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Summer Reading Guide

It’s incredible to see how many books are released month by month – and it can be so hard to decide what to read next! As we get come into summer, and hopefully some restful holidays, it would be a great opportunity to pick up a good book that will encourage, inspire and challenge you in your faith.

Fool Moon Rising – Kristi Fluharty and T Lively Fluharty
Fool moon rising is a brilliant parable about the moon’s pride – forgetting that it’s light is only a reflection of something greater! Through a rhyming story, this is a brilliant imaginative way to think through humility with young children, showing them that everything they have is from God.

Genuine – CB Martin

Fakes are everywhere – and are hard to spot! But six teenagers throughout the Bible help us to learn how to be genuine. This book has short, punchy chapters and encourages teens to use their formative years to become genuine adults. It’s written for 13-19 year olds, and would be an ideal book for camps and youth groups!

God’s Secret Listener – John Butterworth

There’s something fascinating and encouraging about hearing someone else’s story, of hearing how God saved them, is using them and has kept them. If you would naturally reach for a fiction book over the summer time, why not pick up this story of Berti’s journey from Captain Dosti to Pastor Dosti – the story of the explosive growth of the church in Albania after years of repressive atheism.

God of All Things – Andrew Wilson

God expressed so much about Himself as illustrated by the physical world around. Throughout the Bible we are shown how to glimpse glory in the stars and see God’s image imprinted into dust. But often we don’t dwell on these images – and we miss out on being reminded of these truths as we go about our normal lives. This is a brilliant read that I hope will spring to mind often as I go about my normal routine – reminding me that this is God’s creation, and that he has a plan.

Seed of the Woman – Nana Dolce

If you want to get into the Bible over the summer – Nana Dolce traces through 30 narratives, the stories of the women from the Garden through to the birth of Christ. Through these women, we find our place in redemptive history as it unfolds to show us Jesus. This would be a brilliant gift to give away – but well worth reading before you pass it on!

Making Faith Magnetic – Dan Strange

As I think about sharing my faith, often my worry is whether Christianity seems irrelevant to my friends and neighbours. We know that it’s not – but it can be difficult to know how to share it relevantly with those around us. Dan Strange, building on the work of Bavinck, shows us five fundamental themes that help us to connect with those who aren’t religious. He helps us show others how Jesus is the fulfilment of what they’re seeking, whether that’s in seeking their destiny or a deep connection to others.

Things We All Have in Common – Pete Jackson

We all share in ‘the human condition’. We all have desires and faith, anxiety and shame. In this short book, Pete Jackson thoughtfully shows how Jesus Christ addresses what we are all like. This would be a great book to read and then plan to share with those who don’t know Jesus for themselves – as well as passing on to Christian friends to encourage them in the faith!

Surprised by Jesus – Dane Ortlund

As Christians, we are often in real danger of forgetting how surprising Jesus is in the gospels. Dane goes to each gospel in turn, and helpfully shows us the grace of God displayed in Jesus, and how Jesus took aim at the legalism in the hearts of his listeners. This is an incredibly helpful book to refresh us in our faith and our reading of the gospels.

What God has to Say About Our Bodies – Sam Allberry

Our eternal future is destined to be a physical existence in glorified bodies. Yet often as Christians we under-emphasise the significance of the body – and our culture has become increasingly gnostic in its outlook. Sam Alberry helpfully takes us back to the bible’s teaching – looking through creation, fall and redemption to see what God’s perspective is and how we should live in the light of that.

Are You 100% Sure You Want to Be An Agnostic? – Jonathan Gemmell and Andrew Sach

I confess that I may have saved my favourite for last! This short evangelistic book is well written, witty and winsome – and well researched too! So many of my neighbours and friends don’t know what they believe about God – and this written just for them! Gemmell and Sach walk with us through Biblical passages and logical arguments – illustrated with personal stories – which build a compelling case for Jesus. This is a book that’s well worth buying in quantity and giving away liberally!


Tim Foster works for 10ofThose.com from where all these titles can be purchased. Click on any cover image to go there!

