Author: Michael Macneil
Fundamentalism as a modernism
Fundamentalism is often conceived of as a reaction against modern, secular society. This essay argued the opposite – it is a form of modernism but a modernism distinct from secular modernism.... Read More
If we cannot prove the claims of religious belief, is it nevertheless reasonable to believe these claims?
This is an introduction to the Reformed Epistemology (RE) movement that was particularly associated with the philospher Alvin Plantinga. Plantinga was interested in establishing the grounds on which a... Read More
For C.G Jung, the process of individuation is a spiritual journey or pilgrimage
I had the privilege of being taught by Professor Lucy Huskinson who is one of the top Jungian scholars. Her Psychology of Religion course was one of the most challenging (as she provided masses of r... Read More
The Doctrine of God
This was a 2300 word essay on one of the toughest subjects in philosophy and theology – the doctrine of God. Michael Palmer, author of the exceptional undergraduate philosophy textbook, “... Read More
Four thousand words on theological ethics
These were actually revision notes for these pre-released exam questions for my Theological Ethics examination in 2008: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of (1) Deontology and (2) Consequentialism... Read More
‘Thou Shalt Not Kill.’ Is this true in every case?
This was a short, 1500 word coursework essay examining the interpretation of this commandment in a Judeo-Christian, ethical context. It packs in Exodus and Leviticus, War and Peace, Abortion and Eut... Read More
The Rise of Christian Anti-Semitism
This essay examines the period of the High Middle Ages (1100-1500CE) that is generally accepted to have been particularly influential in the development of Christian anti-Semitism. It examines how the... Read More
Does religion hinder or enable psychological health?
This was an undergraduate essay for a Psychology of Religion module. I “wandered off the script” in writing this essay which was primarily supposed to be contrasting Freud’s and Ju... Read More
Anti-Semitism and the Gospel of John
One of the commonest criticisms levelled at the gospel of John is that it is “anti-Semitic”. This view derives from John’s repeated use of the denominator “The Jews” th... Read More
The Justice of God and the Story of Job
Job is one of the most ancient pieces of literature known to humanity and is an outstanding example of what is known as the “wisdom literature” of the ancient world, to which the books of ... Read More
The Ethical Teaching of the Prophet Isaiah
It is a remarkable historical fact that in 800BC the prophet Isaiah had developed a keen sense of ethics directed at the lay, political and religious life of his contemporaries in the nation of Israel... Read MoreThe Hour of Glorification
How and why does John depict the death of Jesus as “His hour of Glorification”? The Gospel of John offers a radically mature presentation of Jesus when compared to the dramatic and often e... Read More
John G Lake – A Man of Dominion
John G Lake is one of the pioneers of the message of the early Pentecostal Church – the gift of tongues, healing, deliverance, miracles, raising the dead; that is, the full range of spiritual ... Read More
The 4th Century CE as the breakdown of Jewish-Christian Relations
The fourth century is important in Christian history because it is considered by many Church historians as the period in which the Church finally came of age. It was a period, in the wake of the Edict... Read More
Christianity and Postmodernism
Postmodernism is an amorphous term that started to appear in the middle of the 20th century and was first applied to a particular school of Art that rejected the normal and conventional conceptions of... Read MoreWhat is Distinctive in the Christian View of God?
It is well known that there are three great monotheistic religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism. One stream of thought wants to unify these conceptions as different expressions of the sam... Read More
The Resurrection in the Christian Faith
There is no doctrine within the Christian religion that provokes such intellectual ridicule as the Resurrection and it was one of the first to be “reinterpreted” in the post-Darwinian rati... Read More
The Hebrew Scriptures in the Book of Revelation
John, the writer of the Apocalypse (traditionally thought of as the Apostle John, this is hotly contested in liberal scholarship but seems well supported by the Johannine theology of the book and its ... Read More
The Christology of Mark
Mark’s Gospel is often mischaracterised as shallow and a “young man’s excited report about this cool dude Jesus” – this is because the Greek used in its composition is ve... Read More
The Miracle Of Life – remembering the story of Millie McDonagh
What Price Life? (This was originally written in 2007, I have updated the abortion statistics) It was reported in The Times on March 1st this year that baby Millie McDonagh was allowed to go home. Wha... Read More
Kant’s Moral Argument for the Existence of God
Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) is considered by many philosophers to be one of the most important of Western philosophers, if not the most important. His Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 2nd edi... Read More
The Council of Nicea
The Council of Nicea in 325CE following the Roman Empire’s Edict of Toleration of 313CE was one of the first and most important of the councils ever held by the Church presided over by the Emp... Read More
Understanding Deuteronomy
One of the hardest modules of my undergraduate theology studies was Old Testament studies. I did not like the lecturer (professor for US readers!) and had frequent clashes. He was, it seemed to me... Read More
Hume and the Argument from Design
David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scots philosopher who developed empiricism in opposition to the continental Rationalism. More than any other thinker of his time, perhaps with the exception of Immanuel ... Read More