sense if you read the other three first. I start this article by suggesting how the early Church approached their scripture reading and what that can mean for us…
This is the third part of a series looking at the basis for a theological understanding of inclusion. It draws from the stories of Acts 8-15 and puts them in a broader historical, biblical, and theological context. If you haven’t read part one on the Ethiopian eunuch or part two on the conversion of Cornelius…
This post follows from the article on the Ethiopian eunuch, so if you haven’t read that one, you might want to go back and read it first. https://mytheologycorner.com/2024/09/02/the-ethiopian-eunuch-the-radical-inclusivity-which-created-the-church/ Introduction – Why Cornelius’s Conversion Matters for Inclusion Cornelius’s conversion, the giving of the Holy Spirit to Gentiles, and Peter’s confronting of the change to dietary laws…
Content note: this essay discusses castration and the sexual exploitation of enslaved people in the ancient world, in historical and pastoral context. We take for granted that the church is a community whose membership is constituted by faith alone. We are used to it. But when the church first burst into the world, it introduced…
A Reflection On Marriage, Sacraments, and Covenant. Should The Salvation Army stop marrying people? I think The Salvation Army should bless marriages, but should not conduct weddings. I will set out my reasoning in this article. I am not advocating for change, as this is quite a radical position to take. But it is a…
Content Warning Description of death, torture, and execution The Crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is the central truth claim of orthodox Christianity. Without this, the rest of the Christian claims fall apart. But when we hear the story of the crucifixion, or we read it for ourselves, we see it through our modern eyes, separated…
William Thomas Stead (1849-1912) was a somewhat unlikely ally of the early Salvation Army. But without the influence and support of Stead, it would have been far more difficult for the Army to gain the popular approval with which it entered the 20th century. W. T. Stead’s Early Life Stead was born in Northumberland; his…
One of my favourite quotations comes from the American philosopher, political commentator, and theologian Cornell West. He wrote that: “Love in public is justice, and love in private is tenderness.” Today I am concentrating on what it might mean to say that justice is the public act of loving the neighbour. Justice is Always Something…