Podcasts about brasenose college

In this episode, I talk with the incredible Tobias Churton—renowned scholar of the esoteric and spiritual mysteries—for a mind-opening conversation about his latest book, The Books of Enoch Revealed: The Wicked Watchers, Metatron, and the Fruits of Forbidden Knowledge...Together, we explore the full story of Enoch, the prophet and great-grandfather of Noah, who was said to be taken up into the heavens for direct instruction from the Divine. Tobias unpacks the complex legacy of the Watchers— fallen angels who descended to Earth and unleashed forbidden knowledge that reshaped humanity forever. We also trace the Book of Enoch's journey through time, from its influence in Second Temple Judaism to its esoteric echoes in the Kabbalah and Gnostic traditions.Tobias takes us beyond the surface, bringing clarity to misunderstood prophecies and shedding new light on the apocalyptic visions that have captured imaginations for millennia. We talk about how Enoch's story lived on in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, survived through the Dead Sea Scrolls, and birthed fascinating offshoots like 2 Enoch and 3 Enoch—texts filled with cosmic revelations and hidden wisdom... Get ready to step into the revelations and mysteries of Enoch... Drop In!www.tobiaschurton.comTobias Churton Bio:Tobias Churton is Britain's leading scholar of Western Esotericism, a world authority on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and Rosicrucianism. He is a filmmaker and the founding editor of the magazine Freemasonry Today. An Honorary Fellow of Exeter University, where he is faculty lecturer in Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, he holds a master's degree in Theology from Brasenose College, Oxford, and created the award-winning documentary series and accompanying book The Gnostics, as well as several other films on Christian doctrine, mysticism, and magical folklore. The author of many books, including Gnostic Philosophy, The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians, and Aleister Crowley: The Beast in Berlin, he lives in England. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My Story  Talk 12 Brasenose College Oxford 1959-62 (Part 3) Welcome to Talk 12 in our series where I am reflecting on God's goodness to me throughout my life. This is now the third talk about the years I spent at Oxford. So far we have talked about life at Oxford, its academic programme, and my spiritual experience while I was there. Today I'm going to share with you my developing relationship with Eileen, our decision to get married shortly after I graduated, and how the Lord led us straight into pastoral ministry rather than going to Bible college first. Keeping in touch Throughout the two years after Eileen and I met, we had seen each other almost every day. Clearly, this could not continue while I was at Oxford, but we kept in touch as much as was then humanly possible. Of course, in those days there were no mobile phones. In fact, access to landlines was not easy, and anyway, it was extremely expensive. So Eileen and I kept in touch with each other by writing letters four or five times a week. We also managed to see each other every two weeks. As I have mentioned already, the terms at Oxford were only 8 weeks long, so by going home for the weekend after four weeks, and by Eileen travelling up to see me for the weekend after weeks two and six, we were able to see each other on a fortnightly basis. This was very clear evidence of Eileen's commitment to me as the journey on our Lambretta scooter through the busy traffic of central London was by no means easy. Obviously, we made the most of those precious weekends. On Saturdays we would often explore the surrounding countryside on our scooter or even travel further afield visiting pretty Cotswold villages like Bibury and Bourton on the Water. Or in the summer we loved getting into one of the punts moored by Magaden Bridge and heading up the Cherwell where we picnicked on the home-made sausage rolls and egg and bacon pie that Eileen had brought with her from home. On Sundays, of course, we went to church together before Eileen made the 60-mile journey back home to be ready for work on Monday. Of course, during the college vacations (which totalled half the year), the situation was completely different. I was able to see Eileen every day again. During the week, this was in the evenings as Eileen was at work during the daytime. And I was too, at least during the weeks that the schools had their holidays. As the Oxford terms were far shorter than the school terms I was able to earn some extra money by teaching in a local secondary school, which was to prove valuable for my future ministry as I was gaining experience in teaching children of a different age group from those I had taught in the years before I went to Oxford. But apart from working hours, Eileen and I saw each other every evening and every weekend. Sundays were taken up with church twice in the day, and midweek we regularly attended the Tuesday night prayer meeting, the Thursday night Bible study, and the Friday night youth meeting. We were desperate to learn more about our Pentecostal experience and the way the Pentecostal churches did things. In fact, whatever we were doing, our relationship with each other was from the start intimately connected with our relationship with the Lord and his will for our lives, even when we went on holiday. As I have already mentioned, our first holiday together was at a Christian Endeavour Holiday Home in Devon in 1959 just before I went up to Oxford. The following year we decided to explore the Lake District together. We travelled the three-hundred-mile journey on our scooter, stopping overnight in Aintree with one of Eileen's aunts, before finally arriving at a CE Home in Kents Bank near Grange-over-Sands. We had each visited the area before, but never together, and that fortnight was a wonderful opportunity to enjoy fellowship with other Christians as well as marvelling at the beauty of God's creation as we made daily trips into different parts of the Lakes. In 1961 we decided to go further afield and to spend four weeks touring France and northern Spain. So we exchanged our 125cc Lambretta for a new 175 which we trusted would cope well with the distances we would be travelling laden with two tents and all the paraphernalia required for camping. However, the moment we set off we both had some misgivings as the weight of luggage at the rear of the scooter made it harder to handle the machine safely, but undaunted we proceeded with caution and arrived safely at Southend airport where we had booked a flight on a cargo plane to northern France. Our first night in France was spent in a cow field with the kind permission of the farmer. We were both experienced campers, Eileen with the Girl Guides and I with the Boys' Brigade, but we had never before been woken by the sound of cows champing round our tent pegs and we quickly agreed to depart as soon as possible, particularly as there were no ‘facilities' available! We determined that after that we would make sure to check into proper camping sites. We travelled down the western side of France, stopping first at Paris for the weekend, camping in the Bois de Boulogne and visiting the thousand-strong Assemblies of God Church in the Rue du Sentier led by pastor André Nicole. Little did I know it then, but that was to be the first of many visits to French assemblies later in my ministry and sparked my interest in what the Holy Spirit was doing in European countries. In Angouleme we discovered that our GB plate had fallen off and, knowing that we were legally required to display one, we visited a garage there and asked if they knew where we could get a replacement. It was then that I realised how inadequate my A Level French course had been. Although we had studied numerous French authors, it was of little practical use to us now as no one had told us how to say the alphabet in French! Finally, by writing the letters down I managed to let them know what I wanted and learnt that in French GB is pronounced Jay-Bay. They told us that they could make us one, but it would take a couple of days. As a result, we had to travel further each day than originally planned which meant that we were both rather saddle-sore at the end of each day. We crossed the Spanish border between Biarritz and San Sebastian and immediately discovered that what we were doing was culturally unacceptable. Eileen was getting hoots and wolf-whistles from passing motorists because she was wearing trousers and not riding side-saddle! Of course, this would have been extremely dangerous bearing in mind the distances we were travelling each day and, at the risk of causing offense, we decided that we had no option but to carry on as we were. Extremely tired when we reached Burgos we decided to spend the night in a hotel and enjoy the luxury of proper beds. We did the same in Madrid for two or three nights before heading for Barcelona by way of Zaragoza. But before we reached Barcelona our scooter broke down on a mountain road and reluctantly I had to leave Eileen by the roadside with the scooter while I hitched a lift in a Citroen deux-chevaux into a village called Jorba to get help. It took two days to get the scooter fixed and by the time we eventually reached our campsite at Rosas, on the Mediterranean just north of Barcelona, it was already dark. A day or so later we arrived in Perpignan in southern France, intending to travel on up the eastern side of France on our way back home. But the scooter broke down again, and after two days camping at the back of an Esso station, we were compelled to return to England by train, leaving our scooter to be brought home courtesy of the RAC. Fortunately, it was still under warranty and was repaired by Lambretta after it finally arrived back in England some six weeks later. That holiday was the last we were to have together before we were married the following year and, in some ways, was a preparation for it. Like the holiday, married life is wonderful, but not without its unexpected events, delays, and difficulties. We were learning to face problems together, to be patient with each other, and to trust in the Lord to bring us through. Perhaps that's why I tend to advise young couples, wherever possible, to go on holiday together before deciding to get married. But that brings me to how I decided to propose to Eileen. Engagement and Marriage It was during my first term at Oxford. We had been ‘going out' together for two years, seeing each other almost every day. But we had never talked about marriage. I think that must have been because I was very conscious of how serious marriage is. Divorce in those days was far less common than it is today and for me, as a Christian, it would not have entered my head. I knew that marriage would be for life. What's more, I knew God had called me to serve him, and choosing the right partner was vitally important. So I was reluctant to commit myself. But just before I went to Oxford my father had a word with me. You'd better make your mind up about that girl, David. It would not be fair to keep her waiting for three years while you're at Oxford, if your intentions are not serious. Of course, I knew he was right. I had to make up my mind. The problem was, I didn't want to give her up, but I didn't want to marry her if she wasn't the right one for me. Finally I did what I should have done much sooner. I decided to pray about it. I got down on my knees in my bedroom at Oxford and told the Lord my dilemma. I told him that I would gladly marry Eileen if she was God's choice for me, but if not, I would give her up. And as soon as I said that prayer I received an overwhelming peace and an assurance that Eileen was the girl I was to marry. So, the next time I was home from Oxford, after a long and passionate kiss, I said to her, You will marry me, won't you, darling? Yes, those were my exact words! To which she replied, Oh yes! Of course I will. So we decided to get engaged the following summer after my first year at Oxford, knowing that the earliest we could expect to marry would be after I had graduated. After gaining her father's consent, we organised a wonderful garden party to celebrate our engagement on 2nd July, 1960, and eventually were married by Pastor Alfred Webb at Bethel Full Gospel Church, Vicarage Road, Dagenham, on 28th July, 1962. And the specially invited organist for the occasion was none other than Laurie N. Dixon, LRAM, the friend through whom I had first heard about the baptism in the Holy Spirit.    Our move to Colchester After our honeymoon in Cornwall, we moved directly into our first home, a bungalow in Colchester, where I had accepted the invitation to take over the pastorate of the small AoG church there. Colchester will be the subject of our next talk, but first I need to explain why we did not consider ministry in a Baptist church and why I did not go to Bible College as originally planned. With regard to the Baptists, the explanation is simple. Once we had been baptised in the Spirit, neither of us had attended our Baptist churches apart from perhaps an occasional visit. This was largely because the minister of Hornchurch Baptist was not sympathetic to a Pentecostal understanding of scripture, and the new minister of Elm Park Baptist had stated that the Pentecostals' exegesis of Acts was entirely unwarranted. Against this, my parents had told me that Leslie Moxham, our former Baptist minister at Elm Park, had noticed such a difference in me since I was baptised in the Spirit that he had said, If the baptism in the Spirit can make that much difference to David, I want it too. Leslie was later baptised in the Spirit and eventually became an AoG minister working with my friend Colin Blackman in the Tunbridge Wells assembly. And although, as we were to discover later some Baptists were beginning to get involved in the Charismatic Renewal, it was evident to us that our future lay with the Pentecostals rather than with the Baptists. But why didn't I go the Bible College before taking on a church? The answer is that I tried to. Early in 1962 I applied to London Bible College. There was a section on the application form where you were required to give an account of your experience of Christ. So I mentioned not only how I had become a Christian, but also how Jesus had baptised me in the Holy Spirit. My interview lasted about an hour, most of which was taken up with what I believed about speaking in tongues. Was it for today? And if it was, was it for everyone? As a result, I received a letter a few days later saying that they felt I would do better to apply to a Pentecostal bible college! Interestingly, their rejection of my application is mentioned in Ian Randall's history of LBC, Educating Evangelicals. The AoG Bible College was then at Kenley in Surrey. Its principal was Donald Gee. I had had a brief conversation with him after a meeting at the East Ham Easter Convention, and he had promised to send me the application form. But this never arrived. I also heard it rumoured that the lady teaching English at Kenley, on hearing that an Oxford graduate might be coming, had, presumably jokingly, commented that he'll be probably teaching me! This, together with the fact that some of my Pentecostal friends were telling me that I didn't need to go to Bible college, because I had got it – whatever that meant! – caused me to wonder if that was the direction I should be heading. So I said to the Lord, If you really don't want me to go to Bible College, let someone offer me the pastorate of a Pentecostal church. And within a week, I had my answer. I received a letter from the Colchester assembly asking if I would be their pastor. There was a bungalow available for rent for six and a half guineas a week (£6.51) towards which they were prepared to contribute £5.00. Apart from that, they could offer nothing, and it was understood that I would need to seek full time secular employment. But that's something for next time.  

My Story   Talk 11 Brasenose College, Oxford (1959-1962) Part 2 Welcome to Talk 11 in our series where I am reflecting on God's goodness to me throughout my life. Last time I finished by sharing with you how God powerfully spoke to me after a Philosophy tutorial through a verse in Psalm 119. Today I'll be talking in more detail about my spiritual experience at Oxford, which, looking back on it, was to be far more significant for my future life and ministry than the academic programme I was following. The most important thing a young Christian can do when going up to university is to make sure right from the start that they find, and have regular fellowship with, other Christians. There are two main ways of doing this, either by joining the Christian Union or by attending a local church – or preferably both, which is what I did. Christian Union and Local Church The CU at Brasenose was part of the OICCU – Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union. Each college CU would have its own weekly meeting for prayer and Bible study, but there was also a regular Saturday night Bible Study held at the Northgate Hall, situated close to the Oxford Union building. This was well attended by Christians from across the whole university, and I became a regular attender at both these gatherings. I appreciated the opportunity to meet Christians from different denominational backgrounds, and, bearing in mind my experience of the Anglican chaplain at Brentwood School, was particularly pleased to discover that some Anglicans actually did profess the believe the Bible! However, much as I enjoyed fellowship with these good people, having been only recently baptised in the Spirit, and having begun to appreciate Pentecostal worship, I was very aware that something very important was lacking in their meetings – the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Of course, things are very different today, but in those days the Charismatic Renewal had not yet begun and most Anglicans, who in my experience tended to view other denominations as somewhat inferior, were highly suspicious of, if not totally unaware of, the rapidly growing worldwide Pentecostal Movement. And, of course, I was eager to enlighten them! But first a word about the local Pentecostal church. At the time, the only Pentecostal church in Oxford was the Elim Church situated on the Botley Road just beyond Oxford Railway Station. I was keen to attend there because, however valuable membership of a Christian union may be, there really is no substitute for the life and fellowship of a local church. So throughout my time at Oxford I regularly attended on Sundays both the morning and evening services, which meant incidentally that I missed both lunch and dinner in college because the mealtimes clashed with the times of the services. More importantly, on my very first Sunday in Oxford, it was there that I met three other students who were from Pentecostal churches, which led to our meeting regularly for prayer and to the formation of the Students' Pentecostal Fellowship.     Students' Pentecostal Fellowship The students I met after church that first Sunday morning in Oxford were, Michael Collins who came from Dorchester AoG and was in his second year at St. Peter's Hall reading Engineering, and Gladys Bland and John Miles who, like me, were in their first year. Gladys was from East Ham AoG and was doing postgraduate work in English Literature at Somerville College, and John was from Gloucester AoG and was reading English at Regents Park College. We were all delighted to meet each other because up to then there had been relatively few Pentecostals attending university. We soon became firm friends and agreed to meet regularly together for fellowship and prayer, particularly for spiritual gifts and for Christian students from a different denominational background to be baptised in the Spirit. Michael had a friend called Philip who was already Spirit filled, and he joined our prayer group too. I will never forget the day, early in our first year, when there was a prophecy in one of those meetings that people of all denominations, including professors and university lecturers, would be baptised in the Spirit. As I've already mentioned, the Charismatic Renewal had not yet begun or, if it had, we had not heard of it, and to be honest, I really wondered if that could possibly happen. But it did, and in our own small way we were to be a part of it. What we didn't know then was that similar groups were forming in other universities. There were students from a Pentecostal background at Cambridge and London Universities too, and once we heard about this we naturally wanted to get in touch with them. And a key person to help us do that was Richard Bolt. Richard had been an Anglican ordinand but after he was baptised in the Spirit in an AoG church in Durham his course at Clifton Theological College was terminated because he was laying hands on other students and praying for them to speak in tongues. Shortly after this he was welcomed by AoG and became an Assemblies of God minister based in a small assembly in Colchester. However, as the Lord was using him in healing and in leading others into the baptism in the Spirit, Richard's ministry extended well beyond Colchester as he took time to travel to universities and colleges to encourage Pentecostal students and to pray for others who wanted to be filled with the Spirit. He was certainly a great encouragement to me and my family. My mother was baptised in the Spirit under his ministry. But before I knew anything about how the Lord was using Richard, the thought had already crossed my mind that we ought to form, at least in Oxford, a university society for Pentecostal students. The Baptists had what was known as The John Bunyan Society which met every Sunday afternoon in Regents Park College where John Miles was a student. He and I attended this quite often and I mentioned to him that I thought it might be good to have something similar for Pentecostals. As a result of this, John wrote to Aaron Linford, the editor of Redemption Tidings, the AoG weekly magazine, and asked for advice. And it was at this point that Richard Bolt told us about the Pentecostal students at Cambridge and London. All this led to a gathering in London early in 1961 when the Students' Pentecostal Fellowship (SPF) was formed. Richard Bolt was recognised as its Travelling Secretary and Donald Underwood, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, as General Secretary. We organised annual weekend house-parties where students were exposed to the ministry of Pentecostal leaders, and evangelistic missions where students would sing, testify, and preach during the summer vacations. We also published a magazine known as The Pentecostal and developed a postal library service where students could borrow books by Pentecostal authors. At Oxford our group grew in numbers during our second year, partly due to an influx of students from Culham College led by Andrew Parfitt, the son of the AoG pastor at Maidstone, but also because our prayers were being answered and students from other denominations were getting baptised in the Spirit. But that leads me to how I personally started to be used in leading others into the baptism. Leading others into the baptism It all began a few weeks after I had started at Oxford when, after one of those Saturday night Bible Studies in the Northgate Hall, I was looking at a book on the bookstall which was about a revival that had broken out somewhere in Africa. Chris, one of my Anglican friends from Brasenose, saw what I was looking at and asked me if I had any personal experience of revival. So I began to tell him about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. As a result, Chris started to seek the baptism and came along to the Elim church where the pastor laid hands on him and prayed for him. But nothing happened and after a few weeks Chris came to me and said, I want you to pray for me. I'm coming to your room tomorrow and I want you to lay hands on me and pray for me. I was frankly unsure how to respond to this. I was very new to all this myself and I did not know if I had the authority to lay hands on him. I didn't know if such things were the responsibility of pastors, and I wasn't a pastor. But Chris was very insistent and so I agreed. The next day was Saturday and there were no lectures or tutorials for me to attend, so I decided to spend the night in prayer. This was something I had never done before, and have not done very often since, but I realised the seriousness of what Chris had asked me to do and I wanted to get it right. When Chris came the next day, we chatted for a bit, and then he said, Well, are you going to pray for me or not? I think he may have sensed that I was putting it off because, despite my night of prayer, I was nervous about it. He knelt down in front of me, and I plucked up courage and, quietly speaking in tongues, gently placed my hands on his shoulders. But nothing seemed to happen, and I didn't know what to do, when I remembered that in the Authorised Version (which most of us were still using in those days) Acts 19:6 says that it was when Paul had laid his hands upon the Ephesians that the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. In other words, the Spirit came on them after Paul laid his hands on them.  And I found myself prophesying over Chris that he would receive, and that he would receive that very day. At which, Chris got up, said thank you, and left me. And I was left wondering if I had done the right thing. I had my answer at eight the following morning. I was still asleep, having had no sleep the previous night, when I was woken by something digging me in my ribs. It was Chris with his umbrella. What was he doing here?             Oh, it's you Chris. What on earth are you doing here? And then it occurred to me that he might have come to tell me what had happened, so I added,             You haven't received the baptism, have you? To which he responded as he continued to dig me in the ribs,             O ye of little faith! He had, of course, received, and he told me how it had happened. After he had left me he had returned to his room and had been reading a book by, or about, the famous missionary to China, Hudson Taylor. The book emphasised that in addition to faith we need courage in our Christian lives, and Chris realised that that was just what he needed. He looked up from the book intending to say, Yes, Lord. Give me courage. But instead of doing so, he found himself speaking in tongues! Little did I know it then, but Chris was to be the first among hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have begun to speak in tongues through the ministry the Lord has given me. But that's closely related to the subject of spiritual gifts and how I began to exercise them. Beginning to exercise spiritual gifts Shortly after I was baptised in the Spirit I visited the bookshop at the AoG National Offices at 51 Newington Causeway, London. I bought every book they had on the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. As a young Baptist I had received little teaching about the Spirit and none whatsoever on spiritual gifts. And I was eager to learn. I devoured books like Harold Horton's The Gifts of the Spirit and Donald Gee's Concerning Spiritual Gifts, and I learnt that the baptism in the Spirit is not an end in itself, but a gateway to supernatural gifts like tongues,  interpretation, prophecy, and healing. And I was longing to receive and be used in whatever gifts the Lord might have for me. As it happened, I didn't have long to wait. I was still in my first year at Oxford when I was confronted with a situation at the church I was attending. The Elim church in Oxford was a well-attended lively church where the gifts of the Spirit were regularly in operation. On a Sunday morning there were often prophecies, tongues and interpretation. Some of my Christian friends from Brasenose came along to experience Pentecostal worship and so far I had not been embarrassed in any way by what went on in the meetings. However, one Sunday morning, when fortunately none of my friends was present, somebody spoke in tongues but there was no interpretation. No explanation was given for this and, although I was still new to these things, I knew that the Bible was very clear that speaking in tongues in church should be interpreted. I probably should have asked the pastor about this, but he was a busy man and I did not know him very well. Consequently I kept quiet about the matter, but was still concerned that everything was not quite as it should be. Shortly after that, when Richard Bolt was visiting, I told him about this and asked him what I should do. He said, The answer is very simple David. You interpret. To which I replied, But I don't have the gift. He then said, Then ask for it. But, bearing in mind that 1 Corinthians 12:11 tells us that these gifts are given as the Holy Spirit determines, I asked, But I know God wants me to have it? His answer to this was along the following lines. The very fact that I was concerned about it might well indicate that God wanted me to have it. And, anyway, we know from God's word that it is his will that tongues in church should be interpreted. So I would be in God's will if I went ahead and interpreted it. I should pray about it and next time it happened I should ask God for the interpretation and then speak out in faith. Our heavenly Father gives good gifts to his children when they ask him. Although I still had questions, I decided to do what he said and over the next few weeks kept asking the Lord about the matter. Then, one Sunday morning it happened. Someone spoke in tongues and I waited, hoping that someone else would interpret it. But when no one did, I asked the Lord to give me the right words to say and immediately a few words came into my mind which I began to speak out in faith. I say in faith, but I have to confess that my faith was mingled with doubt. I was half expecting the pastor to intervene and say that this was not the right interpretation! But to my intense relief he said nothing, and after the meeting people came and thanked me for my interpretation. So from time to time, I continued to interpret tongues, but still with the occasional doubt if what I said could really be the interpretation. And later in the series I will tell you how God wonderfully confirmed the genuineness of my gift when I interpreted a tongue that was identified as a language spoken in Africa. God certainly did some wonderful things while I was at Oxford, and I realise now that I was already exercising a ministry while I was there. I was leading our SPF prayer group, teaching others about spiritual gifts, as well as preaching in churches from time to time. It seems that others were recognising this before I did, and I was soon asked to share my testimony at the AoG National Youth Rally held in the Birmingham Town Hall and to contribute an article in Redemption Tidings entitled Pentecost in Oxford University. The Lord was clearly preparing the way for my future ministry. Next time, I'll tell you about my developing relationship with Eileen which led to our marriage immediately after I graduated and how I ultimately decided not to go to Bible College as originally planned, but to accept the pastorate of the Assemblies of God Church in Colchester.

