The Festival of Preaching takes place at Christ Church, Oxford from Sunday 8 Sept to Tuesday 10 Sept. The Festival, organised by Church Times and Canterbury Press, aims to inspire, nurture and celebrate all who are called to proclaim the gospel today. Speakers include Brian McLaren, David Hoyle, Paula Gooder, and Mark Oakley. The Festival is sold out, but if you didn’t get a ticket, you can watch Paula Gooder and Mark Oakley’s talks live on the Church Times Facebook page, and videos of some of t...
Sep 06, 2019•13 min
A new book by Dr Mark Vernon, a psychotherapist and former parish priest, suggests that “something is going wrong with Christianity”. A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling, and the evolution of consciousness argues that “standard mystical theology” — the idea “that your life springs from God’s life and that this truth is yours to be discovered” — has been lost in the past 500 years. The following is a conversation between Dr Vernon and Jules Evans, policy director at the Cent...
Aug 30, 2019•37 min
The podcast continues its summer break this week, so we are giving you the chance to listen again (or perhaps for the first time) to an interview from our archives. This interview with Professor John Swinton was first run in 2017. Professor Swinton is the winner of the 2016 Michael Ramsey Prize. The winner of the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize will be announced this weekend at the Greenbelt Festival. The podcast will return with a new episode on 30 August.
Aug 23, 2019•17 min
The podcast continues its summer break this week, so we are giving you the chance to listen again (or perhaps for the first time) to an interview from our archives. This episode was originally posted in July 2018. Guy Stagg spent 10 months walking from Canterbury to Jerusalem, following medieval pilgrim paths across 5,500 km. He began the journey after several years of mental illness, hoping that the walk would heal him. A non-believer, he wanted to understand religion by taking part in its ritu...
Aug 16, 2019•39 min
The podcast is taking a summer break this week. But we're giving you the chance to listen again (or for the first time, if you missed it the first time round) to the Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie in conversation with Tom Holland, about Fergus's book A Field Guide to the English Clergy (Oneworld). It was recorded at Hatchards bookshop, in central London, in November 2018. Fergus is a guest columnist in this week's Church Times. His next book, Priests de la Résistance!, will be published in October by...
Aug 09, 2019•39 min
At Launde Abbey last month, Dame Hilary Mantel and Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch reflected on the life of Thomas Cromwell and his place in the Reformation. They were speaking at an event to mark the 900th anniversary of Launde Abbey, which Cromwell was fond of visiting. In part two, we hear the conversation between them, introduced and moderated by the Bishop of Brixworth, the Rt Revd John Holbrook
Aug 01, 2019•1 hr 1 min
At Launde Abbey last month, Dame Hilary Mantel and Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch reflected on the life of Thomas Cromwell and his place in the Reformation. They were speaking at an event to mark the 900th anniversary of Launde Abbey, which Cromwell was fond of visiting. Both hardly need introducing. Mantel is, of course, the author of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, published by Fourth Estate, each of which were awarded the Booker Prize. The final book in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light...
Aug 01, 2019•38 min
Last month, Oxford University was given £150m by a US billionaire, Stephen A. Schwarzman, to study the ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence. In the announcement, he warned that technology left unaffected would “trample over certain aspects of human behaviour and human opportunities”, before setting out the potential to “reaffirm western values” and “help the world adjust to changing times.” Which raises the question: whose values exactly would we be reaffirming? We commissioned this w...
Jul 25, 2019•32 min
Hattie Williams, senior reporter at the Church Times, has covered the proceedings of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in the Anglican Church from the beginning. The final hearing ended on 12 July, and a report is due next summer. Hattie talks to Paul Handley, editor, about the experience, and what she thinks the Church can learn.
Jul 19, 2019•15 min
It’s time for the Church to start talking about race, says Ben Lindsay, a Pastor at Emmanuel Church, in south London and CEO and founder of Power the Fight, a charity that empowers communities to end youth violence. From the UK Church’s complicity in the transatlantic slave trade to the whitewashing of Christianity throughout history, the Church has a lot to answer for when it comes to race relations, he says. His book, We Need to Talk About Race, is published on 18 July by SPCK. The Archbishop ...