Christianity and Islam, Andy at the ‘NE Fife Filling Station’

The Filling Stations are a network of meetings across the country which meet in places like village halls and cafés. When Andy went to the North East Fife Filling Station, it was one of their first in –person meetings for a while. First, Covid had prevented them meeting, and then a lot of people had decided that they’d still rather meet online in the cold Winter months and delay their proper re-opening until the Spring! So Andy went to the village of Letham in Fife, to speak at the Village Hall to the 40 or so people who gathered there. The NE Fife Filling Station is led by Charles and Sarah Warren. Charles is well-known to a lot of people as he is Senior Lecturer in Geography at St Andrews University, where he specialises in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development.

Charles describes the Fillins Station as “A network of meetings across the UK and overseas which exist to support and encourage local Christians in their faith.  They are aimed especially at those who do not have regular access to worship, teaching and prayer ministry – but all are welcome!”

Andy has known Charles for many years, as they met at the ‘Refuel’ festival in the North of Scotland. During lockdown, Charles read Andy’s book, “Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?” and invited Andy to speak about that at the Filling Station.

Andy spoke about one particular key aspect of the book – that is ‘the character of God’. He looked at the way that God is relational, knowable, love and suffered with us in Christ. That obviously is in direct contrast with the Islamic vision of Allah, which rejects all four of those things. So Andy explored those differences and how Christians should respond to them.

As usual in meetings where Andy speaks, there was plenty of time for Q&A. He said, “Although this was ostensibly a meeting for Christians, a few of the questions came from people who were agnostic, or seeking, as they had a definite ‘bite’ to them!” Inevitably, these were the questions that he enjoyed engaging with the most!

Charles Warren added, “After some lively praise and worship, Andy gave a typically clear and engaging talk on the question ‘Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?’, drawing on his recent book.  This led into an extended Q&A session with wide-ranging questions, all of which Andy handled superbly.  It was a fascinating, encouraging and faith-building evening.”

PEP Talk Podcast With Carl Porter

Andy’s just moved house and discovered a new neighbour sharing the gospel on his street! They meet up in a local cafe to discuss evangelism, spiritual MOTs, church planting and encouraging others to share their love of Christ. Eavesdrop on their conversation in this unique episode of PEP Talk.

With Carl Porter PEP Talk

Our Guest

Carl Porter is married to Sarah and has two daughters. Carl became a Christian in 2014 and since then has been passionate about personal evangelism and trying to help others grow in their own evangelism. From October this year Carl will be leaving secular employment to allow him to go full-time into evangelistic ministry in both his local community and more widespread by providing practical evangelism training to other individuals, groups and churches.

About PEP Talk

The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.

The Lost Code, Part Four: Science and Technology

‘The Bible, with its myths, miracles and fanciful descriptions of angels and demons, has been a major barrier to the emergence of modern science. Only when the Renaissance and the Enlightenment freed modern minds from the medieval superstition of this book could the Scientific Age really begin.’

This widely-accepted proposition may look reasonable and obvious on the surface. However, objective research and honest inquiry expose this perspective itself to be a modern myth.
Secular philosophers and scientists like A. N. Whitehead and J. R. Oppenheimer candidly admit that modern science was born out of the biblical worldview. While older civilisations like Greek, Hindu and Buddhist, and the later world of Islam, all had significant contributions to make to human knowledge, their belief systems undermined the development of scientific thinking as we understand it today.

The Greeks may have been the first to seek rational answers to questions of the existence and the nature of life and the cosmos, but their worldview denigrated the labour necessary to effect change. Chinese and Indian views of the physical world as illusory and unreal prevented the development of scientific understanding in the East, despite early discoveries like the printing press, the windmill, gunpowder and the concept of zero.

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Muslims had access to many Greek manuscripts and to Aristotle long before the West, yet were inhibited by their deterministic religion from allowing scientific thought to flourish.
Was it simply coincidental that the explosion of scientific thinking and discoveries followed the Renaissance and the 16th century Reformation in Europe? Or can we discover a link between the recovery of biblical truths and the blossoming of science and technology? Why were the vast majority of scientific inventions since the early 17th century originated by Europeans and their ‘offspring’? Why did 97% of the Nobel Prize winners for natural science from 1901-1990 have Judaic-Christian backgrounds, as noted in research by American economist, John Hulley: 64% Protestant, 22% Jewish, 11% Catholic?

Could it be because the biblical worldview provided the cornerstone premises for modern science, as follows? One, the natural world is real. Two, the human mind is capable of knowing its true nature. Three, nature is unified and its components are related through cause and effect. And four (on which the previous three are based), there is a rational God who is distinct from the cosmos which he created and sustains.

