Articles
I have always liked teaching and writing. These are a selection of things I and others have written. They are arranged chronologically rather than thematically, not least because not everything below represents my current thinking on a subject. From 1983 to 2007 I was very involved with the International Churches of Christ. From wholeheartedly espousing their thinking, with time I have acquired more objectivity and I hope, am more centred on what Jesus has done and less on advocating a system and what we must do. Rather than editing out all my views which have changed, I have let them stand as a historic record. "By the grace of God I am what I am" 1 Cor 15:10
James Greig - July 2022
"His name is John"
Five Oxford Johns and their place in Oxford’s Christian Heritage: John Wycliffe (1331-1384), John Owen (1616-1683), John Wesley (1703-1791), John Henry Newman (1801-1890), Tolkien (1892-1973).
James Greig - May 2022
John Owen - a short life and legacy
John Owen lived from 1616 to 1683, through the Stuart era and the English Civil War. If the 16th century had been the century of the Reformation, the 17th century was to show how it would work out in England...
Emily Greig - September 2021
Religious Rivalry in a Victorian Oxford Suburb and its Legacy
Although Christianity was easily the dominant faith of Victorian Britain, it was also ‘much more disunited and quarrelsome than it is now’, according to Geoffrey Best in 1988. This dissertation examines the religious life of a suburban Oxford parish in the second half of the 1800s.
James Greig - March 2019
A talk given recently to Christian Business Leaders in Abingdon, Oxfordshire
James Greig - October 2006
Is baptism necessary for salvation? This question has defined the Churches of Christ since their birth. I wrote this article as an apologetic for my decision to start worshipping with a mainstream evangelical church in 2007.
James Greig - October 2005
A study on the concept of the Kingdom of God for members of the churches of Christ who were taught for many years that their family of churches was God’s Kingdom on earth.
James Greig - February 2003
What is biblical?
In challenging the International Churches of Christ’s unquestioned use of the adjective ‘biblical’ to refer to its practices, this article highlights issues of interpretation for all Bible-based churches which they ignore at their peril.
James Greig - March 2002
“A greater power”: The workings of providence in the book of Esther
The only book of the Bible not to mention God, and of which no trace was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. I argue that God’s presence in providence permeates the book of Esther.
James Greig - December 2000
Jesus Papyrus Review
Magdalen College Oxford holds the oldest fragment of Matthew’s gospel in the world, from 170 AD. This article draws particularly from a book about the manuscript by a former member of Magdalen, the journalist Matthew d’Ancona
James Greig - April 2000, updated for Compass magazine August 2011
The long-lost town of Bethsaida
My thoughts on the ruins of this long-lost Galilean site in Jesus’ ministry which was the home town of a number of his disciples.