word | spirit | world | church
This is the last part of my ongoing series exploring the letter written by St Polycarp to the church in Philippi, collaborating with my friend Adsum Try Ravenhill of the Raven’s Writing Desk. You can read the previous parts at these links: I; II; III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII. Dear Adsum And in turn, I write my final letter to you.… Continue reading Final Words: Polycarp XIV
We contest not with flesh and blood but with powers and principalities (Ephesians 6). This means the grand principles of the fallen world, ruled by evil personalities, and the everyday demons we all encounter all the time. Which might sound strange as maybe you don’t encounter many demons, but my pastoral experience would suggest otherwise.… Continue reading What is Spiritual Warfare
When I write on modernity, I suspect I give off the ‘vibe’ that everything was better in some golden age in the past. At the very least I sound like something is profoundly wrong with the moment in which we find ourselves. This codes me as ‘conservative’ in the broadest way: conservatives are those who… Continue reading On Nostalgia
Character matters. I suspect everyone agrees on that much. We say when appointing pastors that character is the thing that matters most—whether we follow through on that is a good question, of course—and we say the same thing about what matters in the Christian life. It’s vitally important. Jesus wants us to grow up into… Continue reading Restor(y)ing Character
This is the next part of my ongoing series exploring the letter written by St Polycarp to the church in Philippi, collaborating with my friend Adsum Try Ravenhill of the Raven’s Writing Desk. You can read the previous parts at these links: I; II; III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI. Dear Adsum Thank you for your last letter, sobering though it… Continue reading Learning to be Angry Well: Polycarp XII
There can be a tendency in a certain kind of academic work on the Bible to heavily assert that the Bible is a collection of documents written by a diverse array of authors in different settings and time periods (so far, that’s entirely true) and that therefore it isn’t reasonable to speak as if the… Continue reading Is the Bible a cacophony?
This is one of those topics you rarely hear anyone who isn’t a charismatic or Pentecostal talking about—what are the Ephesians 4 Ministries (or sometimes ‘fivefold ministry’) and should local churches care about them? Except, I recently noticed a definitely-not-a-charismatic friend mentioning them. This piece from Rhys Laverty that builds off some of my blogging… Continue reading Ephesians 4 Ministries
AI is sycophantic, did you know that? Antropic AI, recently published a paper explaining their recent research in Large Language Models (LLMs, what we have taken to calling Generative AI). They found that LLMs have a bias towards answers that they defined as sycophantic but incorrect. In other words, the AI tells us what we… Continue reading Sycophants and Liars
This is the next part of my ongoing series exploring the letter written by St Polycarp to the church in Philippi, collaborating with my friend Adsum Try Ravenhill of the Raven’s Writing Desk. You can read the previous parts at these links: I; II; III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX. Dear Adsum Thank you for your last letter, particularly your guidance to… Continue reading Stand Fast: Polycarp X
In Luke chapter 9, a Samaritan village rejects Jesus. James and John, in their infinite wisdom, ask Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven to burn up the offending Samaritans. Jesus rebuked them and they carry on. There are two interesting things to explore here, firstly why James and John thought that was… Continue reading Fire from heaven
nuakh 