tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13716271291117244512024-02-02T11:55:29.896-08:00PUSH BooksPUSH Books is a space where relevant theological issues can be discussed and investigated in an aim to bring theology to life and life to theology.PUSH Publishinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05222834520945197222noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371627129111724451.post-67071162327421067162010-11-12T06:22:00.000-08:002010-11-12T06:44:51.170-08:00PNEUMA Review of 'Searching the Source of the River'<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Diana Chapman's book, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >'Searching the Source of the River'</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> has been reviewed in the latest edition of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Pneuma</span><span style="font-size:100%;">, The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies (<i><span lang="EN-US">Pneuma </span></i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">32 </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span lang="EN-US">(2010), Book Reviews page </span></i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">307</span><span style="font-size:100%;">).<br /><br /></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">Reviewed by Rev Dr. Pamela M. S. Holmes</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />......................................................................<br /></span> <style>@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }@font-face { font-family: "Times-Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a href="http://www.pushpublishing.co.uk/books/searchingthesource.html"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 157px; height: 241px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN54OXeJksD8PHpzAslgZJc7vhBnKsP-IKEUcyWMc2ZVX8a5ZdCAxu140EyPZ2zWVxbvbMZnP8jnuy6MHPH_uB0m6YDj0JLt1jo4OHCp_YXST1GrnSFxeGzAvXw5-qyWDdn4zbuDcSO8XH/s320/SearchingtheSourceoftheRiver.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538670363253345362" border="0" /></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">Diana Chapman' book is an important contribution to the recovery of the histories of ministering women within the Pentecostal tradition. Written in an easy-to-read style, it serves as a resource for popular audiences and basic degree or Bible College level students interested in a clearer picture of the early days of the movement. With few endnotes and only a Select Bibliography</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span lang="EN-US">, </span></i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">its usefulness beyond the above mentioned audiences is limited even with the author's offer to supply further documentation upon request.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">Nevertheless, it is an essential read as it reduces the paucity of women's history by gleaning from primary sources the stories of several imperfect, ordinary won1en including Catherine Price, Mary Boddy, Margaret Cantel, Lydia Walshaw, Carrie Judd Montgomery, Christina Beruldsen, Eleanor Crisp, Polly Wigglesworth, Margaret Scott, Mabel Howell and "missionary ladies." Following the historical examples set by the New </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">Testament, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">early church, Montanists, medieval mystics, Anabaptists, Quakers, Methodists, and Holiness teachers, these women, fuelled by the Spirit, pioneered churches, led revivals, taught, preached, and ministered faithfully and sacrificially from </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">1907 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">to </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">1914 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">in the early years of Pentecostalism in Britain.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">Furthermore, sandwiching these stories Chapman raises several important issues that the current Pentecostal and charismatic movements need to address in two provocative chapters entitled 'Bringing Hidden Things to Light" and "Running with the Flame." Now that this remembering and retelling has occurred, Chapman insists that the present generation act by incorporating these stories into its identity and practice rather than denying or dismissing their reality as some sort of anomaly. Using the metaphor of a River, Chapman suggests that, these women, closest to the source in the early days of the revival, dug wells unique to themselves from which many drank and flourished. While a later traditionally institutionalized, literally-biblically-interpreted, legitimated, and culturally conformed Pentecostal movement blocked those wells with boulders, now that those boulders have been identified, they need to be removed so that water can once again be drawn. Similarly, rather than continuing to capture water further downstream which has become polluted by man-made channels, the discontinuity with the past, which disrupted the Spirit-initiated and -inspired flow of the movement by allotting secondary or invisible status to women in comparison to that of men, must be avoided.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">Now that women's contributions, considered by Chapman to have reflected the heart and mind of God, have been remembered and given their proper prominence, continuity with Pentecostalism's source and beginning can be reestablished and built upon. A necessary first step has being realized by Chapman as "Remembered women ... we honour you." The rest is up to others within the movement.