The declaration by this intelligent, purposeful Creator that his creation was ‘very good’ assured that the physical universe operated under reliable laws which humans could discover. The spiritual world and the material world could therefore work together in harmony.

This was the mindset of the vast majority of the pioneers of modern science, including pre-Reformation scholars as early as the 13th century Franciscan monk Roger Bacon. He challenged the dominant Aristotelian thinking in his own Catholic church. Like fellow Catholics Copernicus and Galileo three centuries later, he was strongly opposed by his own religious leaders for proposing rational investigation through observation and experimentation of God’s creation, his Book of Works.

Pioneers in the many fields that developed rapidly after the above premises were laid, and who shared these biblical convictions, included:
• Anatomy: Andreas Vesalius
• Genetics: Gregor Mendel
• Astronomy: Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei
• Physics: Gottfried Leibniz, Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, Alessandro Volta, Georg Ohm, André Ampère, Michael Faraday and William Kelvin
• Chemistry: Robert Boyle, John Dalton (father of atomic theory) and Joseph Priestly
• Medicine: James Simpson (chloroform, gynaecology), Louis Pasteur (bacteriology), Joseph Lister (antiseptics).

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, founded in 1660, became a prestigious organisation promoting scientific advance. Inspired by Comenius, the Moravian bishop and educationalist, the society grew out of informal meetings at Gresham College, a Puritan institution, with seven Puritans among the ten original member scientists.

Newton, one of the greatest scientists of all times, actually wrote more about theology than about science (although his science was arguably better than his theology). Kepler, who studied for the Lutheran ministry, described his work as ‘thinking God’s thoughts after him’. Pascal, who had a divine encounter in a ‘night of fire’ and wrote the classical devotional Pensées, is famous for his argument called ‘Pascal’s wager’: ‘If I believe in God and life after death and you do not, and if there is no God, we both lose when we die. However, if there is a God, you still lose and I gain everything.’
Lord Kelvin, of the Kelvin scale which measures absolute zero, wrote: ‘If you think strongly enough you will be forced by science to the belief in God.’

If we ‘think strongly enough’, we are forced to concede that modern science was indeed born out of the biblical worldview. And that’s no myth.

______________

Jeff Fountain is director of the Netherlands-based Schuman Centre for European Studies. This article is adapted with permission from a chapter of his forthcoming illustrated coffee-table book about how the Bible has shaped western life

Why Should We Care About the Environment?

Have you ever wondered why the environment matters? Daily we are told—by the media and politicians, by campaign groups and activists—that we should change our lifestyles in order to care for the natural world. But why? Purely out of selfishness (care for the earth so humans thrive)? Or is there a better reason, a better story into which calls for environmental care fit better?

For a deeper exploration of this topic, read this article on creation stewardship.

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Have You ever Wondered Why We Find Loneliness Difficult?

I have never been more alone in my life. I was paddling my SUP down the Whanganui River in New Zealand. Ever since I had pushed off from the bank five days before, I had been totally on my own. The steep wooded valley sides ensured that I had no phone reception for the duration of the journey. To this day it is still one of the happiest experiences of my life. I was alone, yet never once did I feel lonely. Conversely some of my loneliest moments in life have been when I have been surrounded by others – a crowded college, a busy restaurant, a packed music festival. So, what actually is loneliness, and why do we find it so difficult?

We might assume that loneliness is an age-old problem, but it’s not – at least according to the Cultural Historian, Fay Bound Alberti. In her fascinating book, A Biography of Loneliness, she notes that the concept of loneliness, in it’s modern negative sense, didn’t really exist in the English language before 1800. It’s not that people we never alone before that, but their experience of it wasn’t perceived negatively in the way that it is now.

Indeed, according to numerous surveys, the experience of loneliness appears to be increasing. And it’s not just a problem for the elderly who are living alone. In fact, the loneliest demographic in the UK today is students aged 18-24. Those who you might expect to be most connected also seem to be most alone.  This loneliness has massive consequences both psychologically and physically.

The journalist, Sebastian Junger, notes something very disturbing about the experiences of American military personal returning from war zones. Their experiences of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) are greater than those from any of other nation. Junger came to realise that the problem was not so much with what happened when they went away – there is no reason to think that those in the American military should have necessarily had more traumatic experiences than those from other countries. The problem lay with what happened when they came home. Fighting in a war they had a sense of purpose and camaraderie. Yet returning to one of the most individualistic countries in the world they lacked both direction and, most crucially, a sense of belonging.

