St Paul's Cathedral

Etty Hillesum was a 27 year old Jewish student living under occupation in 1940s Amsterdam. Throughout that time she wrote a diary of her daily life recounting her spiritual transformation. Patrick Woodhouse will explore her life and writing including what her profound reflections on the nature of evil can teach us today. Recorded July 2016.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, by profession and passion both scientist and theologian, will look at the many meanings of the first chapters of Genesis, exploring what they can teach us about God, the world, and ourselves. Recorded 3 March 2016.

Although we tend to associate darkness with the absence of God, Advent is a season when we are called to contemplate the unseen workings of God in preparation for new life and new hope as we wait for the explosion of joy at the birth of Christ. Barbara Mosse explores the many gifts of God that can be found during this season, and also the wisdom to be found in the seasons of the church year as we begin them once again. Recorded 4 Dec 2016.

Drawing together the themes of the kingdom and the cross, the resurrection and ascension, Tom Wright presents a radical rereading of the gospels with radical implications for our lives – spiritually, politically and for the church as a whole. Tom Wright is Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews, and was until recently the Bishop of Durham. Recorded October 2015.

Advent is the season when we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ at Christmas – a season for slowing down and reflecting on the great spiritual themes of light and dark, life and death. But while all around us the world speeds up in pre-Christmas rush, it can be difficult to find a place for stillness and contemplation. Malcolm Guite suggests one way is to read a poem each day and offers a seasonal reflection on this. Recorded in December 2015.

Music parallels and illuminates the experience of God in its changeability and fleetingness, and is one of the best ways we have to find the stillness in which a experience the sense of God’s presence. It can also provide a narrative for the cycle of life which allows our inexpressible feelings to be given voice at times of both sorrow and rejoicing. In reflection and conversation, renowned theologian Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP and award winning musician Andrew Carwood explore together what music can teach us about faith beyond words. Recorded in June 2015.

What kind of person do you want to be? It’s easy to go through life without ever really considering what we’re here for and who we want to be. How can we think not just about what we do with our lives, but who we’re becoming while living them? Steve Chalke, minister of Oasis Church Waterloo and the Founder of Oasis Trust, says that God calls each one of us to play our part in his plan for a just and loving world, and it’s finding our place in that story that will shape us and our lives into everything we were meant to be. Recorded in September 2015.

Barbara Brown Taylor says that in dark places and times it can be possible to begin to see the world and sense God’s presence around us in new ways - guiding us through things seen and unseen, teaching us to find our footing in times of uncertainty and doubt, and giving us strength and hope to face life’s challenges. American Episcopal priest, professor, author and theologian, Barbara Brown Taylor speaks about her new book 'Learning to Walk in the Dark'. Recorded in July 2015.

We all want to be blessed and to be a blessing to others, but we rarely stop to consider what that means. Familiar from every sort of liturgy, blessing is one of the most commonly used Christian terms, but one of the least understood. Andrew Davison suggests we begin to understand it through its place as a powerful theme running through the Bible, from the very beginning when God blesses Creation, to Jesus’s last act on earth, blessing the disciples as he ascends to heaven. Recorded in September 2015.

Michael Hampel talks about detective novelist Dorothy Sayers and the enduring resonance of her controversial radio play about the life of Christ, The Man Born to be King, exploring her fascinating theology of creativity, which connects the doctrine of the Trinity with the process of creating, making and sharing new things.