Prof Beverley with Hans Küng

In June I went to Germany to visit my former professor Hans Küng, probably the most famous Catholic theologian of modern time. I studied with him during my Ph.D. work when he was a visiting professor at the University of Toronto.

We are standing in his library which is part of his living room.

Photo for profile

In Scotland on family vacation July 07

Word Faith movement

One of my students in the Apologetics modular program asked me about the Word Faith movement. The Word Faith theology comes out of the ministry of Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland, two very influential Pentecostal leaders. It is often referred to as the Health and Wealth gospel or the Name It and Claim It movement.

I realized when I wrote my email reply that I do not have an entry on that topic in my Religions A to Z book. I will have one in my bigger volume that comes out next year...Nelson's Illustrated Guide to Religions. Anyway, Apologetics Index has a listing of resources here.

Note the endorsement given to Robert Bowman on this topic. I agree with Apologetics Index in recommending Rob's work, in particular his book The Word-Faith Controversy: Understanding the Health and Wealth Gospel. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001 . You can see a profile on Rob at the Reclaiming the Mind website here.

Bible Gateway

One of the great free resources on the web allows for searching in many versions of the Bible.
Go here for this superb search engine to Scripture.

If you want to access a site that searches in the Greek text of the NT, go to the various options listed at The Greek New Testament Gateway

Happy searching.

New York Review of Books

The New York Review of Books is one of the most important intellectual resources in the world. Unfortunately, it is not free but if you want to check out some of its contents, go here

Further material on Lutheran-Catholic Declaration

Catholic response to Declaration
Further analysis by Robert Sungenis, a Catholic apologist here
The World Methodist Council affirmed the Catholic-Lutheran Declaration in July 2006. See this news report.

Web sites on Lutheran-Catholic Declaration on Justification

October 31, 1999 Declaration on Justification in Augsburg, Germany

Declaration at the Vatican site
Pictures from ceremony here
Important analysis by Avery Dulles, the Catholic scholar at First Things
Early report to the Vatican in 1998 here
Lutheran Church Missouri Synod critique
Lutheran parody of Declaration

Critique of Luther

Ruth Tucker critiques Luther at Reclaiming the Mind blog. See the discussion that follows. By the way, Tucker's article has some important points about nuance in hermeneutics and theology. However, her critique of Luther and evangelical doctrine and her positive comments about Catholic doctrine on justification could also be more nuanced.

One more point...just because this site points to an article does not mean that I endorse it.

Happy reading.

Key Web site

Since Christian theology is done in the context of a global community and broad academic input, I urge you to look at Arts and Letters Daily as a great guide to important articles, books, reviews, op-ed pieces, etc. It has an impressive list of links on the main page, including newspapers from around the world.

Happy reading.

Professor Beverley

Professor Beverley (in middle) with (left to right) son Derek, wife Gloria, daughter Andrea and son-in-law Julien

A New Blog for Brilliant and Loving Systematic Theology II class

If all goes as planned, I will be with our class at 2 pm on Tuesday for our first Systematic Theology class of the fall 2007 term. I created this blog so that we can communicate together.

So, I would like you to check this blog every week to see what's posted. I've never used a blog before for class, so I'll have to work on this new experience before I finalize all the ways the blog can be used this term.

For now, two practical tips.

1. I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to talk to my computer. In fact, I'm speaking to the computer as I create this text for the blog. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is now in its ninth edition. You should get the Preferred version. It is amazingly accurate and fast.

2. When you're driving and think of something important, and don't want to write it down in case you crash, a great alternative is to call Jott and a computer program records your message and sends you an e-mail. You can get details at www.jott.com/ This is free.

One more thing...it is an honor to be your teacher. I believe we are going to have a great term together! I look forward to meeting you and learning from and with you.

That's it for now. More later...

Professor Jim Beverley
Tyndale Seminary