Loneliness also has implications for our physical health. The biggest factor in determining someone’s life expectancy is not the amount of exercise they do or how much they might smoke or drink. The most reliable indicator of life expectancy is the quality of a person’s relationships.

So, what is making us so lonely? It would be easy to lay all the blame on the internet, and it is certainly not without its problems. Watching an endless feed of carefully curated highlights from other people’s social lives can certainly compound our feelings of loneliness. However, the modern problem of loneliness predates the invention of the internet.

Fay Bound Alberti suggests two reasons for our modern experience of loneliness:

Firstly, Darwin’s theory of evolution profoundly changed the way we view other people. In a world where only the fittest survive, it is all too easy to go from stop seeing other people as community and instead to view them as competition. We can’t all succeed, so our success depends upon someone else’s failure.

The other reason, she cites, is the decline of religious belief in the West. She explains that up until 1800 it was more common to describe the state of being on one’s own as ‘solitude’. However, whereas loneliness almost always has negative connotations, solitude was seen as a positive thing. The difference is that while solitude means being cut off (for a time) from human connections, this was normally done with the intention of developing one’s connection with God.

Could it be that the problem of living life without any thought with God (as so many living in the West do) is that when we are alone, we really are alone with no one else to turn to? And perhaps it also means that we end up seeking from others the kind of love, belonging and intimacy that we were meant to get from God himself? Perhaps our disappointment in others is at least partly because we are asking too much of them. What if we were designed to connect on the deepest level with the creator of the universe? No friend, neighbour, colleague, lover or even spouse will be able to fill that void.

If it is the case that we were created to connect, not just with each other, but also with God himself, how might we rediscover that connection? How could it become a personal experience and not just an abstract concept?

In her moving novel, Beautiful World, where are You? Sally Rooney’s four main characters provide a profound reflection on the challenges of living in contemporary society. All of them are seeking connection and belonging in world that as left them feeling both alone and adrift. One of the characters, Alice, despite her suspicion of institutional religion and her fear of seeming weird to her friend, acknowledges that she finds herself being drawn to consider afresh the person of Jesus – not just a character from literature or even just a historical figure, but as someone that she could actually love in a meaningful sense.

As I consider the accounts of Jesus life, I’m struck by the fact that he although he is often alone (a deliberate decision to enable him to experience solitude with his heavenly Father) there is only one occasion when he seems to experience what we might call ‘loneliness’. During his crucifixion Jesus is abandoned – not just by his friends and followers, but seemingly by God himself. The Christian contention is that Jesus, who knew the deepest connection with God, somehow gave up that connection so that we might gain it. Through Jesus’ disconnection we can find reconnection with God himself.

The French Mathematician Blaise Pascal believed that ‘All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.’ He himself had come to experience this profound connection with God that enabled him to see time alone not negatively as a loneliness, but positively as a solitude – a time to connect with God. Not that this should become our permanent state like it did for the 5th Century Syrian ascetic, Simeon Stylites, who spent 37 years living on top of a pillar in an effort to live in total solitude! Being reconnected to God also helps us to connect with others. Becoming a Christian means becoming part of the church – not an old building where we get bored but a real family where we find real belonging.

Spring Harvest

It was great to be back at Skegness for Spring Harvest This was the fourth time I have spoken there having previously been at Minehead, Harrogate, as well as Skegness – prior to lockdown. There were only around 2,000 adults on site this year, which shows that things haven’t quite bounced-back to pre-Covid levels, but it was still really good to be there in person!

This time I was invited to lead three afternoon seminars. Spring Harvest’s leadership selected the topics I was to address in the sessions, and what they went for was: “Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?”, “Sexuality: Is Christianity Oppressive?” and “How to Share Your Faith Without Getting Fired or Cancelled?” There were between 400-600 people there on each afternoon, depending on the topic. This year they put the afternoon seminars on a bigger stage, to make them available to more people, which seemed to work well. Running Q&A in large crowds is harder, but the stewards were really helpful, working a roving mic around the crowd to facilitate the questions.

The first seminar on Christianity and Islam was obviously based on the book I had published during lockdown. That was an enjoyable session to lead, and as a speaker you can always tell when an audience is engaged and tracking what you are saying, and this was a great audience – as became even more apparent in the really thoughtful ways issues were raised in the Q&A.

