Elizabeth Edman believes she has learnt more from the LGBTQ community about what it means to be a Christian, than she has from the Church. Why? Well, she believes the church has forgotten what it means to…
Malcolm Guite is a poet, priest and theologian. Years of inhabiting these roles has led him to the belief that we’re relying far too much on reason and thought in the formation of our faith, and are overlooking the…
I know, we only just interviewed Walter Brueggemann! But he’s just brought a book out entitled Money and Possessions and we’ve still got unresolved questions after our chat with Justin Welby on that subject. So why not spend another hour in the digital presence of one…
Walter Brueggemann is widely considered to be one of the most influential theologians of our time. So who better to help us get a handle on the idea of the Sabbath. Especially as he wrote…
For the last 20 years Shane Claiborne has been trying to follow Jesus in a deprived area of Philadelphia. This journey has led him to a commitment to non-violence, ‘from womb to tomb’, which has…
It’s pretty clear what Jesus was about. Love you neighbour (and if that’s not challenging enough, love your enemies) was at the top of his manifesto. So why do we find it so hard to follow his example? Professor of Psychology…
In many ways Brian Zahnd is like many of Nomad’s guests in that he deconstructed (although he doesn’t like that term) what he came to see as a very narrow faith, and reconstructed something much deeper…
Every now and then we like to interview a fellow podcaster who, like us, is creating a space for an open and honest exploration of the Christian faith. And Justin Brierley is one such person….
In many ways, Nomad has been quite an intellectual journey. And as much as we love some good old fashioned theological cut-and-thrust, we’ve increasingly aware that if this journey is going to be sustainable, it’s got to…
What actually is prayer? What happens when we do it? What difference can it make, if any, to the events and circumstances we find ourselves in? Should we expect to sense God in prayer, or…
Greg Boyd is back on the show! This time he’s tackling the thorny issue of violence in the Old Testament. How is it, for example, that the God revealed in Jesus loves his enemies and lays down…
This podcast comes to you from Nomad’s first offline Gathering. We had a great weekend of food, drink, conversation, music and meditation. We also interviewed Mark Vernon. Mark was an Anglican priest but developed deep…
We recently invited the beloved listener to Nottingham for Nomad’s first offline get-together. It was a splendid weekend of conversation, interviews, music, food and drink. And we recorded some of it for you. First up…
We recently attended the Creature Conference, put on by Sarx. We spent the day pondering the question ‘Is Christianity Good News for Animals?’ Animal welfare used to be seen as an important expression of the gospel…
We thought it was about time we had a fresh look at the central symbol of our faith, the cross. So we headed off to Tom Wright’s house to asked him how the cross launched…
For those of us who have been through some kind of faith deconstruction, spiritual practices often take on a new significance, as we seek to connect with God without what often feels like restrictive doctrinal…
We’ve been wanting to do an episode on money for a while now, so when the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby put pen to paper and wrote his first book – Dethroning Mammon– all about the dangers of money, we…
In both Liverpool and Bradford, Barbara Glasson has drawn together communities that have provided safe, honest, authentic spaces for the poor, marginalised, disillusioned, and people from other faiths and none. As well as being a spiritual home…
Priest, poet and feminist theologian, Rachel Mann is a trans-woman. From an early age she had a profound sense that her body didn’t reflect her gender. After a long, frustrating and painful journey she emerged into the…
What are 21st Century educated, questioning Christians supposed to make of the Devil and evil spirits? Are they literal spiritual beings who spend their time trying to lure us into sinful acts? Or should we…
Sally Smith joins us for the third part of our series on the migrant crisis. In this episode we hear about the fascinating and inspiring story that emerged when Sally opened the doors of her…
Our regular listeners will remember our Welcome the Stranger refugee special where we looked at the crisis through the eyes of a Syrian refugee and a refugee charity worker. The aim was to raise awareness and money…
Gungor – a multi-grammy nominated Christian band – were the toast of the evangelical worship scene. That is until it became clear that Michael was having significant doubts about his faith. This did not go down…
Brian McLaren has a knack for articulating what many of us are feeling. For a decade he has been the voice of those Christians who are concerned about, for example, the Church’s overemphasis on doctrinal belief, its…
Mark Yaconelli is – among many other things – a storyteller. Such is his belief in the power of stories that he founded The Hearth, a gathering of local people who simply share their own stories. Mark…
Kester Brewin was founder of one the UK’s most creative and innovative alternative worship communities, Vaux. He went onto write The Complex Christ, a critically acclaimed book calling for an emerging Church. But over the following years…
Christianity can be quite a disembodied faith. Muslim’s have prayer positions, Hindu’s have yoga, Buddhists have Tai-Chi, whereas Christians tend to pray with little more than a bowed head. We ask theologian Paula Gooder why Christians have…
Mindfulness has exploded in popularity over recent years, with seemingly every other community centre, school, health service and therapist offering it. But what benefit, if any, does it offer the follower of Jesus? Author, speaker…
With the dust just beginning to settle after Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, we thought we’d take the opportunity to look at our relationship with politics. Was Jesus political? Should Christians engage in party…
Is faith based purely on belief, and a strong faith holding to those beliefs with certainty? If so, what happens when our beliefs evolve and shift? Prof. Peter Enns believes that we’ve misunderstood the nature of…
The question ‘who is God?’ used to be the starting point for religious reflection, but increasingly spiritual seekers are concerning themselves with the question ‘where is God?’. We ask historian, religious commentator and author Diana…
Why in our multicultural society is the Church still predominantly led by, and our theology predominantly written by, white men? We head to Birmingham to meet up with one of the UK’s leading black theologians, Anthony Reddie….
