What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Candidates for the Sin Against the Holy Ghost

    People sometimes ask me (and no doubt other clergy) what the sin against the Holy Ghost actually is – the one which cannot be forgiven.

    Mark 3:28-29
    Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:
    But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.

    Now, there is a great deal of confusion about this, but I think I have narrowed down the possibilities.

    I’m pretty sure that it is one of the following:

20 responses to “Which bits of the Bible do you miss out?”

  1. Bro David Avatar
    Bro David

    I think that I’m with you Father K, there is a time and place for everything and a service where the problems of a problematic passage can’t be addressed easily is not the place to read it, lectionary be hanged.

    Reply
  2. Vogelbeere Avatar
    Vogelbeere

    My favourite bits of the Bible are the Song of Songs (which, in the medieval period, was interpreted by both Jews and Christians as an allegory of the soul’s relationship with God); the book of Ruth; the book of Esther; the story of David and Jonathan; Amos & Micah. Most of the New Testament leaves me completely cold, and some of it is actually offensive, especially the account of the silver-smiths of Ephesus, and the way that Paul appropriates pagan poetry in the marketplace of Athens.

    I think the solution to your problem is not to read the “difficult” bits without some sort of homily about a better way to understand them, and how to read the Bible in general as a collection of texts situated in a particular historical situation.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • Online reading

    Here’s some on-line reading. The Doctrine Committee of the Scottish Episcopal Church published an essay earlier this year on Marriage and Human Intimacy. This is available now online for the first time along with the other previous essays which they have written. There was a mini-brouhaha on twitter when one or two people actually read…

  • New Provosting

    There’s a new provosting tonight in Oban and I’m carefully packing the Cope of Glory. There’s certainly a sense of purpose and excitement about the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles these days. [Trivia point – the definite article in the name of the diocese is capitalised for the Episcopal diocese of Argyll and The…

  • Tuesday Update

    Tuesday: Useful comment article by Colette Douglas Home in today’s Herald, on the Roman Catholic Church’s position on #equalmarriage: http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/core-message-of-christianity-is-one-of-love-and-forbearance.18704767 Includes good key quotes from Sunday’s sermon and this: [Kelvin Holdsworth] welcomed gay Christians to the service and discovered, not surprisingly, that his congregation had increased. A senior Catholic source reportedly accused him of “incendiary…

  • New article in Herald

    There’s a new article in the Herald newspaper today reporting on yesterday’s sermon and service at St Mary’s. It is prominently placed, with a nice big pic of me in the pulpit on the front page. I’d probably have preferred a different headline (they are never written by the reporters themselves) but the article is…