Think Question Believe

The priest and Franciscan Monk Richard Rohr published a book called ‘Falling Upward: A spirituality for the two halves of life’. In it he speaks of something long defined by philosophers and more recently by such psychologists as Carl Jung, as the first and second halves of life. In the first half of life, we are naturally and rightly preoccupied with establishing our identities – climbing, achiev...

By the Sea of Galilee, presumably newly arrived, Jesus goes up to two brothers, Simon and Andrew, going about the comparatively lucrative business of fishing and tells them that he has chosen them as disciples. Conscripted, commandeered, requisitioned. James and John, the same thing ‘Drop all that, your father and the rest of the family can keep the business going, get your coat, we’re off.’ And t...

First broadcast in January 2026. A doctor friend once said that our life consists in juggling four balls, our physical and spiritual/emotional health, our families and friends and the last ball - our work, money possessions. The first three balls, he said, are made of glass, but the irony is we spend more time worrying about and protecting the fourth ball - which is also the only one made of rubbe...

First broadcast on the first Sunday after Christmas 2026. We hear the story of the ‘Slaughter of the Innocents’ in Matthew’s Gospel; a reality check, just in case everything was getting too sentimental too saccharine – we are reminded of the kind of world into which Jesus, and countless millions of children have been born. And tragically, we don’t have to look very far or to a different time for t...

Patriarchal societies and let’s face it most still are, to a greater or lesser extent, can sometimes be very unjust, especially to women.  It beggars the imagination that a man can deem himself more manly because he oppresses and is violent towards someone who is physically weaker than himself, but such has been the culture and practice of countless numbers of men throughout history – who have bul...

John the Baptist presents a heroic but tragic figure. Crying out in the wilderness, giving voice not only to his own heartbreak, but also to the pain and suffering of all his people. However much the Romans might be bravely resisted, it was almost inconceivable that they might be repelled. Almost. For men like John still tried, still hoped, still preached that whatever worldly power the Romans mig...

More people go to their GP suffering from depression than any other affliction. Mental health problems among all ages, but also increasing among the young are ever rising. Now we can point at the alarming political news daily on our screens; we can cite workplace stress, the accelerating pace of modern life, the commoditisation of people in our aggressive materialist economies, a breakdown in trad...

‘….the kingdom of heaven has come near.” These are the words of a young man named John, a young prophet of wild and dishevelled appearance preaching to the people of his time, about the saviour who was to come: ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” ’ John presents a very odd picture indeed. Matthew describes him as wearing clothing...

Apocalyptic writing is sometimes called the “literature of the dispossessed”. It is the product of a people oppressed and alienated who have little chance of fighting back against those who dominate them with political, economic and military power. Sometimes the oppressors are their own corrupt politicians, sometimes outside ‘foreign’ regimes. And sometimes the stranglehold that our western compan...

Luke’s story of the boastful Pharisee and the repentant tax-collector addresses the theme of what we might call ‘holy reversal’.That the standards of this world, the values of so much of our world, the one with which we are so familiar, in which some of us deem themselves so successful and dominant, are in fact but the shadows of the true reality to which we are called. Up is down and down is up....

In recent years, we have seen the Christian faith equated with arrogant nationalism, worship of the gun, of money, power and status; and the faith appropriated as an expression of animus and division, prejudice and bigotry. Daily, we can see such distortion and twisting of the faith, so contrary to the teachings of Jesus, that we can only stare bewildered at the mental gymnastics required to turn...

‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven’, says the first line of Ecclesiastes chapter 3.Except it seems, when it comes to Advent. Over most adult lifetimes, especially for those of us in later life, we have seen the degradation of the season of Advent, as our modern-world has become increasingly restless, impatient and unable to wait or postpone. Christmas t...

Whenever this time of year comes around, I make sure to keep two commemorations rather than one. Sadly, many churches across the Church of Ireland will only keep All Saints Sunday and disdain the keeping of All Souls Day which is an ancient part of Allhallowstide – the season of remembering, coming at the end of the year, the dying of the year one might say – before it gives way to Advent – the ti...