On the second afternoon, I was asked to look at one of the major objections to Christianity in our culture – that the Christian faith is oppressive in the area of human sexuality. It was brave of Spring Harvest to choose that topic because it is always an area of controversy and one which it is easier to avoid. I had just one hour to look at everything from sexuality to same-sex attraction to marriage and what that is, to transgender issues! What we really tried to focus in on was the issue of identity. It’s in that area that there is in fact a profound clash with the gospel because the gospel of Christ defines who we are. People today are encouraged to forge their own identity, but the gospel is about Christ giving us a new identity. But I tried to make it also very invitational, because Jesus turns nobody away because of their sexuality or where they are on the gender question. We are all asked to come to Christ and lay our lives before him and surrender all to him. Stephen McAlpine’s phrase is that we offer Christ a ‘blank cheque’ and there are implications for all of us in that. I referred to some of Rosaria Butterfield’s work in this area, which is incredibly helpful. Rosaria was a left-leaning academic, who was a lesbian, lecturing in queer theory in the English faculty of a major university – and is now a Christian; living a very different life in all those areas. In her article for the Gospel Coalition, she said that there are three errors that Christians make when addressing sexuality. The first is outright homophobia. That is present in the church, in terms of seeing people who identify as LGBTQI+ as different from the rest of humanity, or as being uniquely sinful – and that’s wrong. Secondly, the other error is to fail to confront practices which the Bible says are wrong. While Jesus certainly loves sinners, he does not condone sin and calling out sexual practices which the Bible says are wrong, is where the reaction comes back. Then thirdly, many Christians think that when someone comes to Christ, then all their issues will immediately be resolved. That’s not the case, and the church needs to be a place where people can work through these issues – even if that is not at the speed we might like. I drew extensively on the work of our friends at LivingOut too, folks like Ed Shaw and Anne Witton, and our old friend David Bennett too. The Q&A was lively, not everyone agreed with me; but I was able to say that I was espousing what Christians have believed through the history of the church and what biblically faithful same-sex attracted people are living and teaching today as well.

Then on the third afternoon we did, “How to Share Your Faith At Work Without Getting Fired Or Cancelled”. That was such an encouraging session because there were so many Christians there who really wanted to share their faith at work. Many were already active and wanted insights on how to do it better. It’s great in a session like this when you come to the Q&A and so many of the questions are really practical, not just theoretical. People described real conversations with colleagues and classmates and asked how to address their questions or objections more wisely. At the end of that session I was able to pray for the audience and their friends and ongoing conversations.

In Memoriam: Jeff Howarth

The Trustees and Staff of Solas were deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jeff Howarth. Dr Jeff Howarth had retired from the post of Vice Principal (Research & Enterprise) of the University of the Highlands in 2018. During a period of some 18 years Jeff had worked for the University and secured many millions of pounds to create new research facilities and to embed them within the new university.

In his retirement Jeff served his community by joining organisations that cared for the mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing of people in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. He sat on the Boards of the Highland Hospice and of Connecting Carers, and he chaired the Calman Trust. Connecting Carers is an organisation set up to support people in the community caring for long-term and chronically sick members of their families; Calman Trust seeks to provide support, training and work opportunities for young people who might otherwise struggle to achieve their potential. Jeff was also in great demand as a preacher and always responded eagerly to the opportunity to present the treasures of scripture to new audiences. His gifts of exposition were greatly appreciated by many people

It was therefore in some ways unsurprising that when Solas needed an Interim Chief Operations Officer Jeff readily responded to an invitation to fill this post until a more permanent employee was found. As Acting Chief Operating Officer, Jeff became an indispensable member of the Solas staff; he applied a lifetime of management experience to the task of supporting the Board, managing the day-to-day business of the office, and providing project management and support for Solas’s expansion plans. Jeff had the rare gift of attention to detail without detriment to larger strategic goals.

Jeff was a fine Christian colleague. His contribution to Solas’s devotions at the weekly staff meetings, his supportive and mature wisdom and his experience of living in Christ’s Kingdom, provided fellowship and spiritual enrichment that elevated his contribution well above his professional expertise as acting Chief Operating Officer. He became a trusted colleague, adviser, mentor and brother to all. Jeff loved Solas because he loved the Lord Jesus Christ; his passion was to glorify His name and spread the hope of the Gospel. Jeff combined his sterling honesty and integrity with a lively sense of humour. He made friends easily and inspired loyal service from colleagues.

