Theology for the Curious

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! As much as we would like, we cannot escape the negative press that emerges about the church. Time and again we read articles of adultery, abuse, embezzlement and so on. It leads many outside of the faith to condemn Christians as hypocrites!  This week the Curious team will be trying to come to terms with the hypocritical aspect of Christianity. Wh...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! When we consider the rising tide of evil and destruction; the constant presence of wars, and pressures of crime, alongside the violence humanity inflicts on itself; is it only fair to ask, is God really in control? Wouldn't things be different if he was? And if he is not, then where does that leave us as a planet? In this episode the Curious...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! How can a document that is thousands of years old, has been through countless translations, and carries some 400,000 variations, truly be trusted, let alone claimed to be the sacred, holy, infallible Word of God?  In this episode Pete and the Curious team take a deep dive into the validity of the Bible. What does the history say? How did we get ou...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What lies at the heart of the Christmas story? Who was Jesus? Was he the product of Joseph and Mary coming together or was he something far more profound? What do we really mean by incarnation? And how are we to understand Jesus as both God and man?  In this festive episode, Pete and the Curious team ponder the message, the theology and the deeper...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What is the church? Why is it important? Can you be a Christian and not go to church? What are the real benefits of being part of a church? Has Christianity always been intrinsically linked to church attendance? These are just some of the many questions that are asked whenever we think about the church. They are questions that come from either sid...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! How do we understand the term Christian? Does it relate to something that you believe strongly, or simply in living a good life? Is there an element of exclusivity about it? Or is it more true that everyone in one Way Or Another, is Christian? How does the church define what a Christian is? How does the secular culture define what a Christian is?...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Exclusivity! Arrogance! Superiority! Is just some of the accusations that believers of other religions have leveled against Christians. Somewhere near 90% of the world population fall into either Christian, Islam, Hindu or Buddhist. How is it that Christians claim that Jesus can be the only true way? In this week's episode Pete and the Curiou...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What is omniscience? How do we understand God’s all-knowingness? Does God know everything there is to know irrespective of it being present or thousands of years into the future? Does He know what we think and what we’ll do before we even think our do it? And if that is so, how does He know it? Is it because he simply foresees what we will do year...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! How do we define sovereignty? What kind of power does God hold, and is He really in control? What is the difference between God’s absolute and His ordinate power? When we look at all the evil and sin in the world, and the constant presence of wars; how can we really have confidence in divine sovereignty? Does God’s sovereignty stretch to the choic...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Is God truly present everywhere at all times? And is his whole presence fully present in every moment and place of time? What do we mean by when we speak of God being immense and incorporeal? What do we make of classic statements of misdirection when it comes to God’s Omnipresence? Such as ‘diffusion’, ‘location’, ‘division’ and ‘mixed’?  This wee...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Isaiah announced God as the ‘everlasting God’ (40:28). Paul likewise described God as ‘immortal’ (Rom.1:23) and ‘eternal’ (Rom.16:26). Theologian Paul Helm described God as existing as a “timelessly eternal being”. The sixth century Roman philosopher Boethius, classically defined God’s timeless eternity as, “the complete possession all at once of...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What are we talking about when we talk about impassibility and passibility? What is meant be saying God feels things; be it love, pain, anger, compassion? Does God suffer like we suffer? How are we to understand God’s internal emotions? Did God really suffer on the cross? Can an immutable, perfect God be said to suffer and experience emotions like...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! The nineteenth-century Dutch Theologian Herman Bavinck wrote that the, “very distinction between Creator and creature hinges on the contrast between being and becoming”. Concluding that our reliance on God “depends on his immutability”; but what does it mean to have an unchanging God? Immutability is not the argument that God ‘will’ not change, bu...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Is God truly one? What do we mean by ‘oneness’? Does the different reflections and operations of God imply a God of many sides, of different parts? Can he simultaneously be love and wrath, mercy and justice, and yet retain his absolute oneness?  In this episode, the Curious team will be reflecting on the theological position of God’s simplicity. W...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Anselm believed that God is that of which nothing greater can be thought. God is unique. As William Lane Craig writes; ‘He is not dependent upon any other being for his existence; rather, he exist independently of everything else’. Does that mean that God has no real need of people, of his church?  This week Pete and the Curious team will be divin...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! This week marks the first episode of a brand new series THE BOSS; the incomprehensibility of God! Athanasius spoke of  God as one who, “ transcends all being and human comprehension ”. That being so, how could anyone hope to understand GOD? Isaiah declared, “ Canst thou by searching find out God?” (Job 11KJV). Furthermore, Paul refers to God as th...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! The Lords Supper, Communion, the Eucharist, under whatever name you’re familiar, has been a source of difficulty and deep contention historically in the church. From the days of the Reformation to present debates, just what Jesus meant by ‘this is my body’, and the reality of the bread and wine, has continued to occupy serious thinking minds withi...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! In more recent times tension has arisen over what has become known as Lordship Salvation, the possibility of living a Christian experience where Jesus may be Saviour and yet not be Lord! What is surrender without submission? Can we have belief without obedience? Can we live with Jesus as Saviour whilst not living with Jesus as Lord?  This week Pet...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Historically over the years a great deal of confusion has arisen in terms of correctly understanding Law and Gospel. Some understand Law as strictly Old Testament, and gospel as New. Others imagine the law was originally given for the purpose of bring us back to God, whilst others insist only the gospel can do that!  In this weeks episode the Curi...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Does God still heal, miraculously, today? How do we cope with those incidences where, despite much prayer and belief, those we love fail to get any better? Is a failure to be healed always a sign of a lack of faith? Is relying on medicine a lack of reliance on God?  So much conversation and difficulty has surrounded the issue of divine healing. Ma...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Historically the church has maintained one of two positions when it has come to baptism. On the one side, there are many who defend the position of infant baptism (paedobaptism). Many denominations today hold to the validity of baptising infants in keeping with the covenantal equivalent of Old Testament circumcision.  On the other side, there are...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! The church’s attitude to alcohol has historically been contentious to say the least. In some denominations today alcohol of any kind is strictly forbidden. In others, the attitude is far more relaxed. Who is right? Who is biblical? And does it matter and to who? This week the Curious team will sketch the historical journey of alcohol, reflecting o...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! The Curious gang kick off a brand new feature dealing with current affairs with particular reflection on theology and the Christian world.  This week, they look at the controversy that has arisen over the Rev. Wendy Dalrymple, the new Precentor Residentiary Canon Designate and Head of Worship and Events at Canterbury Cathedral. She has come into c...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! The issues surrounding same-sex relationships have become an extremely difficult and much talked about subject in society today, and especially within the church. What does the Bible say? How does God, Scripture, church and religion as a whole relate to the gay community? Are we watering down the Word, liberalising scripture? Or are we weaponising...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! How does something so good, namely a desire for holiness, a zeal for God and a passion for obedience, become so bad? How do we change the desire for duty, passion for obligation, love for legalism and piety for pietism? This week Pete and the Curious team will examine what happens when good desires turn toxic; when the church tries to step and ass...