P.S.
PS is an email and web-based blog format issued regularly by Contemporary Christianity. The format provides an online space for writers toexplore issues relating to church, culture and life in Northern Ireland, seeking to understand the times through insights from Scripture, theology, reason and the observations that flow from lived experience.
PS will never claim to have all the answers, but we hope to prompt questions that leave our readers a little closer to the answer at the end of the piece than they were at the beginning.
Our writers range from well-known names in academia and full-time ministry, to professionals with particular subject matter expertise, to lay people with passion for a subject and a gift for writing.
You can get involved in conversations by posting comments in the threads below the blogs, and if you’re interested in writing for us, you can get in touch by emailing info@contemporarychristianity.net.
Mortgages, Mammon and Buy to Let
Many years ago, as a teenager, I recall talking to an elder in my local church, prior to the 1987 General Election. Pondering on the choice the UK had, his outlook seemed driven by naked self-interest: “I really don’t care who gets in, so long as I don’t have to pay...
Good Marx, Bad Marx
About 15 years ago I did a clear out of my books about Marxism. These were not quite consigned to the dustbin of history but rather the attic or the charity shop. I now see that I had made a mistake. Marxism remains the official “creed” of the world’s biggest nation...
The Moving Goal Posts of Retirement
First the good news: you will probably live longer than your grandparents. Now the bad news: if you are of working age, the Government is requiring you to work for more years before you can have a state pension. Recent announcements make it clear that teenagers and...
Creation care and following Jesus
‘… give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’ 1 Thessalonians 5:18 The theological and Biblical arguments for Creation Care are strong and are now being clearly communicated within the Evangelical Community. For example...
A CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIANITY BOARD MEMBER WRITES…
I will never forget this day one year ago. Friday 24th June 2016 was a day of shellshock in my office – much more so, in actual fact than 9/11 fifteen years before it. But as we’ve since been told many times ‘Brexit means Brexit’, and for good or ill, that which...
A EUROPEAN LIVING IN NORTHERN IRELAND WRITES…
The first time I stepped foot on Northern Irish soil was a few days after our wedding almost 25 years ago. We had spent some days in London after getting married in my native Sweden, and having previously lived in London, I thought Belfast couldn't be that different....
A CHRISTIAN FROM THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND WRITES…
So it looks like one of the world's most significant political and trade borders is going to be drawn across the leafy lanes and modern motorways that join the two parts of Ireland. At present you are able to move back and forth without noticing apart from being...
A CHRISTIAN WHO VOTED LEAVE WRITES…
We should be very cautious when someone tells us that they can interpret history’s direction. Nevertheless, events over the centuries suggest large multinational political units have not fared well. That intuition is reinforced by the warning that humanity’s quest to...
A CHRISTIAN WHO VOTED REMAIN WRITES…
On 23rd June 2016 I celebrated my 28th birthday. On the same day I also voted to Remain in the EU. My wife and I celebrated another year of life with a good old fashioned Northern Irish chippy, followed by French cheese, Spanish wine and Italian bread, and I...
PS: THE EU REFERENDUM – ONE YEAR LATER
Next week will see the first anniversary of the UK Referendum and our collective national decision to leave the EU. The vote was finely balanced with Leave edging Remain by a margin of just 52 to 48. Brexit remains a source of formidable passion on both sides of its...
Clouds – maligned and ignored!
I admit to not appreciating clouds – we simply have too many of them in this corner of the globe – although we had a welcome cloud-free few weeks in May this year. Sunlight is usually in short supply; plant and crop growth are hugely dependent on it. It’s a very...
The right to free speech
In 2012 a furore erupted across South Africa following the public exhibition of a painting by a ‘white’ South African artist, Brett Murray. Expressing a strand of public perception relating to the numerous scandals surrounding Jacob Zuma, the current President of...