Iain finishes these first three talks by asking ‘So what?’ How are we expected to live in the face of the vast tension between our view of creation, and our experience of suffering and evil?  He makes a very significant claim at the start of this talk—how we frame our response to this tension will dictate our choices and views of the world and our faith. He gives us a simple but profound series of pathways to living the good life in the face of the Jerusalem view of the world—the Jerusalem Guide.

Perhaps this talk is the most radical of all the talks in this series. Having painted a wondrous picture of the Jerusalem view of creation and humanity, Iain confronts the question of evil and suffering. In fact, he claims that you simply cannot just paint a positive picture without addressing the dark side as well. How do we interpret the presence of evil and suffering in the face of Jerusalem story? Why do I say this talk is so radical? Because Iain differentiates from suffering and ‘evil’ that was caused by sin, from suffering and pain that existed in creation BEFORE the Fall and cannot be attributed to the Fall. This is a very important, bold and clarifying talk.

This talk builds the foundation for the rest of Iain's talks in this series. In it, Iain describes the critical paradigm shifts that separated the ‘Jerusalem’ story from the rest of the great philosophies of the ancient world—from Greece to Egypt to China. Despite all of their differences, these philosophies came from a common worldview—the cosmos is eternal, the cosmos is built for the gods and humans being are an afterthought who survive by serving the needs of the gods. Moses smashed this view and laid the foundation for enterprise and human rights with a ‘blue sky’ conceptual structure that was not a gradual development of these views, but a radical innovative alternative.

As always Iain shines in this important and extended question and answer session. As one participant observed to me about Iain’s ability to answer questions—‘He has the gift of understanding what the questioner was really trying to say and what lay behind the question—even if the asker could not articulate it well themselves.

This talk is a fitting climax to the grand sweep of this series. Iain finishes with ‘hope’ or the vision of the future that Jerusalem gave the world. Importantly he begins by demolishing the Greek notion of the intrinsic immortality of the soul, and he explains that this is not the vision of hope here. He grounds God’s promises of the future in the great covenants of the Bible and their increasing scope until they climax in the incarnation where God became human in order that humans might become like God forever.

This is a talk lots of us have been waiting for—what kind of position should believers take in politics? Iain confronts the fear that many people hold – ie involving faith and politics will result in a kind of ‘Christian Taliban’. Many Christians feel caught in a no-man’s land between the hard choice of involvement and detachment. We want our faith to be involved in politics and society but fear becoming hardcore fundamentalists—the ‘Christian Taliban’ comment. But we also fear to retreat into a totally private world of faith. Iain’s talk charts a brilliant third way and as such is one of the most important talks you will ever hear.

Having diagnosed the deep roots of modern thinking Iain moves on to the consequences. What are the practical implications of living within the ‘Jerusalem’ mindset? This talk is simple and profound: living with the Jerusalem legacy means building our lives around three archetypal relationships:

1. Our relationship with God and the creational vision of cosmic reality


2. Our relationship with our neighbours—where we find we ARE our brother’s keepers


3. Our relationship with the creation

The first talk from Iain Provan's series titled Seriously Dangerous Religion.

The eminent historian, Edwin Judge, takes us back to the mind of the Roman Empire as they faced the burgeoning growth of Christianity. Furthermore, he recreates the self-identity and characteristics that defined early Christianity—including that this new thing was not a 'religion' in the minds of either the Christians or the Romans. This jewel of a talk/interview merits a couple of hearings as it is packed with the depths and profundity of Edwin's lifelong journey.