My Story   Talk 10   Brasenose College, Oxford, 1959-1962   Welcome to Talk 10 in our series where I'm reflecting on God's goodness to me throughout my life. Today we begin on the years that I spent at Oxford between 1959 and 1962.   For me, life at Brasenose College began on Thursday, 8th October 1959, exactly one month after I had been baptised in the Holy Spirit. I travelled there by car with Eileen and my parents, who, after helping me unpack and settle into my room at the top of staircase 11, prayed with me before returning home. This was the beginning of an entirely new phase in my life. It was the first time that I was living away from home. I would be making new friends and be challenged by new ideas.   But there are some things which remain constant in our lives no matter what else may change. I knew that my parents loved me. I knew that Eileen loved me, and that I loved her. And I knew that God had a purpose for my life and that I was now at Brasenose as part of that overall plan. So I had confidence that all would be well.   The fact that I would now be reading PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) did not faze me, even though I had never studied any of those subjects before. My original purpose in accepting the place I had been offered had been to widen my sphere of knowledge before eventually concentrating on theology in order to prepare for the ministry.   And PPE would certainly do that. But there was far more to being at Oxford than the course I would be studying. There was the social and recreational life which I greatly enjoyed. And it was a great opportunity to interact with people of all faiths and none and to share my faith with them. Opportunity, too, to tell other Christians about the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and to meet other Pentecostal students and spend time in prayer with them for the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. And it was also a time when my relationship with Eileen would be strengthened even though we would be apart for weeks on end.   As I can't cover that in just one talk, today will be aboutlife at Brasenose, its domestic arrangements, its social life and sporting activities, and the academic programme and its challenge to my faith.   Next time I'll share in more detail about my spiritual experience including how the Lord led me into leading others into the Baptism in the Spirit, how I began to exercise spiritual gifts, and how we began the Students' Pentecostal Fellowship. And later I'll tell you about my developing relationship with Eileen which led to our marriage immediately after I had graduated and how I ultimately decided not to go to Bible College as originally planned, but to accept the pastorate of the Assemblies of God Church in Colchester.     Life at Brasenose When I arrived at Brasenose in October 1959 it was almost three years since I had been there previously in November 1956 when I had taken the scholarship examination. Back then I had never seen any of the students' rooms, as we were staying in a boarding house in the Woodstock Road. So I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But as soon as I entered my new room, I was pleasantly surprised. It was larger than my bedroom at home, was well furnished and overlooked one of the quads with a view of the Radcliffe Camera and the University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in the background.   Students were usually allocated a room in college for the first year of their studies, and sometimes for the second year too, when you had opportunity to choose what room you would prefer. During my first year I discovered that the room beneath me was even larger than the room I was in and had the benefit of a bedroom separate from the main room which was used as a sitting room as well as a study.   So when I was offered the chance to live in college for a second year I opted for this room which proved to be extremely useful when we were holding prayer meetings for those interested in seeking spiritual gifts. But more of that next time. For my third year I lived ‘in digs' in a boarding house on the Botley Road, just 50 yards away from the Elim Pentecostal Church which I attended throughout my time in Oxford.   Meals at Brasenose were, in my opinion at least, of a high quality and I was introduced to dishes which I had never tasted at home. These included jugged hare and braised haunch of venison, the only meals I took a positive dislike to, probably because the meat was hung for several days before it was cooked which resulted in a rather unpleasant smell. Fortunately, we were allowed to sign out in advance for any evening meal, provided we dined in college at least five times a week.   Dinner was a rather formal occasion at which we were required to wear our gowns, and which was preceded by a Latin grace which began with the words: Oculi omnium spectant in te Deus. Tu das illis escas tempore opportuno… which means The eyes of all wait upon you O God. You give them their food in due season, and is taken from Psalm 145:15. Sadly, however, I'm not sure that many people took it seriously, even if they should have known what it meant, bearing in mind that at the time Latin at O level was still an entrance requirement for Oxford University.   Breakfast and lunch were far less formal occasions. Grace was not said and there were no requirements about a dress code or attendance. There were, in fact, very few requirements about life in college. Apart from academic regulations, what rules there were related to the time of day you had to be back in college and the time at which any female guests had to be out!     The gate in the porters' lodge was the only means of access to the College. It was locked at midnight and anyone seeking access after that would be reported to the Dean and a fine would be automatically payable. However, this could be avoided if you were agile enough to scale an eight-foot wall without being caught, something of course I never had to try!   As far as the ladies were concerned, they had to be out by 10pm. This, I imagine, is no longer relevant, as, like most Oxford colleges, Brasenose rightly accepts female students as well as men. But by the time I left Oxford the ‘swinging sixties' had hardly begun, and there was still at least a nominal acknowledgement of Christian moral values.   For residential students there was also a rule about the minimum number of nights you had to be in college over the course of a term. Any absence without permission from your ‘moral tutor' would be reported by your ‘scout'. Scouts, who were usually much older than the students, originally were little more than their servants and before my time would clean your shoes if you left them outside the door of your room.   Even in my time they were referred to by their surname only, whereas they had to refer to me as Mr Petts and address me as Sir. This was something I deplored, a tradition which harked back to the old upstairs/downstairs attitude of the aristocracy still very prevalent in the early decades of the last century. If you've ever watched Downton Abbey you'll know exactly what I mean.   Social and sport Probably the most frequent social activity at Oxford was drinking coffee and staying up until the early hours of the morning discussing religion or politics or whatever else was currently in the news. Of course, whenever I could I took the opportunity to share my faith with anyone who would listen. Most of these discussions took place either in my room or that of fellow students whose accommodation was close to mine.   And at least one of those students came to faith in Christ during his first term at Brasenose, largely through the ministry of Keith de Berry, the rector of St. Aldate's Church, but I like to think that my testimony also played a part in his decision to give his life to Christ. He went on to gain a first class degree in Chemistry and continued at Oxford to do a D.Phil., (the Oxford version of a PhD). Now, after more than sixty years he is still a committed Christian and once told me that his scientific research had only confirmed his faith in Christ.   Of course, late night discussions were by no means the only occasions when there was opportunity to witness to the truth of the gospel. So whether it was punting on the Cherwell on a lazy summer afternoon, or in the changing room after a football match, or playing tennis or table tennis (for which, in my final year, I was captain of the College team), I was always eager to share my faith.       But that doesn't mean that I was constantly ‘Bible bashing'. Far from it. I remember how on one occasion, when our team was playing tennis against another college, my doubles match had been delayed for some reason. Consequently, it looked as though I would be late for our Students' Pentecostal Fellowship prayer meeting.   But it was a three-set match, and we had lost the first set six-love and were losing the second set four-love. We had only to lose two more games, and the match would be over, and I could get off to the prayer meeting which by then had already started. But throwing away the match would hardly be fair to my partner and would not have glorified God.   Then I realised that my friends would wonder where I was and would be praying for me, wherever I was or whatever I was doing. Which inspired me to say to my partner,               Come on, John. We're going to win this match.   And we did. The level of our tennis suddenly improved, and, having lost ten games in a row, we went on to win all the next twelve, taking the match by two sets to one (4-6, 6-4, 6-0). I'm not sure that John believed my explanation that this was probably the result of answered prayer, but because of that experience I am personally convinced, not only that God is interested in every tiny detail of our lives, but that such experiences bear testimony to others of the reality of our faith.   Academic programme The academic year at Oxford began in early October and finished towards the end of June. Each term lasted just 8 weeks which meant that the long summer vacation provided the opportunity for students to get a summer job or travel abroad or, where necessary, to catch up on their reading.   Reading was, in fact, a major part of learning, and the world-renowned Bodleian Library situated virtually on the doorstep of Brasenose, provided access to millions of books and other printed items. Guidance as to which books to read was given in tutorials when your tutor would set you an essay to write in time for the following week, when you would read your essay to him and he would make appropriate comments.   At the beginning of term, he would also recommend what lectures might be helpful. Attendance at lectures was entirely optional, whereas attendance at tutorials was a compulsory part of one's course. The standard of lecturing varied immensely, some academics having very poor communication skills. As a result, attendance would steadily diminish week by week and in one case I remember the series was terminated early ‘due to an indisposition' on the part of the lecturer!   In my day, the system of assessment at Oxford, for PPE at least, was by written examination. After ‘prelims' (preliminary examinations) which were taken in March in your first year, there was no further examination until ‘finals' which were taken in the June of your third year.     I was required to take at least two papers in each subject, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, plus two further papers of my choice. I opted to take these in Philosophy as this was my favourite, despite the fact that it had been the most challenging to my Christian faith.   For example, during my second year I had been asked by my tutor to write an essay on the ontological argument for the existence of God. This was one of the arguments used by the philosopher René Descartes in an attempt to prove God's existence. During the course of my essay I said something to the effect that although philosophy cannot prove the existence of God it cannot disprove it either. It was at this point, as I was reading my essay to my tutor, that he interrupted me by saying: Oh, I don't know. I think if you mean by ‘prove' what we normally mean by ‘prove', and if you mean by ‘God' what we normally mean by ‘God', then we can probably disprove God's existence. But perhaps we can talk about it another time. This was the first time in my life that I had been confronted with such an outright denial of God's existence, and my tutor's statement shocked me deeply. It challenged everything I had based my life upon. I felt numb. As soon as he had left the room I instinctively wanted to call out to God for help. But what if my tutor was right and there was no God to call out to? But I called out anyway:             God, if there is a God, HELP! And He did! I walked into my bedroom and picked up my Bible and opened it. It fell open at Psalm 119, verse 99. My teacher had told me that he could prove that there is no God. Who was I to challenge the statement of an Oxford tutor? But in that verse the Psalmist said: I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I came later to realise that by reading the Bible the most simple believer can gain more understanding of the things that really matter than all the intellectual rationalising of the philosopher. That verse brought immediate reassurance to my heart. It was not just the content of the verse that reassured me – though it certainly did – but the fact that, of all the verses there are in the Bible, I should turn at random to that very one. This was surely no coincidence. God had spoken to me in a remarkable and powerful way. And as the years have gone by I have learned how to counteract the arguments of the atheists. I'm so glad now that I did not abandon my faith back then. People will always be bringing up challenges to our faith, but just because I don't know the answer doesn't mean that there is no answer! And until I know what it is, I just need to keep on trusting the One who said, I AM the truth.  

My Story  Talk 9 Between Brentwood and Brasenose (1956-1959) Part 2 In our last talk I mentioned that three significant things happened between my leaving school in 1956 and going up to Brasenose in 1959. I gained experience in teaching. I met Eileen, my future wife. And I received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. And it's the baptism in the Spirit that's the subject for today. We'll be talking about the events that led up to it, how I heard about it and how both Eileen and I received it.   In August 1957 at a Baptist Union Summer School in the Lake District I met a man called Michael, who mentioned that the following year he was planning to go touring Europe with some Christian friends who owned a car. He asked if I would be interested in going with them and I said yes. I paid to have driving lessons so that I could share in the driving. It was a wonderful holiday, not just because of the breathtaking scenery, but because it was there in Switzerland that I first heard about the baptism in the Holy Spirit.   In my book Signs from Heaven I have already recorded the miraculous escape I had from a falling boulder while climbing a mountain and how impressed I was with the simple faith of one of my new friends who prayed for me as he saw it coming straight for me. His name was Laurie and he was clearly moving in a dimension of Christianity that I knew little or nothing about. So I asked him what he had got that I hadn't got.   So he started to talk about an experience he had received after his conversion – being baptised with the Holy Spirit he called it – when the Holy Spirit had come and filled him to overflowing. He said he had spoken in tongues and told me I could read about it in the book of Acts. But although I wanted to experience more of God in my life, I wasn't interested in speaking in tongues, and I dismissed the subject from my mind. And I might have ignored it forever had it not been for the remarkable series of events which took place the following summer when both Eileen and I were baptised in the Spirit.   In the summer of 1959 we were both sitting in the youth meeting at Eileen's church singing from a well-known chorus book, when I happened to notice a list of books advertised on the back cover, one of which was entitled, The Full Blessing of Pentecost, by Dr. Andrew Murray. The title arrested my attention. Could this be what Laurie had been talking about the previous year in Switzerland? So I decided that it might be good to get it.   I mentioned this to Eileen and, without my knowing about it, she wrote to the publishers hoping to buy a copy for me, but a few days later, she received a reply saying the book was no longer available. The following Saturday morning, I went round to see Eileen and she told me that she had tried to get the book for me but that unfortunately it was out of print. A bit disappointed, I thanked her for trying anyway and, after spending the morning with her, returned home from Eileen's to my parents' house for lunch.   As the meal was not quite ready, I went into the sitting room to wait. On entering, I happened to notice a book lying on the piano and casually picked it up – The Full Blessing of Pentecost by Dr. Andrew Murray! But how did it get there? No one, except Eileen, knew anything of my interest in the subject. My parents did not know where the book had come from. It is true that my father had always had a large collection of books, but if it was his, he certainly had never read it, and didn't even know that he possessed it. Anyway, why wasn't it in the bookcase and how did it get on the piano?   No one had any idea how that book came to be there on the very day that I had been told it was unobtainable. The answer must surely lie in the realm of the supernatural. This was no coincidence. God was confirming to me that I needed to be baptised in the Spirit, and that afternoon, after I had read the book, I got down on my knees and asked God to fill me with the Holy Spirit. But nothing happened!   That evening, I went round to Eileen's and told her about the book. And after she had read the book she too started to seek for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. As Baptists, we knew next to nothing about it – only what we had read in Andrew Murray's book, and that, as I look back on it now, did not give an entirely complete picture.  As I remember it, it made a strong case for believing that there was an experience of the Holy Spirit beyond what we receive at conversion, but there was no mention of speaking in tongues as the evidence.   As a result we weren't exactly sure what we were asking for, but I had the distinct impression that if I was going to receive the Holy Spirit I needed to prepare myself by becoming more holy. I remember thinking that if I could only live a sinless life for a month, or maybe even a week, or even just today, perhaps God would fill me with the Holy Spirit. I remember driving my father's car taking care not to exceed the speed limit when, as I was going down a hill in a 30 zone, I noticed that the speedometer had gone up to 32 m.p.h. Oh no, I thought, I've missed receiving the baptism for another day!   Of course, I now understand, and frequently teach, that the Holy Spirit is a gift and can't be earned! But back then I was getting frustrated by trying the achieve an experience of the Spirit by my own efforts and inevitably failing. So I thought I would write to Laurie who had told me about the baptism in the Spirit in the first place. What should I do? To which he replied, David, all I can say is that if you are really thirsty, you will drink. But this was even more frustrating. The problem was, I had no idea how to drink! Laurie lived quite a distance from me and I didn't feel like writing back and saying,   Thanks Laurie. That's very helpful, but please, how do I drink?   So Eileen and I decided on a different approach. Perhaps we should find a Pentecostal Church and see if they could help us. It turned out that the nearest one was Bethel Full Gospel Church which was about five miles away in Dagenham, and easily reached on our recently acquired Lambretta scooter. So we drove over to take a look at it and discovered from the noticeboard that there was a prayer meeting every Tuesday evening. I was quite nervous about it as I had never been in a Pentecostal meeting before, but we were pleasantly surprised and were impressed with the number of people praying, even though prayers were interspersed with lots of Amens. We, of course, as good Baptists were only used to saying Amen at the end of a prayer! But what really impacted us was the use of the gift of tongues and interpretation. In the middle of the prayer time there were three ‘messages' in tongues each of which was promptly interpreted. And we knew that God was speaking to US. These people did not know who we were. We had arrived just in time for the meeting and had had no time for conversation before the meeting began. So when we heard the opening words of the first interpretation we were completely amazed:   You have come into this church seeking to be filled with the Spirit!   All three interpretations were equally directly relevant to us, and as a result we spoke with the pastor after the meeting and explained who we were and why we had come. His name was Alfred Webb, and he encouraged us to come the following Tuesday and sit on the front row where anyone ‘seeking the baptism' would be prayed for with the laying on of hands. So that's what we did, but we were rather disappointed when nothing seemed to happen when he laid hands on us. This happened week after week until we finally received after we had come back from our summer holiday in Torquay, Devon.   That holiday was significant for several reasons. It was the first time that Eileen and I had been on holiday together and we had borrowed my father's car so that we could take another young couple with us. My father had bought the car before he had passed the driving test so that I could give him lessons. (You may remember that I had learned to drive before we went on that holiday in Switzerland). Dad had not yet passed the test, so was happy to let me borrow it.   But, as far as the baptism in the Spirit was concerned, two things were particularly relevant. First, on the two Sundays we were in Torquay we decided to attend Upton Vale Baptist Church which was not far from the Christian Endeavour Holiday Home where we were staying. I was very impressed with the minister's sermon on Hebrews 11:6 and his emphasis on the fact that God rewards those who earnestly seek him. So I had a word with him after the service and told him I was seeking the baptism in the Spirit.   Sadly, but not unsurprisingly for a Baptist minister back in 1959, he tried to discourage me from doing so, something which, when I started my course at Oxford a month or so later, influenced my decision to attend a Pentecostal church while I was there rather than a Baptist church. However, that sermon on Hebrews 11:6 on God rewarding those who earnestly seek him did reemphasise a word of prophecy we had received at Bethel a few weeks earlier encouraging us to get up early to pray. Now I am not saying that getting up early to pray is a condition of receiving the baptism, but it could be an indication that we were earnestly seeking, that we were really thirsty (John 7:7-39). So for the rest of that holiday we got up early and prayed.   And when we went to the Tuesday prayer meeting after we got back from our holiday, it happened! This time there was another man sitting alongside the pastor on the platform. I had no idea who he was but as soon as the prayer time began he came down to pray for those who were seeking the baptism.   Eileen and I were kneeling in the front row and he came to me first. I was kneeling with my head in my hands on the seat of the chair I had been sitting on. The man, who I later learned was a pastor called Harold Young, said, Kneel up, brother. So I moved into an upright kneeling position and he then said, Breathe it in, brother. I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, and I thought it rather strange. But I was thirsty and unquestioningly did what he said. I took a breath. Then he said, Speak it out brother. Again, I did what he said and I found myself speaking fluently in tongues. And I did not stop until the pastor closed the meeting 45 minutes later! Then someone came up to me and said, You had a mighty baptism, didn't you, brother? To which I replied, Oh, did I? To be honest, it was not at all what I had been expecting. Although I'm not really sure what I was expecting! By this time I had heard or read of so many different testimonies of people receiving the baptism and had realised that in some ways everyone is different, so I was not really sure what I should expect. What I wanted was to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I was not particularly interested in speaking in tongues.   What's more, I found myself questioning whether the words I was speaking really were a language. I had studied four different foreign languages at school and it certainly sounded like none of them. So was my experience real? These questions were going through my mind as we were travelling home on our scooter. But then I remembered something that Jesus had said in Luke 11. Our heavenly Father does not give stones or scorpions or snakes to his children when they ask for the Holy Spirit. And on that basis I chose to believe that what I had experienced was real. I'm so glad that I did. Its reality has been confirmed again and again in my life and ministry. But more of that in later talks.   But what about Eileen? She had had similar doubts when she heard what Harold Young had said to me and when he laid hands on her she did not receive. However, straight after the meeting he spoke to her and said, You do want to receive don't you? and Eileen said yes. So he took us both into the church vestry and placed his right hand on my head and told me to start speaking in tongues again. Then he placed his other hand on Eileen's head and said, Now you begin to speak too.   And she did! And later she told me that it had been in that very vestry that she had received Jesus as her saviour in Bethel Church Sunday school when she was only seven years old. So we were both baptised in the Spirit on the same day, September 8, 1959, just four weeks before I began my course at Brasenose College, Oxford, where I spent a lot of time telling other Christians about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. But we'll be talking about that next time.

