Our special guest is Krish Kandiah (PhD, Kings College London) the author of the book Paradoxology: Why Christianity Was Never Meant To Be Simple. It seems that the God of the Christian faith is full of paradoxes. A compassionate God who sanctions genocide. An all-powerful God who allows horrific suffering. A God who owns everything yet demands so much from his followers. A God who is distant and yet present at the same time. Many of us have big questions about God that the Christian faith seems to leave unanswered, so we push them to the back of our minds for fear of destabilizing our beliefs. But leaving these questions unexamined is neither healthy for us nor honoring to God. Rather than shying away from the difficult questions, we need to face them head on.
What if the tension between apparently opposing doctrines is exactly where faith comes alive? What if this ancient faith has survived so long not in spite of but precisely because of these apparent contradictions? What if it is in the difficult parts of the Bible that God is most clearly revealed? In his new book Paradoxology Krish Kandiah makes a bold new claim: that the paradoxes that seem like they ought to undermine belief are actually the heart of our vibrant faith, and it is only by continually wrestling with them—rather than trying to pin them down or push them away—that we can really move forward, individually and together.
He is also the founder and director of Home for Good, a charity finding homes for foster children and young refugees. An international speaker, he teaches regularly at Regent College and George Fox Seminary, and is the author of several books, including Home for Good. Krish is the vice president of Tearfund, a Christian relief and development agency. Previously, he was president of London School of Theology and also on faculty at Oxford University. He has also worked with students in the UK with UCCF, and in Albania with IFES. Krish lives with his wife, Miriam, and their seven birth, adopted, and foster children.