Jul 11, 2019•37 min
The author and activist Shane Claiborne is the founder of The Simple Way in Philadelphia and President of Red Letter Christians. He was in the UK recently to launch the UK arm of Red Letter Christians, and to talk about his new book, Beating Guns: Hope for people who are weary of violence, co-written with Michael Martin (BrazosPress). Ed Thornton spoke to Shane about how Christians can respond creatively and prophetically to gun and knife violence. Picture credit: Red Letter Christians
Jul 05, 2019•25 min
Barbara Brown Taylor says that it wasn’t until she began digging into the faith of those who didn’t share hers, that she really began to understand her own. It was this journey towards meeting God in “so many new hats” that ignited her “holy envy” – the title of her new book, published in the UK by Canterbury Press. Barbara Brown Taylor sat down with Martin Wroe at the Church Times offices to talk about the book, which is available from the Church Times Bookshop at £15.29. An edited version of t...
Jun 27, 2019•42 min
The fashion for big history - books that no only survey the rise and fall of humans and their societies, but also try to discern some order from within the chaos - has grown a great deal in recent years. Names like Niall Ferguson, Yuval Noah Harari, Francis Fukuyama, and Peter Frankopan are widely known and respected. But, before them all, in the 1990s, Jared Diamond was publishing books that married biology, anthropology, ecology, linguistics, and history, and really set the pattern for the gen...
Jun 20, 2019•37 min
This week, Hattie Williams talks to the Bishop of Kensington, Dr Graham Tomlin, about his report, The Social Legacy of Grenfell: An agenda for change. 14 June marks the second anniversary of the Grenfell disaster. And Ed Thornton talks to the Revd Nicholas Mercer – a former Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, who campaigns with the charity Redress on behalf of survivors of torture. He is urging churches to mark the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, on 26 June.
Jun 14, 2019•19 min
“The Church has misunderstood Paul badly.” So Steve Chalke argues in his new book, The Lost Message of Paul, which will be published by SPCK on 20 June. “We have read Paul’s words through our own set of assumptions,” Steve says. “We need to go back to his worldview and see things the way he saw them.” Ed Thornton to Steve Chalke about the book at the offices of the charity he runs in central London, the Oasis Charitable Trust. The book is available to pre-order from the Church House Bookshop – g...
Jun 07, 2019•47 min
“I am large, I contain multitudes”. So wrote Walt Whitman in his 1855 masterpice Song of Myself. The American poet’s 200th birthday is on Friday (31 May). In this week’s Church Times, Dr Michael Robertson, author of Worshipping Whalt: The Whitman disciples (Princeton Press), argues that while Whitman has been celebrated as a poet of democracy and of nature, among other things, his religious purpose is under-appreciated. On this week's podcast, Dr Robertson speaks to Madeleine Davies about Whitma...
May 30, 2019•49 min
This week, Madeleine Davies talks to Vicky Walker about her new book Relatable: Exploring God, Love and Connection in the Age of Choice. Picture credit: Dipesh Dhimar
May 23, 2019•55 min
The Archbishop of Canterbury delivered the William Temple Foundation’s annual lecture on Monday, at Lambeth Palace. It was entitled Reimagining Britain: Faith and the Common Good. The William Temple Foundation’s director of research, Professor Chris Baker, described it as “a realistic but hopeful assessment of the state of the nation, the place of the church and religion, and the prospects for a revitalised social and public sphere. It was a lecture brimming with intellectual and theological ide...
May 16, 2019•44 min
The Church of England has been talking a lot about estates ministry of late. Madeleine Davies has visited the Byker Wall Estate in Newcastle, where a church is thinking imaginatively about mission. She tells us about it. And we hear from three of the 21 4 21 young interfaith ambassadors about peacemaking and bridge-building. Photo credit: North News and Pictures
May 09, 2019•22 min
This week, the editor Paul Handley reports from Hong Kong on what has been going on at the ACC-17 - the 17th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. Photo: Conrad Yu
May 03, 2019•13 min
This week, Ed Thornton talk to our Ireland correspondent Gregg Ryan about the reaction of political and church leaders to the killing of the journalist Lyra McKee last week, and her funeral at St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast. And we hear from the editor Paul Handley before he sets off for Hong Kong, to attend the 17th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, whose members are asking for more say in the running of the Anglican Communion.