Tobias Churton is Britain's leading scholar of Western Esotericism.  He is a filmmaker and the founding editor of the magazine Freemasonry Today.  An Honorary Fellow of Exeter University, where he is a faculty lecturer in Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, he holds a master's degree in Theology from Brasenose College, Oxford, and created the award-winning documentary series and accompanying book The Gnostics, as well as several other films on Christian doctrine, mysticism, and magical folklore.  He is the prolific author of 28 books.   This podcast focuses on his newest release:  The Books of Enoch Revealed: The Wicked Watchers, Metatron, and the Fruits of Forbidden Knowledge (2025). For more information about Tobias, please see:  https://tobiaschurton.com/1_home.html This podcast is available on your favorite podcast feed, or here: Have a blessed weekend!

Talk 8 Between Brentwood and Brasenose (1956-59) Part 1 Welcome to Talk 8 in our series where I'm reflecting on the goodness of God throughout my life. I left school in December 1956 and started my course at Oxford in October 1959, a period of almost three years. In many ways it seemed a long time to wait, but in the plan and purpose of God they turned out to be highly significant years. I gained experience in teaching. I met Eileen, the girl who was to be lifelong partner. And I received the life-changing experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. But first, I need to explain how I got my place at Oxford and why I had to wait three years before taking it up. Gaining my place at Oxford In 1956, at the age of seventeen, I had already passed my A Levels and had decided to stay on at school a further year to take S Levels the following summer. S Levels – the S stands for Scholarship – were the highest level of GCE exams that you could take and were designed to support your application to university, especially if you were hoping to go to Oxbridge. However, as things turned out, I did not need to complete my S Level course because in the first term of that school year I was awarded a scholarship to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Brasenose College, Oxford. Our form master, Mr. Rennie, had suggested that some of us might like to spend a few days in Oxford and take some examinations at Brasenose College with a view to obtaining a place there. As there was only one place available I was not expecting to get it. But I decided to go even though my friend, John Bramble, was going too and I thought he was far more likely to be successful. He had always come higher than me in class and had gained better A Level results than I had. There were about eight of us altogether, each of us taking different exam papers, generally depending on what subjects we had taken at A level. There was just one paper that was the same for all of us, an English essay, the title of which was unknown to us until we sat down in the examination room. And that title was WORDS. The length of that exam was three hours and, although some boys started writing almost immediately, I spent the first 45 minutes planning my essay. I can't remember in great detail the contents of that essay but I know that I concluded it by talking about Christ, the word made flesh, the divine logos, the ultimate revelation of God Himself. I have sometimes wondered if the reason I was awarded the scholarship rather than any of my colleagues was that the Lord was honouring me because I had honoured him. Of course, I can't be sure about that, but he had helped me through my A levels when I had honoured him before the whole class when my History master had told me that I was likely to fail, and I have always sought to give God the glory for any academic success I may have achieved. And I discovered later that, of all the papers I sat during that visit to Brasenose, that essay on WORDS was awarded the highest grade – an alpha. But when I received a letter from Brasenose offering me a scholarship a few weeks later, I was totally amazed and, after discussing it with my father, I came to the conclusion that this had to be God. But there was just one problem. The place they were offering me was for three years later in October 1959, after I had completed my two years National Service. However, the Government had already agreed to abolish National Service and were in the process of phasing it out gradually. They did this by delaying the ‘call-up' which meant, in my case, that by the time they would have called me up, there would be less than two years before my course at Oxford was starting. In short, I would not have time to do National Service and, by the time I had finished my course at Oxford, National Service had been abolished completely. So, having obtained my place at Oxford, I decided to leave school at the end of term in December and start to earn some money. And at the time there was a great shortage of schoolteachers, as a result of which young people who had passed their A levels could do ‘uncertificated teaching' before going to university, and so I ended up doing almost three years' teaching before I went to Oxford. Gaining experience in teaching And, surprisingly enough, it started at the very school I had just left. Or, to be more precise, it was at the Preparatory School attached to Brentwood and standing just on the other side of the main playing field. One of the teachers was on sickness leave for a few weeks and I was asked if I would take their place as they taught French and Latin which were of course my two main A Level subjects. As it was a boarding school, I was required to live in and be the housemaster for some of the boys, which mainly involved making sure that they were in bed on time and not talking after a certain time. I was only there for a few weeks (January 15 to February 16), but I enjoyed the experience very much and learnt a great deal, not least of which was that, if you prepared your lessons thoroughly, you had relatively few problems with discipline. After Brentwood Prep I was told by the Essex Education Committee that another job was available in Brentwood, at the Church of England Primary School in Coptfold Road, only a few hundred yards from my old school. A teacher was on maternity leave and a replacement was needed until July to look after her class of 8 to 9 year-olds. The pay wasn't great as I was not a qualified teacher. It worked out at about half what I would have been paid if I had been qualified. And, of course, this was not a residential post, so I needed to travel on two buses each day to get there from Hornchurch. But I accepted the job anyway.   As in most primary schools, a teacher was responsible for teaching their class throughout the day all the subjects on the timetable. That was not a problem, but learning to keep discipline was another matter. My expectations were based on the level of discipline I had experienced as a pupil at Brentwood and the few weeks I had spent teaching at Brentwood Prep. Coptfold Road was quite another matter. Many of the children came from a less fortunate background and some of them were of rather limited intelligence. As a result, and due to my own lack of training and experience, and lack of any supervision, I found the two terms I was in charge of that class extremely difficult, and was quite relieved when I heard towards the end of the summer term that Mrs. Istead, the teacher who had been on maternity leave, was returning the following Monday. So on the Friday before she was due to return I was clearing my desk after school when the headmaster, Dr. Ward, asked me what I was doing, adding, You're not leaving, are you? And he offered to give me a different class to teach and keep me on indefinitely until I went up to Oxford. So I decided to stay and, as things turned out, I was there until the end of September 1959, my ability to keep discipline improving greatly with experience and the help of a Day School Teachers' Conference organised by the Baptist Union and held at St. Augustine's College, Canterbury in August 1957. As I look back on those years of teaching before I went to Oxford, I think I can see why God allowed it to happen that way. While I was waiting I was rather frustrated, thinking, Why am I teaching when God has called me to the ministry? But little did I know then that his plan for me was that most of my ministry would be teaching. And although the major part of my teaching ministry has been to a different age group, even when teaching at degree level in Bible Colleges around the world, I have found that God has given me the ability to teach at a level that everyone can understand, something I repeatedly hear from grateful listeners. And perhaps at least part of that ability is a result of those years I spent teaching less able children while waiting to go to university. God knows what he is doing, and he always has a purpose in what appear to us to be pointless pauses in our lives. But that brings me to an even more significant purpose in those years of waiting, for it was in those years that I met Eileen, the girl I was to marry and who was to be the ideal person to support me in my ministry. Meeting Eileen It was an incredibly hot day that Saturday afternoon. So hot in fact that the railway line buckled in the heat of the sun. It was Saturday 29th June, 1957 and we had arranged a youth rally where the young people from Elm Park Baptist would meet up with Hornchurch Baptist young people for fun and games in the park followed by an open air service. Although the churches were only two miles apart, before then we had had little contact with them, so I actually knew none of the young people there. People have often asked me how I met Eileen and I have usually replied, In the park! After a game of rounders, we sat down in groups and had a picnic tea. I noticed a group of four rather attractive girls sitting a few yards away and thought I would like to take a closer look! So I got up and walked towards them and happened to notice that one of them had taken her shoes off. On impulse, I picked up one of the shoes and ran off with it, with nothing in particular in mind other than just having a bit of fun. Needless to say, the owner of the shoe ran after me but was at something of a disadvantage as she had bare feet. I soon disappeared from view and hid the shoe under the bridge that spanned the park lake. Of course, when she caught up with me, I felt a bit of an idiot and showed her where the shoe was. We got into conversation and I asked her if she would like to come to our Saturday evening youth club which took place after the open air service. She agreed and, after sharing a song sheet at the open air, I found out that her name was Eileen and that she was just six days older than me. After youth club I walked her home and kissed her goodnight. And that was the beginning of a relationship that lasted, with a short break, for 67 years and which ended only when the Lord called her home at the age of 85. We agreed to meet again some time the following week, but the next day, after attending church in the morning, I decided to go to Hornchurch Baptist for their evening service in the hope of seeing Eileen again. She and her friend were sitting in the choir and her friend noticed me in the congregation and said to Eileen, He's here! After the service we went for a long walk in the park and from then on were to see each other just about every day. I discovered that Eileen had attended Romford County High School and had left after taking her O levels. At the time she was working at Barts (St. Bartholemew's Hospital) in London, but a year later she accepted a post in the Dagenham Education Office which was closer to home. But before that, I have to confess that there was a short break in our relationship during the last few months of 1957. I mentioned earlier that I attended a conference in Canterbury during the last week in August of that year. Everyone there was a qualified schoolteacher with the exception of me and one other person, a girl called Irene who was the same age as me and had been accepted to train as a teacher at the Chelsea College for Physical Education in Eastbourne. Irene was extremely attractive, highly intelligent, and very good at sport – she was nearly good enough to beat me at table tennis! But she was having doubts about her faith, and I spent some time with her trying to encourage her. As a result we were both very attracted to each other and, to cut the story short, because I have never been proud of myself about this, we started to see each other after the conference was over. When I next saw Eileen I told her, without mentioning Irene, that I felt we had been seeing too much of each other, that our relationship had been getting too intense – which it probably was – and that I thought we should cool it and not see each other for a while. She later told me that she had not been too concerned because she was convinced that if I was the right one for her, the Lord would bring me back to her. Which he did. The relationship with Irene lasted only a few weeks – until the middle of October, when I went to Eastbourne for a weekend to see her at her college. In short, she jilted me! But not long before Christmas the young people from Hornchurch Baptist came to Elm Park to take our Friday evening YPF meeting. And who should be singing in the choir but Eileen. I think we spoke briefly after the meeting, just polite conversation, but it was enough to arouse my interest in her again. So I sent her a Christmas card, and she replied by sending me one and enclosing this short poem: I do believe that God above created you for me to love. He picked you out from all the rest because he knew I'd love you best. I had a heart so warm and true, but now it's gone from me to you. Take care of it as I have done, for you have two and I have none. Not the best poetry in the world, but it touched my heart and I wrote to Eileen – I still have a copy of that letter – asking if she would like to resume our relationship. And from January 2nd 1958 hardly a day passed without our seeing each other.  

My Story   Talk 5   Brentwood School (1950-1956) Part Two Welcome to Talk 5 in our series where I'm reflecting on God's goodness to me throughout my life. Today we're talking about the academic programme at Brentwood, the chaplain, the chapel and Divinity lessons, and the school CCF.   Academic Programme A typical day at Brentwood began with chapel or assembly at 8.50am. This lasted about half an hour. Lessons, which were all 45 minutes long, began at 9.30. The first two periods were followed by a 15 minute break at 11am and the next two periods were followed by lunch at 1pm. With the exception of Wednesdays and Saturdays which were dedicated to sporting activities, there were three periods each afternoon, beginning at 1.45 and ending at 4pm.   And then of course there was homework, which at Brentwood was called prep. In the first year this was expected to take us an hour and a half each evening, increasing to three hours when you were in the sixth form taking A levels. This often involved memorizing things on which you were going to be tested the next day.   And there were huge incentives for doing your prep thoroughly. Apart from the fact that you might be put in detention on Wednesday afternoon if you failed the test, a form order was produced every two or three weeks and sent home to your parents to let them know your current position in class. This certainly kept us on our toes, and, although at Brentwood I never came top as I had regularly done at primary school, I made sure I was always in the top 10.   Subjects in our first year, all of which were compulsory, included English, French, Latin, Maths, History, Geography, Physics, Art or Woodwork, Divinity (Religious Education), and Gym. But after the first year, which at Brentwood was referred to as the second form, the system changed and the subjects you took depended on which stream you had chosen to enter.   The Third Form (i.e. the second year) was divided into four streams, Classical Three, Science Three, Modern Three, and General Three. The advantage of this system was that boys could concentrate early on the areas where they hoped to specialise later. The disadvantage was, of course, that not everyone was at all sure at such a young age of what those future areas might be. It also meant that relatively little teaching was given on some quite important subjects. For example, you did relatively little science if you went into the classical stream.   However, in my case, I think the system proved beneficial. I opted for the classical stream because I was interested in languages and had shown that I had a measure of ability in that area. In doing so I was able to begin studying Greek at the age of 12 which was to prove important in what the Lord had for me in the future.       At the age of 15, when we were in the fifth form, we all took O-level exams (General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level), after which another choice had to be made.  Which sixth form stream to enter? Although successful in all my exams, my best results were in languages, and of all the streams available the choice for me was narrowed down to Lower Sixth Classics where I could take Latin, Greek, and Classical History, or Lower Six Arts where the options were Latin or English Literature, French, and German or Mediaeval History. Not knowing then the future God had planned for me, I opted for the Arts stream and chose Latin, French, and Mediaeval History for my A-level subjects and Spanish as a subsidiary subject for O-level.   I thank God that, with his help, I passed all these exams. I was particularly grateful about History. A few months before we were due to sit the exams, my history teacher, Mr. Moulde, said to me,   Quite honestly, Petts, I think you're going to fail History.   The basic reason for this was that I wasn't doing enough prep because of all the church activities I was engaged in because, among other things, halfway through my A-level course I had felt God calling me to the ministry. But more about that in the next talk. So, in front of the whole class, I replied,   The problem is, Sir, that I believe that God has called me to be a minister, and that to gain as much experience as I can, I need to be involved as much as possible in my local church. I believe that if I honour God, and if he wants me to pass History, then he will help me to do so.   To which he replied,   Well, Petts, I respect your faith, but I can't say that I agree with you. Unless you put in a lot more work, you will certainly fail.   I did try to put in more work on History without giving up any of my church activities. When the results came through I was delighted to discover that I had scored 60% (the pass mark being 40). And at the beginning of the next term, as I happened to meet Mr. Moulde in the quad, he said to me with a broad smile,   Well, Petts, what do you mean by getting 60? I would never have believed it. Congratulations.   Later that term I won a scholarship at Brasenose College, Oxford to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. But more of that in a later talk. I need now to say more about my Christian faith while I was at Brentwood. This, of course, needs to be understood alongside my experience at Elm Park Baptist Church which will be the subject of our next talk. At school I was to get a taste of a different kind of Christianity, some of which wasn't Christianity at all as I understood it. But this will become clear in a moment.   The Chaplain, the Chapel, and Divinity lessons The religious climate in the UK in the 1950s was very different from today. Although church attendance had dropped, probably caused by disillusionment because of the war, there was still a general acceptance of the basic truths of Christianity. This, coupled with the fact that religious teaching at Brentwood was, in the words of the school prospectus, in accordance with that of the Church of England, meant that with the exception of Divinity (RE) lessons, apart from one experience I will mention later, there was rarely anything much that would challenge my Christian faith.  Surprisingly the source of that challenge was the Chaplain, the Chapel, and what was taught in Divinity lessons.   The Chaplain, the Reverend R. R. Lewis, M.A. was a graduate of Jesus College, Oxford, and an ordained Church of England priest. As such, he was responsible for most of what went on in chapel and taught all the weekly Divinity lessons. From this it was clear, because he openly acknowledged it, that he did not believe in the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, or the resurrection. In fact he denied the possibility of miracles on the grounds that, if God created the laws of the universe, he would not break his own rules! Of course, when I told my father about this, he reminded me of the outstanding miracle experienced by Auntie May which I mentioned at the beginning of this series.   On another occasion we were told that God could not foretell the future because, if he could, that would mean that we could not be held responsible for our actions. I know some Christians do struggle with this, but, as I have pointed out elsewhere, if I know that something will happen it does not mean that I am causing it to happen.   Having said all that, Mr. Lewis was a nice enough man. I just could not, and still cannot, understand how the Church of England can allow people with such views to hold office in the church. Anglicans often talk about what they consider to be the advantages of the C. of E. being what they call a broad church, but in my view what they claim to be its greatest strength is actually its greatest weakness.   Of course, back then I knew nothing of the evangelical wing of the Church of England and tended to assume that Anglicans all held views like those of our school chaplain. It was later at Oxford that I first met godly people who were part of the C. of E. and whose views, apart from the fact that they believed in infant baptism, were much closer to mine.   And I praise God for the great things that are happening today in those parts of the church where the Bible is honoured and charismatic gifts are encouraged. But from my, admittedly limited, experience of Anglican worship, it was very different from that in the 1950s.   Worship in chapel was very different from what I experienced in our Baptist Church each Sunday. Some differences were relatively unimportant. For example, in chapel we sang Psalms instead of reading them, and we knelt for prayer rather than sitting. But others were more serious. Prayers were never spontaneous, but read from a book, and they were the same prayers week after week!   And preachers would be dressed in robes and precede their sermons with,   In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen,   something which at times verged on the blasphemous bearing in mind the content of what sometimes followed in the sermon.   But none of this seriously challenged my faith, unlike an experience I had in class, once again with our French teacher, M. Jacquotet. I don't remember what I had said, but I do remember his response:   Monsieur Petts, you are a silly little fool if you think that, if there is a God, he can possibly be interested in you!   At the time, I had no answer. There is an apparent logic to arguments like these, but I knew that there must be an answer. So that evening I told my father what my teacher had said, to which he replied,   But that is exactly what we Christians dare to believe. God isn't limited like us. He's so big that he has the capacity to care about every single person and every single thing in the universe. Your teacher clearly doesn't understand this.   And I remembered something that we had been told to memorise in our English Literature lessons. It was taken from Matthew 6:26.   Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?   So my father's advice and the shield of faith, which is the word of God, extinguished yet another of those flaming arrows sent by the evil one (Ephesians 6:16). But my father's Christian influence on my thinking was also very evident in a decision I made with regard to the school Combined Cadet Force.   The CCF and pacifism As I mentioned in Talk One, my father was a conscientious objector during the war. As a Christian he took seriously all the teaching of Jesus, and that included the command to Love your enemies (Matthew 5:44) and he could not see how he could obey this command by killing them. He had to go before a tribunal and answer searching questions to test if his objections were genuine and, as a result, was exempted from military service and allowed to continue his profession as a schoolteacher.       Now at Brentwood it was compulsory for boys in the fourth form and above to be part of the school's Combined Cadet Force (CCF), generally referred to in school as ‘the corps'. This meant that every Thursday boys would dress in Army or Air Force uniform throughout the day and during the last period of the afternoon receive military training on the school playing fields.   There was, however, a provision for a boy to register as a Conscientious Objector if he could satisfy the Headmaster that his objections were sincere. And so, following my father's example, at the age of 14, I was interviewed and asked to explain my objections, as a result of which I was allowed to do First Aid training with the Red Cross as part of the non-uniformed branch of the corps.   Now I realise that most Christians do not take the same pacifist stance. This is one of those issues where Christians are disagreed, and each person must follow their own conscience in the matter. But for me at the time, arguing for pacificism was in many ways the most vital way I had of expressing my Christian faith. Memories of World War II were still very real and our armed forces were already engaged in conflict in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. Fear of a third world war was very real, and at the time all boys of eighteen were compelled to do National Service involving two years' military training in one of the armed forces.   So the issue of whether it is right to take up arms against one's fellow human beings was particularly relevant throughout my school years, and there were frequent discussions about it both at school and at church.   Whether I was right or wrong to adopt a pacifist position is for others to decide, but what it did for me and the development of my character was undeniable. I was forced to stand up for what I believed in, despite the teasing and accusations of cowardice that inevitably come to people who refuse to fight. The ability to think independently rather than following the majority view, and the resolve to take seriously the teaching of Jesus and to follow it, were to become the determining factors of my life.   So I thank God for my years at Brentwood. They not only provided the foundation for future academic achievements but gave me opportunity to learn how to think for myself and to stand up for what I believe to be right. And, best of all, they were years when I determined to follow Jesus. My faith was both challenged and encouraged, but Brentwood was, of course, by no means the only factor, because throughout my years there I was also a regular attender at Elm Park Baptist Church, which is the subject of the next talk.      

