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Need a break from the chaos? This episode is your retreat.

For centuries, Christians have fled to deserts, monasteries, and quiet corners seeking God in the silence. But what actually happens on a retreat? And what transforms a weekend away into a genuine spiritual encounter?

Join Alex and Michael as they explore the rich history of Christian retreats: from the fourth-century desert fathers escaping into the Egyptian wilderness to today's Ignatian silent retreats and bustling parish getaways. Fresh from his own diocesan retreat, Michael shares insights into what makes a retreat truly transformative, while Alex unpacks the theological questions at the heart of withdrawal: What are we retreating from? And what are we retreating to?

Whether you're a retreat veteran or you've always been curious about what happens when Christians deliberately step away from ordinary life, this conversation offers wisdom on choosing themes, crafting schedules, and holding space for spiritual renewal.

The Theology Pod – where faith meets thought, and questions lead to deeper understanding.

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Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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Think Christmas movies are just snow, sentiment, and nostalgia? Think again. Join Alex and Michael as they unwrap the hidden theology in beloved holiday classics like It's a Wonderful Life, Joyeux Noel, A Christmas Carol, and Elf.

From George Bailey's crisis of meaning to soldiers singing carols in the trenches of WWI, these aren't just feel-good films. They're modern parables exploring profound questions: What makes a life meaningful? Can we be redeemed? Does love conquer all?

Discover how Frank Capra, Charles Dickens, and even the Muppets have hidden eternal truths in your old DVD collection. These films offer sermons without cathedrals, revealing divine truths about sacrifice, grace, and what we choose to believe.

Whether it's angels earning their wings or Buddy the Elf in yellow tights, there's more theology happening in your holiday movie marathon than you might think.

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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Did you know the Bible contains toilet jokes? Or that medieval priests brought donkeys into cathedrals and had congregations bray instead of saying "Amen"?

Join Alex and Michael for a hilarious and profound exploration of Christianity's surprisingly rich comedy tradition. From Elijah's savage mockery of Baal's bathroom breaks to Jesus's absurdist parables, from Jerome's vicious fat jokes about theological rivals to Dante sliding down Satan's hairy legs like a fireman's pole - discover how laughter and faith have always been intertwined.

Featuring insights from priest-comedian Chris Bedding of Pirate Church fame, this episode reveals how comedy serves as prophecy, resistance, and even survival. Learn why Luther fought the devil with farts, how Holocaust survivors used dark humour to maintain dignity, and why Kierkegaard wrote philosophy under comic pseudonyms.

Whether exploring medieval Feasts of Fools, modern Christian memes, or the deep theology behind divine laughter, this conversation proves that sometimes the most profound truths come wrapped in the most ridiculous packages. Because maybe, just maybe, the opposite of faith isn't doubt - it's the inability to laugh at yourself.

A must-listen for anyone who's ever wondered if God has a sense of humour. (Spoiler: 400,000 species of beetles suggest the answer is yes.)

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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Ever wondered why you can't remember last week's sermon, but "Amazing Grace" has been stuck in your head for decades? In this episode of The Theology Pod, hosts Alex and Michael dive into the hidden theological power of hymns – those songs that have shaped what billions of Christians actually believe about God, often more profoundly than any sermon or creed.

From the ancient theological battles encoded in your favourite Christmas carols ("begotten, not created" isn't just poetic flourish – it's a fourth-century controversy set to music) to the modern worship wars over changing "the wrath of God was satisfied," this conversation reveals how every hymn is a theological statement, forming us at a level deeper than conscious thought.

Discover why Charles Wesley might be Methodism's greatest theologian (6,000 hymns!), how African American spirituals created liberation theology before it had a name, and why that controversial line about "perfect submission" reveals more about power and gender than about God. Alex and Michael explore everything from Gregorian chant to contemporary worship, from military metaphors to inclusive language, asking the crucial question: what theology are we actually absorbing when we open our mouths to sing?

Whether you're a church musician, a curious sceptic, or someone who just loves a good hymn, this episode will forever change how you hear the songs of faith. Warning: You may never sing "Onward, Christian Soldiers" the same way again.

The Theology Pod brings together two scholar-practitioners for honest, accessible conversations about the questions that matter. No prerequisites required – just curiosity about how theology shapes real life.

