Theology for the Curious

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Christian orthodoxy has insisted that it is a monotheistic faith. It believes in one God. And yet it speaks and holds to this one God as being three! If God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then how can Christians continue to insist He is but one God? Why is it that no other world religion adheres to such an understanding of God—even the traditiona...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Can God really be pleased with me even if I don’t believe? If I live with good intentions, and perform good deeds, will it draw the favour of God to me? Does the Bible infer that one’s behaviour can draw the attention of heaven? What about Cornelius in Acts 10? Wasn’t he brought to God‘s attention through his good works? Is the goodness of God con...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! It is fair to say that the person of Jesus has probably sparked more conversation, intrigue and controversy than any other person in history. But where did he come from? Did he have a beginning or, as an ancient writers teach, he simply always was! In this episode, we step back before Bethlehem—before manger, straw, shepherd songs, or even the nam...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What did God do before He created anything? It’s a question that invites both wonder and mystery — and in this episode, we dive into how philosophers and theologians have wrestled with it for centuries. Is time something that flows on its own, as Newton imagined, or is it something that exists only in relation to God and creation? We explore wheth...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! C. S. Lewis wrote, “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good….”. Trying very hard to be good is a Christian’s preoccupation, and with that often comes a deep sense of anxiety and fear. Paul captured something of this anxiety autobiographically in Romans 7—“I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate”. All of us...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! In October 1991, Jerry Sittser and his family were returning from a time away when their minivan was hit head on by a drunk driver. Jerry lost his wife, his mother, and his four-year-old daughter in the collision. Jerry was to spend many years trying to rebuild his life whilst equally looking after his three other surviving children.  How do we co...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Is the bible opposed to same sex relationships? Don’t the texts (Leviticus 18 and 22, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10), provide all the evidence we need to tell us that the Bible stands against all things LGBTQIA+? What about creation? Adam and Eve? Surely these passages in Scripture tell us all we need to know? In this intriguing e...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! October 7th 2023—marked the beginning of the latest in a decades-long conflict between Israel and Palestine. On that day, Hamas launched a coordinated attack on southern Israel which led to the death of civilians and the taking of hostages. Israel declared a state of war and their retaliation has, it is fair to say, shocked the global community. A...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! It was John F. Kennedy who once famously said, “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan”. Failure is a thing nobody wants to have or own. Another word the vast majority of Christian people are equally reticent to own, is the word ‘doubt’! Most find it very difficult to see any positive reason for its existence, we often feel weak and sh...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Who was Jesus—and what did he look like? And more significantly, what colour was his skin? In this provocative episode, the Curious team are in conversation with professor Edward Blum who, alongside Paul Harvey, co-wrote the intriguing and highly informative “Color of Christ”. Together they unravel the centuries-long struggle over the colour of Ch...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Power can be a very emotive word. How do we understand it? There is perhaps no such thing as a truly impotent individual, for everyone holds a degree of power whether they realise it or not. No one is immune from wielding a form of power. The question is not whether we have the power, but how we understand it and what we do with it and how we defi...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What do we mean by God’s presence? Are we always assured of its tangible reality? In spite of Jesus’s promise to never leave us or forsake us, we also understand the painful tension of scriptures like Psalm 13:1—“How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” What does scripture mean when it speaks of God’...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Despite the great value of individual quiet times, singular Bible reading plans, and personal commitments to church ministries; the great danger prevails that as Christians we are in danger of increasingly privatising our faith. Could it be that we are losing the edge to look outward towards the other as we become ever more preoccupied with lookin...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What do we mean by “salvation by works”? What does Scripture say? What did the early christians believe? What about the medieval church? And how did the turbulent waters of the reformation confront that? Historically the good works that we do, the way we behave, has always been considered vitally and fundamentally important, irrespective of whatev...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What does a nineteenth century German philosopher, (Friedrich Nietzsche), a thirteenth century Italian theologian, (Thomas Aquinas), and a fifth century African bishop (Saint Augustine); all have in common? They all believed in the tension and contrast of original sin and original goodness. It seems of whatever theological persuasion, the general...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What did the reformation teach us? There is no definitive answer to this question, largely because in asking it we are not simply zeroing in on a decade or two, but we’re spanning up to two centuries of significant history! The reformation reinforced key understandings of the believers position, the role of faith, the singular importance of God’s...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! To many, the sixteenth century reformation conjures up almost romantic images of sacrifice, heroism and courage far beyond the call of duty. And yet there was a darker side to all the heroics and sacrifice. A side of brutal conflict, of hostile intolerance, and violent partisanship. The German Peasants Revolt of 1524, the horrors of the St Barthol...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! William Tyndale, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, Anne Boleyn, John Jewel and John Foxe all carried one thing in common; they each became significant voices in the ongoing growth and development of the English Reformation. From the dogged tenacity of Tyndale, who spent the best part of twelve years on the run as a fugitive across Europe being declar...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Elizabeth stands as the longest reigning Tudor monarch. From being crowned queen of England on the death of her half sister Mary I in 1558, she reigned a remarkable 44 years on the throne. Having no heir, Elizabeth I was not only the longest-reigning Tudor monarch, she was also the last reigning Tudor. Under Elizabeth, religion in England was tran...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Who was Henry VIII and how did he come to power? Why did his marriage to Catherine of Aragon get into to trouble? Who was Anne Boleyn and why did she become such a significant influence among the Protestants and yet simultaneously such a thorn in Henry’s side? How did Henry’s only son Edward influence the charge of the reformation, and what were t...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Scotland was a land of religious conflict and tension long before the sixteenth century reformation and the arrival of such thunderbolts as George Wishart and John Knox. As early as the late 14th and early 15th centuries, Scotland experienced heavy influence from the Lollards—followers of John Wycliffe—who questioned the authority of the Pope, the...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Accounts of the reformation are often wonderful, even glamorous, courageous and adventurous but predominantly centred around the rise and development of Protestantism. But what did that mean for the then established Roman Catholic Church? How did the Pope react to the burgeoning influence of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and others? What measures did th...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! One of the pondering questions that arose out of the reformation was that of the Anabaptist’s. Who were they? Why were they so vilified? What led both Catholic and Protestants alike to despise them as much as they did with equal animosity? Were they truly heretics or simply misunderstood? This week the Curious team explore the birth and journey of...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! There has perhaps been no other figure more celebrated yet more vilified, more appreciated yet more misunderstood, more eulogised over and yet more criticised and condemned, than the controversial French born theologian John Calvin. To some Calvin is little more than the originator of the theological system we call Calvinism today, even though he...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Who was Ulrich Zwingli? How does a priest, turned soldier, turned protester, turned reformer, end up dead on a field in a five kilometre square piece of land in the Swiss town of Kappel? What were the forces, the difficulties and conflicts, and the significant personalities that came to bear on Zwingli? Who were his supporters and how dangerous we...