Is America a nation Chosen by God? A New Jerusalem and Shining City on a Hill? What is the shape of Christian Nationalism today?Now 4 years past Jan 6, 2021 and anticipating the next term of presidential office, Yale professors Eliyahu Stern and Philip Gorski join Evan Rosa for a conversation about religion, politics, and the shape of Christian nationalism now.Together they discuss what religion really means in sociological and historical terms; the difference between religions of power and religions of law or morality; the American syncretism of pagan Christianity (perhaps captured in the Qnon Shaman with the horns and facepaint); the connection between nationalism and the desire to be a Chosen People; the supersessionism at the root of seeing the Christian conquest of America as a New Jerusalem; and how ordinary citizens come to adopt the tenets of Christian Nationalism.Eliyahu Stern is Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual and Cultural History in the Departments of Religious Studies and History and his current project is entitled No Where Left to Go: Jews and the Global Right from 1977 to October 7.Philip Gorski is Frederick and Laura Goff Professor of Sociology at Yale University and is author of The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy (with Samuel Perry) as well as American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present.Special thanks to our production assistant Zoë Halaban for pitching this conversation.About Eliyahu SternEliyahu Stern is Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual and Cultural History in the Departments of Religious Studies and History. Previously, he was Junior William Golding Fellow in the Humanities at Brasenose College and the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford. He is the author of the award-winning, The Genius: Elijah of Vilna and the Making of Modern Judaism (Yale University Press in 2012). His second monograph Jewish Materialism: The Intellectual Revolution of the 1870s (Yale University Press, 2018) details the ideological background to Jews' involvement in Zionism, Capitalism, and Communism. His courses include The Global Right: From the French Revolution to the American Insurrection, Secularism: From the Enlightenment to the Present, Modern Jewish Intellectual History, The Holocaust in Culture and Politics. He has served as a term member on the Council on Foreign Relations and a consultant to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland. Currently, he is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Center of Jewish History.His latest project is entitled No Where Left to Go: Jews and the Global Right from 1977 to October 7.About Philip GorskiPhilip S. Gorski is a comparative-historical sociologist with strong interests in theory and methods and in modern and early modern Europe. He is Frederick and Laura Goff Professor of Sociology at Yale University. His empirical work focuses on topics such as state-formation, nationalism, revolution, economic development and secularization with particular attention to the interaction of religion and politics. Other current interests include the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences and the nature and role of rationality in social life. He's author with Samuel L. Perry of The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy, as well as American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present.Show NotesTrump: “I'm a nationalist.”Increased ownership and proud identification as Christian NationalismEliyahu Stern, No Where Left to Go: Jews and the Global Right from 1977 to October 7The human practice of religion“ The way one person will invoke Christianity will be something very different than say the way a church or the way another person or another religious figure is going to invoke that term.”Humility and a leap“ The History of the Sacred from Babylon to Beyoncé”Religion vs “The Sacred””Western nationalism itself is, the offspring of a Christian supersessionist appropriation of Judaism.”“A new chosen people”The Deep Story Philip Gorski tells in The Flag and the CrossPagan understandings of nationalism“The Deep Story runs something like this. America was founded as a Christian nation. The founders were Orthodox Christians. The founding documents were based on quote, biblical principles or perhaps even divinely inspired. The United States has a special role to play. In history as an exceptional or chosen nation in order to carry out that mission, it's been blessed with unique power and prosperity. But the project, the mission, and also the prosperity and the power are all increasingly endangered by the presence of non-whites, non-native born people, non-Christians on American soil.”Covenantal logicThe tendency to see oneself as “Chosen”England, Netherlands claiming the mantle of Chosenness for political purposes“Jews are sitting around the world and they're trying to figure out how to unchosen themselves.”Supersessionism and the interpretation of the Old TestamentThe Promised Land Story: American ConquestThe Exemplary Story: A Shining City on a HillHow do we gather and absorb political narratives like Christian Nationalism?How is Christian Nationalism passed on?Larger network of international Christian NationalismsThe Arms Race or Game of Thrones that Nationalisms assumeRussian Christian Nationalism and recovering a “Christian Civilization”Christian Nationalism is a political strategy“ I don't think anybody … believes for a second that Donald Trump, or Vladimir Putin, or for that matter, Viktor Orban are serious Christians by any reasonable definition of that term.”“White-supremicism in more acceptable garb.”Losers of free market economicsFree Market Capitalism and erosion of social bonds and relationshipsStrong borders, blood and soilFear of immigrantsTrustWhat is the deeply felt need of someone who comes to identify as a Christian Nationalist?Human needs threatened by social instability and inequalityLip service for the sake of powerWhat “Christian” does next to “Nationalism”Trump embraces Nationalism for himselfGlobalism vs NationalismSecond Iraq War as a mistake“Proponents are not religious in the conventional sense”“ When we're talking about Christian nationalism, we have to first and foremost recognize that we're talking about a different understanding of Christianity than what Americans are accustomed to seeing as the dominant understanding of what that term signifies.”The crucial distinction between Religions of Power and Religions of MoralityPowerful protector“Modern-day Cyrus”—The comparison between Trump and the biblical figure of CyrusWhat is religion? What kind of religion is operative in Christian Nationalism?”It is not just centered in evangelicalism anymore.”First Things and Catholic IntegralismNew Apostolic ReformationDominion Theology“This is about occupying institutions, seizing power, and using the state to impose a particular vision and a particular hierarchy.”Jan 6, 2021Rising paganism in America“How could Christians embrace Trump?”Merging of Shamanism and Christianity on Jan 6Trancendental versus immanent versions of ChristianityNeo-paganism and magical understandings of the worldConcerns and hope as Trump takes office in January 2025Further toward the politics of grievance and victimization“Trump as a backstop”Israel's relianceCan Trump negotiate international peace?“The cynical side of me says  my greatest hope lies in Trump's failures.”Hope for more careful, nuanced conversations about Christian NationalismProduction NotesThis podcast featured Eliyahu Stern and Philip GorskiEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Zoë Halaban, Macie Bridge, Alexa Rollow, and Emily BrookfieldA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Description: The process of creolization, in which various languages and cultures mix into diverse new forms, has been an underutilised tool in historical analysis for some time. In the context of medieval Latin Europe and the development of myriad successor states after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, creolization can demonstrate some significant cultural shifts that warrant academic attention. To learn more about this topic and its potential uses, Charlie Bowden, a History student at Jesus College, interviews Dr Bernard Gowers, Deputy Director of the Conference of Colleges Secretariat and Research Associate in History at Keble College. Host: Charlie Bowden Editor: Charlie Bowden Looking to make the most of Oxford's world-leading professors, we decided to set up a platform to interview these academics on the niche, weird and wonderful from their subjects. We aim to create thought-provoking and easily digestible podcast episodes, made for anyone with an interest in the world around them, and to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.   To learn more about OxPods, visit our website ⁠www.oxpods.co.uk⁠⁠, ⁠or follow us on socials ⁠@ox.pods. ⁠ ⁠ If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: Brasenose College, St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024. OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Today's episode is with Fleur Snow, Director and co-host, Jeremy Boulton. Fleur Snow is a stage director and musician from West Wales. For the 2023-2024 season, she is resident staff director in St Gallen, Switzerland, and she will take up her next position in the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, Munich from September 2024. She is an organist and speaks English, Welsh, French, Italian, and German. As a director, recent projects have focused on contemporary opera and historical gesture. These include adaptations of Oscar Wilde's The Duchess of Padua (The Space, London), Jamila Gavin's Coram Boy (Atmospheres, RWCMD) and Dido and Aeneas (RWCMD). Other credits include Julia Plaut's new opera for children, The Y Knot (The Croft, Cardiff); a digital adaptation of Julius Caesar; Ristorante Don Alfonso; Postgraduate Scenes (RWCMD); and Under Milk Wood at Brasenose College. Fleur works in the UK and internationally as an assistant director. This year at St Gallen, Fleur was assistant director for Les Misérables (Josef Köpplinger), Ernani (Barbora Horáková) and Lili Elbe (Krystian Lada). Further afield, Fleur assisted on Evgenij Onegin (Julien Chavaz) at Teatro Massimo, Palermo; Gianni Schicchi (Damon Nestor Ploumis) at Alden-Biesen, Belgium; and the Swedish première of Du Är Min Nu (Gérard Watkins) in the Göteborgs Stadsteater as a 2023 European Theatre Convention Scholar. At home in the UK, she has worked with Welsh National Opera on Migrations (Sir David Pountney), Opera Holland Park for La Bohème (Natascha Metherell), and West Green House Opera for L'Elisir d'Amore (Victoria Newlyn). https://fleursnow.co.uk/ -- Hosted by Jessica Harper (soprano) & Jeremy Boulton (baritone), 'So You Think You Can Belto?' was created to empower emerging operatic practitioners across Australia and the world with access to the direct knowledge and relayed experiences of professionals. It aims to help inform emerging artists by holding a mirror to the opera system so that artists can make their own individually-informed decisions about auditions, competitions, engagements, and more. You'll hear everything from in-depth artist interviews, to long form panel discussions on topics concerning emerging artists. BUY JESSICA A COFFEE: ⁠⁠https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/32TKWJ6EQ7G8N⁠⁠ TWITTER: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠twitter.com/sytycanbelto⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FACEBOOK: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/soyouthinkyoucanbelto⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ INSTAGRAM: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/soyouthinkyoucanbelto⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ HASHTAG: #SoYouThinkYouCanBelto JESSICA: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠jessicaharpersoprano.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ JEREMY : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠jeremyboulton.com.au⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the individuals that appear on the program, not the views of the organisations that they are employed by, nor who they represent in other capacities.

March 2024 Bletchley Park is famous as the home of World War 2 codebreaking. But what was there before the Government Code and Cypher School moved in? Who built Bletchley Park, and what remains of the pre-war country estate? In this episode, Research Historian Dr David Kenyon and Head of Content Erica Munro examine the people who made Bletchley Park their home prior to World War 2. Sir Herbert Leon and his family bought, expanded and lived in the now-familiar Mansion, stamping their individual style on the design of the building and the estate. Surviving historical records shed an intriguing light on the Leons, their philanthropy, interests and impact on the local community. We also hear from Professor Abigail Green of Brasenose College, Oxford University, an expert on Jewish Country Houses, to discover more about the social context of the family who ‘made' Bletchley Park. Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2024 #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2,

Today I speak with world renowned neuroscientist, author of Life Time and sleep expert, Prof Russell Foster BSc, PhD, CBE, FRS FMedSc. He is the Director of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and the Head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute. He is also a Nicholas Kurti Senior Fellow at Brasenose College at the University of Oxford.In this episode we talk about the rhythms of biology which govern our lives and our sleep and we hear how our body temperature, blood pressure and hormones fluctuate throughout a 24 hour cycle.Discover the importance of a chemical called adenosine and how drinking coffee negatively affects its levels and by extension our sleep.We hear about the phases of sleep, sleep paralysis and whether you should use sleeping tablets.We also learn of the negative consequences physiologically and psychologically of even a couple of nights bad sleep in a row.Plus we hear about Prof Foster's research which is hoping to help blind people and others restore regular sleep patterns. I love any discussion on sleep, and Prof Foster is a joy to listen to, just a heads up on this video, Prof Foster's webcam was was only shooting in black and white, so no need to adjust your settings in case you were wondering, that aside this is a terrifc conversation about all important sleep. Life Time Book : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Time-Science-Revolutionize-Health/dp/0241529301https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/team/russell-fosterhttps://www.ox.ac.uk/research/research-in-conversation/healthy-body-healthy-mind/russell-foster Order Happy Habits for Mind and Body Audiobook: https://rb.gy/h5jjjg Order Kindle copy of Happy Habits for Mind and Body : https://rb.gy/jiojcc Order US paperback of Happy Habits for Mind and Body : https://rb.gy/sirste Order UK paperback of Happy Habits for Mind and Body : https://rb.gy/jtfea5 Listen to all previous podcast episodes of the Happy Habit Podcast via these podcast platforms : Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/happy-habit-podcast Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Habit-Podcast/dp/B08K5887J8 Amazon music : https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/670836c2-ea4c-4a23-a67d-a54dd804ef61/happy-habit-podcast Spotify https://https://open.spotify.com/show/2VKIhQK6mYTzLCO8haUoRd Google Podcasts : https://t.ly/hTU8q ----- Follow the Happy Habit Podcast at: Website: https://happyhabitpodcast.wordpress.com/Facebook: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mathieunorry Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happyhabitpodcast/ Newsletter:

Mike interviews Professor Russell Foster on the Circadian Rhythm & Sleep. Russell Grant Foster, CBE, FRS FMedSci (born 1959) is a British professor of circadian neuroscience, the Director of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, and the Head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi). He is also a Nicholas Kurti Senior Fellow at Brasenose College at the University of Oxford. Life Time: Your Body Clock and Its Essential Roles in Good Health and Sleep Book: https://amzn.to/3T3gTdL Russell Foster Information: https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/team/russell-foster --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bobandbrad/support

A special episode this week, as we join Sally at Brasenose College in a conversation titled ‘A Reading Life, A Writing Life', with fellow writers Aida Edemariam and Joanna Kavenna. Join them for a discussion on memory, storytelling, and the porous boundaries between reality and fiction. Aida is a writer and journalist whose debut book The Wife's Tale received the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Award. More information on her and her work can be found here: https://www.rcwlitagency.com/authors/edemariam-aida/ Joanna, whose 2016 novel A Field Guide to Reality has appeared in a previous episode, is a novelist, essayist and current Frankland Visitor at Brasenose College, Oxford. More information can be found on her website: http://www.joannakavenna.com/ This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.    

Depression has developed from a taboo topic to one that is highly spoken about and investigated. There are a number of debates surrounding the theme: its heritability, its symptoms, and whether diagnoses can have a positive or negative impact. Aylin Gurleyen, a second-year psychologist at Brasenose College, discusses these questions with professor of developmental psychopathology, Dr Lucy Bowes. Host: Aylin Gurleyen Editor: Taylor Bi Looking to make the most of Oxford's world-leading professors, we decided to set up a platform to interview these academics on the niche, weird and wonderful from their subjects. We aim to create thought-provoking and easily digestible podcast episodes, made for anyone with an interest in the world around them, and facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge.  To learn more about OxPods, visit our website ⁠www.oxpods.co.uk⁠⁠, ⁠or follow us on socials ⁠@ox.pods. ⁠ ⁠ If you would like an audio transcription of this episode, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024. OxPods © 2023 by OxPods is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, medical experts ranging from statisticians and demographers to virologists and consultants were depended upon by politicians. Their advice had serious implications for the country: but what is and ought to be the role of experts in governance, national and international?  Sophia Herbert, a Third-Year PPE student at New College interviews Dr Jan Eijking to uncover what exactly we mean by expertise, and how the way politicians translate and communicate expert advice can have huge implications for policymaking and day-to-day life. Dr Eijking is the William Golding Junior Research Fellow at Brasenose College, as well as a postdoctoral Research Associate at the DPIR and Oxford Martin Fellow, whose research has focused on how international organisations have adapted to crises. Looking to make the most of Oxford's world-leading professors, we decided to set up a platform to interview these academics on the niche, weird, and wonderful from their subjects. We aim to create thought-provoking and easily digestible podcast episodes, made for anyone with an interest in the world around them.  OxPods aims to facilitate university access and outreach for students aspiring to Oxford or Cambridge. Providing valuable topic insights, interview preparation, and tutorial guidance, OxPods supports applicants in navigating the complexities of the Oxbridge application process. To learn more about OxPods, visit our website ⁠www.oxpods.co.uk⁠⁠, ⁠or follow us on socials ⁠@ox.pods. ⁠ An audio transcript for this episode is available on our website. OxPods is made possible through the support of our generous benefactors. Special thanks to: St Peter's College JCR, Jesus College JCR & Lady Margaret Hall JCR for supporting us in 2024.

Ken and Mark return to their laboratory to combine base metals to discover the once-murky roots of Alchemy. Keeper of the Sanctum this week is the amazing Tobias Churton author of the new book ‘The First Alchemists: The Spiritual and Practical Origins of the Noble and Holy Art'. Join us as we return to the roots of Alchemy. This week: Zosimos and the early Egyptian Alchemists, the female roots of the art, Was Jung wrong about Alchemy, and much more. Joining me from his misty lab is Frater Marck Satyr Main theme by Simon Smerdon (Mothboy) Music bed by chriszabriskie.com Check out our previous two interviews with Tobias Churton on Aleister Crowley here and here. Buy Tobias' book using our affiliate links here –> UK US EU Tobias Churton Bio Tobias Churton is Britain's leading scholar of Western Esotericism, a world authority on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and Rosicrucianism. He is a filmmaker and the founding editor of the magazine Freemasonry Today. An Honorary Fellow of Exeter University, where he is faculty lecturer in Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, he holds a master's degree in Theology from Brasenose College, Oxford, and created the award-winning documentary series and accompanying book The Gnostics, as well as several other films on Christian doctrine, mysticism, and magical folklore. The author of many books, including Gnostic Philosophy, The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians, and Aleister Crowley: The Beast in Berlin, he lives in England.

Welcome to another episode of the Great Business Minds podcast, the definitive show for the business of digital infrastructure.   GBM is brought to you by Preiskel & Co, a leading award-winning City of London law firm, internationally recognised for its expertise in the digital infrastructure industry and the telecoms and tech sector work more broadly. Wherever your legal or regulatory needs are (including outer space) Preiskel & Co LLP can support you, so do feel free to reach out to them at www.preiskel.com   In this episode, we are joined by someone whose focus will change data centre construction and how mega projects are built.   A Fellow of Keble College, Dr Atif Ansar is a Senior Teaching Fellow on the Master of Sciences in Major Programme Management and the Australian Major Projects Leadership Academy (AMPLA). He is the Founding Director of the Oxford Programme on the Sustainable Future of Capital-Intensive Industries, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.   Atif is also the Executive Chairman of Foresight Works – an Oxford based technology firm building next-gen software for the world's megaprojects.   He has been at the University of Oxford since 2006 and until 2010, he undertook his DPhil (PhD), at Brasenose College, with the prestigious Clarendon Scholarship from Oxford University Press.   Atif was a post-doctoral research fellow at the BT Centre for Major Programme Management at Saïd Business School from 2010.   From 2015 until 2020, Atif was Programme Director of the MSc in Major Programme Management and continues to be one of the senior teaching fellows on the course's faculty.   Atif also teaches on the UK and Australian Governments Major Projects Leadership Academy.   In 2018, Atif began an appointment as a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Global Projects Center and a Visiting Professorship at Tsinghua University.   He previously undertook his bachelor's degree at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he majored in philosophy, politics, and economics.   Here at the GBM podcast, we hope you enjoy this episode and do leave us a review and share it with your contacts. We invite you back again for the next episode with another big name in the digital infrastructure space. If you want to get more from the definitive podcast for the business of digital infrastructure, make sure you subscribe to Great Business Minds. See you soon!   ///////////////////////   This episode features our commercial partner Preiskel & Co, a leading award-winning City of London law firm, internationally recognised for its expertise in the digital infrastructure industry as well as the telecoms and tech sector work more broadly. Visit www.preiskel.com for more information.   ///////////////////////   Get more from the GBM Podcast on: Official Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube  

pWotD Episode 2386: David Cameron.Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a popular Wikipedia page every day.With 555,393 views on Monday, 13 November 2023 our article of the day is David Cameron.David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs since 13 November 2023. He previously served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016, as Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016, and as Leader of the Opposition from 2005 to 2010, while serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Witney from 2001 to 2016. He identifies as a one-nation conservative and has been associated with both economically liberal and socially liberal policies.Born in London to an upper-middle-class family, Cameron was educated at Heatherdown School, then Eton College, and Brasenose College, Oxford. From 1988 to 1993 he worked at the Conservative Research Department, latterly assisting the Conservative prime minister John Major, before leaving politics to work for Carlton Communications in 1994. Becoming an MP in 2001, he served in the opposition shadow cabinet under Conservative leader Michael Howard, and succeeded Howard in 2005. Cameron sought to rebrand the Conservatives, embracing an increasingly socially liberal position and introducing the "A-List" to increase the number of female and minority ethnic Conservative MPs.Following the 2010 general election, negotiations led to Cameron becoming prime minister as the head of a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. His premiership was marked by the ongoing effects of the global financial crisis; these involved a large deficit in government finances that his government sought to reduce through austerity measures. His administration passed the Health and Social Care Act and the Welfare Reform Act, which introduced large-scale changes to healthcare and welfare. It also enforced stricter immigration policies, introduced reforms to education and oversaw the 2012 London Olympics. Cameron's administration also privatised the Royal Mail and some other state assets, and legalised same-sex marriage in England and Wales.Internationally, Cameron's government intervened militarily in the First Libyan Civil War and authorised the bombing of the Islamic State. Domestically, his government oversaw the referendum on voting reform and Scottish independence referendum, both of which confirmed Cameron's favoured outcome. When the Conservatives secured an unexpected majority in the 2015 general election, he remained as prime minister, this time leading a Conservative-only government. To fulfil a manifesto pledge, Cameron introduced a referendum on the UK's continuing membership of the EU in 2016. He supported the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union. Following the success of the Leave vote, Cameron resigned as prime minister and was succeeded in the 2016 Conservative Party leadership election by Theresa May, his Home Secretary. He served as president of Alzheimer's Research UK from 2017 to 2023. During the November 2023 Cabinet reshuffle, Rishi Sunak recommended a peerage be conferred upon Cameron, and appointed him Foreign Secretary. Cameron is the first former prime minister to serve in a ministerial post since Alec Douglas-Home in 1970. Cameron has been praised for modernising the Conservative Party and for decreasing the United Kingdom's national deficit. However, he has been criticised for his decision to hold the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, which led to a period of political instability in the late 2010s. After leaving office, he was implicated in the Greensill scandal after lobbying government ministers and civil servants on behalf of Greensill Capital. In historical rankings of prime ministers of the United Kingdom, academics and journalists have ranked Cameron in the fourth and third quintiles, respectively.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 13:33 UTC on Tuesday, 14 November 2023.For the full current version of the article, see David Cameron on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Nicole Standard.

