Tony takes an extensive look at the way Jeremiah uses the image of the ‘Valley of Hinnom’ (or Gehenna) in his prophecies about Jerusalem and its impending doom.  He then looks at how the gospels, Matthew in particular, deliberately position Jesus as the modern ‘Jeremiah’ or ‘prophet’.  This positioning shines a new light on what Jesus may have meant by his use of the metaphor of ‘Gehenna’ (the Aramaic for ‘Valley of Hinnom’).  Finally Tony looks at the neglected high point of the new covenant in Jeremiah – which is the apparent redemption of the Valley of Hinnom as ‘sacred to the Lord’…. All of this leaves us with a different view of ‘hell’ (Gehenna) that is much more grounded in the Biblical text.

Tony Golsby-Smith interviews, Matt Clarke, on the subject of slavery in the 21st century – and how the normal Christian model of retribution and justice can get in the way of innovative solutions. Matt has worked in this field for years and became frustrated at the short sighted interventions of many Not-for-profits in this space. He has just written a great book, called ‘Disrupting Mercy’ about the topic which argues that we don’t just need a more holistic approach – we need a new paradigm of mercy. This interview is a prelude to our upcoming series on ‘The Cross and Creation’ where we will be examining the pros and cons of the controversial doctrine of ‘penal substitution’.

This is Tony’s follow up talk on Jeremiah 32 – the story of Jeremiah buying a field. In this talk he dives into the analogy and explores just what insight it offers us as to how to live in the present through the lens of hope. He argues that the lens of ‘self denial’ is not what the analogy really is teaching us about the way our hope for the future influences our lives in the present.

Welcome to 2023 and our first Breakfast with Jesus talk for the year. in this talk Tony discusses the famous story of Jeremiah buying a field in the face of Jerusalem’s doom – a very stupid thing to do – and how this shines a light on how we might act in our lives according to the logic of hope. I position this talk inside a hot topic of modern Christendom;  the ‘end times’ and how our fascination with predicting the future has obscured the eschatological dimensions of the gospel.

Tony builds on his recent talk on the new covenant in Jeremiah by exploring how the Epistle of Hebrews uses this new covenant promise in the NT. Hebrews 8 quotes the Jeremiah passage in full – the longest OT quotation in the NT. What is interesting is how the writer uses the Jeremiah passage and takes it further by explaining how the contract based law of Moses failed to deliver what God wanted.

Leisa finishes the year off for GC with a profound summary of her doctorate on ‘hope’. It is full of gems and very relevant for an anxious and despairing world.  Her doctorate was targeted at the secular world of clinical psychology, but in this talk we get a ‘Christian’ version of this important work where Leisa can be explicit about the theological grounds for her ideas.

She aligns her work with Esther’s message on knowing as a form of desire and anticipation.

This is the second of three short talks from Gospel Conversations supporters as a response to Esther Meek's Covenant Epistemology.

Mark Ridgeway explores the thought of Esther Meek in the context of Discipleship.

He follows the contours of Covenant Epistemology, explores the practice of inviting the real and concludes with some practical recommendations for the Church.

This is the first of three short talks from Gospel Conversations supporters as a response to Esther Meek's Covenant Epistemology.

In this talk Ron Winestock addresses the big questions of the universe and how Covenant Epistemology can help us see clearly through the two levels of knowing.

Ron argues that since Isaac Newton we have emphasised the focal and discredited the subsidiary.

In this closing section of the conference Esther Meek finishes with the question, how does the Real Invite Us?

In this talk Tony explores the extraordinary declaration of the ‘new covenant’ in Jeremiah 31 and asks “What is ‘new’ about this new covenant?” He argues that is far more ‘new’ than most Christians assume:  it is a paradigm shift that overturns the very nature of contract and conditions.