The Natural Philosopher

In this episode I reflect on how we read and misread Revelation, on God making all things new, and climate change action.

Was COP26 a let down for you? Looking at the parable of the Good Samaritan is a reminder both to continue to advocate for the Green Climate fund, but also an end to coal.

Fossil fuel industry at the heart of COP26 negotiations, while it is decided stopping deforestation is important. Sounds a lot like the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3: of serpents and trees.

Christianity is sometimes viewed as being inherently anti-knowledge, particularly anti-science. In this episode I hope to show that the serpent of Genesis 2-3 is no Prometheus, but that the original couple break their covenant relationship with God. Ecclesiastes is not anti empirical knowledge, but simply states that there are limits on what we can know.

People often in argument take recourse to the view that they are entitled to their opinion, and can challenge experts on topics like vaccines and climate change. Christians can be the worst at this. But you are only entitled to what you can argue for, and need to respect expertise.

In a time of rapidly changing climate, people, especially younger people, are experiencing climate change related anxiety. The church has a role, particularly towards its own, to engage in pastoral care, and equip people to process this anxiety and express it positively in the form of activism. 

The Uniting Church in Australia has creation care as an important part of its theology and praxis. In this episode, Jessica Morthorpe and I explore how this looks in her experience.

This episode is the first installment of a three part interview with ecotheologian and climate activist Jessica Morthorpe, discussing her Five Leaf Eco-Awards for Australian churches.

Conspiracy theories over the origins of COVID, vaccines, and masks have much in common with Christian end times thinking over earthquakes and other natural disasters. In this episode I deconstruct these ideas.

In this episode I read Philip Goff's book Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness and reflect on theistic belief, and climate change.

We try and understand climate change and COVID19 through a linear lens, but the world we live in is non-linear and given to rapid change. The bible provides us with some ways of thinking about this.

Part 2 of a discussion with Aboriginal Christian leader, CEO of Common Grace, Waka Waka woman Brooke Prentis. We discuss what it means to mark Season of Creation 2021, A Home for All? on colonised lands.

Part 1 of a discussion with Aboriginal Christian leader, CEO of Common Grace, Waka Waka woman Brooke Prentis. We discuss what it means to mark Season of Creation 2021, A Home for All? on colonised lands.

Here, I engage with James Canton's The Oak Papers and Peter Wohlleben's The Heartbeat of Trees, encouraging us all to become tree huggers

In this episode, I pick out a few key points from the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report Summary for Policy Makers.

How does our theology of God influence how we live in the world. In this episode I look at Thomas Oord's new book Open and Relational Theism and think about this helps us address climate change.

Should Christians watch, or turn away from animal violence in wildlife documentaries? Of what value is watching predation? What kind of wildlife documentaries should we watch?

In this episode, I suggest that the gospel is good news for all creation. Climate change and creation care are not a distraction from the gospel, properly understood.

The Great Barrier Reef may be listed as in danger. Why is this the case? Why are reefs so important, and what does the bible have to say?

Paul tells us that creation groans in birthpains waiting for the resurrection. Christians should learn to hear the groans of creation, and groan with it.

Recently I observed Show your Stripes day with Christian advocacy group Common Grace, by gifting scarves to politicians that tell the story of a warming climate. In this episode, I reflect upon that experience.

Ross Landmead was a Baptist ecotheologian who wrote about the need for evangelical theology to grapple seriously with non-human creation as part of its mission.

In this episode, I engage with Charles Foster's fascinating Being A Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divide. Time to abandon a little human self-importance and get to know our nonhuman neighbours for World Environment Day.

Christianity and science have often been pictured as opposed. In a time of climate change and COVID, we need to move beyond this conflict to fight the threat these issues present.

Is history cyclical or linear, or both? Is it closed to our actions or can we shape the future? In this episode I argue the future is open to our actions, and the scientific and theological imperative is that we act to avert the worst of possible futures under climate change.

Is theological study a waste of time in the face of the climate emergency? Or does it prepare Christian scholars to motivate the church to stronger action and see it as part of their Christian duty?