In Episode 127 of the No Limitations podcast The Dawn of New Thinking, Blenheim Partners' Gregory Robinson speaks with Dominic Barton BBM, Chair of Rio Tinto and Chair of LeapFrog Investments. He was previously Global Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company. We are treated to an erudite discussion with Dominic as we delve into the dawn of a new form of capitalism, a re-imagined view of the world going through extraordinary times witnessing the fragmentation of the current international order, the rise of new superpowers, the emergence of new trading blocs, and the greatest re-allocation of capital in human history. As a former Global Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company having met nearly 3,500 Chief Executive Officers over the course of his career, he offers us rare insights into the elements of leadership including the nature of international business, how it intertwines with politics, and the importance of preserving the fabric of goodwill between nations. He shares with us how to have one eye on the telescope and another on the microscope, as Dominic ponders the future and conveys his excitement about many of the new and cutting-edge companies being launched. From 2019 to 2021, Dominic was the Ambassador of Canada to the People's Republic of China. He is currently a Senior Advisor and Partner at AI investment firm Radical Ventures, the Chancellor of the University of Waterloo and an Adjunct Professor at Tsinghua University. He was previously Chairman of Teck Resources, Non-Executive Director at the Singtel Group, Non-Executive Director at Investor AB, and an Advisory Board Member of the Olayan Group. Dominic also previously served as Chair of Standard Chartered's International Advisory Council, Chair of the Canadian Minister of Finance's Advisory Council on Economic Growth, and Chair of the Seoul International Business Advisory Council. Dominic was a Senior Trustee of the Brookings Institution, a member of the Singapore Economic Development Board's International Advisory Council and a member of the Boards of Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. He has co-authored four books and received eight honorary doctorates. He also studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Brasenose College, Oxford University. Please note: this episode was recorded on 26 October 2023.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Literature is full of talking animals, from modern works like Paddington to Middle English works like The Owl and The Nightingale. But why do writers create non-speaking animals that speak? And why employ animals in literature at all? In this episode of OxPods, English Language and Literature undergraduate Chloe Smith interviews Dr Eleanor Parker, a Lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Brasenose College, Oxford, whose research focuses on literature in England in the centuries before and after the Norman Conquest. They discuss how Mediaeval poets wrote about animals and how understanding human-animal dynamics can influence how we treat our planet in the present.

The Interview Discusses:Growing up in Iran and how having a global upbringing has  impacted him as an investor.Why he is more comfortable investing in the United States.How his grandparents fleeing Nazi Germany has impacted his investment decision making.His experience as an investor during the financial crisis and how he invests during uncertain times.What about the current geopolitical landscape scares him as an investor.His thoughts on holding cash as an investment.His opinion on investing in small capitalization companiesWhy as a value investor he is comfortable investing in high multiple stocks.Why he owns Mastercard & Bank of America.Biography: Guy Spier is a Zurich based author and investor. Guy completed his MBA at the Harvard Business School, class of 1993, and holds a First Class degree in PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) from Oxford University where he studied at Brasenose College with the British Prime minister David Cameron.  After completing his MBA, Guy started the Aquamarine Fund which is an investment vehicle inspired by the original 1950's Buffett partnerships, and run with a close replication of the original Buffett partnership rules. The focus is on investing for long term capital appreciation and capital preservation by running a portfolio of equity investments with the goal of acquiring companies with outstanding long-term economics at a reasonable price and where there is a sufficient margin of safety between the company's market price and its intrinsic value. Typical investors include high net worth individuals, family offices and private banks. In 2008 Guy made news by bidding $650,000 with his friend, Mohnish Pabrai, to have a charity lunch with Warren Buffett.  His book, “The Education of a Value Investor” has sold more than 40,000 copies and has also been translated into Hebrew, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Mandarin and Spanish.Important Disclosures. The information herein is provided by Boyar's Intrinsic Value Research LLC (“Boyar Research”) and: (a) is for general, informational purposes only; (b) is not tailored to the specific investment needs of any specific person or entity; and (c) should not be construed as investment advice. Boyar Research does not offer investment advisory services and is not an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) or any other regulatory body. Any opinions expressed herein represent current opinions of Boyar Research only, and no representation is made with respect to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the information herein. Boyar Research assumes no obligation to update or revise such information. In addition, certain information herein has been provided by and/or is based on third party sources, and, although Boyar Research believes this information to be reliable, Boyar Research has not independently verified such information and is not responsible for third-party errors. You should not assume that any iThe Boyar Value Group's mission is to search for value on behalf of our clients. Since 1975, the Boyar family of companies has been relentlessly focused on discovering value for our clients. For more than four decades we have navigated through fads, gimmicks and market volatility. Utilizing value investing to try to create and preserve wealth has and always will be our sole focus. Our experienced team of analysts looks for diamonds in the rough, companies passed over by the rest of the investment community, but whose true value, in our opinion, significantly exceeds their current stock price. In essence, we are trying to buy a dollar for fifty cents. To find out more about the Boyar Value Group, please visit www.boyarvaluegroup.com

Date: 11/08/2023 Join Raza Ahmed, Danayal Zia and Qayyum Rashid for Friday's show from 4-6pm where we will be discussing: “Refugees” and “Interfaith fun run” Refugees The cost of receiving refugees may seem shockingly high, often leading people to fear that accepting them will be an economic burden for their country. But is that true? Evidence suggests that the cost can actually be more of an investment. Join us as we discuss the current issue around housing refugees and if the UK's approach is within lines of diginity or disrepespect? Interfaith fun run Interfaith dialogue is key to a balanced and positive society where people show respect and kindness for one another. The Faith and Belief Forum are hosting their annual Fun Run in less than a month and we want to ask them about the importance of interfaith harmony as well as this key event and how it creates avenues for peace. Guests: Matthew Gold - Programmes Coordinator, London Communities The Faith & Belief Forum Lea Corban - Media & Communications Manager at the Refugee Council - a leading charity working with refugees and people seeking asylum Ravishaan Rahel Muthiah - Communications Director at JCWI - The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. Ravishaan led record-breaking Parliamentary election campaigns and wining Deputy Leadership campaigns at the Labour Party. He has campaigned and volunteered with migrants and refugees rights groups and excelled in Masters in International Law with a focus on international human rights and international refugee law. Leon Elliott - Policy and Research Coordinator at NACCOM - The no accommodation network. Responsible for promoting the network's policy positions with external partners, whilst keeping NACCOM members up to date with relevant policy developments. Leon also oversees NACCOM's research outputs, and co-ordinates data gathering projects including the national annual members survey. Based in the South-West of England and joined NACCOM in January 2022, having previously volunteered with asylum and refugee charities in Bristol. Dr Ashwiny Kistnareddy - A Leverhulme Research Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre, and incoming Sir William Golding Research Fellow at Brasenose College at the University of Oxford. Also, affiliated lecturer at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests revolve around refugee children, gender, identities and education. Currently working on a project with the Department for Education on improving provisions for newly arrived children in the UK Producers: Tehreem Muzammil and Faiza Mirza

How would Christian queens have lived in England around the seventh century? How different were their lives from the Disney princesses we see in the movies? And what was their role in bringing Christianity to England? Emma, Trinity, and Christian journey to seventh-century England and explore the captivating stories of some of these queens and their kings with the expert guidance of Dr. Eleanor Parker, Lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Brasenose College in Oxford and author of many books on this week's episode of Kids Talk Church History. Show Notes: Episode 11: Augustine of Hippo Eleanor Parker's award-winning blog, A Clerk of Oxford Eleanor Parker books John 1:1-5 in Old English (read by Dr. Parker): 1. On frymðe wæs Word, and þæt Word wæs mid Gode, and God wæs þæt Word.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2. Þæt wæs on fruman mid Gode. He was in the beginning with God. 3. Ealle þing wæron geworhte ðurh hyne; and nan þing næs geworht butan him.  All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4. Þæt wæs lif þe on him geworht wæs; and þæt lif wæs manna leoht. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  5. And þæt leoht lyht on ðystrum; and þystro þæt ne genamon. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.    * Image attribution: © Ad Meskens / Wikimedia Commons

Zurich-based author and investor Guy Spier (@GSpier), the founder and CEO of Aquamarine Capital, joins Julia La Roche one episode 78. In 2008, Guy and his friend Monish Pabrai bid just over $650,000 for a charity lunch with Warren Buffett. That meal with the Oracle of Omaha was a transformative experience for Guy, which he wrote about in his book, “The Education of a Value Investor,” which has sold more than 40,000 copies and has also been translated into Hebrew, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Mandarin and Spanish. Guy completed his MBA at the Harvard Business School, class of 1993, and holds a First Class degree in PPE (Politics, Philosophy, and Economics) from Oxford University, where he studied at Brasenose College with British Prime Minister David Cameron. After completing his MBA, Guy started the Aquamarine Fund, an investment vehicle inspired by the original 1950s Buffett partnerships and run with a close replication of the original Buffett partnership rules. The focus is on investing for long-term capital appreciation and capital preservation by running a portfolio of equity investments with the goal of acquiring companies with outstanding long-term economics at a reasonable price and where there is a sufficient margin of safety between the company's market price and its intrinsic value. Typical investors include high net-worth individuals, family offices, and private banks. 0:00 Show open 1:50 Welcome, Guy Spier 3:00 Started as a Gordon Gekko wannabe, found a ‘lifeline' through Buffett 6:13 Reading about Warren Buffett 9:47 The pilgrimage to Omaha 11:00 Power of sending thank-you notes 17:00 Handwritten notes from Buffett 18:09 Bidding on lunch with Buffett 22:30 Lunch with Buffett was “transformational.” 27:44 The inner scorecard 30:00 Deep fear ahead of meeting Buffett 34:06 How much does the macro matter? 37:28 Siren songs of the hyped stocks 40:25 Writing with William Green 44:26 Why he changed his mind about not talking to company management 49:20 New investment process checklist items 54:15 Debt 57:10 Buffett spends time thinking about the downside 1:01:20 Content diet for investing 1:08:40 Surrounding yourself with a mastermind group

Your body's "biological clock," or 24-hour cycle (circadian rhythm) can be disrupted by a number of factors from too much technology time, not getting enough natural light, working night shifts, a partner who snores, jetlag, children, external sound distractions… the list goes on. Interrupted, or not long enough sleep, can cause a negative impact on our health, happiness and wellbeing; with varying symptoms from mild to severe. Professor Russell Foster is Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, the founding Director of the Sleep and Circadian Research Institute (SCNi) and is a Fellow of Brasenose College, University of Oxford. He is also author of 'Life Time: The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolutionize Your Sleep and Health' and is regarded as a world-leading expert on circadian neuroscience. Circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle. Professor Foster studies how circadian rhythms and sleep are generated and regulated and the impact across the health spectrum when these systems fail.  Why do we feel more emotional when we don't get enough sleep? Why are some people early birds, others night owls? And can one turn into the other? Is it ok to take sleeping aids such as medication or alcohol? Does the use of blackout blinds help or hinder our natural sleep-wake cycle? And why do most mental health illnesses change the way we sleep? Professor Foster shares all the science and research based facts around these common questions, dispelling the myths whilst explaining how a well regulated body clock can drastically improve our quality of life, health and happiness. To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast Life Time: The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolutionize Your Sleep and Health is available to purchase in most places.

Sacred kingship has been the core political form, in small-scale societies and in vast empires, for much of world history. Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence (Columbia UP, 2022) recasts the relationship between religion and politics by exploring this institution in long-term and global comparative perspective. Editors A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern present a theoretical framework for understanding sacred kingship, which leading scholars reflect on and respond to in a series of essays. They distinguish between two separate but complementary religious tendencies, immanentism and transcendentalism, which mold kings into divinized or righteous rulers, respectively. Whereas immanence demands priestly and cosmic rites from kings to sustain the flourishing of life, transcendence turns the focus to salvation and subordinates rulers to higher ethical objectives. Secular modernity does not end the struggle between immanence and transcendence—flourishing and righteousness—but only displaces it from kings onto nations and individuals. After an essay by Marshall Sahlins that ranges from the Pacific to the Arctic, the book contains chapters on religion and kingship in settings as far-flung as ancient Egypt, classical Greece, medieval Islam, Mughal India, modern European drama, and ISIS. Sacred Kingship in World History sheds new light on how religion has constructed rulership, with implications spanning global history, religious studies, political theory, and anthropology. Alan Strathern teaches European and Global History as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of History at Oxford and as a Fellow at Brasenose College; he also lectures at St. John's College. He works on the global history of religious encounter and conversion, particularly in the early modern period (1500-1800), while additionally writing on the nature of religious change and its relationship with politics across world history. A. Azfar Moin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He studies the early modern Islamic world from comparative perspectives with a focus on concepts and practices of sovereignty. Justin N. Smolin is a PhD candidate in the History of Religions specializing in at the Divinity School in the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the question of the translatability of religious difference, with a particular view to the early modern Islamicate world: his broader interests include literary history, translation, and political theology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Sacred kingship has been the core political form, in small-scale societies and in vast empires, for much of world history. Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence (Columbia UP, 2022) recasts the relationship between religion and politics by exploring this institution in long-term and global comparative perspective. Editors A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern present a theoretical framework for understanding sacred kingship, which leading scholars reflect on and respond to in a series of essays. They distinguish between two separate but complementary religious tendencies, immanentism and transcendentalism, which mold kings into divinized or righteous rulers, respectively. Whereas immanence demands priestly and cosmic rites from kings to sustain the flourishing of life, transcendence turns the focus to salvation and subordinates rulers to higher ethical objectives. Secular modernity does not end the struggle between immanence and transcendence—flourishing and righteousness—but only displaces it from kings onto nations and individuals. After an essay by Marshall Sahlins that ranges from the Pacific to the Arctic, the book contains chapters on religion and kingship in settings as far-flung as ancient Egypt, classical Greece, medieval Islam, Mughal India, modern European drama, and ISIS. Sacred Kingship in World History sheds new light on how religion has constructed rulership, with implications spanning global history, religious studies, political theory, and anthropology. Alan Strathern teaches European and Global History as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of History at Oxford and as a Fellow at Brasenose College; he also lectures at St. John's College. He works on the global history of religious encounter and conversion, particularly in the early modern period (1500-1800), while additionally writing on the nature of religious change and its relationship with politics across world history. A. Azfar Moin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He studies the early modern Islamic world from comparative perspectives with a focus on concepts and practices of sovereignty. Justin N. Smolin is a PhD candidate in the History of Religions specializing in at the Divinity School in the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the question of the translatability of religious difference, with a particular view to the early modern Islamicate world: his broader interests include literary history, translation, and political theology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Sacred kingship has been the core political form, in small-scale societies and in vast empires, for much of world history. Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence (Columbia UP, 2022) recasts the relationship between religion and politics by exploring this institution in long-term and global comparative perspective. Editors A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern present a theoretical framework for understanding sacred kingship, which leading scholars reflect on and respond to in a series of essays. They distinguish between two separate but complementary religious tendencies, immanentism and transcendentalism, which mold kings into divinized or righteous rulers, respectively. Whereas immanence demands priestly and cosmic rites from kings to sustain the flourishing of life, transcendence turns the focus to salvation and subordinates rulers to higher ethical objectives. Secular modernity does not end the struggle between immanence and transcendence—flourishing and righteousness—but only displaces it from kings onto nations and individuals. After an essay by Marshall Sahlins that ranges from the Pacific to the Arctic, the book contains chapters on religion and kingship in settings as far-flung as ancient Egypt, classical Greece, medieval Islam, Mughal India, modern European drama, and ISIS. Sacred Kingship in World History sheds new light on how religion has constructed rulership, with implications spanning global history, religious studies, political theory, and anthropology. Alan Strathern teaches European and Global History as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of History at Oxford and as a Fellow at Brasenose College; he also lectures at St. John's College. He works on the global history of religious encounter and conversion, particularly in the early modern period (1500-1800), while additionally writing on the nature of religious change and its relationship with politics across world history. A. Azfar Moin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He studies the early modern Islamic world from comparative perspectives with a focus on concepts and practices of sovereignty. Justin N. Smolin is a PhD candidate in the History of Religions specializing in at the Divinity School in the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the question of the translatability of religious difference, with a particular view to the early modern Islamicate world: his broader interests include literary history, translation, and political theology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Sacred kingship has been the core political form, in small-scale societies and in vast empires, for much of world history. Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence (Columbia UP, 2022) recasts the relationship between religion and politics by exploring this institution in long-term and global comparative perspective. Editors A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern present a theoretical framework for understanding sacred kingship, which leading scholars reflect on and respond to in a series of essays. They distinguish between two separate but complementary religious tendencies, immanentism and transcendentalism, which mold kings into divinized or righteous rulers, respectively. Whereas immanence demands priestly and cosmic rites from kings to sustain the flourishing of life, transcendence turns the focus to salvation and subordinates rulers to higher ethical objectives. Secular modernity does not end the struggle between immanence and transcendence—flourishing and righteousness—but only displaces it from kings onto nations and individuals. After an essay by Marshall Sahlins that ranges from the Pacific to the Arctic, the book contains chapters on religion and kingship in settings as far-flung as ancient Egypt, classical Greece, medieval Islam, Mughal India, modern European drama, and ISIS. Sacred Kingship in World History sheds new light on how religion has constructed rulership, with implications spanning global history, religious studies, political theory, and anthropology. Alan Strathern teaches European and Global History as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of History at Oxford and as a Fellow at Brasenose College; he also lectures at St. John's College. He works on the global history of religious encounter and conversion, particularly in the early modern period (1500-1800), while additionally writing on the nature of religious change and its relationship with politics across world history. A. Azfar Moin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He studies the early modern Islamic world from comparative perspectives with a focus on concepts and practices of sovereignty. Justin N. Smolin is a PhD candidate in the History of Religions specializing in at the Divinity School in the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the question of the translatability of religious difference, with a particular view to the early modern Islamicate world: his broader interests include literary history, translation, and political theology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs