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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What happens when an artist becomes the analyst of their own work? In this episode, co-host Alex takes us inside her oil painting of an Australian payphone—examining it through the lens of Hagar's trauma narrative from Genesis. Together, Michael and Alex explore how obsolete infrastructure witnesses to systemic abandonment, how silence encodes theological meaning, and what it means to find redemption not as escape from suffering, but as survival within it.

Drawing on Emily Dickinson's haunting meditation on silence, womanist theology, and trauma hermeneutics, Alex maps four distinct silences in her painting: the absent body, the cradled receiver, the illegible instructions, and the wilderness beyond the steel mesh. Each silence resonates with Hagar's story—an enslaved woman rendered voiceless, expelled into the wilderness, and forced to survive with trauma embedded in her redemption.

This conversation pushes beyond comfortable theology into difficult territory: Who gets declared obsolete when society claims progress? Where is God's face in abandonment? And what does it mean when the church rushes to resurrection while people are still living in Holy Saturday?

Join us for a rigorous, uncomfortable, and ultimately transformative exploration of visual theology as a site of embodied knowledge—where paintings and ancient biblical witnesses speak together about populations rendered invisible, infrastructure that remains for those the system has abandoned, and the God who sees the unseen.

Content Warning: This episode discusses sexual violence, enslavement, child endangerment, and systemic abandonment in both ancient and contemporary contexts.

View the artwork: Find Alex's payphone painting on our Instagram and Facebook (@TheTheologyPod) or purchase limited edition prints at www.thetheologypod.com

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater"—a phrase weaponised against anyone who dares to question harmful systems. International theatre-maker Jamie Garner transforms this warning into art with their play "Babies and Bathwater," which chronicles one woman's escape from religious coercion and her discovery of her own voice. Drawing from their own experience leaving evangelical Christianity, Jamie explores how purity culture grooms young women, how spiritual abuse mirrors domestic violence, and what it takes to rebuild yourself after losing everything—your community, your certainty, your sense of safety. This is theatre as testimony, art as liberation.

Content note: Includes discussion of spiritual abuse, sexual trauma, and religious coercion

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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What makes being a school chaplain "even more exciting than being an Archbishop"? In this episode, Alex sits down with Reverend Andrew Stewart at Mentone Grammar School to explore the unique world of Anglican school chaplaincy. With 25 years of experience ministering to what he calls "the least religious generation in Australia's history," Andrew shares insights on maintaining faith identity in diverse communities, building hope in young people, and navigating the complex relationships that make school ministry work. From the concept of "hopepunk" to creating an "architecture of meaning" for students, this conversation reveals how chaplains are on the front lines of mission to young people in our increasingly secular age.

Recorded on location at Mentone Grammar School, Melbourne

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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In this compelling second part of our conversation with Father Chris Bedding, we dive deep into the intersection of faith, performance, and institutional power. Chris reveals how his award-winning comedy show Pirate Church - a work of "public theology" that toured nationally - became weaponised against him by those seeking to silence his advocacy work within the Anglican Church.

We explore Chris's journey from living "three separate lives" as priest, comedian, and activist to becoming "one person who fulfils different roles." This hard-won integration offers profound insights into authenticity and calling that challenge conventional boundaries between sacred and secular, serious and satirical.

Chris shares the absurd reality of being investigated for dressing as a pirate and singing sea shanties while serious institutional failures went unaddressed - a situation so ridiculous that "if you wrote this in a book, nobody would believe you." Yet this experience taught him that "everything is political," including comedy and church work itself.

We delve into the precarious legal status of faith workers as "office holders" rather than employees, leaving many clergy vulnerable to dismissal with minimal notice and no recourse to standard employment protections. Chris explains how new work health and safety legislation is beginning to change this landscape and why religious organisations must modernise their employment practices.

The conversation covers the Faith Workers Alliance's vision for reform - from ending the expectation that clergy work six days a week to addressing exploitation of students, First Nations workers, and overseas workers. Chris also reflects on his current season of ministry, training a new generation of activists while continuing his sacramental work as a "worker priest."

This episode challenges listeners to consider how institutional resistance to creative expression reveals deeper power dynamics, and offers practical wisdom about collective action, authenticity in ministry, and the courage required to bring your whole self to your calling.

Links mentioned: faithworkers.org.au | chrisbedding.com.au

Warning: Contains frank discussion of institutional trauma and systemic exploitation within religious organisations.

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.