I’ve always felt sad at the passing of Christmas Day: at how quickly the world moves on to Boxing-Day sales, extinguished fairy lights, discarded fir trees and raucous New-Year revelries. Perhaps it’s partly nostalgia, but I yearn for those past times Read more
RealityBites is a ministry that is part of Thinking Faith Network. What do we do? Here is one of our projects. My good friend Mark Yeadon and I reach out to students by telling stories and sharing the good news Read more
One of my favourite pieces of Christmas music is ‘For unto us a Child is born’ from Georg Friderich Händel’s Messiah. I have loved it since I was a child, touched by its bouncing joy and the intricacy of its polyphonic Read more
In teaching elementary probability and statistics to undergraduates, I’ve been reading about some of the great mathematicians who are commemorated in the names of functions and constants. This has led me to ponder the role of religious worldviews in mathematical genius, and it’s Read more
One of the figures in the Bible who I’m most fond of is the prophet Daniel: mainly because, like me, he was a literature student. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it […]Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, Read more
Young people learn how to serve a very powerful and hypnotic god. Technology is a good gift from God but can easily become an idol. A bit of background to this. The famous Russian revolutionary Trotsky (1879-1940) wrote that “Such is Read more
Intellectual servanthood ‘Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”’ Mark 9:35 ‘“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the Read more
The Story The Mafia ‘Boss of bosses’ Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina was nicknamed ‘The Beast’ because of his brutality. He led a reign of terror which included the assassinations of anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992. In violation Read more
A major challenge for younger academics is the increasing prevalence of both fixed-term contracts and institutional mobility. A year ago I wrote about moving from a university to a business environment, and now I’m back in a university again, with another shift in my research area. So I thought Read more
Today I want to share a prayer that has become a regular part of my working life. At the Scriptorium here in Oxford, this is one of the prayers we say together at the beginning of every working day. It’s usually attributed Read more