Kester Brewin

I’ve not yet read the full book that Alain de Botton has been promoting recently, but I’ve read a number of interviews and heard him speak, and browsed his website: religionforatheists.com and I wanted to post a couple of first-thoughts about his thesis. Firstly, he’s being unashamed to say that he is ‘picking and mixing’ [...]

Apologies (really, I’m saying sorry? For what?!) for not posting much recently. It’s not that I’ve had nothing to say…just not much to say in public right now. Lots of writing getting done, so watch this space (if you like watching space.) Anyways, something I’ve been pondering the last couple of days: the importance of [...]

Something Pete Rollins tweeted this morning got me thinking a bit: “Often the problem we face is not a lack of enjoyment, but an inability to enjoy our enjoyment.” I think this is a particular concern in a world where so much of our lives is now mediated. Rather than attend a party, we attend [...]

You go to a shop to buy a bat, and a ball. In total they cost £1.10. The bat costs £1 more than the ball. How much does the bat cost? Listened to a very interesting episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast on ‘the enigma of reason’ yesterday. The interviewee – Dan Sperber – was [...]

It’s been good getting to know Pete over the past few years. Our first books came out at pretty similar times, when we were both involved in similar projects in Ikon and Vaux, and since then I’ve come to count him as a good friend, and companion on a journey. The very nature of conversation [...]

Rather than put this in the comments of the previous post, I wanted to focus in on a key point around the terms ‘conservative’ and ‘radical’ that came out of that discussion. I’m not going to pretend that I have an answer, but I’ve been wondering if there is any mileage in thinking about it [...]

Running around like crazy trying to get things sorted for a new academic year (I’m teaching full time now, by the way, so writing going to be even more stretched) – but wanted to flag up a piece in Prospect that caught my eye. It’s a review of From Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes [...]

Just taking a break from being in the Welsh hills with a school group and thought I’d write a quick post… With Other now out in the US and having been at Wild Goose and met a bunch of new people, I’ve been asked a fair bit ‘what are you working on now?’ Life is [...]

Interesting post from Brian McLaren, who, via a piece from Miroslav Volf, asks who the next ‘monster’ will be given that Bin Laden is dead: Fear is a foolish counselor, and it is also an addictive one. As the work of Rene Girard and others makes clear, our national anxieties love to vent themselves on [...]

Very good episode of In Our Time this week, which looked at free will. 50 mins or so – and very well worthwhile listening to, especially in the context of the debate on heaven and hell which is still rumbling around the publication of Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. There are serious problems on [...]