The research postdoc I’ve been carrying out in Toronto this year has enabled me to start a new project – one which has made explaining my work to friends, especially Christian friends, a little more unpredictable. When I was working on my DPhil, I could answer people’s questions at church Read more
Today I want to follow up my last post, about how exemplary figures, whether in our lives, in the Bible, or in our fields of study, contribute to our formation – particularly as we live and think in community. Earlier this year, I was asked to fill in on a Read more
Materialism aka consumerism is such a seedy and destructive faith. Consider the story of 15 year old An who was sold by her parents to a brothel in Bangkok in Thailand. She was proud that her earnings allowed her mum and dad to buy two motorbikes and a fridge. Thai Read more
To be honest DIY is not my strength. My dad, Jim, was terrible at DIY and it seems to run in the family. My wife, Anne, was concerned about the lack of shelving for books in the house and I was commissioned to find the right tradesman. Imagine my delight Read more
Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert attended séances as early as 1846. In 1861, the year when Prince Albert died, a thirteen-year-old medium, Robert Lees delivered a message from Albert to the Queen in which he called her by a pet name known only to her and her dead Read more
Story Picture it. Your name is Vladimir and you are working in a Soviet chemical factory in the 1930’s. Suddenly the workers stop working and they start to sing a hymn. Not to God but to ‘electricity’. They sing as follows: Electricity can do anything. It can dispel darkness and Read more
Very pleased that the Scripture Union magazine Encounter with God has published my article ‘Transformation of Work’. Here is the article. God is a worker and He calls us to work in His wonderful but broken world. Some find it surprising that God works but Jesus makes this clear in the gospel Read more
It was both humbling and encouraging to spend two hours with sixth formers exploring the Mafia, evil, materialism, eastern religions and the Christian faith in Doncaster yesterday. When you tackle ‘hot’ topics like evil and unseen powers of darkness it is vital to pray and fast and I’d just like to Read more
Story Many call her Santa Muerte (Saint Death) but she has been condemned by the Roman Catholic church. The grim, skeletal female figure has a huge following in Mexico. Faith in Santa Muerte is popular among criminals, drug lords and ne’er-do-wells who sometimes crawl piously to a Santa Muerte shrine. Read more
An Indian fakir had been living on a bed of spikes for 18 months. Why was he doing this? The desperate man said this: “I worship God in this way but I confess that the pricks of these spikes are not so bad as the pain I get from my Read more