Where better to reflect on the life and impact of John Wycliffe, born 700 years ago next year, than from Oxford, his home for many key

moments in his life? 

Five Oxford Johns and their place in Oxford’s Christian Heritage: John Wycliffe (1331-1384), John Owen (1616-1683), John Wesley (1703-1791), John Henry Newman (1801-1890), Tolkien (1892-1973).

John Owen lived from 1616 to 1683, through the Stuart era and the English Civil War. If the 16th century had been the century of the Reformation, the 17th century was to show how it would work out in England... 

Although Christianity was easily the dominant faith of Victorian Britain, it was also ‘much more disunited and quarrelsome than it is now’, according to Geoffrey Best in 1988. This dissertation examines the religious life of a suburban Oxford parish in the second half of the 1800s.

You can experience some of the key moments and characters come to life with these audio recordings of 19th century news articles, published on the Magdalen Church Road website. 

Opening of SS Mary & John School new extension 1899

SS Mary and John School - laying the memorial stone 1895

Laying the foundation stone of a workman's hall 1879

A talk given recently to Christian Business Leaders in Abingdon, Oxfordshire

Is baptism necessary for salvation?  This question has defined the Churches of Christ since their birth.  I wrote this article as an apologetic for my decision to start worshipping with a mainstream evangelical church in 2007.

A study on the concept of the Kingdom of God for members of the churches of Christ who were taught for many years that their family of churches was God’s Kingdom on earth.

In challenging the International Churches of Christ’s unquestioned use of the adjective ‘biblical’ to refer to its practices, this article highlights issues of interpretation for all Bible-based churches which they ignore at their peril.

The only book of the Bible not to mention God, and of which no trace was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.  I argue that God’s presence in providence permeates the book of Esther.

Magdalen College Oxford holds the oldest fragment of Matthew’s gospel in the world, from 170 AD.  This article draws particularly from a book about the manuscript by a former member of Magdalen, the journalist Matthew d’Ancona

My thoughts on the ruins of this long-lost Galilean site in Jesus’ ministry which was the home town of a number of his disciples.