What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Scottish Episcopal Kalendar 2026

    For years now, I’ve produced a Kalendar for the Scottish Episcopal Church with all the bible readings set out for the year.

    This year’s Kalendar is available online so that anyone can download it and print it out for themselves.
    It is available right here: Scottish Kalendar 2026

    Anyone who would like to make a donation because they enjoy the Kalendar so much and want to encourage me to keep doing it is welcome to do so via paypal. I used to offer printed copies at £5 per copy.

    The summary of the Bishops’ Instruction on Fasting and Abstinence is available as a single pdf here: Bishops’ Instructions on Fasting

One response to “Eid, Pride and Abraham’s Sacrifice”

  1. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    As one who grew up(?) in churches leaning toward the view “it’s a tough story for a tough world, how else would God be just?” in varying degrees, I agree the face-value-narrative understanding of the story is repellant.

    One thing stood out for the first time during Sunday’s reading: the plurality in Abraham’s line – “…and we will return to you”. I’ve been idly wondering about that since.
    It doesn’t make the story wholly acceptable as Abraham still ploughs on ever closer.
    But if one’s goal is to find a “by faith, Abraham” in there, better to say it’s the prior confidence that things will somehow work out well (which I thought was how Hebrews was trying to define it), than to locate the commendable quality in violence (which, by rabbiting on about resurrection, Hebrews does).

    In the absence of other clear & wholly mitigating contexts in which to place the story, certainly it’s simplest, easiest and probably best to file it under “that’s how they saw God back then” and move swiftly on.

    Oofft.

    Reply

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