Can Christians call the Earth Mother? Is this just adopting ideas from elsewhere, or does it acknowledge the biblical picture of the Earth as a source of nurture, albeit not divine, partnering with God?

In this episode, I rave excitedly about the idea that Genesis 2-3 portrays humans as both fundamentally made from and for the soil, and that we do so as king and queen priests in creation.

In this episode I continue my chat with Matt Stone about forest church, alternative forms of Christianity, and being with and learning from pagans.

In this episode I talk with Matt Stone about issues with the traditional ways in which we do church. We then go on to discuss what Forest Church is in his experience.

In this episode, I condemn climate change denialism as a denial of the Christian valuing of truth. I also explore how we might re-enchant God's good creation and learn to see the divine presence in it.

Easter sermons are often an appeal to individual repentance. But what if they described a bigger picture of new creation and God's reconciling all things to Godself?

Is Palm Sunday just a day of pious reflection, or is it a worthwhile thing to march for fairer treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. What if they have been displaced by climate change?

Australia ranks 12th in the date it uses its natural resource allowance for the year. What is the underlying logic of this that we need to repent of? How does an organization like Extinction Rebellion show the way forward?

Genesis 1 represents the divine defeat of the forces of chaos and the protological enthronement of God. Creation is sacred space. Likewise, the Sabbath day is the creation of sacred time. For the Christian, creation is sacred and should be treated with care.

On International Women's Day, I look again at John 20 and how in the project of the new creation how women have an equal standing with men.

A recent paper has shown the overturning ocean circulation in the Atlantic is weakening due to climate change; it's weakest in over 1000 years. In this episode I explain why this is such a big deal.

With the Perseverance mission just having landed on Mars, it's worth thinking about whether we should be exploring the planets while our own is suffering. Here I reflect briefly on issues such as money, exploration, technology, and the question of whether we are alone.

Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot identifies the earth and humans as an insignificant speck in the universe, but encourages us to be kind to each other and care for the Earth. In this episode, I engage with his ideas theologically.

Psalm 46 contains evocative language alluding to the Flood of Noah. This episode considers how we might apply this Psalm to thinking about ecotheology and the present ecological crisis.

Issues polarize, and Christians sometimes polarize into "Conservative" and "Progressive." What can we learn about this from Jesus' challenge to the Sadducees over resurrection in Luke 20?

In the last episode for the year, I look at what Christian materialism is, based on a reading of John's gospel. This is our guide to having a truly Merry Christmas

Christian thinkers throughout the ages, from Augustine to Walter Wink have discussed and argued about the nature of The Fall. In this episode, I conduct a brief survey of some of this work and its implications for how we understand the Anthropocene.

Sea level rise due to climate change threatens millions, yet Christians often argue that the promise to never flood the world again in Genesis 8 means we can ignore the science. In this episode, I examine why a proper understanding of the flood and the language of chaos means this isn't the case.

God is Trinity, and hence love as expressed by an eternal loving relationship, and self-emptying as demonstrated on the cross. This provides us with a profound ethical basis for acting in lovingly and sacrificially in the Anthropocene.

With Evangelicalism being a tarnished brand for some, is it time for a different way of thinking about the Christian faith in the increasingly non-Christian west? Here I tentatively offer the idea of Christian Humanism as an alternative.

Do aliens exist, and if they do are they also at risk of self-annihilation due to destroying their planets? In this episode I look at this question as a "theological thought experiment" through the work of theologian and physicist John Polkinghorne.

In an age of climate change, artificial intelligence, and political chaos, does the book of Revelation tell us that things can only get better, or worse? Or does it tell us that God is in charge of history, and that we have a job to do?

What does Genesis 1-2 have to do with growing food, and why should Christians get into the garden?

This episode looks at the idea of tipping points in society, and how keeping the Sabbath provides us as a way of tipping history in the right direction.

This episode examines the role that beauty or aesthetics can play in developing an ecotheology that drives us to care for the natural world, or creation. See the paper at: https://www.academia.edu/30035805/_All_Things_Bright_and_Beautiful_Toward_an_Aesthetic_Ecotheology