Matters of Life and Death

This week we have another classic episode of Matters of Life and Death from the archive. We invited theologian Andrew Davison to join us to talk through the spiritual ramifications of cosmology and what light thinking about the wider universe sheds on vital doctrines such as creation and incarnation. We then talked about the subject of his book, which is out now, on astrobiology - what would the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe mean for us as Christians and for what we believe about God? - Andrew’s new book, ‘Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine’, is available to order now: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Astrobiology-Christian-Doctrine-Exploring-Implications/dp/1009303155 - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Evolution versus creationism is the internal Christian argument which doesn’t go away. We recorded an episode last year exploring this knotty problem and how believers might go about trying to debate it respectfully even if they disagree. We look at the age of the Earth, common descent, natural selection, and the historicity of Adam, Eve and the Fall, to try and shed some light on this murky issue. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

It’s been almost two years since we recorded an episode about abusive church leadership inspired by the downfall of Mark Driscoll and the Mars Hill church. Today we re-examine that conversation in the light of the latest scandal rocking the British evangelical church – allegations against Mike Pilavachi from Soul Survivor. We discuss his influence in the church and the impact of the latest stories, before cueing up our older discussion about how contemporary culture thinks about sex and power (and in particular how they are exploited) in human relationships. And then we consider to what extent Christians should become as suspicious of our leaders and their relationships, as it seems wider society is. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

We’re bringing you a classic episode of Matters of Life and Death from the archive today, all about suffering. The problem of suffering has been one of the most intractable and painful theological debates for centuries. But is it perhaps not a problem to be solved, but a deeper mystery to be journeyed through? How does knowing Jesus’s death and resurrection are not simply a response to pain but God’s Plan A from the start change things? We also think through some faithful Christian responses to evil and loss. How can the church reintegrate the deeply Biblical tradition of lament into its corporate and individual life, picking up on the psalms and ultimately Jesus on the cross? - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

In our latest episode tackling some questions from listeners, we begin by thinking about whether it should matter if influential theologians and Christian writers had personal moral failings, and whether we can separate out someone’s theological work from their own sins. Then we move on to a question from an unmarried listener who would like children and is wondering if adoption should be an open option for her. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Our second ‘lessons learned’ episode looking back at the covid pandemic tackles how our healthcare systems coped, or failed to cope, with the unprecedented crisis of coronavirus. Did we see doctors forced to make impossible choices over who gets a ventilator and intensive care and who is left to die in a corridor? Did we get the balance right between protecting healthcare workers and taking sacrificial risks for the sake of patients? And how did the church do in all this – did we live up to our Christian forebears who showed great courage during plagues in the ancient world? - Find John’s writing and our original podcasts on coronavirus here: https://www.johnwyatt.com/tag/coronavirus/ - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

This podcast happened to launch a week or two into the first lockdown in spring 2020, and so for the first year almost all we could talk about on the show was coronavirus. But since normality finally returned last year, it feels like nobody wants to talk about the pandemic again. Yet reconsidering those traumatic, confusing, revolutionary few years might help us think afresh about how the world is changing. In the first of two episodes, we look back at coronavirus and in particular the social, medical and spiritual issues the pandemic threw up. Was lockdown worth it, know we now more about the cost for young people? Were we right to embrace the rapidly-produced novel vaccines as our way out of the pandemic? And why is there a stubbornly persistent excess death rate worldwide, long after the virus stopped killing people in large numbers? - Find John’s writing and our original podcasts on coronavirus here: https://www.johnwyatt.com/tag/coronavirus/ - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

‘Granny’s body remains, but she was gone’. The public narrative around dementia often presumes that as our ability to talk, move and think gradually withers away, so does our personhood and sense of self. But if we believe as Christians that our humanity and identity is inextricably bound up in our physical flesh and bones, how should we approach the heart-breaking challenge of caring for someone declining into dementia? In this episode we speak with trainee vicar and theologian Jess Wyatt about her research into embodiment, personhood and dementia, and think through different ways to care for and attend to those suffering from this increasingly prevalent disease. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

The numbers of couples choosing to have children via surrogate mothers has been steadily rising in recent years. Now, the UK authorities are considering plans for a radical overhaul of the laws around surrogacy, making it more heavily regulated but also reversing certain presumptions around legal parenthood. In this episode we discuss why surrogacy is gaining in popularity, the pros and cons of the proposed reforms, and whether Christians should endorse surrogacy as a good way to start families. - We previously discussed this issue on an episode of Premier’s Unbelievable podcast https://www.premierunbelievable.com/unbelievable/the-surrogacy-industry-john-and-tim-wyatt-on-the-ethics-of-paying-for-pregnancy/12955.article - Tim also wrote an article last year exploring the issue in depth https://www.premierchristianity.com/features/wombs-for-rent-can-christians-really-support-surrogacy/13184.article - The Law Commission report on surrogacy reforms https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lawcom-prod-storage-11jsxou24uy7q/uploads/2023/03/LC_Surrogacy_Summary_of_Report_2023.pdf - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

We're both on holiday this week so we're bringing you an episode we first recorded in 2021 during the covid pandemic. It explores one of the most significant and potentially long-lasting ways the covid pandemic has affected church life – the shift to digital. Ever since the first lockdown began, churches of every shape and size and from every denomination have been forced to offer worship online. And even though it has been legal to re-open buildings since last summer, most have continued to livestream, pre-record or video conference their way through the pandemic alongside some physical gathering. Will this continue indefinitely even when covid is long gone? Are we really seeing digital church spark a revival among non-churchgoers? And what implications for our worship and our theology does this brave new online world pose? - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com