In this week’s episode we discuss the article I wrote for Christianity magazine: How to be wise: Confessions of a recovering idiot. In the article I proposed seven tips for gaining wisdom; things like finding a mentor, making a wisdom collection and most importantly, shutting up and listening. Obviously seven is a reductive, if nicely symbolic, number. There is much more I could say (and plan to say if I ever get to write a book on it).
Lots of interesting discussion this week drawing on feedback from listeners.1 We talk a bit about heresy, something I have written on quite a lot, because you can’t really do church history without encountering the concept of heresy, not to mention all the accusations, counter-accusations, excommunications and, tragically, executions. The word first crops up in the second century AD, notably in the work of Irenaeus of Lyon who wrote a whole book called Against Heresies.
This week’s episode is a really good interview with Brian McLaren about his new book, Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart. A few things really stood out for me. I loved how he argued that constant denial is exhausting. We often think it’s the other way – all this doom and gloom is wearing me out – but McLaren argues that, in lots of cases, once we face up to the issue, once we acknowledge the reality, then actually that can be a source of energy.
So, the question I posed was this: ‘Why does God get all the praise when I did all the work?’ By which I don’t mean that I necessarily need or want more praise (being English I find any praise rather embarrassing anyway. Not to mention ill-judged) but I was trying to explore the relationship between human skills, creativity and effort and the inspiration and work of the Divine. Of course all things come from God and of your own do we give you, as it says in the Prayer Book.
Lots of stuff in this week’s episode, but it seemed to me to have a common theme of depth. We talk about reading the Bible not more widely, but more deeply – learning a passage, or simply taking one verse and dwelling on it for a long time. And following on from last week’s recap on the idea of stages of faith, we discuss how the Mid-faith Crisis could simply be motivated by a desire to go deeper, to find out more, to go beyond the superficial.
In this week’s episode, we revisit the idea of stages of faith – which is really what this podcast is all about. The idea of Mid-faith Crisis was also behind my book The Dark Night of the Shed. During the podcast, however, we also touch on how this isn’t just a spiritual journey: you can see the stages reflected in stories, worked out in relationships and patterned in life itself.
In our latest episode, Joe and I discuss our themes for the New Year.1 (Our New Year begins on March 25 as was the custom up until the late eighteenth century.) My theme for this year is focus. I’ve been struggling against the endless waves of distraction for a long time now, and I need to do something to arrest the slide. Moving to micro.blog was one way to avoid distractions of social media whilst still having an online presence.
In this episode we reflect on what the Easter story means for us this year. I’ve been particularly thinking about how the shape of the week – from triumph and joy, through perplexity and darkness, to new life and resurrection – is one of the basic human stories and also the shape of so many of our faith journeys. Listen and subscribe
In our latest episode, Joe and I discuss the nature of praise. As the song goes, ‘Praise him on the trumpet, the psaltery and harp!’ But it never really explains why. Doesn’t the obligation to praise God make him seem, well, a bit needy? And what the heck is a psaltery anyway? We talk about praise as a response, as a practice of gratitude and appreciation, how it needs to be based on intellectual content, and why attempts to do mood-altering worship never really work.
You never know what you’re going to get with our feedback! But one of the things I loved in this week’s episode was discovering that the green crockery so beloved of churches and church halls everywhere is called Beryl. It somehow fits. The rest of the feedback leads into discussions about whether our desire to achieve things is personality driven, and the proper role of regret in our lives. Although I think I will have more to say about that.