Sacred kingship has been the core political form, in small-scale societies and in vast empires, for much of world history. Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence (Columbia UP, 2022) recasts the relationship between religion and politics by exploring this institution in long-term and global comparative perspective. Editors A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern present a theoretical framework for understanding sacred kingship, which leading scholars reflect on and respond to in a series of essays. They distinguish between two separate but complementary religious tendencies, immanentism and transcendentalism, which mold kings into divinized or righteous rulers, respectively. Whereas immanence demands priestly and cosmic rites from kings to sustain the flourishing of life, transcendence turns the focus to salvation and subordinates rulers to higher ethical objectives. Secular modernity does not end the struggle between immanence and transcendence—flourishing and righteousness—but only displaces it from kings onto nations and individuals. After an essay by Marshall Sahlins that ranges from the Pacific to the Arctic, the book contains chapters on religion and kingship in settings as far-flung as ancient Egypt, classical Greece, medieval Islam, Mughal India, modern European drama, and ISIS. Sacred Kingship in World History sheds new light on how religion has constructed rulership, with implications spanning global history, religious studies, political theory, and anthropology. Alan Strathern teaches European and Global History as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of History at Oxford and as a Fellow at Brasenose College; he also lectures at St. John's College. He works on the global history of religious encounter and conversion, particularly in the early modern period (1500-1800), while additionally writing on the nature of religious change and its relationship with politics across world history. A. Azfar Moin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He studies the early modern Islamic world from comparative perspectives with a focus on concepts and practices of sovereignty. Justin N. Smolin is a PhD candidate in the History of Religions specializing in at the Divinity School in the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the question of the translatability of religious difference, with a particular view to the early modern Islamicate world: his broader interests include literary history, translation, and political theology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Sacred kingship has been the core political form, in small-scale societies and in vast empires, for much of world history. Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence (Columbia UP, 2022) recasts the relationship between religion and politics by exploring this institution in long-term and global comparative perspective. Editors A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern present a theoretical framework for understanding sacred kingship, which leading scholars reflect on and respond to in a series of essays. They distinguish between two separate but complementary religious tendencies, immanentism and transcendentalism, which mold kings into divinized or righteous rulers, respectively. Whereas immanence demands priestly and cosmic rites from kings to sustain the flourishing of life, transcendence turns the focus to salvation and subordinates rulers to higher ethical objectives. Secular modernity does not end the struggle between immanence and transcendence—flourishing and righteousness—but only displaces it from kings onto nations and individuals. After an essay by Marshall Sahlins that ranges from the Pacific to the Arctic, the book contains chapters on religion and kingship in settings as far-flung as ancient Egypt, classical Greece, medieval Islam, Mughal India, modern European drama, and ISIS. Sacred Kingship in World History sheds new light on how religion has constructed rulership, with implications spanning global history, religious studies, political theory, and anthropology. Alan Strathern teaches European and Global History as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of History at Oxford and as a Fellow at Brasenose College; he also lectures at St. John's College. He works on the global history of religious encounter and conversion, particularly in the early modern period (1500-1800), while additionally writing on the nature of religious change and its relationship with politics across world history. A. Azfar Moin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He studies the early modern Islamic world from comparative perspectives with a focus on concepts and practices of sovereignty. Justin N. Smolin is a PhD candidate in the History of Religions specializing in at the Divinity School in the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the question of the translatability of religious difference, with a particular view to the early modern Islamicate world: his broader interests include literary history, translation, and political theology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

Sacred kingship has been the core political form, in small-scale societies and in vast empires, for much of world history. Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence (Columbia UP, 2022) recasts the relationship between religion and politics by exploring this institution in long-term and global comparative perspective. Editors A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern present a theoretical framework for understanding sacred kingship, which leading scholars reflect on and respond to in a series of essays. They distinguish between two separate but complementary religious tendencies, immanentism and transcendentalism, which mold kings into divinized or righteous rulers, respectively. Whereas immanence demands priestly and cosmic rites from kings to sustain the flourishing of life, transcendence turns the focus to salvation and subordinates rulers to higher ethical objectives. Secular modernity does not end the struggle between immanence and transcendence—flourishing and righteousness—but only displaces it from kings onto nations and individuals. After an essay by Marshall Sahlins that ranges from the Pacific to the Arctic, the book contains chapters on religion and kingship in settings as far-flung as ancient Egypt, classical Greece, medieval Islam, Mughal India, modern European drama, and ISIS. Sacred Kingship in World History sheds new light on how religion has constructed rulership, with implications spanning global history, religious studies, political theory, and anthropology. Alan Strathern teaches European and Global History as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of History at Oxford and as a Fellow at Brasenose College; he also lectures at St. John's College. He works on the global history of religious encounter and conversion, particularly in the early modern period (1500-1800), while additionally writing on the nature of religious change and its relationship with politics across world history. A. Azfar Moin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He studies the early modern Islamic world from comparative perspectives with a focus on concepts and practices of sovereignty. Justin N. Smolin is a PhD candidate in the History of Religions specializing in at the Divinity School in the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the question of the translatability of religious difference, with a particular view to the early modern Islamicate world: his broader interests include literary history, translation, and political theology.

Returning from the void, and crawling through the nightshade, the two-headed beast called Ken and Marck return, dead but still dreaming. This week, we take a journey to Paris, and track the interactions of the great beast himself, Aleister Crowley. Our impeccable cicerone through the streets of the city of love and light this week is author, and returning guest Mr Tobias Churton. This week we discuss: Crowley's relationship with McGregor Mathers, his effect on the bored and horny, the meaning of true will, and much more. Joining me from the astral realm is one Marck Satyr Main theme by Simon Smerdon (Mothboy) Music bed by chriszabriskie.com Tobias' new book is available now from Inner Traditions You can check out episodes of ‘The Gnostics' here on YouTube Tobias Churton Bio: Born in Sutton Coldfield to an ancient Cheshire family, in 1960, Tobias Churton spent two years in Australia from 1966 to 1968 and returned to attend his fifth school, Lichfield Cathedral School. Three schools later he won an exhibition to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he studied Theology. Compelled to exchange a vocation to the priesthood for the lowlier prospect of a career in television, he first came to public notice with the 1987 Channel 4 production, GNOSTICS. The 4-part, drama-documentary went out at peak time on Saturday nights. It won the New York TV Festival Gold Award for best religious series. Churton's Channel 4/Weidenfeld & Nicolson book accompanying the series was a best seller.  Long before Dan Brown scored a hit with The Da Vinci Code, Tobias Churton introduced a popular audience to the authentic world of esoteric mysteries. In the words of Dutch scholar, Gilles Quispel, the TV series would “change the minds of millions”. Churton presented the facts, not the fantasy. Swedish theologian Jan-Arvid Hellström hailed Churton as a “religious genius” while Amsterdam bibliophile and industrialist Joost Ritman enthusiastically greeted the appearance of a new “writing star”.  The success of The Gnostics allowed Tobias to concentrate his energies on his first love: writing. After years of voluminous reading, mystical experience and creative endeavour, Churton had much to express.  Having completed his twenty-fifth book commission, Tobias Churton is today internationally recognized for his insightful books on esoteric, spiritual history, Art and philosophy. Accessible and scholarly, Churton's works address believers and doubters alike and, remarkably, have stimulated spiritual experiences in some readers. He has successfully widened the appeal of so-called “esoteric” spirituality. Churton's warm style and depth of knowledge have entertained many thousands of readers in the process. Tobias is also a filmmaker, lecturer, poet and musician. He has recently recorded his orchestrated score for his prospective dramatic project, William Blake: Love is on Fire!, while his musical about Nancy Cunard and Henry Crowder, YOU, ME AND YESTERDAY, co-written with artist and songwriter John Myatt, was performed to great acclaim at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre in 2011. He has composed and recorded eight albums of original music.   Show Comments 

Guy Spier | The Education of a Value Investor & More  My guest today is Guy Spier. Guy Spier is a Zurich-based author and investor.  He completed his MBA at the Harvard Business School, and holds a First Class degree in PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) from Oxford University where he studied at Brasenose College with the British Prime minister David Cameron.  After completing his MBA, Spier started the Aquamarine Fund which is an investment vehicle inspired by the original 1950's Buffett partnerships. In 2008 Spier made news by bidding $650,000 with his friend, Mohnish Pabrai, to have a charity lunch with Warren Buffett.  His book, “The Education of a Value Investor” has sold more than 50,000 copies. Mr. Spier served as the chair and founder of the Weizmann Science and Business Club, and as a member of the Harvard Business School Alumni Board. He currently serves on the advisory boards of Value Conferences, and of Zurich Minds. He is the founder of VALUEx Zurich, and has co-founded TEDxZürich and TEDxZüriberg. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Spier served on the Advisory Board of the Dakshana Foundation.  In 2017 Spier joined the newly formed board of the Swiss Friends of Oxford University and is on the board of the UN Watch. He is a member of Entrepreneurs' Organization and of the Young Presidents Organization. Guy lives in Zurich with his wife, and their three children.   Today, you'll hear about:  1) Guy's family history, and how it shaped him, and his investment philosophy.  2) The risk of losing it all.  3) Skiing and investing, it's not the fastest skier that wins, and the one who doesn't get injured.  4) The challenges & opportunities of managing your own family money, and other people's money.  5) Investing is like planting vineyards: “not all vintages will be fantastic, but we will have wine to drink”  6) Creating the right physical, geographic and social environment to flourish as an investor.  7) The right and the wrong, and ethics in the investment business.  8) Success is not a number.  9) As a bonus, we talk about flying small planes, and what it taught both of us about investing.   My favorite quote shared by Guy -- “It doesn't matter how slowly you go, as long you do not stop” – Confucius.   Other notes: Yale Professor mentioned in the episode: Nicholas Christakis, The book is called Connected, TED Talk  Learn more about Talking Billions Learn more about Bogumil Baranowski  Learn more about Sicart Associates, LLC.  Read Money, Life, Family: My Handbook: My complete collection of principles on investing, finding work & life balance, and preserving family wealth.   To get regular updates and bonus content, please sign-up for my substack: ⁠https://bogumilbaranowski.substack.com/⁠ NEVER INVESTMENT ADVICE.  IMPORTANT:  As a reminder, the remarks in this interview represent the views, opinions, and experiences of the participants and are based upon information they believe to be reliable; however, Sicart Associates nor I have independently verified all such remarks.   The content of this podcast is for general, informational purposes, and so are the opinions of members of Sicart Associates, a registered investment adviser, and guests of the show. This podcast does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any specific security or financial instruments or provide investment advice or service. Past performance is not indicative of future results. More information on Sicart Associates is available via its Form ADV disclosure documents available adviserinfo.sec.gov. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/talking-billions/message

Subscribe to Quotomania on Simplecast or search for Quotomania on your favorite podcast app!Walter Pater, in full Walter Horatio Pater, (born August 4, 1839, Shadwell, London, England—died July 30, 1894, Oxford, Oxfordshire), was an English critic, essayist, and humanist whose advocacy of “art for art's sake” became a cardinal doctrine of the movement known as Aestheticism. Pater was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Queen's College, Oxford, where he studied Greek philosophy under Benjamin Jowett. He then settled in Oxford and read with private pupils. In 1864 he was elected to a fellowship at Brasenose College. Pater's early intention to enter the church gave way at this time to a consuming interest in classical studies. Pater then began to write for the reviews, and his essays on Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Pico della Mirandola, Michelangelo, and others were collected in 1873 as Studies in the History of the Renaissance (later called simply The Renaissance). His delicate, fastidious style and sensitive appreciation of Renaissance art in these essays made his reputation as a scholar and an aesthete, and he became the centre of a small group of admirers in Oxford. In the concluding essay in The Renaissance, Pater asserted that art exists for the sake of its beauty alone, and that it acknowledges neither moral standards nor utilitarian functions in its reason for being. These views brought Pater into an association with Algernon Charles Swinburne and with the Pre-Raphaelites.Marius the Epicurean (1885) is his most substantial work. It is a philosophical romance in which Pater's ideal of an aesthetic and religious life is scrupulously and elaborately set forth. The setting is Rome in the time of Marcus Aurelius; but this is a thin disguise for the characteristically late-19th-century spiritual development of its main character. Imaginary Portraits (1887) are shorter pieces of philosophical fiction in the same mode. Appreciations (1889) is a return to the critical essay, this time largely on English subjects. In 1893 came Plato and Platonism, giving an extremely literary view of Plato and neglecting the logical and dialectical side of his philosophy. Pater's Greek Studies (1895), Miscellaneous Studies (1895), and Essays from The Guardian (privately printed, 1896; 1901) were published posthumously. Also published posthumously was his unfinished romance, Gaston de Latour (1896).The primary influence on Pater's mind was his classical studies, coloured by a highly individual view of Christian devotion and pursued largely as a source of extremely refined artistic sensations. In his later critical writings Pater continued to focus on the innate qualities of works of art, in contrast to the prevailing tendency to evaluate them on the basis of their moral and educational value. Pater's early influence was confined to a small circle in Oxford, but he came to have a widespread effect on the next literary generation. Oscar Wilde, George Moore, and the aesthetes of the 1890s were among his followers and show obvious and continual traces both of his style and of his ideas.From https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walter-Pater. For more information about Walter Pater:The Renaissance: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520036642/the-renaissance“Art vs. aestheticism: the case of Walter Pater”: https://newcriterion.com/issues/1995/5/art-vs-aestheticism-the-case-of-walter-paterThe Renaissance: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2398/2398-h/2398-h.htm“Walter Pater”: https://campuspress.yale.edu/modernismlab/walter-pater/

Talk 18 Promptings – the voice within In recent talks we've been looking at ways in which God speaks to us directly rather than through other people. We've considered how he may speak with an audible voice, or through angels, or by dreams and visions, or by supernatural signs. We now turn our attention to what are often called promptings, by which I mean the voice of God's Spirit inside us. In John 14-16 Jesus told his disciples that he was going away, but that he would not leave them without help. He would send them another helper, the Holy Spirit, who would live within them (14:17) and would teach them, remind them of what he had said (14:26), guide them, and reveal to them things about the future (16:13).  And the same is true for us as his disciples today. Romans 8:11 tells us that God's Spirit lives within us and Galatians 4:6 says that, because we are his sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. So we too can expect to hear the voice of God's Spirit inside us, teaching us, reminding us, guiding us, and even revealing things to us about the future. Let me tell you about Hilda and Edna. They were both members of our church in Basingstoke. Edna had been saved as a teenager but had backslidden and married a man who was not a believer. Although she had come back to the Lord, she often struggled because of the problems caused by being ‘unequally yoked' to an unbeliever (2 Corinthians 6:14).  Hilda was a widow who had come to Christ in her sixties during a mission I was conducting in our church. She lived in a council house which was only a few minutes' walk from a chip shop. One day, as she was walking across to the shop to get some fish and chips, a random thought came into her mind. Go and see Edna. She thought this might be from the Lord, but Edna lived over a mile away and if she went to see her the chip shop would be closed by the time she got back as the only means of getting to Edna was on foot. And anyway, she wasn't completely sure that the thought was from God, so she thought she might go and see Edna later.  But before Hilda had reached the chip shop the thought came again. Go and see Edna NOW. So she went. If the thought had come from God, she didn't want to disobey him. And when she arrived she knew, as soon as she saw Edna, that the thought had indeed come from God. Edna opened the door and burst into tears. She had been overwhelmed with the thought that nobody loved her, not even God. In desperation she had prayed, Lord, if you really love me, please send someone to see me NOW. Hilda went without lunch that day, but what did that matter? She had been obedient to God and as a result had been a blessing to a fellow Christian who was struggling with her faith. There's no doubt that Hilda's random thought was a prompting of the Holy Spirit. That's often how he speaks to us – by putting thoughts into our mind. But, of course, not every thought is a prompting of the Spirit and we need to learn how to distinguish the thoughts that come from him from those that don't. I'll be saying more about this at the end of the talk, but first let me give you a few examples from my own experience. In the early 1970s, while I was pastoring at Basingstoke, I began to receive invitations to minister in other countries as well as in other churches up and down the UK. I was also teaching once a fortnight in our Bible College which was then at Kenley in Surrey. But there surely had to be a limit to how many invitations I could accept? I was expected to preach three times a week in the church I was pastoring. One day, as I was praying about this, as if from nowhere the word Antioch came into my mind. Now I knew that Antioch was a place mentioned in the Book of Acts and that that was where the disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). I also knew that Paul had set out from there on his first missionary journey, but I wasn't quite sure how this might be relevant to what I was praying about, so I decided to open my Bible and see what else I could discover about Antioch, and I very quickly came to Acts 13:1-3 where I read: In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.   Now Barnabas had been the first leader of the church at Antioch and he had brought Saul (or Paul) alongside him to help with the ministry (Acts 11:22-25). But now the Holy Spirit was telling them both to leave Antioch for a while and start on the church planting mission to which he had called them. But how could they leave Antioch? Who would look after the church in their absence? The answer was simple. There were other prophets and teachers in the church (v1).   In giving me the word Antioch God was not only answering my question, but also showing me what was to become a key principle in the churches I have led, in the college at Mattersey Hall, and what I have since taught to church leaders around the world – the importance of team leadership.    It may be difficult to understand today, when team leadership is normal in many churches, but, in my experience, back in the seventies churches in most denominations were led by one man, who did all the preaching and led all the meetings. In giving me the word Antioch God was clearly telling me to look for other ministries in our church which would complement my own, give others an opportunity to exercise the gifts he had given them, and free me to accept invitations to minister elsewhere as he was leading me to an increasingly international ministry.   One example of this is how I came to visit several countries in Asia in 1986. It was on a Sunday in 1985. For no apparent reason the word India came into my mind. The impression was so strong that I said to Eileen, I think the Lord is going to send me to India. But I told no one else about it.    The following Wednesday evening Pastor Ray Belfield came to Mattersey to speak to the students about missions. After the meeting I invited him back to our house for a cup of tea before he made the journey back home to Wigan. As we prayed together before he left, I prayed that the Lord would show us more clearly how as a college we could do more about mission. As soon as I had finished speaking, Ray said to me, I'll tell you what you can do. You can go to India.    This resulted in a month's trip the following January, not only to India, but also to Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Ray's word was prophetic and came as a confirmation of what God had already begun to tell me the previous Sunday. It would have been a big decision to leave the college for a month if I had not had an excellent team of workers at Mattersey, plus the double assurance of what God wanted me to do – the inner voice of God's Spirit confirmed by a prophetic word.   And finally, let me tell you about Ruby. It was while I was leading the church in Basingstoke. We had invited an evangelist to come and conduct a series of special meetings. I encouraged the people to pray that God would give us one outstanding miracle of healing before the evangelist came and that this would attract people to the meetings. So we began to pray months ahead of the evangelist's visit, which was to be in June. Then, on the Sunday after Easter, it happened! It was the evening service and I was preaching about Thomas. He was the disciple who had been absent when Jesus, three days after he was crucified, appeared to his disciples on Easter Sunday. When the other disciples told Thomas that Jesus was alive, he simply refused to believe it. It was impossible! But a week later Jesus appeared to him too and showed him the wounds in his hands and feet. I remember saying something to the effect that the same Jesus whom Thomas had been able to see and touch was present with us right now even though we could not see him. After the sermon, as we sang a closing song, a middle-aged woman walked – I should say hobbled – to the front of the church. This was a complete surprise to me as she had never been to our church before and I had not invited people to come forward for prayer, as we sometimes do. Neither had I mentioned healing. So I went to her and asked: Can I help you?  She responded by saying: If Jesus is present as you say He is, can He heal me now? Immediately I knew that this was the miracle we had been praying for. It was as if God was saying, This is it! He can, and he does! I said. Be healed in the name of Jesus!  And she RAN back down the aisle, instantaneously and completely healed. Ruby and her husband both became Christians and as a result of that miracle, a number of other people came to believe in Christ and became members of our church.  Now some people teach that we should always command healing in this way, but even Jesus only did what he saw his Father do (John 5:19). I will only command healing when I believe that's what God is telling me to do on that occasion. Otherwise, I believe we should pray for healing rather than command it. So how do we know that that ‘inner voice' is in fact the voice of God? If I've made it sound easy, I must admit that I haven't always found it so. Some people talk as though they're hearing words from the Lord all the time and I've sometimes thought, I wish he'd talk to me like that! I've also wondered if those people really are hearing the voice of the Lord as much as they think they are.  To help us get a better understanding about this we need to consider what the Bible has to say about where our thoughts come from, and as we do so we realise that some of our thoughts are not from God at all. They are temptations. The Bible shows us that in our Christian lives we are constantly fighting a battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Our thoughts are prompted by what we see, what we hear, and by the company we keep. So it's possible that a thought that we imagine has come from God could in fact be prompted by any of these things. So how can we be sure? Bearing in mind what we've said in previous talks about how God speaks to us by Jesus, the word of God made flesh, and through the Bible, the written word, it goes without saying that any word he speaks by his Spirit in our hearts will always be in line with the character of Jesus and the principles of Scripture. If we are spending time with Jesus and meditating on his word, the thoughts that we have are more likely to come from God than if we spend most of our time watching television for example. Another thing to consider is the kind of ‘word' we feel the Lord might have given us. Is it a word of encouragement or is it giving us direction, or even telling us about the future? We'll consider each of these possibilities in turn, also taking into consideration whether we feel the word is for ourselves or someone else. First, then, let's suppose an encouraging thought or verse of Scripture comes to your mind. We know from verses like 1 Corinthians 14:3 that part of the Spirit's role is to encourage us, so it would seem likely that the thought you've had has come from God. It might just be a line from a song that comes into your mind – something like, The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, for example. Well, that's an easy one! It's totally in line with the teaching of the Bible, so, whether it's a prophetic word from the Spirit or not, it's true! So you can believe it and receive it, and pass it on to anyone who might need it. But what about a thought or word where it seems that God is giving you direction, where he's telling you to do something? That's not quite so simple. Again, the first question to ask is, Is it in line with Scripture? The better you know your Bible, the better you'll be able to answer this question. Obviously, if it's contrary to Scripture, it isn't from the Lord. But what if it is in line with Scripture, but you're not sure if it's for you?  For example, let's suppose you get a feeling or thought that the Lord wants you to go to China and preach the gospel. That's certainly in line with Scripture, as Jesus has told us to make disciples of all nations. But we're not all called to China, and you'd need to be very sure that your thought or feeling really was from the Lord. In this case a single thought or feeling would not be enough. It needs to be confirmed. But how? It seems that God has an infinite variety of ways of confirming his word to us. Much of what we've said in this series has been about the many ways God spoke and confirmed his word to his people in the past and how he continues to do so today. These have included angelic visitations, dreams and visions, supernatural signs, and prophetic words. We have also mentioned persistent repetition and apparent coincidence, when a thought or word comes repeatedly from a variety of different sources and we become convinced that it can only be God. To this we should add that, if the word you've received is as serious as being called to China, it would be wise to discuss it with your church leaders and see if they have any witness about it.  And the same guidelines hold good for a situation where you feel that God has revealed to you something about the future. It's important not to act upon it unless it's been confirmed in the sort of ways we've just mentioned. And if it involves someone else, it's vital that we have confirmation before we share it with them – and even then, it's always best to begin by saying something like this: I feel that God has given me a word for you. If it's really from hm, I believe you will know in your heart that it's for you. But even before we do that, it would be wise to search our own hearts by asking if the word is really for others, or if it's something that God is saying personally to us. This holds good not only when we feel the word we have is for a particular individual, but also when it comes during a meeting at church or in a home group.  The exercise of spiritual gifts like prophecy or interpretation of tongues is a separate subject, but learning how God speaks to us and discerning whether what he's saying is something for others or just for ourselves is clearly important if we believe that the Lord wants to use us in these gifts. In fact, I think that most of what I have learnt about recognising the inner voice of God's Spirit has been by using these gifts. A good example is how I started to exercise the gift of interpretation of tongues. I first spoke in tongues when I was baptised in the Holy Spirit on September 8th, 1959, just four weeks before starting my studies at Brasenose College, Oxford. I enjoyed the meetings at the church I attended and soon began to invite some of my friends from the college Christian Union to come and experience Pentecostal worship. But there was just one problem. Although there was usually an interpretation after someone spoke in tongues, there were just one or two occasions when there was not. I was concerned that the friends I invited might get an unfavourable impression and conclude that Pentecostal worship was unscriptural. So I asked a friend, who was a Pentecostal evangelist, what I should do. That's easy, he said. You interpret. But I don't have the gift of interpretation, I replied. Then ask for it, he said. But how do I know God wants me to have it? I asked. He then reminded me that we know from Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 12-14 that it's God's will for tongues in church to be interpreted, and he suggested that the very fact that I was concerned about it could be an indication that it was a gift God wanted me to have and that I should pray for it. So that's what I did. I began to pray for it, and a few weeks later after someone had spoken in tongues in the Sunday morning meeting and no one else had interpreted it, I spoke out in faith, trusting that the words that had come into my mind were from God. For months I wondered if the gift I had received was genuine, or whether it was ‘just me'. Then, one day, at the close of a meeting in which I had interpreted, another Christian came up to me and told me that he had received word for word the interpretation which I had given.  I had exercised the gift in faith for months, but finally I had some confirmation that it was real.     About seventeen years later, in November 1977 I was serving as Acting Principal of Mattersey Hall prior to becoming Principal in 1978. One Saturday evening we took a bus-load of about 45 students to Bethshan Tabernacle in Manchester. There were several hundred people in the meeting during which the students sang and testified, and I preached. As soon as I had finished preaching, a woman near to the back of the meeting began to speak in tongues. As I was still at the microphone, it seemed appropriate for me to interpret so that everyone present would hear and be edified. As usual I spoke out in faith what I felt the Lord had put on my heart. When I had finished, we sang a hymn and the pastor closed the meeting in prayer.   As soon as the meeting was over, one of our students, Guetawende Roamba from Burkina Faso, rushed up to me. He was clearly very excited, and when I asked him what was the matter, he told me that the woman who had spoken in tongues had been speaking his native language. Now in Burkina Faso they speak French, and because I also speak French fairly fluently, I knew that she had not been speaking French. So I wondered what language it might be.    What language? I asked. Moré, he replied. Frankly, at that time I had never heard of it – and we found out later that the Irish lady who had spoken in tongues had never heard of it either! But I was excited that I had been present when speaking in tongues had been recognised as a real language. At the same time I was not a little concerned because I was the one who had given the interpretation!    I had been interpreting tongues since I was a student at Oxford in 1960, but it had always been (as it always must be) ‘by faith', and yet I still had some intellectual doubts that the gift was genuine. I had simply trusted the promise of Jesus that God gives good gifts to those who ask him (Matthew 7:11). Of course, I had no need to fear, but it's easy to imagine how embarrassed I would have been if I had ‘got it wrong' in the presence of one of my Bible College students!   I hardly dared ask the question, but I knew I had to.  And what about the interpretation, Gueta? Was it accurate? Of course, you know the answer because I wouldn't be telling this story if the interpretation had been wrong! What an amazing thing! The Holy Spirit inspired an Irish woman to speak an African language which she had never heard, or even heard of, and then gave the interpretation to an English man who had never heard of it either! God is faithful. His word is true. And his Spirit is still at work distributing his gifts as he himself determines. The atheists – and for that matter those Christians who say that the gifts are not for today – have no answer to experiences like these!   So it's not surprising that the devil tries to cast doubt on the genuineness of words that we receive from God. He is constantly challenging with words like, Has God said? God is more than willing to speak to us, but, if he can, Satan will distract us from listening, or cast doubt on what God has said. But as we step out in faith in what we believe he has said, we will receive confirmation that it is real and learn from experience to recognise that inner voice of God.  

