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Centre for Christian Living podcast

Centre for Christian Living podcast

di Centre for Christian Living

Religione e spiritualità

157: The theological and moral meaning of AI with Alastair Roberts

Here at Moore College, we’ve been thinking about the rise and spread of generative AI and what it means for education—for our students and lecturers. One thing we’ve been determined to do is not just use AI pragmatically (i.e. asking “How can we make the best use of this new technology while avoiding its pitfalls?”), but also think about what generative AI means theologically and morally. How does AI relate to what we believe human personhood, intelligence and mind is on the basis of God’s revelation to us of what all these things mean in Christ? In this episode of the Centre for Christian Living podcast, hear Tony Payne chat to writer, lecturer and podcaster Alastair Roberts about the theological and moral meaning of AI and its rise. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website. To ask questions or to get in touch with us about this series, send us a voice memo or email to ccl AT moore edu au. Find out more and register for Transforming work: A Centre for Christian Living live podcast recording (Wed 29 July 2026). Support the work of the Centre by making a tax-deductible donation. Episode image by David Sánchez-Medina Calderón from Pixabay, created with generative AI. Please note: The episode transcript on your podcast platform may have been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

156: Deception during wartime with Jack Day

Have you ever debated the question, “Is it ever okay to lie?”? If so, it usually doesn’t take very long for someone to raise the uncomfortable fact that people in the Bible—particularly people in the Old Testament—lie quite a bit. Furthermore, not only do they get away with it, they’re often commended for it—like the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1:15-21, who lie to Pharaoh about what’s going on with the Hebrew babies, and Jehu in 2 King 10, who very deceptively lures the prophets of Baal into a trap and then kills them all. If you’ve ever wondered about those incidents, what to make of them and what the implications are for the Christian life, tune into Tony Payne’s conversation with Moore College Old Testament Lecturer Jack Day in this episode of the Centre for Christian Living podcast. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website. To ask questions or to get in touch with us about this series, send us a voice memo or email to ccl AT moore edu au. Find out more and register for our July live podcast recording with Paul Grimmond and Simon Flinders on Transforming Work(Wed 29 July 2026). Support the work of the Centre by making a tax-deductible donation. Please note: The episode transcript on your podcast platform may have been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

155: Learning Christ with Col Marshall

Christian living is being a daily disciple of Jesus Christ, and being a disciple is being a learner—an apprentice of Christ. It’s to learn to be like him, to live like him, to think like him, to love others like him. But being a learner or an apprentice of Jesus Christ is no simple thing; it’s rich, multi-faceted and extraordinary. It’s a lifelong process. Of course, it’s also a struggle: there are many obstacles, and many of us get stuck or stalled in our apprenticeship to Jesus Christ, especially after being a Christian for a while. What would it mean to re-ignite your enthusiasm for learning Jesus Christ? Tony Payne discusses this question with Col Marshall in relation to Col’s latest book on the subject, Warriors of the Word. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website. To ask questions or to get in touch with us about this series, send us a voice memo or email to ccl AT moore edu au. Find out more and register for “Left right out: The strange position of the political Christian” (Wed 20 May 2026) Support the work of the Centre by making a tax-deductible donation. Please note: The episode transcript on your podcast platform may have been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

154: Against the machine with Stephen McAlpine

Every now and then, a book comes along that makes such a sweeping, powerful and insightful argument about the nature of our lives, our world and our culture that it leaves you disturbed and almost disoriented, as if the ground has shifted under your feet and you’re not quite sure where you’re standing anymore. Paul Kingsnorth’s book, Against the Machine, is like this. It’s very broadly speaking a Christian book—or at least, is written from the perspective of a Christian worldview—and it makes a quite stunning argument about the dysfunctional nature of our contemporary, very technological machine-like society that resonates very deeply and yet raises many questions. In this episode of the CCL podcast, Tony Payne talks to speaker, author and cultural analyst Stephen McAlpine about these questions, and about the strengths and weaknesses of Kingsnorth’s book and what it means for our lives as Christians in this machine-like culture we inhabit. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website. To ask questions or to get in touch with us about this series, send us a voice memo or email to ccl AT moore edu au. Find out more and register for “Left right out: The strange position of the political Christian” (Wed 20 May 2026) Support the work of the Centre by making a tax-deductible donation. Please note: The episode transcript on your podcast platform may have been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

153: The smartphone disciple (Part 3)

Digital technology like smartphones has revolutionised the way we navigate daily life and the way our whole society functions. Such technology has its downsides. Even so, our stance as Christians is often something like, “Let’s use this technology wisely, but not abuse it”, as if the technology is simply a neutral instrument. But the good things of our world (like technology or money) can become much more than this: they can become master-teachers that dominate and disciple us. In this final episode of the series, Tony Payne brings the discussion to its practical conclusion. If our smartphones are not neutral tools, but powerful forces that shape our habits, attention and desires, what does faithful Christian living with technology actually look like? Building on the foundations from episodes 1 and 2, this episode asks the key question: what should we do now? How do we respond as followers of Christ? What does it look like to live wisely and deliberately with the devices that are constantly discipling us? For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website. To ask questions or to get in touch with us about this series, send us a voice memo or email to ccl AT moore edu au. Find out more and register for “Left right out: The strange position of the political Christian” (Wed 20 May 2026) Support the work of the Centre by making a tax-deductible donation. Please note: The episode transcript on your podcast platform may have been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