With the aftermath of the Second World War a new ‘rules-based order’ was pioneered overseen by international organisations such as the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, the International Court of Justice, the EU and the World Health Organisation. They embodied the desire that shared notions of justice, the rule of international law, and the recognition of our interdependence through peaceful trade, wou...

We all know, much as we push the thought away, that our own lives are finite.  But also, most of us thankfully, do not know the day or the hour of our ending. But the downside of that is that sometimes we can act as if we have all the time in the world. All too easily our lives drift along, lots of activity, but sometimes little change. Plenty of tasks and busyness, but if we are not careful those...

Possessions had and still have a profoundly symbolic function for humanity. If life feels fragile and precarious we seem to think that possessions will render it more secure; even though the possessions themselves are even frailer than life itself.  Whilst the rich man in the parable of the rich fool was supposedly rich in goods, his soul was impoverished. His purse was full, but his heart a deser...

The early church was itself puzzled by the Spirit, and unable to make much in the way of theological sense of this area of doctrine. And even today the Holy Spirit is an area fraught with competing interpretations.   So, what is the Holy Spirit? How might we recognize it?  How might our lives be touched, shaped and directed by the Spirit?  Where do we start to take on the awesome responsibility of...

Jesus staying with Mary and Martha is another story told only by Luke, and it continues a theme that is clearly dear to him. The breaking of cultural and religious boundaries and a declaration of radical acceptance and inclusion. And, of course, the story is not really about doing the dishes, and it's not really about Martha and Mary – but about us. In our lives, what do we place first – keepi...

Tensions have always been intrinsic to the Christian Church, think of the controversies surrounding slavery, race, divorce, women’s role in the church, one could go on. On the one hand there are those, like Peter, who believe the Church should have boundaries and borders, acting like a fortress, which can only care for and protect those within, by defining, identifying and excluding those who are...

In the story of the Gadarene swine we encounter a man, afflicted and tormented by forces beyond his control. In terrible mental anguish, ostracised by his own people, driven from their midst, he now lives like a wounded wild animal, naked, dehumanised. And not just then, we know that any oppressed minority today, who endure overt and covert discrimination suffer higher levels of mental illness, st...

There is a familiar expression that someone has a ‘bright’ idea or a ‘lightbulb moment’. Or that someone’s performance was ‘electrifying’, or the atmosphere in the theatre was ‘electric’ - We can have a ‘burning desire to succeed’, or we can have a ‘blazing row’, emotions can become ‘inflamed’, and someone can have a ‘fiery temper’, or a ‘burning hatred’. We might compliment a performer by saying...

Let’s be honest, have you ever liked or respected someone who said to you ‘You are either for me or against me’?Usually, the words of a bully, certainly those of limited wisdom and imagination. Especially if those words are backed up with threat and intimidation. But, this duality of thinking, right or wrong, good or bad, in or out, is all too pervasive throughout history and human psychology to t...

A Bishop was once reported in the press to have commented that the resurrection was about a ‘conjuring trick with old bones’. Bishop David Jenkins was branded the ‘unbelieving Bishop’ and the satirical TV puppet show ‘Spitting Image’ even had a sketch of him persuading God to become an atheist. That misquote of the Bishop has cascaded down through the years, following him wherever he went – the pr...

I cannot stand unfairness and injustice. Today, not only as Chair of Changing Attitude Ireland, but also simply as someone who abhors unfairness, I see this all too clearly in the treatment of LGBTQ people within our church. Within most churches. Of course, there are those who for one reason or another disapprove of, denigrate and discriminate against the LGBTQ community and will cite scripture or...

I wonder, not only about the first Easter, but especially the Easters that soon followed, those of the first and second centuries, when Christianity was still so new, so radical and relatively untouched by the worlds of wealth and power. And the people who spoke of themselves as following ‘the Way’.We now live through a time when Christianity seems under threat as never before, at least in the Wes...