English L'Abri

What sustains us when arguments no longer seem enough, when faith gives way to doubt, or hope to despair? Through a deeply personal journey of faith and doubt, love and loss, this lecture explores the things that draw us back towards hope—and asks whether our deepest experiences of love, joy and wonder might be clues to the true nature of reality.The slides for this presentation are available here.Please note that the ideas expressed in this lecture do not necessarily represent the views of L’Abri Fellowship.For more resources, visit the L'Abri Ideas Library at labriideaslibrary.org. The library contains over two thousand lectures and discussions that explore questions about the reality and relevance of Christianity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit englishlabri.substack.com

The longer the twenty-first century goes on, the more politically and culturally divided our societies seem. Can Christians engage as citizens in the debates and controversies that roil our societies with truth and with charity? In this lecture, we will step back from our positions on the issues and, instead, grapple with the question of how Christians engage with people who disagree with us — inside and outside the Church.Please note that the ideas expressed in this lecture do not necessarily represent the views of L’Abri Fellowship.For more resources, visit the L'Abri Ideas Library at labriideaslibrary.org. The library contains over two thousand lectures and discussions that explore questions about the reality and relevance of Christianity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit englishlabri.substack.com

Andy Lester is the Head of Conservation for the Christian environmental charity A Rocha UK; he has a wealth of experience in ecology, theology and green economics, as well as running a small farm.Andy spoke at English L’Abri in Greatham during a special Tuesday night lecture on ‘Who is the King? Relating to God through creation’, and his talk explores some of the principles behind why and how we should care for creation in these troubled times. Please note that the ideas expressed in this lecture do not necessarily represent the views of L’Abri Fellowship.For more resources, visit the L'Abri Ideas Library at labriideaslibrary.org. The library contains over two thousand lectures and discussions that explore questions about the reality and relevance of Christianity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit englishlabri.substack.com

One of the more surprising things about being a Christian is how often you suddenly have to think about circumcision. It's all over the Bible. What is going on with circumcision? And why didn’t women receive a sign of God’s covenant too?Please note that the ideas expressed in this lecture do not necessarily represent the views of L’Abri Fellowship.For more resources, visit the L'Abri Ideas Library at labriideaslibrary.org. The library contains over two thousand lectures and discussions that explore questions about the reality and relevance of Christianity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit englishlabri.substack.com

It has been said that the ideas and the practice of community at L’Abri have a unique plausibility structure. After eight visits over ten years, I cannot but agree. A few years ago, I set out to find a theological framework with equally firm footing — one that works in harmony with what I have experienced at L’Abri. Oswald Bayer’s Poetological Theology has become an important discovery for this quest. In this lecture, we will explore the basics of Bayer’s theology, and discuss how it fits and frictions with L’Abri’s ideas.Click here to see the visual presentation from the lecture.Please note that the ideas expressed in this lecture do not necessarily represent the views of L’Abri Fellowship.For more resources, visit the L'Abri Ideas Library at labriideaslibrary.org. The library contains over two thousand lectures and discussions that explore questions about the reality and relevance of Christianity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit englishlabri.substack.com

Childhood, maturity and the Fall in C S Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia” and Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials"Click here to see the visual presentation from the lecture.Please note that the ideas expressed in this lecture do not necessarily represent the views of L’Abri Fellowship.For more resources, visit the L'Abri Ideas Library at labriideaslibrary.org. The library contains over two thousand lectures and discussions that explore questions about the reality and relevance of Christianity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit englishlabri.substack.com

How the science of light reveals the character of God.“We are starting with the words, ‘God is light.’ This is in I John 1:5. And if you are around Christian things, this is probably a familiar phrase to you. But I wonder if you’ve ever really questioned it. God is light. There are some obvious implications. There are shadows that form, and God is not the shadow. Good and evil. So I looked at this and said, ‘is there more?’…And recently I’ve been thinking about what it means to take these verses literally…to ask ‘what does it mean for God to be light in a scientific sense? Can we study light and explore something about God?’”…Please note that the ideas expressed in this lecture do not necessarily represent the views of L’Abri Fellowship.For more resources, visit the L'Abri Ideas Library at labriideaslibrary.org. The library contains over two thousand lectures and discussions that explore questions about the reality and relevance of Christianity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit englishlabri.substack.com

In April 2025, the Bible Society published a report which showed a 'Quiet Revival’ in UK churches, with a surprising increase in young people attending church. Since then, the results of this study have been discredited. Nonetheless, there does currently appear to be a cultural change in attitudes to Christian faith in the UK and Europe, with many anecdotes of young, unchurched people coming to faith. In this lecture I will be exploring some possible causes for this change, what we can learn from it, and where potential pitfalls might lie.Click here to see the visual presentation from the lecture.Please note that the ideas expressed in this lecture do not necessarily represent the views of L’Abri Fellowship.For more resources, visit the L'Abri Ideas Library at labriideaslibrary.org. The library contains over two thousand lectures and discussions that explore questions about the reality and relevance of Christianity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit englishlabri.substack.com

What does it mean for a society or individual to believe things in common, when contemporary society is marked increasingly by customized news sources, a collapse of consensus, loss of societal authority, and the normalization of doubt? Rashomon, the 1951 landmark film by Akira Kurosawa, shook the notion of a single narrative account of a crime by presenting multiple, conflicting viewpoints — marking the postwar collapse of binding narratives concerning Japanese society. This lecture explores the contradictions of today’s Rashomon moment for the West, which on the one hand is experiencing fragmentation, a loss of narrative unity — owing to digital, consumer technology — while on the other hand exhibiting the opposite, i.e. new forms of conformity expressed across various fields.Click here to see the visual presentation for this lecture.Please note that the ideas expressed in this lecture do not necessarily represent the views of L’Abri Fellowship.For more resources, visit the L'Abri Ideas Library at labriideaslibrary.org. The library contains over two thousand lectures and discussions that explore questions about the reality and relevance of Christianity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit englishlabri.substack.com

Our culture's crisis of confidence in knowledge is the culmination of a long history of the search for certainty. The Bible's picture of knowing, however, rests on fundamentally different assumptions and thus restores our confidence in seeking and knowing the truth.Please note that the ideas expressed in this lecture do not necessarily represent the views of L’Abri Fellowship.For more resources, visit the L'Abri Ideas Library at labriideaslibrary.org. The library contains over two thousand lectures and discussions that explore questions about the reality and relevance of Christianity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit englishlabri.substack.com