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;">.....................................................</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://pushpublishing.co.uk/books/searchingthesource.html"><span lang="EN-US">Visit the <span style="font-style: italic;">'Searching the Source of the River'</span> page on pushpublishing.co.uk</span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Searching-Source-River-Forgotten-Pentecostal/dp/0955378311"><span lang="EN-US">Take a Look Inside </span></a><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Searching-Source-River-Forgotten-Pentecostal/dp/0955378311"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-style: italic;">'Searching the Source of the River' </span>on Amazon.co.uk</span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/26100"><span lang="EN-US">Download an eBook sample of </span></a><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/26100"><span style="font-style: italic;">'Searching the Source of the River' </span>from smashwords.com</a></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span>PUSH Publishinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05222834520945197222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371627129111724451.post-63071826530797008892010-10-21T09:56:00.000-07:002010-11-11T07:38:59.478-08:00Timeline of Paul's Ministry<div style="text-align: left;">Faith and Roger Forster's new book, <i><a href="http://www.pushpublishing.co.uk/books/womenandthekingdom.html">Women and the Kingdom</a></i> (PUSH Publishing, 2010), includes a chapter entitled 'Paul in Context', all about the background to Paul's life and ministry and background to the churches in Corinth and Ephesus. This chapter also contains a timeline of Paul's ministry, which is reproduced below.<br /><br /></div><div><br /><div><div style="text-align: center;"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 183px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjT1ASagvThRikill8ybUz4X7cIH2BpXOBFWNpDbfdksRo8byiokIWu7C75IKROUu6Sa-wqXvwwVaL2MdUhndrkqhlRoRd0_bGd-_YXs4Jy40-yVt50ILCMHC8r4SAzmJVtxGv64o82cBa/s400/Paul_timeline.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5530548283916132658" border="0" /></div><div>It is a fascinating study to piece together Paul's life and ministry using the book of <span style="font-style: italic;">Acts,</span> Paul's letters (especially <span style="font-style: italic;">Galatians 1-2</span>), writings of the Early Church Fathers and external historical evidence. Using all these different sources you can create a timeline like the one above, but due to the paucity of references to specific historical events in Acts and Paul's epistles, most of the dates and the time intervals between events remain approximate.<br /><br />The books of the New Testament were never intended as historical reference books - they had a far more important message to communicate. However, there are though a handful of events which allow us to frame some of the events of Acts quite accurately:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2012:20-23&version=NASB"><span style="font-style: italic;">Acts 12 v20-23</span></a>: The death of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_Agrippa">Herod Agrippa</a>, which happened in <span style="font-weight: bold;">AD 44/5</span></li><li><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2018:2&version=NASB"><span style="font-style: italic;">Acts 18 v2</span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">:</span> </span>Jews, including Aquila and Priscilla have been expelled from Rome by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius">Emperor Claudius</a>, placing Paul's trip to Corinth sometime <span style="font-weight: bold;">after AD 49 </span>(according to Suetonius)<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2018:12-17&version=NASB">Acts 18 v12-17</a>:</span> Paul was brought before<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallio"> Gallio</a>, who was Proconsul of Corinth for one year from<span style="font-weight: bold;"> AD 51/52</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2024:27&version=NASB">Acts 24 v27</a>:</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonius_Felix">Felix</a>, Governor of Samaria dies and is succeeded by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcius_Festus">Porcius Festus</a> in<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>around<span style="font-weight: bold;"> AD 59</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Acts 28</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>finishes with Paul under house arrest in Rome, with no mention of the persecution under Nero that began after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Rome">Great Fire</a> in<span style="font-weight: bold;"> AD64 </span>indicating that <span style="font-style: italic;">Acts</span> was completed before this date.</li></ul>The likely writing dates of Paul's epistles are indicated based on internal references in the text to people, places and journeys compared to the events in <span style="font-style: italic;">Acts</span> (not all Epistles are shown).<br /><br />This is more than just an historical study or mental exercise - <span style="font-style: italic;">Acts</span> and the epistles really come alive when you follow Paul and his co-workers on their journeys, understanding when they letters were written, why and what was going on in the world around them. Hopefully this timeline will encourage you to study <span style="font-style: italic;">Acts </span>and the epistles together to get deeper into the word.<br /><br /></div><br /></div></div>PUSH Publishinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05222834520945197222noreply@blogger.com0