St Paul's Cathedral

St Augustine described the Holy Spirit as ‘the bond of love’. In anticipation of the great feast of Pentecost, Jane Williams will explore the Spirit’s loving action in our lives and world, while also exploring how we can understand the Spirit’s presence in places and times of damage, difficulty, and grief. Recorded 1 May 2016.

Life is at once wonderful and terrible, beautiful and appalling. It is one of the greatest stumbling blocks to faith for the believer and the non-believer alike. How can we live with this contradiction? And how can we believe in a just and loving God in the face of all the evils of the world? Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford, and Loretta Minghella, the Chief Executive of Christian Aid, speak about the reality of suffering and evil in the world, and how in the face of it we can possibly live lives of hope and believe in a God of love. Recorded 11 October 2016.

Holiness can sound like something lofty and abstract, beyond the reach of ordinary people. Judy Hirst says that in reality ‘holiness is about learning to entrust yourself to the God who loves you. It is about taking the risk of allowing God to interact with the truth of ourselves, no strings attached’. Recorded June 2016.

Mindfulness is the practice of living intentionally in the present moment. Brian Draper discusses the profound benefits of mindfulness and how much they have in common with the ancient treasures of contemplative Christian practice, and can lead to us to a renewed understanding of our faith and the ‘life more abundant’ that Christ calls us to. Recorded 6 November 2016.

Two activist-theologians, Canon Dr Angus Ritchie who is the Director of the Centre for Theology and Community and Dr Eve Poole who teaches at Ashridge Business School, offer a vision of what God’s kingdom of love might look like right here, right now and how our personal choices can bring its reality closer. Recorded 12 April 2016.

This shorter version contains just the talk with no introduction or Q&A. Martin Luther is undeniably one of the people who made the modern world. He risked his life to challenge the corruption and complacency of the late medieval church, and in doing so both changed the political face of Europe and liberated believers to pursue their faith based on scripture and conscience. On the 500th anniversary of Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Peter Stanford examines this complex, often charismatic man of God, his legacy, and the myths that have grown up around him. Recorded 1 October 2017.

Martin Luther is undeniably one of the people who made the modern world. He risked his life to challenge the corruption and complacency of the late medieval church, and in doing so both changed the political face of Europe and liberated believers to pursue their faith based on scripture and conscience. On the 500th anniversary of Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Peter Stanford will examine this complex, often charismatic man of God, his legacy, and the myths that have grown up around him. Peter Stanford is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. Formerly Editor of the Catholic Herald, his books include Judas: the Troubling History of the Renegade Apostle (Hodder 2015) and Martin Luther, Catholic Dissident (Hodder 2017). Recorded 1 October 2017.

John Pritchard calls Easter ‘the most astonishing day in the history of the world, shattering our closed minds and throwing open the windows of eternity’. But while we keep – or attempt to keep – Lent fastidiously, for many of us the fifty-day season of Easter is, curiously, harder to sustain. But he says that at the very ground of our being we are ‘an Easter people, and alleluia is our song’ and asks, what would it mean to let the glory of Easter illumine our everyday lives? Recorded 3 April 2016.

Shami Chakrabarti, Craig Calhoun, Loretta Minghella and Conor Kehoe. How do we get politics and business working for the common good? Event organised by St Paul's Institute in partnership with Theos and Together for the Common Good. Speakers: Prof. Craig Calhoun - Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science Shami Chakrabarti - Director of Liberty Conor Kehoe - Director at McKinsey & Company Loretta Minghella - Chief Executive of Christian Aid Chaired by the Revd Canon Angus Ritchie - Director of the Centre for Theology & Community

Each of us has a vocation: a particular calling from God to contribute our gifts to the world and to each other, and in doing so to live our lives to the full. It can be hard however to find our sense of calling in all the busyness of everyday life. Julia Mourant says that when it comes to finding our own path in life, paying attention to how God speaks to us through our imaginations, hopes, dreams, doubts and desires can be as essential as a logical list of pros and cons. Recorded Sept 2016.