Dr. Eleanor Parker joins Grace to discuss the beauty of Old English and her delightful new book on the Anglo-Saxon calendar year, Winters in the World: A Journey Through the Anglo-Saxon Year.  Eleanor Parker is Lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Brasenose College, Oxford. She is the author of Dragon Lords: The History and Legends of Viking England (2018), Conquered: The Last Children of Anglo-Saxon England (2022), and Winters in the World: A Journey Through the Anglo-Saxon Year (2022). She has also written for History Today and is the creator of the Clerk of Oxford blog.

How God speaks to us       Talk 12       Preachers and Pastors In recent talks we've been considering how God speaks to us through our parents and through other Christians. We now turn our attention to how God speaks to us through the preaching of his word by those he has called and gifted to do so. We have already seen that God expects all Christians to spread the good news of the gospel to those with whom they come in contact. The gift of the Holy Spirit is available to all Christians and his empowering enables us all to be witnesses for Christ.    In Ephesians 4:11-12, however, we read how Christ has given to the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, to equip God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. I have written at length on each of these roles in my book, Body Builders, so won't be going into great detail here. It will be enough for us to remind ourselves that one of the chief ways that God has chosen to speak to us is through his servants.   Of course, God speaks to us individually as we read our Bibles, but that by no means does away with the need for the teaching of God's word through those to whom he has entrusted our spiritual welfare. In Acts 20 the apostle Paul is on his way to Jerusalem and at Miletus he calls for the elders of the church to come and see him (v17). He knows that none of them will ever see him again (v25) and he wants to encourage them and pray with them one last time. He tells them to    Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood (v28).   Notice that in verse 17 these people are referred to as elders. In this verse they're called overseers and shepherds. It's clear from this and from passages like 1 Peter 5:1-5 and Titus 1:5-7 that:   In the New Testament elders, overseers, and shepherds (pastors) are interchangeable terms referring to the same role. Their responsibility is to protect and care for the flock (God's people) from ‘wolves' (false teachers) who distort the truth (Acts 20:29, 1 Peter 5:2). They must encourage others by sound teaching and refute those who oppose it (Titus 1:9). They are ultimately accountable to Christ, who is the Chief Shepherd of the flock (1 Peter 5:5). Since God has given such a serious responsibility to those who are the shepherds of his sheep, it follows that his people are to pay attention to the teaching and advice given by church leaders. I can't say in all honestly that I have always done so – in fact I remember that as a teenager I sometimes argued publicly with our Baptist pastor (for which I wrote and apologized a few years later after I was baptized with the Holy Spirit). But I'm so glad that down through the years again and again God has spoken to me and guided me through the teaching and advice of pastors and other preachers.   Perhaps the best example of this is how the Lord called me to full-time ministry. Mamhead Park is a country mansion built regardless of cost in the nineteenth century. Set in hundreds of acres of beautiful countryside, with views going down to the sea at Lyme Bay on the south coast of England, in the 1950s it was used by the Baptists as a centre for retreats and conferences. It was also used in the school holidays for Summer Schools for young people. It was at one of these that God spoke to me and showed me that I was to be a minister.   It was at the end of one of the evening sessions. The preacher had just finished his message and the Reverend Cyril Rushbridge, who had been leading the meeting, was expected to close in prayer. But before he did so, he said, Before we close in prayer I just feel the Lord wants me to tell you how he called me to the ministry. He then took just a few minutes sharing with us how this had happened. It was nothing like Paul's experience on the Damascus Road. I don't remember the details, but by the time he had finished I felt sure that God was calling me to the ministry too. This was confirmed by Kate, one of the young people from our youth group, who said to me as soon as the meeting ended, David, do you know now what the Lord wants you to do with your life? The answer was yes, I was absolutely sure.   I wrote home to my parents telling them what had happened. When I got home, they told me how pleased they were and how, when the doctor had told them that they were unlikely to have any children, they had prayed that the Lord would give them a son who would have an international ministry.   I was 16 at the time and in the middle of preparing for A levels at school. I spoke to our pastor, the Reverend Leslie Moxham, and asked his advice as to my next steps now that the Lord had called me to the ministry. He suggested that I should start to attend the midweek Prayer and Bible Study meeting and this I was happy to do. But there was just one problem – time!    Students at Brentwood School, where I attended, had lessons for six days every week and were expected to do two to three hours ‘prep' every evening. Sunday was the only day we were not at school and on Sundays I was already attending Boys' Brigade Bible Class at 10am, the morning church service at 11am, teenage Bible Class at 3pm, youth discussion group at 4.30pm, the evening service at 6.30pm and an after church ‘sing-song' from 8-9pm! I also attended Boys' Brigade, Young People's Fellowship, and the church Youth Club three evenings every week. Could I still fit in an extra meeting without it affecting my studies at school?   My history teacher clearly thought not! About two months before I was due to take my A level exams, he said to me in front of the whole class,  Quite honestly, Petts, unless you work harder, you're going to fail you're A levels.  To which I replied, Well, you see Sir, I believe that God has called me to the ministry and that it's important that I attend the meetings at our church,  and I explained to him how busy I was.  Then I added, Actually, Sir, I believe that if I put God first, and if he wants me to pass my A levels, he will not let me down.  To which he replied, Petts, I respect your convictions, but I can't say that I agree with you.    As a result of that conversation, I did try to work harder, but I also continued to attend all the meetings at church, including the midweek Bible Study recommended by my pastor. When the A level results were published, to the surprise of my teacher I had received a comfortable pass in all subjects, including History. And to my surprise, I was shortly afterwards awarded a prestigious Heseltine Exhibition to study at Brasenose College, Oxford. I give God all the glory for this. I had followed my Pastor's advice and had tried to put God first. I had honoured the Lord in front of my teacher and fellow-students, and the Lord did not fail me.   A few years later, after graduating from Oxford, I was pastoring a small church in Colchester. The church funds were insufficient to pay me full time, so I was teaching Religious Education in a local secondary school to provide for the needs of our young family. This was clearly part of the Lord's plan as during the years I was teaching there dozens of teenagers came to our church and made decisions for Christ. But I knew that the Lord had called me to full time ministry and that eventually the time would come for me to give up my teaching job. The question was, when?   The answer came during the Assemblies of God Annual Conference held in Clacton in May 1966. I was not able to attend during the day as it coincided with the school summer term, but I was able to go in the evenings as Clacton is not very far from Colchester. The preacher on the first night was Pastor Eddie Durham. He began by talking about how, in time past, if a man wanted to challenge another to a duel, he would throw down a gauntlet in front of him. The challenge was accepted by the other man picking up the gauntlet. Pastor Durham then produced a motorcycle gauntlet and threw it on the floor before the congregation, saying, I challenge young men in this meeting to give themselves full time to the ministry!   I remember thinking, That's all very well. I'd love to be full time in the ministry, but it simply isn't possible financially. My teaching job was our only means of income.  But then I added, But, Lord, if that's what you want me to do, I'll do it, but you'll have to make it very clear by the end of the week.   The reason I said this was that I was contractually obliged to submit my resignation to the school where I was teaching by the end of May if I was not going to return for the beginning of the new term in September. God had just a week to let me know what he wanted me to do.    And he did! Night after night I went back to those meetings, having told no one but Eileen what I had prayed. And each night, in one way or another, God spoke to me confirming that I was to give up my teaching job. A particular highlight was the preaching of Thomas F. Zimmerman, the General Superintendent of Assemblies of God in the USA, who was one of the guest preachers at the conference. What made it particularly significant was the fact that it was the night of my ordination where hands were laid on me in recognition of the ministry God had given me. Zimmerman's message was based on 1 Kings 17-18 and the story of Elijah. I was reminded that if we follow God's PLAN, we will know his PROVISION and his POWER.   By the end of the week Eileen and I were fully convinced that God's plan was that I should give up my teaching job and trust him to provide for our needs. And so, first thing on Monday morning, I went to the head teacher, who, incidentally, was an atheist, and handed in my resignation. When asked for a reason, I could only reply, Well Sir, this may sound a little strange, but God has told me to.   Next time: God speaks to us through prophets

Andy is a Developer Relations professional at Twitter. Prior to joining Twitter in 2014, Andy was Developer Advocate for Cloud Foundry, the OSS Platform-as-a-Service, at VMware/Pivotal. Earlier, he spent 10 years at IBM; and 4 years at the UK Post Office, where he helped the company navigate the challenges of Y2K. Andy has over 20 years of experience with Linux, and with contributing to Open Source projects. He was a leading member of the MQTT Open Source community for five year, and took an active role in building the developer ecosystem. He has 20+ years of experience as a coder, and in collaborating with and supporting developer communities. Andy earned an M.A. in Modern History from Brasenose College, Oxford. He is @andypiper on Twitter. You can follow Andy on Social Media https://twitter.com/andypiper https://andypiper.me/ Also Follow Andy's Podcast https://gamesatwork.biz PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST - Spotify: http://isaacl.dev/podcast-spotify - Apple Podcasts: http://isaacl.dev/podcast-apple - Google Podcasts: http://isaacl.dev/podcast-google - RSS: http://isaacl.dev/podcast-rss You can check out more episodes of Coffee and Open Source on https://www.coffeeandopensource.com/ Coffee and Open Source is hosted by Isaac Levin (https://twitter.com/isaacrlevin) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/coffeandopensource/support

How God speaks to us  Talk 10  God speaks to us through our Parents   So far, all that we have said has centred very much around the Bible. We have said that God speaks to us through the person of Jesus, but what we know about Jesus we derive from the Bible. We have also considered various ways in which God speaks to us directly through the Bible, but now we turn our attention to other ways in which God speaks to us.   We'll start by looking at how he speaks to us through other people. But even here our knowledge of what the Bible teaches will be vital. Well-meaning people can get things wrong and anything they say must be filtered through our understanding of what the Bible has to say.   Of course, God can speak through anyone he wants to – he once even spoke through a donkey (Numbers 22)! But in the next few talks we'll be concentrating on four major categories of people through whom the Lord may speak to us – parents, preachers, pastors, and prophets. As usual I'll be illustrating what the Bible has to say with examples from my own personal experience. Today our subject is parents.   Parents The Bible is very clear in its teaching that children should learn from their parents about the things of God. We are told to honour our parents, to obey our parents, and to heed their instruction. It follows, therefore, that one way that God has chosen to speak to us is through the instruction and advice of our parents. It is our parents' responsibility to explain to us the truth about God, to show us by their teaching and example the difference between right and wrong, and to advise us as to the best course of action when we are unsure of what we should do.   I am personally very grateful to God that my parents fulfilled that role in a wonderful way, but I am very conscious that not all my listeners will have had Christian parents and that some may have had a very different experience from mine. My wife, Eileen, is one example of this. Her parents, despite many good qualities, were by no means ideal, but they did send her to Sunday school and at the age of seven Eileen was led to the Lord by her Sunday school teacher. Since that day she has always sought to be the kind of person God would want her to be and, was determined that when she became a mother she would be a better parent to our children than her parents had been to her. The fact that our three children, who are now in their fifties, have all grown up to love and serve the Lord is in my view largely due Eileen's godly influence. So, if you did not enjoy the benefit of ideal parents, please remember that the Lord can help you to be a better parent to your children than they were to you.   However, as I have said, my experience was very different from Eileen's. I remember how, at the age of eight, I was sitting on my father's knee when I asked him, Daddy, how good do you have to be to go to Heaven? I think the question was on my mind because of something that was called David's good boy chart. This was a chart my father had made, rather like a calendar, with space for each day for him to stick on it a coloured sun or moon or star depending on how my behaviour had been that day. I think he had made it because my mother had been having some problems with me during the day while he was at work. When he got home, my mother would tell him how I had behaved that day and an appropriate sticker would be applied to the chart. If I'd been good, it would be a sun, not so good, a moon, and so on. I think I must have been wondering how many suns I would need if I wanted to go to Heaven!   My father explained that it wasn't a question of how good we are, because none of us is good enough to go to Heaven. That's why Jesus came to die on the cross to take the punishment for our sins so that all who believe in him would have everlasting life. Then he asked,   Do you believe that, David? I replied, Yes, of course I do. And why do you believe it? asked my father. Because you have told me, I said. That's a good reason, he said, but one day you will come to believe it for yourself.   That's the first time I can remember that I was consciously aware of the truth of the gospel. I suppose that, like many who have been brought up in a Christian home, I can't put a date on when I first believed. It feels as though I have always believed. I cannot remember a time when I did not believe. I used to be concerned about this, especially when so many Christians can remember a specific date. But then I heard an illustration that was very helpful and which at the time of writing is particularly relevant because this week Eileen and I are celebrating our 60th wedding anniversary. Now I have never forgotten our wedding anniversary, but even if one year I had, I would never have forgotten that I am married and who I am married to!   The point of the illustration is this. The date that my married relationship with Eileen started is relatively unimportant compared with our relationship now. The same applies to our relationship with Jesus. What matters is not when our relationship started, but am I in relationship with him now? Am I trusting him now for the forgiveness of my sins and my home in heaven? And if I am, then the exact date it all started is relatively unimportant.   So I cannot remember an exact date when I first believed. But I can remember the day when I decided to give my life to Christ. And again, it was through my father that I came to that decision. Every Sunday afternoon my father used to teach the teenage Bible class in our Baptist church. I remember sitting listening to him week after week talking from John 3:16. The challenge was not so much, Did I believe? but rather, What would I do about it?   I decided that, if God loved me so much that he sent his Son to die on the cross to save me from my sins, the least I could do was to give my life to him. So the next time our pastor made an appeal for those who would surrender to Christ and obey him by being baptised in water, I walked forward in response and was baptised on July 19th 1953.   So it was through my father's teaching and my mother's example and encouragement that I became a Christian. As we have said, one of the ways God speaks to us is through our parents and the most solemn responsibility of every Christian parent is to show their children the way of salvation.   But there are other ways too that God uses our parents to speak to us. The book of Proverbs emphasises again and again the wisdom of paying attention to the advice of our parents and in both Old and New Testaments we are told to honour our father and mother. And surely if we honour and respect them we will be grateful for the advice they give us.   Of course, when we are young children and not yet mature enough to make wise decisions for ourselves, it's appropriate that our parents should tell us what to do. We should obey them. But when we are mature adults it's not so much a question of obedience as of honouring them and listening to their advice. And in between our childhood and our adulthood we have the period of adolescence. This is a time of transitioning from obedience to honouring and I am grateful for my parents' wisdom in encouraging me as a teenager to make my own decisions while at the same time offering their advice as to what might well be the right course of action to take.   One example of this was when, at the age of 12, I had to decide whether to opt for studying Greek or German at school. My father pointed out that if I opted for Greek it might help me if, in the future, I needed to study the New Testament in greater depth. Within three years I was translating parts of the Greek New Testament and eventually taught Greek for many years in our Bible College. Neither my father nor I could possibly have known this, but I believe that through my father the Lord directing my steps according to his plan for my life.   A few years later, at the age of 17, I was offered a scholarship to read P.P.E. (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) at Brasenose College, Oxford. A year before this I had already felt a call to serve the Lord as a minister and, when I received the news about the scholarship, I was initially unsure as to whether I should accept it. Perhaps I should be applying to Bible College instead?   I asked my father what he thought, and he suggested that I should take into consideration that God might well have a purpose in my going to Oxford, especially bearing in mind that places at Oxford were pretty hard to come by! As I look back, I'm glad I took my father's advice. I was baptised in the Holy Spirit just four weeks before starting my course at Oxford and was used by the Lord in spreading the Pentecostal testimony to other students and conducting Bible studies and prayer meetings seeking spiritual gifts. The type of degree I was reading was relatively unimportant. I knew I was at the right place in the right time. And my Oxford degree has opened doors for me that might not have been open had I studied elsewhere, including invitations to speak in universities and colleges not only in Britain, but further afield in Europe, Africa and the United States.   So in this talk I have tried to show firstly from Scripture and then from my personal experience that one way that God speaks to us is through our parents. Much of what I have said has related to my father who, in my early years, clearly had a very great influence on my life for which I will always been grateful to God. But ultimately we must decide for ourselves what the Lord is saying to us, whoever it might be that he has chosen to speak through. And that applies not only to parents but also to the preachers and pastors and prophets through whom he also speaks to us.   Break for August. Resume in September.

