SPCK - Alister McGrath
The Living God - Creation as a process: God’s ongoing involvement with the world
The Living God - Creation as a process: God’s ongoing involvement with the world
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Creator of heaven and earth 4 Creation as a process: God’s ongoing involvement with the world Like many, I enjoy the famous story that lies behind the creation of the great statue of David by the artist Michelangelo (1475 –1564). In the late fifteenth century, the Florentine scul…
The Living God - Humanity as the bearer of the image of God
The Living God - Humanity as the bearer of the image of God
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Creator of heaven and earth 4 Humanity as the bearer of the image of God At least three ways of thinking about our identity, role and place in the greater scheme of things are opened up when we consider that we bear ‘the image of God’...
The Living God - Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation
The Living God - Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Creator of heaven and earth 4 Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation One of my memories of my time as an undergraduate at Wadham College, Oxford, is admiring the portrait of Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723) that adorned the panelled walls of the college’s dining hall. I…
The Living God - Creator of heaven and earth
The Living God - Creator of heaven and earth
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Creator of heaven and earth 4 One of my favourite stories from the classical age concerns the Greek philosopher Aristippus (c. 435 –c. 356 bc), who found himself shipwrecked on the Aegean island of Rhodes. He had no idea where he was. Was this strange place uninhabited? Would he …
The Living God - God and suffering: understanding and coping
The Living God - God and suffering: understanding and coping
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering 3 God and suffering: understanding and coping Two great questions arise whenever someone is confronted with suffering, whether in their own lives or the lives of those who matter to them. How can I make sense of this? And how can I…
The Living God - God and suffering
The Living God - God and suffering
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering 3 God and suffering For many people the biggest question concerns the existence of suffering and pain in the world. Our deepest intuitions tell us that things are not meant to be like this; that something’s wrong. But why should we…
The Living God - God and the darkness of faith
The Living God - God and the darkness of faith
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering 3 God and the darkness of faith When I was young my family took vacations in County Donegal in the north-west of Ireland. We loved its beautiful beaches and rugged countryside. However, Atlantic rainstorms, sweeping in from the wes…
The Living God - An almighty God: power and character
The Living God - An almighty God: power and character
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering 3 An almighty God: power and character In 1887, the British politician and historian Lord Acton (1834 –1902) observed that ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. As a result, ‘great men are almost always …
The Living God - Can an almighty God do everything?
The Living God - Can an almighty God do everything?
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering 3 Can an almighty God do everything? It’s easy to see why so many people think that believing in an ‘almighty’ God means believing in a God who can do anything and everything – after all, God is God. But when you begin to think abo…
The Living God - An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering
The Living God - An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering 3 It is among my most vivid memories of my early schooldays. One lunchtime, when I was about seven years old, I got into a heated conversation with two classmates over whose father was the most important. Every school playground in…
The Living God - A God who remembers us
The Living God - A God who remembers us
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
A personal God: love and faithfulness 2 A God who remembers us In 2008 I began to research a new biography of C. S. Lewis. This involved reading everything he had written in chronological order, as well as the large amount of literature about him. I came across many early photogr…
The Living God - God as a person: four insights
The Living God - God as a person: four insights
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
A personal God: love and faithfulness 2 God as a person: four insights Appreciating that God is personal is central to a right understanding of the creeds. Let’s look at four insights that will help us grasp this more fully. First, in speaking of God as a person we’re making it c…
The Living God - A Personal God
The Living God - A Personal God
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
A personal God: love and faithfulness 2 A personal God All of us like to complain about our employers. I met up with someone I had known back in the days when I was a research student in Oxford. Over a cup of tea I asked him how he was getting on at the college where he now worke…
The Living God - I believe in God the Father
The Living God - I believe in God the Father
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
A personal God: love and faithfulness 2 I believe in God the Father As we saw in the last chapter, the creeds help us put into words our trust in ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation’ (2 Corinthians 1.3). One reason wh…
The Living God - A Personal God: love and faithfulness
The Living God - A Personal God: love and faithfulness
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
A personal God: love and faithfulness 2 Every educationalist knows that one of the best teaching aids is a memorable image. Here’s a one-liner from the journalist Sydney J. Harris (1917– 86) that I came across years ago when trying to work out how best to instil the basics of Chr…
The Living God - Moving on
The Living God - Moving on
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Which God Are We Talking About? 1 Moving on In this chapter we have explored two slightly different – but converging – themes. First, we have identified God relationally. Christians know and love – as they are in turn known and loved by – the same God known and loved by Abraham a…
The Living God - Images as windows into God
The Living God - Images as windows into God
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Which God Are We Talking About? 1 Images as windows into God A picture is worth a thousand words.’ Being able to show someone a picture of a beautiful scene, a complicated piece of machinery or a pet cat goes a long way towards making up for the limitations of human words. So per…
The Living God - Seeing God in the events of history