The Church Times Podcast

“Richard Dawkins is the most outstanding missionary of atheism in Britain today”, Hugh Montefiore wrote in the Church Times in 2005. The next year, Dawkins’s The God Delusion was published. Now, Dawkins is taking aim at God again, with the publication of Outgrowing God: a Beginner’s Guide, which his publishers say is aimed at “a new generation”. Rupert Shortt is the Religion Editor at The Times Literary Supplement, and the author of books including God is No Thing (Hurst) and Does Religion Do More Harm than Good? (SPCK), which he spoke about on this podcast in March. Rupert’s new book is Outgrowing Dawkins: God for grown-ups, published by SPCK. It is not a point-by-point rebuttal of Dawkins’s book, Shortt tells me. Instead, he says, he is trying “to demonstrate why Dawkins’s arguments aren’t nearly as coherent as he imagines, but also to say some positives about the coherence of religious belief from a philosophical standpoint but also its practical value.” Outgrowing Dawkins is available from the Church House Bookshop for £9. You can also listen to the Church Times Podcast on the Church Times app for iPhone and iPad, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast platforms. If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

The Strategic Development Fund has so far allocated £136m of Church Commissioners money to projects that it is hoped will reverse the pattern of decline in church attendance. In a two-part series, Madeleine Davies has been tracking down what the money has been spent on and has asked how this corresponds with the church’s hopes. On the podcast this week, Madeleine talks to Ed Thornton about what she has discovered. f you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

Three years ago, a new digital team was created at Church House, having been given £2 million of “seed money” to spend over three years. The General Synod has approved £5 million for the next three years, to expand the digital work. What has been achieved so far and what are the plans for the next three years? Are dioceses and parishes benefiting? Can “likes” on social media replace embodied Christian community? This week, Ed Thornton puts these questions — and more — to Adrian Harris, the C of E’s Head of Digital; Amaris Cole, Senior Digital Communications Manager; and Thomas Allain-Chapman, head of publishing for the Archbishops’ Council. They also talk about the return of the #FollowTheStar Christmas campaign and how parishes can get involved. Adrian Harris says: “Digital . . . is not, for us, an end in itself. . . However innovative we are, at the heart we gather as the Body of Christ, and we want to do that by encouraging people into one of our churches.” If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

The sudden fall of the Berlin Wall, on 9 November 1989, was an iconic and decisive moment that marked the end of the Cold War. It was, however, neither the first nor the last episode in the end of Com­munism in Eastern Europe. The Revd Alexander Faludy is an Anglican priest who holds dual British and Hungarian nationality, and lives in Budapest, where he is presently pursuing legal studies. Dr Anna Rowlands is the St Hilda Associate Professor of Catholic Social Thought & Practice in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. On this week's podcast, they discuss their memories of the momentous events of 1989 and reflect on the impact that they had on Europe. Dr Rowlands visited Berlin on a school trip shortly after the initial fall of the wall, as the city was beginning to experience the euphoria of unification. "That made an enormous impact on me,” she says. "I think really it was my political awakening." Fr Alex says: "It was the first political thing I remember, but for slightly unusual reasons, because my family were Hungarian refugees during the Cold War. My grandparents were very courageous Social Democrat opposition journalists, my grandfather had spent three years in a political prisoners camp doing a forced labour sentence — on a starvation diet for much of that time. . . "I remember seeing my father cry for the first time, because his father could go home from exile. The exile that was the foundational and framing fact of all of our lives." In a fascinating conversation, they reflect on, among other matters, the way in which Roman Catholicism in Eastern Europe was shaped by the legacy of the Cold War, and the rise of Christian nationalist governments in countries such as Hungary and Poland. Alexander Faludy has written this week's cover feature for the Church Times on the events leading up to and including the fall of the Berlin Wall. You can also listen to the Church Times Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast platforms. If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

Theology Slam – the competition that seeks young voices on theology and the contemporary world – will return in 2020. The competition, which was launched last year, is organised jointly by the Church Times, SCM Press, the Community of St Anselm, and the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC). It is open to anyone aged 18 to 30, lay or ordained, and consists of a qualifying round and a live final. In the qualifying round, applicants are asked to write 500 words on one of 12 contemporary issues, which include Theology and race; Theology and Celebrity; and Theology and Disability (full list below). Alongside the 500 words, applicants are also asked to submit a short video, introducing who they are and why they are interested in the topic. Entries open today (Friday 1 November) and the deadline is 11.59 p.m. on 5 January 2020. The final will take place on 26 March at St John’s Hoxton, in London. On this week’s podcast, Ed Thornton talk to last year’s winner, Hannah Malcolm, who will be on the judging panel at the next Theology Slam. After that, you can hear excerpts from the finalists talks at the first Theology Slam final. They are Hannah Barr on Theology and the MeToo movement; Sara Prats on Theology and Mental Health; and Hannah Malcolm on Theology and the environment. For more information and to find out how to apply, visit churchtimes.co.uk/theology-slam. PHOTO CREDIT: STEFANO CAGNONI

This week, Madeleine Davies interviews Rachel Mann about her new book In the Bleak Midwinter: Advent and Christmas with Christina Rossetti. It is among a crop of books for advent reviewed in this Friday’s Church Times (25 October). In the Bleak Midwinter is published by Canterbury Press at £12.99 (Church Times Bookshop £11.70).

As the year 2000 beckoned, the Church of England decided that it would mark the Millennium by distributing thousands of yew trees across England. Every parish that requested one would get one. Twenty years after the distribution of 700 ‘Millennium Yews’, efforts are under way to track their upward progress. Ed Thornton talks to Madeleine Davies about the story, which you can also read about in this week’s paper. Plus, the Statistics for Mission 2018 report has just been published. Madeleine tells us what’s in it - including new statistics about enquiry and “Christian basics” courses, and youth work.

This week, Madeleine Davies talks to Dr James K. A. Smith about his new book On the Road with St Augustine, published by Baker Publishing at £11.99 (Church Times Bookshop £10). It offers the reader “an invitation to journey with an ancient African who will surprise you by the extent to which he knows you”. Smith’s contends that Augustine can make Christianity “plausible again for those who’ve been burned”. James K. A. Smith is Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His previous books include You are what you love: the spiritual power of habit and How (not) to be secular: reading Charles Taylor.

On this week’s podcast, Ed Thornton talks to the journalist and broadcaster Andrew Graystone about his new book Too Much Information? Ten essential questions for digital Christians, published by Canterbury Press. The book is available to buy from the Church Times Bookshop for the special offer price of £10.39. Look out for a Comment article by Andrew in this Friday’s Church Times.

On this week’s podcast, the bestselling historian Tom Holland talks to Andrew Brown about Holland’s new book Dominion: The making of the Western mind. “This isn’t a history of Christianity,” Holland says. “It’s a history of what’s been revolutionary and transformative about Christianity: about how Christianity has transformed not just the West, but the entire world. “People in the West, even those who may imagine that they have emancipated themselves from Christian belief, in fact, are shot through with Christian assumptions about almost everything.” Holland’s previous books include Rubicon: The triumph and tragedy of the Roman Republic and Dynasty: The rise and fall of the house of Caesar. Dominion: The making of the Western mind, is published by Little, Brown at £25 (CT Bookshop £22.50). If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader