The Sacrament of Liberation: Why The Salvation Army Should Not Adopt Ritual Sacraments

A Liberation-Theological Defense of The Salvation Army’s Non-Sacramental Witness The Salvation Army is not anti-sacramental. It could be argued that the Army is far more sacramental than churches that do…

Neurodivergent Theology and A Theology of Neurodivergence

There is a difference between Neurodivergent Theology and a theology of Neurodivergence. In this article, I'm going to explain the difference, why the church needs both types of Theology, and finish with some suggestions for creating safe…

The Historical Jesus

Why Does the Historical Jesus Matter? The claims of Christianity are not about a god that exists beyond the world. We believe that God became human. Not abstractly human, but a specific human being. Because of this claim, we need to take seriously the historical existence of…

A Theology of Immigration

We need a theology of immigration. This post is a stepping stone towards exploring what that could look like. Why is a Theology of Immigration Needed? This is an age of increasing nationalism, hatred, jingoism, wars, and economic strife. We need a reminder of the way of…

Spirituality On The Spectrum: How Neurodiversity Can Transform the Church

Guest Author Post by Lieutenant Chelsea Brevitt Neurodiversity, Church, and Belonging In recent years, the church has begun to ask deeper questions about belonging. As congregations grow more aware of differences,…

Sanctification is an Exorcism

The gift of sanctification that empowers and transforms us to be able to love our neighbour as Christ loves us can be understood as exorcism and healing combined together. Sanctification and The Removal of Temptation Salvation from the consequences of our sin does not…

Christianity Created Secularism

Christianity created the sacred-secular divide. Christianity created secularisation. It is common to think that secularisation is the enemy of faith in general and Christianity in particular. People decry the end of a 'Christian nation' or say that we are a…

10 Tips for New (and not so new) Preachers

Good preaching can change the world. Words, when properly chosen, carefully crafted, and well delivered, can move people, inspire people and speak something new into being. Good oratory can move people to tears or to anger, inspire love or hatred, create…

An ideologically driven leader, who is a gifted communicator and personally charismatic, is always a dangerous person.

This creates the cult of the leader, or what Bonhoeffer called the Führer principle. We see this operating today on both sides of the political divide. Faith groups are breeding grounds for this kind of thinking, providing a natural recruiting ground when exposed to a charismatic leader.

This is the danger-point and creates "stupidity", what Hannah Arendt described as refusing to think, where people give up their responsibility to the idealogue.
Being stupid in this sense is the refusal to be responsible through willingly subsuming one's own reason to the demands of another.

This created the ground from which charismatic leaders drew their power and was the context in which charismatic leadership, and leaders as idealogues more generally, were desired. For Bonhoeffer, emphasis on ideology necessitates the sacrifice of ethical responsibility to the demands of ideology.

Christopher Clark argued in "Revolutionary Spring" that populism is more likely to emerge from ideologically driven groups than 'centre' groups that are focused on matters of policy and pragmatic necessity.

What Are The Nephilim?

There is a strange little verse in Genesis that has resulted in all kinds of fantasy novels, films, and unfortunate attempts at theology. That is the story of the Nephilim. Much has been made about them, but the reality is somewhat more literary and less magical. The…

Booth’s Big Decision

There was a moment in William Booth's life, when he was still a young man, the defined the rest of his life. If he had chosen differently then the world would have been a very different place. He had to decide between becoming a political activist, or becoming an evangelist.…

The Idolatry of Strength: The Abiding Sin of Christianity

One of the biggest mistakes that Christianity makes is to idolise strength. When we praise strength, desire strength, or want 'strong leaders,' we walk away from the way of Christ. Following Jesus means letting go of the things that this…

By Love Serve – The Mission of the Army

'Mission' is one of those terms that can end up being reduced to something trotted out to justify a new activity or project, or used to either raise or reduce the perceived value of a church depending on whether it is being 'missional' or not. When we talk…

Why Booth Was Scared of Brengle

Samuel Logan Brengle is one of the most significant figures in Salvation Army theology. His writing inspired, and continues to inspire, Salvationist holiness theology around the world. He was famous as a preacher and teacher of holiness. But, his service in the Army…

Will The Salvation Army Ever Have Gender Equality?

Yes, but only if it makes it happen. It will not happen naturally. The Salvation Army has a responsibility to do better with gender equality. Particularly for women in ministry. This is a theological imperative. The Army has made theological…

The General’s Call to Action is a Call to Sanctification

On the 14th of October 2025 General Lyndon Buckingham gave a call to action to the international Salvation Army. The link for it is directly below. I think we need to best understand this call as a call to sanctification. The General is…

Batman is the Problem with Church.

The Church doesn't need people to be Batman. It requires everybody to live out who and what they have been called to be. The Church requires a full mobilisation of its members, not only a select few heroes. Batman is the problem with Gotham City. He is out there…

Crucifying my Shame

To be who God wants me to be means I have had to learn to keep putting myself to death so that I can find new life. Which feels absolutely rubbish! Because the process of being made new means confronting all the things we wish we could forget or try and justify. Part of the…

The Rapture Isn’t Biblical

The rapture has once again reared its head with people on social media claiming the rapture was coming which led to some more...gullible...people selling their belongings off cheap. Things like this aren't new. There have been loads of end-times cults over the millennia.…

Christians Can’t Be Patriots

Christians can't be patriots, and certainly can't be nationalists, because they always have a negotiated relationship with their state, country, and nation. They owe a higher allegiance to the Kingdom of God and the Lordship of Christ. This higher allegiance takes…

We don’t have souls

The way that people commonly think about the 'soul' - an immortal spirit which is who we really are that dwells in some way 'within' us - is not actually Biblical. We do not have souls in the way people frequently use the word. In this blog, I'm going to set out what a biblical…

Brass Bands Were Urban Street Music

The use of brass bands by the early Salvation Army became an iconic part of its identity and public image. It is commonly known that the use of brass bands slowly developed in the Army in response to its need to have sufficient volume of music to be able to draw…

Everyone has a Vocation

Every human has a divine vocation. In fact, they have often have several. Part of being human means working out what our vocation is. The most important thing to remember is that our vocation, whether general or specific, is part of what creates meaning in our life. Without…

Grief, Loss, and Absence

Over time, the initial pain of grief gives way to the dull ache of absence. People think this is because grief shrinks over time. I think it is more that we grow used to it, and the sharpness of its edges is changed into something else. I think that grief over times ends…

Depression, Faith, and Me

I'm not ok today. My particular brand of neurospicyness means that I occasionally go through periods of depression. Sometimes these last for a day, sometimes for a few weeks. Sometimes it's just a general feeling of melancholy and anxiety; other times it feels like a big…

Trauma and Fragmented Discipleship

We make a mistake when we think of discipleship as something which develops in a straight line from A to B. Instead, when working with survivors of, or people experiencing, trauma, we need to recognise the fragmental nature of human reality and so also avoid…