word | spirit | world | church
The renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson has, as I write, just released his new book Beyond Order. It’s causing the usual early splash you’d expect. Most media interviews are fairly negative, not least because Peterson stands in for a certain sort of conservative adjacent thinking they dislike strongly, even if that isn’t what he represents.… Continue reading Exploring Jordan B. Peterson
History is written by the victors. This is a truism, who else is left alive to write it? But here’s the thing, there is such a thing as a Christian view of history. The Bible has a lot of say about history and how to read it, including two detailed commentaries on Israel’s later history… Continue reading To whom does History belong?
Tara Isabella Burton’s wonderful 'Strange Rites' charts some of the wide array of movements among Millennials that are taking on religious character. The book takes us on a journalistic tour of some examples of ‘pick & mix’ religion before describing three movements that Burton describes as religions. I’ll briefly outline them below, but the book… Continue reading New religions for a new age
A friend contacted me recently to say that she’d re-listened to a message I preached a couple of years ago on idolatry from Exodus 32, when the Israelites built themselves a bull to worship. You can listen to it here if it takes your fancy. She then asked me an intriguing question, “what does idolatry… Continue reading Idols in Lockdown
The last year has upended our lives, to say the least. Most of my friends have been reflecting on how it has upended our emotions as well. Have you noticed that? There’s a generalised malaise in the air. Sure, there’s ambient anxiety caused by the way we consume news like there has been for decades,… Continue reading Naming the Hydra
I was preaching a few weeks ago on Jacob’s death and funeral in Genesis 49. My message largely focused around the hopeful nature of his death and our hope of resurrection and the age to come. It got me thinking though about a ‘good death’. It used to be that people talked about Christians as… Continue reading Memento Mori
The cultural commentator’s big question at the moment is what will the world be like in the magical hereafter: post-Covid. How will this change us? Perhaps—as Mark Sayers suggests—this will quicken the move that was already happening as globalism gives in to the networked society (this seems plausible), or—as many have commented—we will see the… Continue reading AC: After-Covid
As I write this American Baptists are tearing each other apart over a complex set of ideologies and academic approaches collectively called “Critical Race Theory” and often abbreviated as CRT. By the time you read this—I am committed to the idea of cold takes—I would not be surprised if they were still devouring one another… Continue reading Plundering the Egyptians
We have been told that Covid-19 is the “great leveller” as plague puts us all in the same position, reduces our power and places us at the mercy of tiny particles. As many commentators have pointed out, this has been demonstrably false. Covid disproportionately affects ethnic minorities, the poor, the elderly and those with a… Continue reading The Exposer
#representationmatters We’re confronted with the idea everywhere: we need to see more diverse faces and hear from more diverse voices in our media so that all of us feel that we are ‘represented’. This tends to focus on groups who have been historically marginalised or who continue to have or be perceived as having less… Continue reading Representation matters
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