thought and theology

This page is for longer writings on theological themes

A call for strategic global gospel investment

Christ’s command: ‘Make disciples of all nations …’ [Matthew 28:19]. Christ’s prayer: ‘Our Father in heaven, make your name holy, bring your kingdom, do your will, on earth, as in heaven’ [Matthew 6:9-10]. Christ’s atoning death: ‘You were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from…

Gospel growth in a dying world: living in last-days pre-Christendom

An excerpt from T R Glover, The Jesus of History, SCM, 1917. [This book was based on a series of lectures given in India, hence the references to India and its gods.] He comments on the extraordinary strength and growth of the church in what seemed like very difficult…

Let grace-filled gratitude fill your life and ministry!

Paraklesis [‘encouragement’, ‘exhortation’, for life and ministry] January 2025 Dear friends, The more we are aware of God’s free and powerful grace in every area of our lives and ministries, the more we will praise and thank him, the more we will trust him, the more we will depend…

Australia: Whose land?

A Christian call for recompense John Saunders Lecture Delivered on 10th August 2009 Morling College Sydney Peter Adam Ridley College Introduction I am grateful for this opportunity to speak on this important issue, one of the great issues facing Australia. I am not an expert, and to not speak…

Devoted to prayer?

Paraklesis [‘encouragement’, ‘exhortation’, for life and ministry] November 2023 Peter Adam Dear friends, Are you devoted to prayer? The first Christians ‘devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer’ [Acts 2:42]. Paul instructed all the believers in the church at…

The progress of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Victoria since 1835

Some resources Angus, David E., Decisive Years: Experiences of Christian University Students, Melbourne, David Angus, 2005. Babbage, S. Barton, and Ian Siggins, Light Beneath The Cross: The Story of Billy Graham’s Crusade in Australia, London, Heinemann, 1960. Benson, C. Irving, A Century of Victorian Methodism, Melbourne, Spectator, 1935. Boyce,…

Anglican and Roman Catholic tensions in Sydney and Melbourne in the 1840s

180 years ago, on March 25th 1843 Bishop Broughton, the [high-church Tractarian] Bishop of Australia, based in Sydney, officially and publicly asserted that the episcopal actions of the recently appointed Roman Catholic Bishop of Sydney, Bede Polding, were invalid! Dr. Broughton made his public protest in St. James’s church,…