You can listen to our podcast through the posts on this page, or listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, or find it on Spotify by clicking here!

In this episode we begin a new series on a Theology of Social Justice. We examine the central narrative of the Old Testament, how it shapes up a radical view of God, and the way that harmful ways of being in the world (often called ‘sin’) are not just personal but structural. Liberation and salvation are therefore not just personal and individual, but call us to act in ways that transform the structures and systems that give rise to suffering.

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In this episode we continue our conversation on why faith matters in the 21st century. We explore the transformative and revolutionary idea of grace that is present within the Jesus tradition, and how it upturns the status systems we so often establish in human community. Grace is a much bigger idea than simply “undeserved favour” - in fact there are some problems with that idea. It is about a divine bestowal of human worth, value and dignity on all human creatures, and as such becomes an agitating and disruptive force whenever systems of power and oppression seek to diminish the worth of some to the benefit of others.

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With all that’s going on, it can be hard to see why faith still matters in the 21st century. This is even more so if we claim that Christianity is not really about securing your eternal ticket to heavenly glory and escaping the highway to hell. Does faith still have anything meaningful and transformative to us in the present? In this episode we discuss the human tendency toward closed ideological systems of certainty, the problems that this creates (be it in religious, political, or social domains of life), and how the Jesus story offers us an alternative way of being that is centred around ‘presence’.

You can listen to our podcast through the posts on this page, or listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, or find it on Spotify by clicking here!

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You can listen to our podcast through the posts on this page, or listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, or find it on Spotify by clicking here!

The early followers of Jesus were faced with the challenge of trying to figure out what it meant to have their lives reconfigured by the events wrapped up with the coming of the Christ. This episode explores how their experimentations and innovations help us to find new ways of being too. The church carries within it the challenge to embody an emphasis on authentic transformation rather than performative holiness, to include rather than reject, and to imagine new ways of living that are grounded in self-giving love; even when the rules of society tell you that life doesn’t work that way.

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You can listen to our podcast through the posts on this page, or listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, or find it on Spotify by clicking here!

In this episode we explore how the story of Jesus emerges against the backdrop of the Roman empire and the continued oppression of the Jewish people. How does Jesus invite us to see what is most real, especially in ways that upend many of the assumptions of what such a liberator was supposed to do? In a radical way Jesus refused to climb on to the throne of David, redefining what a King and Kingdom are really all about, and through death and resurrection, offers us a compelling vision of God and reality that is shocking to his contemporaries and challenging to us here and now.

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You can listen to our podcast through the posts on this page, or listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, or find it on Spotify by clicking here!

In this episode we discuss the story (ies) of the Old Testament that come to us from the Ancient Near East more than 2,500 years ago. How do they portray God and humanness, why do they offer such contrasting perspectives, how do they differ from the nations around them (and how are they the same)? We talk about ancient divinities, sacrifices, kingdoms, prophets, assumptions about God and the gods, and what do with all of this for us in the here and now.

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In this episode we discuss how the various Christian traditions shape the way we think about and engage in prayer…. and how this might help us to understand where we are at now, and the possibilities that are available to us.

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If we move away from the image of God as a divine puppet master pulling strings in the sky, then how does this impact on the way we think about prayer? Is prayer simply a series of requests, or are there ways of practicing prayer that invite us into a more open and grounded way of being?

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The bible is a curious, intriguing and provocative collection of texts, but one that can be a profound resource for our own transformation. The invitation is into a journey and tradition of wisdom that connects with our own experience of life, God and those around us. In this episode we talk about the nature of this relationship between the journey of faith, an evolving spirituality, and the role of scripture in transformation.

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You can listen to our podcast through the posts on this page, or you can listen and subscribe on iTunes by clicking here!

If Jesus is the ‘word of God’ as the writer of John’s gospel states, then what does it mean to centre our interpretation of scripture through the kind of God we see in Jesus?

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You can listen to our podcast through the posts on this page, or you can listen and subscribe on iTunes by clicking here!

In this episode we discuss the violence that we find in scripture. What do we do with this violence that is often carried out by biblical heroes, or can even appear to be endorsed or even committed by God? We talk about the way that the scriptural narrative unfolds an evolving view of what God is like. And so the violence in the bible tells us a lot about the human condition and our tendency to use God to support our own violent ends - rather than prescribing belief in a God capable of this kind of violence. In the end, the biblical narrative undoes the view of a violent deity, inviting us instead to consider a view of God shaped by the story and ethics of Jesus.

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In this episode we discuss how a mystical approach to Christian spirituality can shape the way we engage in reading the bible. In this tradition, we are invited to see an evolving of God-consciousness present in the text, and to see the scriptural stories as the journey of sacred experiences of God, rather than a divinely imposed super-text that rules over the world.

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There are some curious stories in the bible and it can be hard to know how to approach them. Some people want to take a very literal approach, and so when Adam and Eve are in the garden talking to a snake, this is a time when snakes could talk. Or at least this particular snake could talk. Then other people look at a story like this and think, what a ridiculous idea… a talking snake, whoever thought of such a thing, these are just ancient myths which are not true. The bible is clearly a ridiculous piece of literature and anyone who believes these silly tales is ignorant and naive. But are these the only two options? Or is there something else going on these stories that might be available to us, and if so, what do we do about that? 

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You can listen to our podcast through the posts on this page, or you can listen and subscribe on iTunes by clicking here!

In this episode we begin a series on the bible, and we begin with a reflection on what kind of book (or collection of books) the bible is, and what this means for the way we read it and how helpful it might be for us.

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In this final Formation episode for 2018, we explore the subject of belonging through the ideas of grace and hospitality. These invite us to think about about how we can find a meaningful sense of belonging, without having to give in to the temptation to exclude and marginalise others.

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This episode asks how we navigate belonging to a particular religion (in this case Christianity) in a culture and society where people hold to diverse religious beliefs. We reflect on a number of interreligious encounters found in the Old and New Testaments and ask how they might inform the way we live side-by-side with our religious neighbours.

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The world is heading into increasingly polarised camps. In and out. With us or against us. So what does it mean to belong to a church community in this kind of world? In this episode we re-examine some New Testament texts and explore ways that the divine Spirit was connected to social identity, belonging and the breaking down of barriers between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

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You can listen to our podcast through the posts on this page, or you can listen and subscribe on iTunes by clicking here!

One of the observations that psychologists make is that while our disgust reflex is designed to help us determine what is ok for us to eat, we often extend this innate reflex into the social, moral and spiritual domains of our lives. 

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For the first few centuries, Christianity was a minority movement on the underside of the Roman Empire. Christian action in the world was subversive, inclusive and socially transformative in subtle and hidden ways. But when Christianity becomes the dominant religion of the Empire in the 4th century, theology and salvation both become issues that hold political implications, a move which radically reshapes the nature of the conversation. So what does this mean for how we think about the Christian tradition today, and what it means to include, exclude and belong?

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