Episodios

  • The big picture: Fall

    The big picture: Fall
    Dec 31 2025
    Creation. Fall. Redemption. New Creation. This is the grand narrative of scripture and the theological foundation we use to try to probe into the ethical challenges thrown up by advances in science and technology. We looked at creation, and now we’ve come to the Fall. What is the uniquely Christian approach to the nature of evil in our world, and how does it stand in sharp contrast to our secular society’s presumptions? Are people really fundamentally just good or all bad, and what are the shortcomings of that reductionist approach? And how does the Christian story about evil lead us to be both more pessimistic and more optimistic than the world is about humanity? • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • 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 • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    47 m
  • The big picture: Creation

    The big picture: Creation
    Dec 24 2025
    Over the Christmas break, we’re going to be returning to a series we did on Matters of Life and Death a few years ago, exploring the theological underpinnings of much of what we discuss on the podcast. Many Christians, going back to church fathers, have understood the grand narrative of scripture through a four-part journey: from Creation, to Fall, to Redemption, to New Creation. This week we are beginning with creation. Why is it that some traditions in the church have developed such hostility and suspicion of everything beyond the church walls? Is it Biblical or godly to hold such fear for what he has made? How can we rediscover the character of God – his truthfulness, goodness and beauty – in his creation? And how can believers faithfully celebrate what he has made? • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • 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 • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    52 m
  • Unlocking the menopause, with Dr Rosslyn Perkins

    Unlocking the menopause, with Dr Rosslyn Perkins
    Dec 17 2025
    A MOLAD listener got in touch with a fascinating question about hormone replacement therapy and the menopause. If some Christians are becoming sceptical about using hormonal contraception, should they be equally sceptical about the widespread use of hormone replacement therapy for women going through the menopause? Are our bodies good exactly as God made them, or is taking additional hormones just a non-controversial medical treatment to help women with their menopause symptoms? And why does the church find it so hard to walk with women through this inevitable part of aging in the first place? We’re joined by Christian GP Rosslyn Perkins to understand all things HRT and menopause, and consider what the Christian tradition has to say to women (and the men in their lives) wrestling with these questions. Some helpful resources Rosslyn recommends: Pause by Sarah Allen - https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/pause?srsltid=AfmBOoqYVGhrb2jJCHaRqwiOlqhfCamQ3r4cfrof42b66SYU6L7uFqT- Identity Theft, edited by Melissa Kruger - https://icmbooks.co.uk/product/29165/identity-theft-reclaiming-the-truth-of-our-identity-in-christ Lost in the Middle by Paul David Tripp - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Middle-MidLife-Grace-God-ebook/dp/B005NJC7RW The British Menopause Society - https://thebms.org.uk/ Rock My Menopause course - https://rockmy.com/course/rockmy-menopause-course-everything-you-need-to-know-about-menopause/ Menopause Matters - https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/ • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • 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 • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    55 m
  • Designer babies: Are children commodities or gifts?

    Designer babies: Are children commodities or gifts?
    Dec 10 2025
    We begin by exploring the remarkable offering of PickYourBaby.com, from a company which claims it can help you select the precise genetic inheritance of your child through IVF, to ensure your offspring are taller, more beautiful, healthier and cleverer. There are plenty of questions around the supposed science of this, and its ethics. But beyond all that, why is this kind of service attractive to would-be parents in the 2020s? What does our culture think children are for, and what might a Christian narrative of parenthood and procreation say in response? We discussed so-called liberal eugenics and efforts to use DBA sequencing and IVF to ‘improve’ the quality of newer generations in an episode last year too: https://www.johnwyatt.com/dna-parenthood-and-selecting-for-iq-the-surprising-return-of-eugenics/ • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • 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 • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    43 m
  • Does God care about nations? Colonialism, culture wars and Christian Nationalism with Nigel Biggar

    Does God care about nations? Colonialism, culture wars and Christian Nationalism with Nigel Biggar
    Dec 3 2025
    Nigel Biggar is one of the most high-profile and controversial Christian thinkers in Britain today. A theologian and priest in the Church of England by background, he has shot to the forefront of the culture war in recent years for his books and articles exploring the morality of Britain’s empire and critiquing what he sees as the self-hating excesses of wokery, becoming a hate figure on the left and lionised by the right (and eventually appointed to the House of Lords). In this conversation we explore why he decided to re-examine the ethics of colonialism and his reflections on getting dragged into the culture war. And, in the wake of growing Christian Nationalism in the UK, we discuss his views on what place the nation should hold in Christian theology and why more and more people on the political right have come to lament Britain’s lurch out of Christendom and towards secularism over the last century. • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • 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 • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    44 m
  • ‘Fearfully and wonderfully made’: What does Psalm 139 really mean?

    ‘Fearfully and wonderfully made’: What does Psalm 139 really mean?
    Nov 26 2025
    Psalm 139 is one of the most famous and most quoted chapters of the whole Bible. Some indeed have even constructed an entire Christian ethic of the unborn child from its famous central verses. But what do we think David is trying to say in this beautiful and mysterious poem? What can it teach us about how we should view fetuses in the womb, and have some gone too far in trying to use this psalm as the lynchpin of the anti-abortion movement? And, as we approach Christmas, does it shed fresh light on the marvel and mystery of the incarnation too? • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • 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 • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    1 h y 3 m
  • Can AI make you mad? Chatbots and psychosis, with Dr Daniel Maughan

    Can AI make you mad? Chatbots and psychosis, with Dr Daniel Maughan
    Nov 19 2025
    There’s been a flurry of news stories and even scientific papers exploring the concept of ‘AI psychosis’ – the idea that people can become psychotic and mentally ill having spent too much time locked in hours of conversation with an AI chatbot such as ChatGPT. There’s also been a handful of cases where the family of someone who has killed themselves has accused the chatbot they were using of encouraging or facilitating the suicide. To try and unpick if any of this is real and what impact our rapidly-advancing AI technology can have on our minds, we are joined again by Christian psychiatrist Daniel Maughan. Should we be concerned about the way AI can interfere with our brain? Or is this just another round of moral panic and hysteria which has accompanied many previous technological breakthroughs in the past? And how can the church continue to model the value of real life incarnational human-to-human relationships to a society increasingly adrift in the digital space? • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • 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 • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    51 m
  • Autonomy, suffering and dignity: Christianity and assisted dying

    Autonomy, suffering and dignity: Christianity and assisted dying
    Nov 12 2025
    Here in the UK, parliament continues to debate a bill to legalise assisted suicide. As we wait to see whether Britain follows the lead of many other Western nations in introducing a form of assisted dying, we thought we would share as this week’s podcast a lecture John gave recently to the Church of Ireland in Belfast. It’s entitled Autonomy, Suffering and Human Dignity: Theological and Medical Responses to Assisted Dying, and in it he reflects on the current moves towards assisted dying and in particular what we as Christians believe about the ethical and spiritual dimensions to suffering. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments, both from autonomy and compassion, used by those in favour of legalising medically-assisted suicide? And what richer, deeper story about human dependence and dignity can Christians tell in response to this? • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • 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 • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    1 h y 11 m