On aphorisms
My first serious theological study was on Coleridge, who delved deeply into the idea of the ‘aphorism’ as a mode of instruction. He says, in his Aids to Reflection, that ‘[t]his twofold act of circumscribing, and detaching, when it is exerted by the mind on subjects of reflection and reason, is to aphorise…’ (footnote to ‘Introductory Aphorism XXV’); he goes on to say this: ‘[e]xclusively of the abstract sciences, the largest and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of aphorisms…’ (‘Introductory Aphorism XXVII’). I’m not sure about that; but the intellectual work he commends, of attempting to boil down an insight into its tersest form, to state the whole essence of the matter with no development or padding, is one that occasionally attracts me. Hence...
Read MoreAn aphorism on evangelistic preaching
Written whilst listening to a sermon on John 3:16, which seemed to assume the subject of that verse was human faith, not divine love: ‘Our task is not to tell people that they must believe in Jesus, but so to tell them of Jesus that they must believe in Him.’
Read MoreAn aphorism on preaching
‘A preacher does better to deserve attention than to demand it.’ ( I used a version of this in describing the second volume of Colin Gunton’s sermons in my ‘Introduction’, but it was developed in reflecting on the ministry of a faithful pastor whose sermons never excited, but always nourished.)
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