Tuning our imaginations to read the Bible well
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Listen now (6 min) | Mr Crickfarthing, like his shop, was full of shadows, odd corners and unseen depths. A short story to read or listen to.
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Extraterrestrial contact has already been made, 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, and it changes everything.
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Can we predict and control the future without losing our souls?
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I’ve recently started a new Substack-powered newsletter, Bigger on the Inside. Much of my output will now be on there rather than this blog, but I will post links to my new articles on there from this site too.
In it, I’ll be exploring the intersection of stories, imagination, faith and philosophy. No story is “just a story” – every story is bigger on the inside than the out, containing depths to be explored and examined.
I’m writing from my perspective as a Christian, though I hope it will be welcoming and interesting to people of all sorts of different beliefs and outlooks.
Head over to www.biggerinside.co.uk to sign up!
The Great Dance: C S Lewis’s Cosmic Trilogy and the discarded image of medieval hierarchy is now available on the English L’Abri Podcast! Why not give it a listen and tell me what you think?
Our culture views power and authority with the greatest of suspicion. Exploring Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength with reference to their medieval sources I look at how C S Lewis and the medieval tradition can help us not simply assert the truth of a Biblical view of authority, but see and live out its beauty and goodness.
2021 sees 100 years since the birth of the highly respected and influential evangelical leader John Stott. Why does he still matter today?
Stott was active in many different ways. He had a really healthy emphasis on ‘double listening’ between God’s word and today’s world. His masterwork The Cross of Christ really helped me in my understanding of the atonement. He set up a variety of initiatives that continue to impact the church today, such as the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity, and Langham Partnership.
I wrote about his impact for Together magazine (published by Christian Resources Together for the Christian book trade) – read it in the latest print edition, or online here at John Stott at 100.
From Good Omens to Left Behind, it’s a pop culture staple that the Bible teaches that the world will be destroyed in Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil, with the saved escaping to enjoy eternity in Heaven. Many Christians who affirm the Biblical teaching of “new heavens and new earth” see the new creation as a distinct replacement for the current world rather than a restoration of our world.
But is this belief that the world will be destroyed Biblical?
Continue readingI’ve got a new article up on the IVP blog! Bev and I have enjoyed watching The Good Place but the finale rang rather hollow for us. Also it’s depiction of the afterlife touches on a common trope of Heaven turning out to be boring – I unpack why the Biblical vision of Heaven will be anything but…
Please excuse a few moments of speculation, but we need our imaginations for eternity expanded. Perhaps in the New Creation, redeemed humanity will come together to create works of worship that will take the lifetimes to rehearse and the rise and fall of mountains to perform. Maybe we will spend a billion years exploring and filling the galaxy to the glory of God, and another aeon to teach all the stars in the sky to sing his glory. The “tension” that gives life its tang will not be between good and evil, but striving – without guaranteed success – for ever greater and higher degrees of beauty in celebration of God’s glory.
Read more: The Boring Place? What The Good Place misses about Heaven
Back in the summer, Brad East made the case that some Christians over-egg the idea of “engaging with pop culture”, while Matthew Lee Anderson advises anyone who will listen to “ditch Netflix”.
It’s definitely possible to overindulge in the passive consumption of entertainment, so I share their concerns to a degree. But there are also plenty of good reasons for taking pop culture seriously and valuing it not just as a way of chilling out and relaxing, but also as a way of connecting with our fellow human beings. I expanded my previous blog post into an article for CRJ magazine and discussed it on the Postmodern Realities podcast.
Read more: Ditching Netflix? Engaging pop culture in the age of binge watching
Listen to the podcast discussion: In Defence of Pop Culture
