Even a scrooge can be redeemed

My lovely daughter's Christmas gift to our family was an outing to see A Christmas Carol, the theatrical adaptation of the classic novella by Charles Dickens.
I am not sure I have ever seen it before.

The story brings together many substantial themes: economic inequality, the plight of poor children, joy, judgement, love of money, the meaning of Christmas, altruism, and redemption.
The Bible story it most reminded me was the story of Lazarus and the rich man that Jesus told.

Christmas is about Emmanuel: God with us. Jesus is God's great and generous gift to humanity. He reveals who God is and offers us free redemption. This generosity should inspire us to be generous, particularly to those less privileged than us.

The scandal of the evangelical mind

This is the title of an influential book, written in the context of the USA. Recently, I gave a talk with this title, based on Philippians 2:1-13. My argument is that although the book is important and has valid points there is actually a much bigger scandal.

Institutions, virtue, secularism, and human flourishing

A week ago I attended a fascinating meeting, on “Science, Philosophy, Religion and Human Flourishing” in Cyprus. It brought together about thirty scientists, philosophers, diplomats, people with a range of religious convictions and none.
The sessions were structured as follows. First, three or four speakers gave 7.5-minute talks around a common theme or issue. The talks were meant to stimulate discussion. Then we broke out into small groups of about six people for about 30 minutes of discussion, and then all the participants came together for group discussion. I will post later about some of the things I was challenged on.

Here are the slides for my 7.5-minute talk, ``The role of institutions in human flourishing: challenges and potential''. I was pleasantly surprised at how a range of people said the talk was helpful and stimulating.