Exploring Theology | Page 3 | Student Christian Movement

Unpacking ‘bigger is not always better’: bodies, food, and health on the Church Time's front page

3 Nov 2021

If you read the Church Times – or engage with ‘Church twitter’ or similar circles on social media – you may have noticed a recent article on obesity that sparked some heated discourse. The article may have been a well-intentioned attempt to engage the Church with issues of physical health and...

Hope in the Midst of Climate Crisis

12 Aug 2021

When I tell people that I am about to start a PhD focused on a theology of hope in a time of ecological crisis, I get a mix of reactions. Often, they look interested but at the same time quite surprised. There is a sense among many that climate change is a hopeless cause, and this pervades...

There is evil, there is good, our actions matter, there will be justice

11 Dec 2020

Growing up, I was a bookworm and my books were like time machines, allowing me to live through different eras and epochs. In particular, I remember reading a number of books set during World War Two including those classics such as Carrie’s War, The Machine Gunners and The Diary of Anne Frank. ...

Agape Amidst Apocalyptic Advents

9 Dec 2020

The idea that Advent is apocalyptic may come as a shock to some – it did to me when I came across it (very belatedly two years ago, aged 29!). My Catholic childhood had been filled with Christingles, candles, and carols: things that signified watching and waiting, but are infused with joyful...

Don't Understand Revelation? It's Not the End of the World!

9 Dec 2020

Don't get the book of Revelation? Don't worry - it's not the end of the world.

No, really! I get the impression that lots of Christians avoid the Book of Revelation and leave it to the cranks and the overly-certain readers of symbols and geopolitics. After all, it's all pretty weird and...

Apocalypse Now

1 Dec 2020

Isaiah 64:1-9, Mark 13:24-37

Having endured months of a global pandemic that has upended nearly every aspect of our lives, it is understandable why some people have described this year as apocalyptic. We are certainly living in tumultuous times as we experience the impact of a pandemic...

Putting Doubt into Faith: An Introduction to Christian Existentialism

27 May 2020

Most people know existentialism as a philosophy which focuses on the notion of being and views the world through an explicitly subjective lens. It is also a notoriously angsty way of thinking, whose proponents have spent an awful lot of time writing and arguing about fun things like anxiety and...

Process Theology 101

15 May 2020

In the 1920s, Alfred North Whitehead developed a new metaphysical system of thought called process philosophy. Across a series of lectures, which have since been published under the single title Process and Reality, Whitehead described a reality where everything is made up of occasions –...

A Church's Place is in the Kitchen

12 May 2020

Whilst much of the world might be completely oblivious to the debate, many corners of the church community have spent the last couple of weeks arguing about whether their ministers should broadcast online services from their church buildings or from their homes. Critics of kitchen table...

The Theology of Trauma

7 Apr 2020

I have been working on my doctorate, and, perhaps in an act of gracious divine prodding, for the past few months I have been focusing on theology and trauma. I’ve been reading stories about various types of trauma—from kidnapped victims and victims of sexual assault to those suffering from...