School of Religion and Christian Ministry

Sport is a distillation of the God-given impulse to play. It is experienced within a microcosm of self-imposed rules, which points beyond itself to a grander reality. This microcosm of sport can lead to various ills if idolised
or violated. For Christians especially, sport raises difficult, perennial questions. We approach this complex topic with a biblical worldview, which helps differentiate between what sport should be and what sport currently
is. Ultimately, we argue that sport should be engaged as a conduit
for common grace and a symbol of redemption.

This booklet dispels some of the sensationalism around Artificial Intelligence, asking instead how a fresh understanding of humanity can shape the trajectory of AI development. It draws on research interviews from ten leading AI practitioners and thinkers, and provides a distinctly biblical framework for understanding AI. Addressing all levels of expertise, the insights and guidelines provided will enable Christian leaders in church, business and public service to make informed responses to AI that are rooted in their faith.

A CEO is paid hundreds of times more than the ‘everyday workers’ in their own company. The market seems to allow it, but is it morally right?
This report proposes a biblical framework for exploring remuneration, which has three major components – justice, dignity and reward. Justice is concerned with the fair amount of pay, to ensure families are protected from destitution. Dignity is concerned with the right kind of work and protects the agency of workers. Finally, reward is about working for the right reasons, and leads to the common good. Together, they provide new insight into the ethics of remuneration.

The Bible has a great deal to say about workers and work, but, due to considerable cultural and economic differences, it can be difficult to apply biblical wisdom to the complex landscape of modern work. The gig economy in particular presents many opportunities and obstacles to modern workers and employers, but its novel and evolving characteristics greatly complicate responses built upon comprehensive data. Thus, whilst acknowledging the importance of insights from fields such as law and economics, this essay takes a biblical approach in order to consider some of the underlying theological factors at play within the gig economy. By doing this, it is hoped that both workers and employers will be better equipped to parse and distinguish between the purported and actual advantages of the gig economy.

(ISSN 0043-1575)

Artificial intelligence is at the cutting edge of current technological innovation, and the full implications of its development for humanity are as yet far from clear. Calum Samuelson approaches it as 'a tool that amplifies human nature and behaviours', and explores how theological ideas can illuminate aspects of its realisation.

Many prominent figures are worried about AI, and predictions for the future either tend to anticipate the apocalypse, or believe that AI will enable us to transcend human limitations. We assert a need to expose these 'myths'. We use this term not because such ideas are totally implausible, but because they're driven as much by powerful fears and aspirations as by science. We argue that AI will spell neither humanity's doom, nor its salvation, and that such 'myths' (including the singularity and computer consciousness) have attracted too much attention, obscuring productive dialogue and policymaking. More debate is needed in the middle ground.

The challenge of climate change is one of the defining issues the world is facing at the start of the 2020s. It has mobilised a whole new generation of social activists, some of whom are going to extreme lengths to confront the public and especially political leaders with the threat that climate change makes to their future and the planet as a whole. Arguments about the causes of climate change are usually underpinned by the assumption that more human beings living on the planet are inevitably bad for the environment and climate. However, a careful biblical reflection on these issues yields a more nuanced and hopeful view, and this report seeks to stimulate fresh conversations about how best to respond to climate change now and in the future.

https://doi.org/10.1177/02653788221139564
This essay represents the first formal attempt to identify themes of theosis within the Ethiopian Orthodox
Tawāḥ ǝdo Church (EOTC). The first half explores four historical phases in the development of the doctrine
of theosis: Ancient Pagan, Biblical, Patristic, and Medieval and Modern. It is argued that theosis finds strong
support in the biblical corpus but that it is best to clarify which historical type one has in view due to its
complex development. The second half of the paper considers themes of theosis within three genres of
Ethiopic literature: Hagiography, Liturgy, and National Epic. New discoveries and insights are leveraged in
order to demonstrate that although theosis lacks a precise equivalent in Classical Ethiopic, the literature
of the EOTC demonstrates a strong familiarity with the basic contours of the doctrine of deification.

(ISSN 0043-1575)    https://www.theway.org.uk/    Intellectual discernment was an essential aspect of arriving at the core beliefs of Christianity in the early Church. Calum Samuelson uses the Second Letter to Timothy to reflect on the search for the truth in Anastasios of Sinai and Ephrem the Syrian. He writes in memory of Joe Munitiz, making use of his edition of Anastasios... In the lead article, Calum Samuelson, one of the many young scholars whose talent was cultivated by Joe Munitiz, draws out guidance on intellectual discernment from Paul’s First Letter to Timothy and the Letter to the Ephesians. He uses it to explore the work of two early Christian thinkers, Anastasios of Sinai and Ephrem the Syrian, proposing that ‘the task of Christian intellectual discernment is less like constructing an elaborate edifice of knowledge and more like building a beautiful, spacious sanctuary in which God’s mysteries can be manifested and adored’.