His passing will be mourned by many and especially by his devoted wife, Janetta, and his family, David, Sarah and Esther, their spouses Julie, Steven and Daniel, and also by his grandchildren. We and they, however, also rejoice that he is now with the Lord Jesus Christ and is freed of the pains and travails of this world. “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labour, for their deeds will follow them.” Rev 14:13.

James M Fraser
Chair, Solas Trustees.

PEP Talk Podcast With Jackie Whyte

Today on PEP Talk, Andy and Kristi speak with a chaplain working in a hospice setting. Here, mortality is a daily reality, as are experiences of suffering. What is it like to talk with folks and share the hope of Christ in such an environment? Although most of us aren’t in that position, many of us will go through the process of dying with loved ones, and our guest Jackie helps us think through how to approach it.

With Jackie Whyte PEP Talk

Our Guest

Jackie Whyte serves as the Chaplain working at Northern Ireland Hospice and Children’s Hospice. Having given his life to Jesus as a teenager, he worked in engineering before moving into Christian ministry. Jackie enjoys listening to Deacon Blue, watching football and walking sections of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. He lives in Carrickfergus with his wife Nicola.

About PEP Talk

The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.

The Lost Code, Part Three: Healthcare and Hospitality

When an ambulance rushes through the streets with sirens blaring and lights blazing, ‘common decency’ stops all traffic to make room for this vehicle on an emergency errand.
Yet care and compassion have not always been the obvious response to suffering. Belief in karma, for example, hindered intervention in anyone’s suffering as simply postponing the suffering to a later life. Sickness signified human weakness in Greek and Roman societies. Seneca, the Roman philosopher, wrote: ‘We drown children who at birth are weakly and abnormal’. Romans often fled during epidemics, leaving the sick to die unattended.

The Hebrew scriptures, however, described many instances of God healing the sick, such as when Moses held up the serpent on a stick in the wilderness (Num. 21:9). They also contained guidelines for healthy living, and a promise to save Israel from the diseases afflicted on the Egyptians: “for I am the LORD who heals you” (Ex 15:26).

The teachings and actions of Jesus went even further, introducing a revolution in healthcare thinking. Love your enemies, he taught. His Good Samaritan story made care and compassion a universal concern, not just for those of familial, religious or national affinity.

Today, the cross is a symbol used on maps, signs and vehicles to signify hospitals and medical assistance of all forms. Yet the cross was a cruel Roman instrument of torture and death until the crucifixion of Jesus transformed it into a sign of healing and hope.

That was a turning point in the history of healthcare. Healing went hand in hand with the preaching of the gospel. Shipwrecked on the island of Malta, Paul healed many sick through prayer. The Maltese today date their conversion to Christianity from this event.
In their letters, both Peter and Paul stressed that God’s people should reflect God’s character by being hospitable, welcoming, especially to strangers; elders particularly should be known for their hospitality. Our words for ‘hospitality’, ‘hostel’, ‘hospice’ and ‘hotel’ all come from the same Latin word, hospitale which derives from hospes, host, he who gives hospitality. In Matthew 25, Jesus listed the ‘works of mercy’: caring for the sick, clothing the naked, quenching the thirsty, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and visiting the prisoners. This list has hugely influenced Christian work through the ages.

Dionysius, a bishop of the 3rd century, described how Christians ‘visited the sick without thought of their own peril,… drawing upon themselves their neighbours’ diseases and willingly taking over to their own persons the burden of the sufferings of those around them.’

Although some facilities seemed to have existed for wounded Roman soldiers, hospitals where the sick were treated and nursed were not institutionalised until after the Nicaean Ecumenical Council in 325. Delegates agreed to set up hospices in each cathedral city on their return.

Basil of Caesarea in Cappadocia (Turkey) is credited with building the first hospital (nosocomium) exclusively for caring for the sick, in 369. Others followed in Rome and Constantinople. Infirmaries became a regular part of monasteries as they spread throughout the former Roman empire. These were the world’s first voluntary charitable institutions.
The oldest operating hospital worldwide is the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris, founded by Bishop Landry in 651 AD. Built on the Île de la Cité, next to Notre-Dame, it was the only hospital in Paris up until the Renaissance.

