The Promise and Peril of Christian Conversion with Elizabeth Oldfield

Welcome to the first episode of the new Unfolding podcast!¹

The past few years have brought an interesting revival of religious discourse in the public square. From Jordan Peterson’s biblical lectures to novelist Sally Rooney’s Jesus-curious millennials and historian Tom Holland’s positive reassessment of Christendom, Dominion, erstwhile secular rationalists are suddenly interested in a 2,000 year old religion. There’s even been a number of high-profile conversions (or in some cases, reversions) to Christianity from people like Nick Cave and, most recently, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

What, exactly, is going on? Many of these narratives of Christian discovery and return are being coded as just another example of the hard-right turn in politics— away from multiculturalism and freedom and toward a dream of a simpler, easier, and perhaps less kind and tolerant past. And while that may be true to some extent, it’s not the whole story. How can deeply spiritual people (whether Christian or not) orient toward this?

I reached out to the wise and delightful Elizabeth Oldfield, who I think of as “The Krista Tippett of the UK” (for my fellow Americans), to get a handle on the current moment. She’s the host of the podcast The Sacred, writes the substack

Fully Alive

, and is the former director of Theos, a think tank in the UK that studies religion and spirituality.

And, for paid subscribers, there’s a bonus: we continue the conversation for another 25 minutes reflecting on the problems with the sexual revolution and asking what an authentic Christian sexual ethic might look like— one that respects “traditional” virtues like fidelity, chastity, and mutual love and care while also holding space for a variety of personal convictions and expressions.

I’ll be putting out episodes weekly, with bonus content each time.

1. Yes, I did two one-off episodes last year with friends…what I called “lazy podcasting.” I’m a bit more earnest this second time ‘round.