Thought Crimes and the Silencing of Dissent
A few months ago, I was invited to contribute a post or two to the brand new God-Centered Life website (an organisation whose ministry council I’ve been asked to join). One of their concerns is to help university students engage with the culture around them, and so I took the issue of Political Correctness (its […]
Q Combinations 14: Paul Nash’s Ypres Salient & Lawrence’s Healing
I just can’t bear it. Having had friends who have lived in Aleppo, the sight of the firestorm there these week has been heartbreaking. Destruction and slaughter, despair and savagery. When will it stop? Where’s next? Who’s next? It doesn’t bear thinking about. But it will happen. That much is guaranteed. But for those millions […]
3D’ego trip
Well, I did a VERY odd thing the other day. The Royal Academy is one of my favourite places on earth – always something interesting to see – and occasionally do. Like the other day. As part of a new sculpture project, an Italian group has created a machine called a Veronica scanner that does 3D […]
Quirky Words 1: PHILOXENIA and the outsider
It’s been a while, as the feed will prove, since I blogged regularly and briefly. Must. Try. Harder. So this is the first in an occasional series on words I love. It sounds a bit random, of course. Hence quirky. But there’s more method than apparent madness in it. I hope. The first word I […]
Q Marks the Spot – Treasure Map 97 (September 2016)
Sacred Treasure I’ve always found the old Indian parable of the Blind men and the elephant infuriating – Trevin Wax does a great job drawing together all the problems with it. Interesting perspectives on the French and Italian muslims who attended Catholic Mass in solidarity Short-term missions trips are increasingly controversial – trust Babylon Bee […]
Q Marks The Spot – Treasure Map 96 (August 2016)
SACRED TREASURE So Wayne Grudem has waded in with a rather extraordinary endorsement of Donald Trump as a moral. Unsurprisingly, this has led to quite an online response David Moore (who kindly interviewed me a while back for A Wilderness of Mirrors) has a measured post here Randal Rauser is more robust, but it is […]
Q Marks the Spot – Treasure Map 95 (July 2016)
Sacred Treasure Zack Eswine has a beautiful piece on God’s memory and our tears 75th Anniversary of C S Lewis’s sermon The Weight of Glory. I’d not noticed this when he wrote it, but my boss, Paul Windsor, has a great, not 100% serious, theological engagement with the Angry Birds phenomenon (to perpetuate the Stott […]
The Torment of Helios: a poetic reflection on Paul Klee’s Sunset
During my brief visit to Chicago a couple of months back, I was taken by friends to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was an art paradise – never seen so many in Picassos in one place, apart from anything else. There were many works that gripped me. But one in particular has been impossible […]
Some Brexit Questions before it’s too late
I’m just about to leave the country for a conference – and return just in time for the Bremain/Brexit vote on June 23rd. I wrote on the subject fairly extensively a few weeks back, so I won’t repeat what I said there. My position hasn’t much changed to be honest. And I’m glad to be […]
In and Out of God’s Places: An additional overview tool
This grew out of some conversations at a Langham workshop in Budapest back in March when we were trying to come up some creative teaching plans for adult education. I was working with old pal Theo Karvounakis and it was initially quite rough and ready. But because this seemed to have legs, I have played […]
Q Combinations 13: Stevie Smith’s Drowning Man, on a path
I was giving a talk at a church in Oxford last weekend, on the issue of Doing Christian Ministry while Battling Depression (it should be online soon). These are tricky, because it is a tightrope between describing exclusively personal and even unique experiences, and then managing to build bridges for those who have not experienced it. […]
Q Marks the Spot – Treasure Map 93 (June 2016)
Sacred Treasure Ian Paul has a useful reflection on the phrase “hate the sin, love the sinner” Zack Eswine has some great stuff on what he calls the Decision Making Triangle Chris Green on good form about pastors doing rest well Kevin deYoung joyfully whimsical on Wodehouse and the Bible A 2200-year old mosaic found […]