152: The smartphone disciple (Part 2)

Digital technology like smartphones has revolutionised the way we navigate daily life and the way our whole society functions. Such technology has its downsides. Even so, our stance as Christians is often something like, “Let’s use this technology wisely, but not abuse it”, as if the technology is simply a neutral instrument. But the good things of our world (like technology or money) can become much more than this: they can become master-teachers that dominate and disciple us. In Part 1 of our series, we explored the extraordinary power and usefulness of the smartphone, as well as the powerful effects and consequences that follow from its widespread usage—the way that the phone, in fact, shapes the way we think about our lives and the way we act as humans. In this episode—Part 2—we’re going to think about what God says about all this—what he says about what it means to be human, and how human technology and manufacturing relates to God and to the purposes he has for humanity. How do the Scriptures shape our understanding of technology in general and the smartphone in particular? We’ll find it does so in surprising and disturbing and liberating ways. (Please note: Part 3 will be published in a fortnight’s time.) For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website. To ask questions or to get in touch with us about this series, send us a voice memo or email to ccl AT moore edu au. Find out more and register for “Left right out: The strange position of the political Christian” (Wed 20 May 2026) Support the work of the Centre by making a tax-deductible donation. Please note: The episode transcript on your podcast platform may have been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

151: The smartphone disciple (Part 1)

Digital technology like smartphones has revolutionised the way we navigate daily life and the way our whole society functions. We have supercomputers in our hands that can answer almost any question instantly and perform many tasks that make life easier. Such technology has its downsides, like the explosion of accessibility to pornography and the prevalence of online bullying. Even so, our stance as Christians is often something like, “Let’s use this technology wisely, but not abuse it”, as if the technology is simply a neutral instrument. But the good things of our world (like technology or money) can become much more than this: they can become master-teachers that dominate and disciple us. In this first episode of a special three-part series, we explore this issue—interrogate and ask questions about what the smartphone really is and how it does affect our lives. How does this technology disciple us? How does it reorder our attitudes, operating beliefs and behaviours—not just personally, but on a society-wide level? Finally, what have been the costs and disadvantages of all this? For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website. (Please note: Part 2 will be published in a fortnight’s time, while part 3 will be published in a month’s time.) To ask questions or to get in touch with us about this series, send us a voice memo or email to ccl AT moore edu au. Find out more and register for “Left right out: The strange position of the political Christian” (Wed 20 May 2026) Support the work of the Centre by making a tax-deductible donation. Please note: The episode transcript on your podcast platform may have been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

150: Prayerfulness with Peter Adam

It does us a lot of good to read a book on prayer every couple of years, because the Christian life is a praying life, and Christians need the occasional reminder and encouragement to keep praying or to start praying again after an overly busy or overly anxious period of life. Enter Prayerfulness, a recent book by Peter Adam that, according to CCL Director Tony Payne, is the best book on prayer and the Christian life he’s ever read. It’s warm and full of pastoral wisdom, theological richness, and many practical helps and resources. On this episode of the CCL Podcast, Peter Adam speaks about prayerfulness, how prayer is an expression of our relationship with God, why written prayers are helpful, and why we don’t pray. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website. To ask questions or to get in touch with us about this series, send us a voice memo or email to ccl AT moore edu au. Find out more and register for the 2026 Priscilla & Aquila annual conference: “Radical kinship: Men and women in God’s family” (2 February 2025) Support the work of the Centre by making a tax-deductible donation. Please note: The episode transcript on your podcast platform may have been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

149: Why the Nicene Creed matters with Mark Thompson

If you’ve been saying the words of the Nicene Creed for most of your life, you’ll have some sense that this ancient creed is profound and important, and that it summarises something basic and unifying about the Christian faith. But why and how does it do that, exactly? Why is the Nicene Creed a big deal? Why have Christians been saying these words for around 1700 years? And what difference does it actually make to our Christian lives? Tony Payne talks to Mark Thompson, Principal of Moore College, who recently attended a conference celebrating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, when the Nicene Creed was first written. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website. To ask questions or to get in touch with us about this series, send us a voice memo or email to ccl AT moore edu au. Find out more about studying at Moore Theological College. Support the work of the Centre by making a tax-deductible donation. Please note: The episode transcript on your podcast platform may have been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

148: Men and women in God’s family with Simon Flinders

Christians have always been very pro-family. In fact, historically and in some parts of the world, Christianity and traditional family values are seen as much the same thing. This makes the actual content of the Gospels and what Jesus says about family very surprising—even shocking. It's not as if Jesus is against marriage and family, but his teaching about how to relate to our families brings a radical challenge to our total and unquestioned devotion to our families and to our practice of putting our families first, above all else. CCL Director Tony Payne chats to Simon Flinders, Archdeacon to the Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, about Jesus’ radical new perspective on family life. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website. To ask questions or to get in touch with us about this series, send us a voice memo or email to ccl AT moore edu au. Find out more and register for the 2026 Priscilla & Aquila Centre Annual Conference (Mon 2 Feb 2026). Simon Flinders will be delivering the plenary addresses on the topic of “Radical kinship: Men and women in God’s family”. Support the work of the Centre by making a tax-deductible donation. Please note: The episode transcript on your podcast platform may have been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

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