Apr 26, 2019•20 min
“It really isn’t an exaggeration to say that the future of the human race is at stake”, said Rowan Williams in an Extinction Rebellion video last month. On Sunday, Lord Williams led a prayer vigil for the rebellion outside St Paul’s Cathedral, before the movement this week brought parts of central London to a standstill, as they demand the Government take more action to combat climate change. But who are Extinction Rebellion, what do they seek to achieve, and what are Christians contributing to ...
Apr 18, 2019•18 min
This week, Madeleine Davies interviews Pete Greig, the “bewildered instigator” of the 24-7 prayer movement. He is also closely involved with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Thy Kingdom Come prayer initiative. Pete is a pastor and the author of books including God on Mute and Dirty Glory. His latest book is called How to Pray: a simple guide for normal people, which is published by Hodder. It’s available at the Church Times Bookshop for the special price of £12.60 – go to chbookshop.co.uk.
Apr 11, 2019•27 min
This week, Professor John Swinton speaks on why in a culture that prioritises speed, efficiency, and productivity, we should remember that love takes time. Professor Swinton is a former nurse, a minister in the Church of Scotland, and Professor Practical Theology and Pastoral Care at the University of Aberdeen. His books include Dementia: Living in the memories of God, which won the 2016 Michael Ramsey Prize, and Becoming Friends of Time (SCM Press). This talk was delivered at the Theology Slam ...
Apr 04, 2019•10 min
This week, Madeleine Davies talks to Rupert Shortt about his new book, Does Religion do more harm than good?, published by SPCK. We publish an extract in this week’s paper and John Saxbee reviews it in our books pages. The book is available from the Church Times Bookshop for £9 – go to chbookshop.co.uk. Rupert Shortt is Religion Editor of The Times Literary Supplement and the author of critically acclaimed books including God is No Thing, Christianaphobia, and Rowan’s Rule: the biography of the ...
Mar 28, 2019•34 min
Adam Becket brings us the latest on Brexit - and how the C of E hopes that "tea and prayer drop-ins" next weekend will foster reconciliation among Leavers and Remainers. Madeleine Davies tells us about the first HTB-supported resource church in the Church in Wales - which is facing some opposition. And the editor Paul Handley talks about the Train-a-Priest Fund, which helps ordinands who face financial hardship.
Mar 22, 2019•19 min
This week, Ed Thornton speaks to the writer and broadcaster Peter Stanford about his new book, Angels: A Visible and invisible history, published by Hodder. The book looks at the origins of angels in religious thought and asks why, in a secular age, they remain more compelling and comforting to many than God. You can buy the book at the Church House Bookshop for the offer price of £16 – go to chbookshophymnsam.co.uk or call 020 7799 4064.
Mar 15, 2019•20 min
On Thursday evening (7 March), the final of the Theology Slam competition took place at St John’s Hoxton in London. It was a great evening with talks by Hannah Barr (theology and the #MeToo movement, Sara Prats (theology and mental health), and Hannah Malcolm (theology and the environment). The talks are featured on the podcast – and the winner is announced at the end. The winning talk will be published in next week’s Church Times and on our website. You can watch the whole event on the Church T...
Mar 08, 2019•27 min
What causes someone to go from being a committed Christian to a convinced non-believer? On this week’s podcast, Ed Thornton talks to Dr John Marriott, an expert on so-called “deconversion”. His book, A Recipe for Disaster, is published by Wipf & Stock.
Feb 28, 2019•33 min
This week, two gay priests of different generations talk about the challenges they've faced in the Church. They have both recently published books about their experiences. The Revd Marcus Green has writtenThe Possibility of Difference (Kevin Mahew) and the Revd Stanley Underhill's book is called Coming out of the Black Country (Zuleika). Both books are available at the Church Times Bookshop.
Feb 15, 2019•25 min