Emperor Charlemagne sponsored the building of hospitals throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Later, during the Crusades, the Knights of St John were a military order appointed to defend and care for pilgrims in the Holy Land. They ran the 11th century hospital in Jerusalem, and became known as the Hospitallers. After the Moslem reconquest of Jerusalem, they moved eventually to Malta, and became the Knights of Malta, setting up perhaps the most advanced hospital in the world, the Sacra Infermeria, where up to 914 patients of all faiths, Christian, Moslem and others were treated.

Christian charity inspired the development of both nursing and the care of the mentally healthdisturbed. Augustinian nuns became the oldest nursing order of sisters in the 13th century, the term ‘sister’ still being used for female nurses.

After the Reformation, orders of deaconesses developed. One, founded by Theodor Fliedner in Kaiserswerth, Germany, inspired many others across Europe including Florence Nightingale, a young British Christian who visited his deaconess house and hospital before giving herself to care for the wounded in the Crimean War. On returning to London to a hero’s welcome, she founded a school of nursing at St Thomas Hospital.

Also appalled by the suffering on the battlefield, the Swiss Christian businessman Henri Dunant founded the Red Cross in 1864, and received the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

The message of God’s universal love for humankind, expressed in Jesus, clearly has been the wellspring for the global spread of healthcare and hospitality which we so easily take for granted today.
______________________

Jeff Fountain is director of the Netherlands-based Schuman Centre for European Studies. This article is adapted with permission from a chapter of his forthcoming illustrated coffee-table book about how the Bible has shaped western life.

Solas and The Scotsman

Solas has the privilege of being asked to write eight columns a year for The Scotsman. For those outside the country, The Scotsman is one of Scotland’s leading broadsheet style newspapers, which has been published from Edinburgh for over two centuries. They have an opinion column they call “Friends of the Scotman” in which public bodies write short articles about their area of interest. Solas’s articles which are always topical takes on the Christian gospel, can be found aliongside those from Trades Unions, environmental charities or transport pressure groups.

For us it is wonderful opportunity to get some of our work out beyond our usual networks into the public sqaure where we are aware that many people (who probably wouldn’t come to our website) read and engage with what we write. It’s been interesting, and encouraging to hear stories of the ways in which Christians have been able to use them to have gospel-flavoured conversations with friends and colleagues too.

Over the last year or two we have looked at a variety of topics.

The theme of tolerance and disagreement was picked up on by Andy Bannister and Gavin Matthews., while Gareth Black has written about topics as diverse as Adele’s misplaced longing on her new album, and the tragedy of Grenfell Tower. New writer Anne Witton recently asked readers to consider what happens when we die!

In the political arena we have written about the Scottish Hate Crimes Bill, about the persecution of the church around the world and what Jesus might say to Boris, what Jesus tells us about true leadership, and how we respond to scandals in public life.

In the Covid-era we looked at lockdown and family life, as well as the shocks of pandemics, recessions and suspension of liberties to western expectations of sucess and achieving a good life.  The quest for happiness and the search for true love were connected themes.

Andy Bannister didn’t particulalry like the latest Bond film, but in his review found plenty of gospel angles! And in other pieces we looked at The Beauty of the Highlands, the re-opening of churches, Christmas, grief and loss,  and repentance.

If you’ve clicked through and read any of these articles you’ll notice that Solas writers all share a particular ethos, which is to share the Christian gospel through the issues of the day. That means that we are deliberately trying to avoid two things. The first is getting embroiled in co-called ‘culture-wars’ in which we seek to win arguments about topical issues as end in itself. Instead every article seeks to use the issue at hand as a way of exploring an aspect of Jesus’ life and message. The second thing we’re trying to avoid is presenting Christian truth in a stale or unimaginaive way that won’t engage secular readers, but instead will show the relevence of the Christian gospel to life.

Thankyou to all those of you who support Solas, and make the writing and publishing of these articles possible. They take a lot of time and effort to produce. We pray that they would influence many people with the transforming message of Jesus. If you would like to help us to continue with this work, please click here.

Have You Ever Wondered Why We Long For Justice?

Have you ever wondered why we long for justice? Why when we see or experience injustice or violence, our instinctive reaction is not to say “Ah, that’s just the survival of the fittest, isn’t it marvellous!” but to protest, to cry out for justice? Where does this universal urge come from — and is it a clue to the bigger story of us, life, and the universe?

