mgpcpastor's blog

In what turned out to be a time of theological reflection at last week’s General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the name of N.T. (Tom) Wright was mentioned.
Some folk were asking the Assembly to bid our theological colleges to provide an evaluation of what is termed ‘The New Perspective On Paul’ from a biblical and confessional viewpoint. As debate went on another area of controversy which is broadly called ‘The Federal Vision’ was also raised.
The request was rejected, basically because it was asserted that the pastors of the church should read the relevant material and come up with their own understanding. While laudable, this is an odd position for a confessional church to adopt, and it also assumes that working pastors out of the mainstream of capital cities have the facilities to keep up with the cutting edge of scholarly debates which have arisen since their original training was completed.
I suspect one of the reasons why those in the theological industry, in particular, were opposed was because they believed there would be no single position on the issue in each of our three faculties, let alone an evaluation which would be shared by all three colleges.

All of that is a very elaborate reason to produce this link from the Society for the Advancement of Ecclesial Theology in which features a parody which takes Tom Wright exegeting Humpty Dumpty as its premise.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Clearly the writer is telling an Israel story, and here alludes to the Temple.  This echoes other lines in early 2^nd Nursery Literature, such as Mother Hubbard’s cupboard (the “storehouse” of the Temple) and the bone (resurrection life) which she sought for her dog (“Gentiles”). “But when she got there, the cupboard was bare and the poor little doggie had none.”  The temple had nothing to offer the Gentiles, and they thus remained in their state of Adamic sin and decay.
So here, too, one should not be surprised to discover that the Temple and its “wall” are bankrupt. The next line, then, is not a shock, but an expectation:
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall Read on…

HT: Michael Bird.