Get inspired to jump into your own entrepreneurial journey with Amanda Pullinger, CEO of 100 Women in Finance, an organization focused on empowering women in the finance industry and inspiring the next generation of pre-career young women. Weilyn and Ali discuss in this attention grabbing episode how Amanada learned the power of simply asking for more as a female entrepreneur will get you more, every “failure” is an opportunity to learn, and why building up your skillset and network as a young entrepreneur can be your best investment for your career. Amanda graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford University in 1987 with an Honours Degree in Modern History. She earned an MBA from La Salle University, Philadelphia, in 1998, and received the Academic Award for MBA student of the year as well as the Beta Gamma Sigma designation. Amanda is a former principal of Aquamarine Capital Management, where she was responsible, over a period of seven years, for managing marketing, investor relations and back office administration for two private investment funds. Amanda is Chair and Non Executive Director of the Board of FlyPlymouth, based in Plymouth, UK. She also serves on the Boards of the HALO Trust (USA), the American Friends of The National Portrait Gallery (London) Foundation and as a Director on the Oxford University Alumni Board. She is President of the Brasenose Society, Vice Chair of the Women's Network Forum and an Advisory Board Member of the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance (Harambe). Previously, she served as Chairman of the Board of The HALO Trust (www.halotrust.org). Learn more about Amanda and 100 Women in Finance here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Pullinger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Pullinger https://100women.org/

In this Episode we sit down with Erik Cabral, MD. Dr. Cabral grew up in San Jose and received his Bachelor's in Human Biology with Honors Thesis from Stanford University. He was fortunate to study abroad at Brasenose College, Oxford University and Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico in Cuernavaca and is fluent in Spanish.Dr. Cabral enjoys practicing in the Bay Area and has spent the past two years caring for patients in Sonoma and Marin counties. He is a fan of running, snowboarding, golf and wine.In Part 2 we discuss Erik's top 5 countries and most of his adventures. We talk about countries such as Mexico, Turkey, Russia and Cuba. Erik also discuses how it's difficult to travel to certain areas being a vegetarian. He has traveled for the past 7 years to over 40 countries as a vegetarian. Erik also talks about how travel helps him learn to connect with people better and allows him to relax and decompress and fill his own cup. It also allows him to build and develop precious memories. Isaac talks about when he worked in retirement planning and how the #1 answer to the question when people were asked, what do you want to do when you retire was “Travel.” Erik shares stories of people who had all these grand plans of traveling but by the time they get there they are already sick and broken and can't experience this dream of travel anymore the way they dreamed about. Erik talks about why he travels now so that he has the energy and capability to truly experience the countries he visits. Erik also explains how you can find so many amazing places close to home if you can't travel far. Jho talks about how San Francisco used to be considered the “Paris of the Pacific.” We talk about how awesome the Bay Area is and how there is so much to see and do in the place we call home. We discuss the Sutro Baths, State Parks, Hikes, The Fern River Resort and much more.We discuss why he chose Dermatology as a specialization. Erik talks about the fact that he loves being a specialist. And how he can do everything in home and the buck stops with him. He's, "somewhat of a Renaissance man" as he puts it. Isaac asks if he's like Dr. Pimple Popper and Erik says similar but more on the surgical side. Erik talks about how this rewarding to restore someone's self-esteem by removing skin growths and Acne. As he puts it, “these growths won't take your life, but will affect your life.”We talk a little more about travel, specifically Tulum Mexico. Erik talks about how it's an international community of health and wellness and it's very plant based friendly. Erik talks about a synergy of wellness, spirituality and energy and mind body connection. He talks about feeling a special connection and energy about Tulum right now. Isaac gives a good example about energy and how we are all energy so it makes sense about Erik having that special feeling about Tulum. Erik gives the physicists view on death and transfer of energy. And Isaac completely agrees.We also discuss financial strategies and Crypto currency. Erik gives his views on it and talks about it being the future of the transfer of money. He also discusses how it's a new way of transacting and how it can protect people in other countries who's governments have too much control of currency. Erik talks about how and why he got into Crypto. We also discuss the stock market and how hedge funds and Wall Street control it and how Crypto is more of a true free market economy. And this was made clear with the recent situations with online trading platforms. We also discuss the lack of financisl literacy in the world today. And Jho asks her world famous six questions.DR. ERIK CABRALINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/cabrallerYOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/channel/UC-oALrh_OvOyFcBnnTFKy_gBLISS SEEKERSINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/blissseekersHOSTSIsaac J. EstradaINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/futuregmJhoINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/carpeconsequatWEBSITE: http://www.carpeconsequat.comMUSIC"The Mantra" by A Dead DesireLISTEN HERE: https://youtu.be/PO0EKknzW7gAFFILIATEShttps://freshcleantees.com Coupon Code BLISSHOT SUIT - CODE JVHOTSUIT 10% OFFhttps://www.hotsuit.com/?ref=jvhotsuit&utm_source=affiliateGRAPHICSDionn ReneeINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/dionn_reneeWEBSITE: http://www.dionnrenee.comVIDEOGRAPHY/PRODUCTIONHatem AlrifaiINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/hatemsf3INSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/hatemfilmSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-bliss-seekers-podcast/donations

In this Episode we sit down with Erik Cabral, MD. Dr. Cabral grew up in San Jose and received his Bachelor's in Human Biology with Honors Thesis from Stanford University. He was fortunate to study abroad at Brasenose College, Oxford University and Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico in Cuernavaca and is fluent in Spanish.Dr. Cabral enjoys practicing in the Bay Area and has spent the past two years caring for patients in Sonoma and Marin counties. He is a fan of running, snowboarding, golf and wine.In Part 1 we talk about his upbringing in the Bay Area, in a rough part of San José in the "horseshoe" gang neighborhood. He grew up with his mother because his parents divorced at age 2. Being the oldest of 3 Erik was forced to be the man of the house due to his mother having to work long hours. Caring for his younger siblings Erik learned to be humble, compassionate and care for others.Erik had a rebellious stage when he was young but quickly learned the gang life had not future and wasn't for him. He was still close with his father who taught him tough love and structure. His father lived in nice suburb of Santa Clara which ay that time was a drastic difference from the rough horseshoe neighborhood of San José. Even though his father was around Eriks mother was his “rock” in life. His mother taught him compassion and always give people the benefit of the doubt and to always help others.He talks about how he never thought he would become a doctor but since he's always been “nerdy” in school he gravitated toward medicine because it was a scientific way to heal people. We talk about how he met his best friend in middle school when they almost got into fight. This friend is also the person who connected Erik and Isaac many years ago. We also talk about how Erik has always been on the path of his purpose since he was very young and he just continued on that path his entire life. Erik also talks about how doctors these days are switching to being more healthy and healing themselves before they heal others.Erik also talks about how he tested for the Gifted And Talented Education GATE program. And after he realized the grafiti artist and gang life was not for him he began to believe in himself and focused on his education. Erik talks about working so hard in high school and doing so much extra work that when he arrived at Stanford University he had enough credits to be a junior. He didn't even realize this because he just put his head down and put the work in. He remembers thinking he thought this is what everyone does not knowing he was overachieving.We discuss about him getting to Stanford and how he quickly realized compared to most of the kids there, he was very poor. He talks about the culture shock he faced. Examples like freshman kids showing up with brand new Mercedes cars and traveling to Bali & Switzerland and Erik being driven to school by his mother in their beat up van. He talks about most kids being prepped at boarding schools and prep schools and how he didn't even own a computer. So instead of traveling to exotic places Erik went back to his mantra of hard work and focus. He didn't want to go back to San Jose so he stayed at school and hit the books. We also talk about when he finally settled into Stanford and felt comfortable. And how the associations there motivated him to do bigger and better things which led him to studying abroad at Oxford.Erik talks about his current career and how he tries real hard to be relatable to his patients and people and doesn't start with the resume and education he has built up. He also talks about really learning about his patients and how he loves to connect with them before they even discuss the medical portion of their visit. He also talks about how this helps him avoid burn out and making his profession less robotic. This also falls back on his background of being compassionate towards others.We also get into the fun part of being a successful doctor which allows Erik to travel the World and how he's been to 40 countries so far.DR. ERIK CABRALINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/cabrallerYOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/channel/UC-oALrh_OvOyFcBnnTFKy_gBLISS SEEKERSINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/blissseekersHOSTSIsaac J. EstradaINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/futuregmJhoINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/carpeconsequatWEBSITE: http://www.carpeconsequat.comMUSIC"The Mantra" by A Dead DesireLISTEN HERE: https://youtu.be/PO0EKknzW7gAFFILIATEShttps://freshcleantees.com Coupon Code BLISSHOT SUIT - CODE JVHOTSUIT 10% OFFhttps://www.hotsuit.com/?ref=jvhotsuit&utm_source=affiliateGRAPHICSDionn ReneeINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/dionn_reneeWEBSITE: http://www.dionnrenee.comVIDEOGRAPHY/PRODUCTIONHatem AlrifaiINSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/hatemsf3INSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/hatemfilmSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-bliss-seekers-podcast/donations

As managing director, Catharine (“Cappy”) Bond Hill leads Ithaka S+R's research and consulting initiatives to broaden access to higher education, reduce costs, and improve student outcomes. A noted economist whose work focuses on higher education affordability and access, as well as on economic development and reform in Africa, Cappy joined Ithaka S+R in September, 2016. She oversees Ithaka S+R's two program areas, working to help the higher education, library, scholarly communication, and museum communities adapt to the technological and economic context of the 21st century. From 2006 to 2016, Cappy served as the 10th president of Vassar College. Under her leadership, Vassar reinstated need-blind admissions and replaced loans with grants in financial aid for low-income families. In 2015 the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, awarded Vassar the inaugural million-dollar prize for Equity in Educational Excellence for its efforts to expand access and support to students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. While at Vassar, Cappy also established a first-of-its-kind veterans admission partnership with the Posse Foundation, with Vassar enrolling its first eleven veterans as freshmen in 2013. Prior to her Vassar presidency, Cappy was the provost of Williams College, where she had chief academic and financial officer responsibilities. She originally joined the economics faculty at Williams in 1985. From 1994-1997, Cappy lived in the Republic of Zambia, working in the Ministry of Finance and with the Bank of Zambia. Cappy serves on the board of the Yale-NUS College and is senior fellow on the Yale Board of Trustees. Cappy graduated from Williams College, earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree at Brasenose College, Oxford University. She completed her doctorate in economics at Yale University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr Mary Elisabeth Cox is the William Golding Junior Research Fellow in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Brasenose College, Oxford, and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow. In this interview she speaks about her recent book, Hunger in War & Peace, which explores the impact of the Allied blockade of Germany during the First World War on German civilians and the food aid program that followed the conflict. Hunger in War & Peace is available now from Oxford University Press. An earlier article on this topic by Dr Cox in the Economic History Review is available here.

Why Grocery Stores Don't Help Communities in Food Deserts to Stay Healthy (0:38)Guest: Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen, PhD Candidate at the University at Buffalo and Graduate Research Assistant at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical SciencesIn places sometimes referred to as “food deserts” healthy food options are farther and more expensive than normal. The obvious answer would be to just put up another supermarket. But researchers at the University at Buffalo found that new grocery stores actually lead to a decrease in people eating their fruits and veggies. (Originally aired November 5, 2019).  Historically Black Colleges and Universities are Struggling to Survive (14:21)Guest: Delece Smith-Barrow is Senior Editor for Higher Education at The Hechinger ReportMartin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Spike Lee, Oprah Winfrey, Samuel L. Jackson, Chadwick Boseman –aka Black Panther. That's just a partial list of prominent African Americans who graduated from an HBCU, which stands for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. There are more than a hundred HBCUs around the country –Howard, Tuskegee, Spelman, Shaw, Fisk, Morehouse –are some names you might recognize. If you saw Beyonce's Coachella performance last year –or the Netflix documentary about it -that whole thing was an ode to HBCUs. She had marching bands and step dancers. Beyonce's HBCU tribute was well-timed, because many of these schools are in crisis. Enrollment is down. Government funding is down. More than a dozen HBCUs have closed. (Originally aired November 5, 2019).  Racial Discipline and Achievement Gaps Are Related (36:05)Guest: Francis Pearman, Assistant Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford UniversityIn schools across the US, discipline doesn't get handed out evenly. Black high school students are twice as likely to be suspended as white or Hispanic students. Black students also lag behind white students on standardized test scores. Are these two gaps –the discipline gap and the achievement gap –linked, somehow? (Originally aired November 5, 2019).  How Hunger Impacted German Civilians During and After WWI (50:01)Guest: Mary Cox, William Golding Junior Research Fellow in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Brasenose College, Oxford UniversityThe First World War was among the deadliest in history. Tens of millions of soldiers and civilians died. Millions more were maimed or emotionally scarred by the brutal fighting in the trenches and use of chemical weapons. Lingering effects of the Great War were also evident in the bodies of German children, who were malnourished throughout the conflict because of a very effective Allied blockade that kept food, fertilizer and military supplies out of Germany. (Originally aired September 18, 2019).  Apple Seed (1:08:30)Guest: Sam Payne of the Apple SeedSam Payne shares about the importance of storytelling in the world. (Originally aired September 18, 2019).  The Evolution of Playground Design and its Effect on Children (1:22:42)Guest: Alexandra Lange, is a Design and Architecture Critic and Author of “The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids”I miss merry go rounds. You hardly find them on playgrounds anymore. On the one hand playgrounds are much cooler than they were when I was a kid. But they also feel less risky. I've wondered if the design of playgrounds affects how kids develop. (Originally aired September 18, 2019). 

Iranian Tensions and Israeli ElectionsGuest: Aaron David Miller, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment, former US State Department Middle East Advisor and NegotiatorThe Trump Administration says an attack that knocked out more than half of Saudi Arabia's oil capacity over the weekend was Iran's handiwork.  Because Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the United States, there's the possibility that we'll be involved in retaliating for the strike. President Trump tweeted today that he's ordered a substantial increase in sanctions on Iran. Feral Pigs Harm Wildlife and Biodiversity as Well as CropsGuest: Marcus Lashley, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation at University of FloridaFeral pigs are roaming the United States. These are animals that were once domesticated but are now living in the wild. And they are doing tremendous damage. Pumice Rafts Allow Corals and Other Marine Life to Hitch a RideGuest: Scott Bryan, Associate Professor of Geology and Geochemistry at Queensland University of TechnologyYou know pumice –that rock with the little holes in it? People use it to smooth off callouses on feet? Well there's a giant clump of it floating in the Pacific Ocean right now. It's bigger than the island of Manhattan, made up of pumice stones ranging from marble to basketball size. Really bad news for boats who come upon it. But the strange phenomenon is great news for marine life, apparently. How Hunger Impacted German Civilians During and After WWI Guest: Mary Cox, William Golding Junior Research Fellow in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Brasenose College, Oxford UniversityThe First World War was among the deadliest in history. Tens of millions of soldiers and civilians died. Millions more were maimed or emotionally scarred by the brutal fighting in the trenches and use of chemical weapons. Lingering effects of the Great War were also evident in the bodies of German children, who were malnourished throughout the conflict because of a very effective Allied blockade that kept food, fertilizer and military supplies out of Germany. Apple SeedGuest: Sam Payne of the Apple SeedSam Payne shares about the importance of storytelling in the world. The Evolution of Playground Design and its Effect on ChildrenGuest: Alexandra Lange, is a Design and Architecture Critic and Author of “The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids”I miss merry go rounds. You hardly find them on playgrounds anymore. On the one hand playgrounds are much cooler than they were when I was a kid. But they also feel less risky. I've wondered if the design of playgrounds affects how kids develop.

How do we interpret the current political moment in Britain? Is Brexit changing Britain's unwritten constitution? Tune in to our special Brexit edition of the Governance Podcast between Andrew Blick and Vernon Bogdanor.  This episode is co-hosted by the Centre for British Politics and Government at King's College London. Subscribe on iTunes and Spotify Subscribe to the Governance Podcast on iTunes and Spotify today and get all our latest episodes directly in your pocket. Follow Us For more information about our upcoming podcasts and events, follow us on facebook, twitter or instagram (@csgskcl). The Guest Vernon Bogdanor is a Research Professor at the Institute for Contemporary British History at King's College London and Professor of Politics at the New College of the Humanities. He is also Emeritus Professor of Politics and Government at the University of Oxford where he is an Emeritus Fellow of Brasenose College. Since 1966, he has been Senior Tutor (1979–85 and 1996–97), Vice-Principal, and (in 2002–2003) Acting Principal at Brasenose College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. He has been a member of Council of the Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government, Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities, Member of the Court of Essex University, adviser (as a member of the Council of Europe and American Bar Association delegations) to the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel and Slovakia on constitutional and electoral reform, member of the Academic Panel of Local Authority Associations, member of the Hansard Society Commission on the Legislative Process, member of the UK Government delegation on Democratic Institutions in Central and Eastern Europe and Conference on the Protection of Minorities, Consultant to Independent Television News (ITN) on the General Election, member of the Economic and Social Research Council's committee administering the ‘Whitehall' programme, special adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on the Public Services, member of the Swedish Constitutional Reform Project, member of the Advisory Group to the High Commissioner on National Minorities, adviser to the President of Trinidad on the Constitution of Trinidad, and member of the Economic and Social Research Council's committee administering the devolution programme. The Book Beyond Brexit: Towards a British Constitution was published by Bloomsbury Press in 2019. Skip Ahead 1:12: Why did you write this book? 2:56: What is the main thesis of this book? What is the main impact of Brexit on the British Constitution? 5:08: Turning to the referendum, which as you say has become, since the issue of being in the EU came on to the agenda, a big part of our constitution and our way of taking decisions, as you show in earlier works you've written, we were actually arguing about whether or not we should introduce a referendum for a long while, as far as the late 19th century… one important proponent of the referendum… wrote an important book on that in the 1920s. And one point he made was that although he was in favour a referendum… he said that “the referendum shall never be used in answer to abstract questions such as ‘are you in favour of a monarchy.' 8:09: What do you think is the reason for the political turbulence that has taken place? You could argue that two prime ministers now have seen their careers destroyed by the referendum. How do you account for that? 10:43: In your estimation do you think that David Cameron learned the lesson in 1975 and felt that he could replicate the same trick that Harold Wilson had pulled off then? 11:52: Moving on to your background, as I said in the introduction you've been talking about the constitution in the UK…for a long while… What first interested you in the constitution? 13:15: Who were your teachers? Who influenced you? 14:52: Would you describe yourself now as a political scientist, historian or something else? 15:36: You mentioned earlier this idea of the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty – the theoretical and practical problems associated with it… and in your book you talk about the possibility that the UK will move towards a written constitution. I'm sensing you think that's a good idea. Do you think it's likely to happen? 18:01: In that kind of scenario, you could potentially see clashes between judges and elected politicians over who actually has the legitimacy to take these kind of decisions. 21:20: You mentioned earlier that one of the reasons for the political turbulence since the referendum was that the people … have a different view to most of the people in parliament and government.  Do you think there are ways to bring them back together? 23:45: We're now on the brink of a new prime minister taking power. Do you see any reason to believe that, whoever that may be, will be more successful than the last two prime ministers were in managing the referendum and the European issue? 25:02: What are you working on next? 25:53: Is it fair to say that that period… the pre-first world war period, which was… a period of constitutional turbulence… is comparable to the one we're in now?