For more on this topic, see this article from guest writer Clare Williams.

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Have You Ever Wondered What Happens When You Die?

Growing up, I found death both fascinating and terrifying. I felt that knowing what happened after death was essential for finding purpose and meaning in life. After all, if death negated everything I’ve spent my life investing in, is it really worth doing anything at all? It would be like spending years crafting a wonderful novel, only to set it on fire when it’s finished. If the only meaning to life is enjoying the moment and “Being in the present, the here and now, is the ultimate reward of life”[1], what’s the point in existence for all the billions of people globally whose lives are full of suffering and hardship? My question was, in the words of Tolstoy, “Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?”[2]

How about you? Have you ever wondered what happens when you die? Are we just a bunch of random atoms that will be rearranged into something else when we snuff it? Do we just cease to exist? Will we be reincarnated as someone or something else? Do we have an eternal soul that will survive our physical death? Will we face judgement? Is there hope of a life to come? Do we simply live on in the memories of the generations that come after us? If the passing on of our genetic material is our legacy, where does that leave the millions of people who don’t have children? Whatever you believe happens when you die, it seems a pretty significant question to wrestle with.

The reality is that most of us will be completely forgotten in a couple of generations. According to a recent YouGov survey, just 7% of Brits expect to be remembered for more than 50 years after their death.[3] Even people who have made a significant contribution to human history only have the sketchiest facts associated with them after a few hundred years. William Shakespeare is one of the most famous people who ever lived and yet what do we actually know about him? What was he like to talk to? What did he really care about? What was his daily routine? Who were his best friends? We don’t even know if some of the plays attributed to him were actually written by him.

With many of us living our lives increasingly online and sharing more and more information and experiences, we now we leave much bigger footprints but the question is: who is going to go looking for them in a couple of generations time? Most of us – however notable in our culture’s eyes – will be completely forgotten, even by our own families. Each generation gets diluted; we have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents and so on. Even at the stage of great-great-grandparents (just four generations) you’ve got 16 people from whom you’re removed in time and in genetic similarity. That’s how transient and ephemeral life is unless it’s given some transcendent meaning.

The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible highlights well the ultimate futility of life if God is removed from the equation. (Chapter 1: 2 – 4 and 11)

“Meaningless! Meaningless!
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

What do people gain from all their labours
at which they toil under the sun?

Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.

So where can any of us find ultimate meaning? Perhaps the answer lies with religion. Most religions teach that there is some kind of afterlife, whether that is reincarnation, rebirth or resurrection. The concepts of heaven and hell are known but widely misunderstood in our culture. We have a vague sense that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. The message of Christianity is radically different from any other faith (and from what you might expect). It teaches that none of us deserve to go to heaven as we’ve all messed up. But the good news is that Jesus has paid the price for our rebellion against God by his death and resurrection. The historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection[4] guarantees that anyone who puts their trust in him can enjoy an everlasting life as it’s meant to be, free from suffering and pain.[5]

This is at the heart of what Christianity is all about and what gives ultimate hope to life. Jesus teaches about having the right priorities in life – living for the eternal rather than just the temporary. He counsels us to invest in that which won’t be rendered void by the inevitability of death, and instead work for that which lasts (Matt 6: 19 – 21):

 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

If we turn to Christ, we will have an inheritance which can’t fade or be destroyed and will last for ever. We will enjoy eternal life with him and all the goodness of a restored creation, restored relationships and a new body long after our bodily death here. Whatever you think about death, that’s worth checking out.


 

[1] The Daily Dish, What Do Atheists Think Of Death? The Atlantic (2010) https://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2010/05/what-do-atheists-think-of-death/187003/ Accessed 2 June 2022

[2] Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, Chapter 5

[3] YouGov Death Study conducted from 19-23 March 2021 on a sample of 2,164 UK adults aged 16 and older. https://yougov.co.uk/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2021/10/06/yougov-death-study-britons-their-funeral-and-how-l Accessed 2 June 2022

[4] To investigate the evidence for this, see Historical Evidence for the Resurrection, Desiring God https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/historical-evidence-for-the-resurrection Accessed 2 June 2022. Resurrection – fact or fiction? BeThinking https://www.bethinking.org/booklets/resurrection-fact-or-fiction Accessed 2 June 2022.

[5] The Bible, Revelation 21: 1 – 4