ClaireFayers.com redesign launches

By Caleb | August 29, 2017

I love Claire Fayers’ wonderful children’s books, The Accidental Pirates series. They are told with wit and warmth, combining exciting adventure with a wry look at the power of stories. So I was really excited to have opportunity to take on redesigning her website as a freelance project.

Claire was using WordPress to power her site, but was using an old default template that was a bit boring, and also not fully mobile responsive. So after chatting to her about what she would like for her site, I set about creating a new look for her site, as well as adding extra functionality to make it easier for her to manage her book listings. Continue reading »

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Article in Christian Research Journal: Choose Your Own Enchantment

By Caleb | May 2, 2017

In the digital age, there’s a particular pleasure to seeing an article in print, and I was delighted to be published in a recent edition of the Christian Research Journal with my article Choose Your Own Enchantment: Freedom and Conscience in What We Watch.

We must choose wisely which stories we allow to enchant us. Stories are powerful; they can transport us to other worlds and take us into other minds. Like the wardrobe to Narnia or Doctor Who’s police box time machine, a story is “bigger on the inside.” Time passes differently in stories, and we return to our present reality having perhaps experienced years or lifetimes. A well-made film or television show can touch a heart, change a mind, or redirect a life.

Read the whole article on the CRJ website.

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Art and technology – what’s the difference?

By Caleb | April 5, 2017

A few weeks ago I visited the English L’Abri Fellowship, where one of the staff, Andy Patton, was giving the weekly Friday night lecture on the subject of How Technology Behaves. (Hopefully it will be available to listen to online on the L’Abri Ideas Library sometime soon.) It was wide-ranging, fascinating and provocative, but one element that I particularly spent time discussing afterwards was the question of the difference between art and technology, if there is one. Continue reading »

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Be Prepared – 2 Timothy 3:10–4:8

By Caleb | August 21, 2016

_Today I preached at Grace Church Milton Keynes for the first time, where Bev and I have been going for just over a year. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to share from 2 Timothy 3:10-4:8 on how God’s Word prepares us for endurance and fruitfulness, even when faced with suffering and persecution. You can download the audio here, read it below, or read some of my other sermons._ Continue reading »

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Kingdom Code: What are the biases embedded in tech?

By Caleb | April 18, 2016

One evening a couple of weeks ago, I headed into London to attend Kingdom Code, a meet-up for Christians in digital. I’d been aware of the group mainly via Twitter, and one of my colleagues from Scripture Union on the Guardians of Ancora project team suggested I go along. I’m glad I did, because it was a really interesting evening discussing how our values shape tech and tech shapes our values.

You can listen to the audio of Andy’s introduction on the Kingdom Code blog – what follows are my notes from and reflections on the evening. Continue reading »

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How Jesus’ resurrection puts the clock forward

By Caleb | March 29, 2016

I love it when the clocks go forward.

After the long dark nights of winter, the days have already been getting longer for a while. It’s no longer already dark when I leave work, or when I arrive in the morning.

And then with the changing clocks, we take a collective step forward. Boom! An extra hour of sunlight in the evening.

And even though officially Spring has only just begun, it’s clear that summer is coming. We’ve moved from one timezone to another, from GMT to BST, Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time.

This year Easter coincided with the changing of the clocks, and there’s something fitting about that.1 Continue reading »

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Perelandra Revisited

By Caleb | January 8, 2016

I’ve just had the pleasure of (re)reading Perelandra with my wife – it’s her first time, but one of many times I’ve read it. It’s possibly my favourite C S Lewis novel (against strong competition!). I first read it back when I was in secondary school, and it made a deep and lasting impression on my thinking and imagination.

Perelandra sees Cambridge philologist Dr Elwin Ransom dispatched on a divine mission to Venus (or Perelandra as it is known, hence the title), where he must prevent the Green Lady, the Eve of that planet, from falling to temptation and casting that world into misery like our own. It’s the sequel to C. S. Lewis’s earlier science fiction novel Out of the Silent Planet, which describes how Ransom was kidnapped and taken to Mars, known as Malacandra, where he learned Old High Solar and discovered that the heavens are filled with angelic beings called eldila, and that Earth is under spiritual siege in the cosmos.
Continue reading »

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