We have a humanitarian disaster unfolding on our doorstep. Many of us feel frustrated at our government’s half-hearted response, yet we feel overwhelmed and powerless to do anything ourselves. In this episode we hear the…
Why is the Church divided into over 40,000 denominations? Why do Churches in the same town often have very little to do with each other? Why are Christians always fighting on social media? It doesn’t seem…
Professor Gary Burge joins us on the podcast to help us get our heads round the complexities of Israel/Palestine. Gary was a student at the university of Beirut, he now lecturers in the US on the New…
Apparently the vast majority of us feel uncomfortable talking about death, and haven’t spoken to anyone about our end of life wishes. Buddhist, Jon Underwood thinks this is having a profoundly negative effect on our society. So he…
Wayne Jacobsen was a successful pastor. But as his disillusionment with the institutional nature of church grew, he decided to walk away and begin a search for the church Jesus was building. 20 years later he says this…
Easter is upon us again, so we thought it was a fine time to look at the atonement again. So we popped over to Bristol to chat with Alan Mann. Alan asks the question, what could the…
Robin Parry is a theologian best known for advocating universalism. But more recently he’s turned his attention to writing about The Biblical Cosmos. In this book he systematically lays out all the weirdness of the biblical universe, with…
On Nomad we often talk about the changing nature of culture and how the church has changed (or not) in response. But rather than continuing to rely on our own anecdotal and wildly speculative evidence, we…
Jamie Arpin-Ricci joins us on the latest leg of our Nomadic pilgrimage of hope. Jamie felt called to leave his comfortable middle class life and move to a high poverty and crime inner-city area. Obviously this presented many challenges, but none…
The UN said recently that ‘Gender-based violence is perhaps the most widespread and socially tolerated of human rights violations.’ We spoke to philosopher, sociologist and theologian Elaine Storkey about the reasons behind this, and how the church should respond. This led…
Terry Waite travelled to some of the most dangerous places in the world, negotiating with the likes of Idi Amin and Colonel Gaddafi for the release of hostages. Then while working in Lebanon he was taken hostage by Islamic…
On this edition of Nomad we thought we’d answer a few of your questions. Everything from ‘Who are you two?’, through to ‘Is there a north-south divide in heaven?’. It’s a marathon 2 hour something…
As if building a church of 10,000+, producing an international bestselling DVD series, writing critically acclaimed bestselling books, producing a hugely popular podcast, and having his own TV show wasn’t enough, Rob Bell has decided to write a novel. And much to the frustration of all us lesser talented…
Ever felt awkward and uncomfortable in Church, like you just don’t fit in? Well, according to Jonny Baker that feeling could be the gift of pioneering. Jonny was pioneering before pioneering was a thing. Most notably he founded the alternative worship community Grace,…
At the core of author and teacher Brad Jersak’s faith is the belief that God looks like Jesus. Simple enough, right? But what about the violent ‘God of the Old Testament’? What about the parable’s of Jesus…
Dave Andrews has lived and worked in intentional communities with marginalised groups of people in Australia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal. Through these experiences he developed a passion for seeing Christians and Muslims learning together what…
The recent image of a drowned child washed up on a Turkish beach brought the refugee crisis into sharp focus. So to help us better understand the complexities of the situation and how best to…
The idea of beauty has shaped Joanna Jepson‘s life and ministry. Born with a jaw defect she was mercilessly bullied through her childhood and into adulthood. But after successful surgery she then had to figure out…
10 years ago Marina Cantacuzino began to interview people who had suffered all sorts of trauma, abuse and wrongdoing, but who instead of choosing vengeance chose forgiveness. It’s easy as Christians to think that we’ve cornered…
Robert Song is a professor in the department of Theology and Religion at Durham Uni. He recently wrote ‘Covenant and Calling’, in which he challenges traditional ideas of marriage, having children and celibacy and proposes a whole…
Nomad started out with a group of people wanting to explore new forms of church, so after six years we thought it was about time to explore this idea again. Kelly Bean grew up in traditional…
Jewish blogger, Robert Cohen is back on the show, sharing with us lessons from his faith journey. So if you’re interested in knowing more about the connection between faith, ancestry and land, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict,…