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Transforming society – or merely making it
a theological discussion with the Bible in one hand and a very particular newspaper in the other Society for the Study of Theology 1995 What is this paper about? I have been asked to write a paper about theology and the transformation of society or transformation in society. I can only make this a manageable…
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The Politics of Forgiveness
Published in The Third Way, c.1979 There is, at present, a great and growing interest amongst Christians in this country in political matters. They feel responsible and concerned. This is a good development – a waking up to reality. But all that we do is not well: the man struggling out of deep sleep goes…
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‘Team God’ – a word for Trinity Sunday
The doctrine of the Trinity states that God is ‘One in three persons’, but that should not lead us to think there are three gods, or even three parts of God, operating independently from one another, for God is one in a most perfect unity. Nowhere in the New Testament, the earliest Christian witnesses we…
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A sermon for Trinity Sunday
First published 14th June 2022 on the Network Leeds blog. I preached yesterday on the Trinity – a challenge and a joy. The text was the hymn, Thou whose almighty word we sang before and after to help us get into it. The hymn is a mosaic of biblical words and images, shaped by Trinity.…
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Saying the Lord’s Prayer from a different perspective
Deliver us from the evil – of ever giving up praying this prayer whatever the pressure of temptation Deliver us from losing the ‘our’ to make the Father ‘mine’ Deliver us from claiming the Kingdom now rather than steadily praying for it to Come Deliver us from seeking the Father in heaven as though he…
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Though I have a theological degree, but have not love, I am nothing
Address given at Trinity College Bristol degree ceremony sometime in the late 1990s Do not assume that mere Reading will suffice without fervor, Speculation without devotion, Investigation without admiration, Observation without exaltation, Industry without piety, Knowledge without love, Understanding without humility, Study without divine grace. St. Bonaventure (1221–1274) Except for two good years, when the…
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Ambition and the Gospel
Mark 10.35-45: A sermon preached at Stainbeck United Reformed Church, 2018 We are given this morning an important and challenging reading, that points us to the heart of being Christian and being human. So I am glad to be called to speak about it. I read this text and at the same time, I reflect…
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‘Vertical’ and ‘Horizontal’ in Paul’s Theology of Reconciliation in the Letter to the Romans
This paper was written to honour Vinay Samuel, the first director of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. I worked there for a dozen years after I retired from Leeds. I liked its vision and the students it brought me. Corneliu Constantineanu was the first person I supervised at OCMS and he became a dear friend. He…
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Entry Point seminar
This is a seminar Haddon gave in 2015 introducing the themes of his book Entry Point, written with Keith White. You can find the book here, and there is discussion of the book on the Child Theology Movement website here.
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World’s History, Heaven’s Silence, Theology’s Place
Inaugural Lecture, University of Leeds, 1996 I am a Leeds-grown professor. I have worked with three notable Professors, John Tinsley, David Jenkins and Adrian Hastings, who have taught me much, as have many other colleagues in the Department where I have been able to learn what theology and religious studies are in practice and also…
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God so loved the world
Presidential Address to the Yorkshire Baptist Association, 1985 Allow me first one personal remark. What I have to say may sound like a lecture; I ask you to hear it as a testimony. It describes something of what it has been given to me to discover, to imagine, to think and to seek for, in…
While it is yet day
Haddon Willmer