How should we think about the place of experience in Christian discipleship, and in what ways can the doctrine of the Holy Spirit help us to approach it wisely? How might paying attention to the emotional and embodied dimension of Christian doctrine help us to retrieve the riches of theologians such as St Augustine and Martin Luther? What can academic theology and the wider church learn from Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity, and what's it got to do with play? How does scientific research on social cognition help us to get beyond the binary of individual vs collective salvation? And what does all of this mean for the plausibility and persuasiveness of Christian mission?

In today’s show we are talking to Simeon Zahl. Simeon is the University Associate Professor in Christian Theology in the Divinity Faculty at the University of Cambridge. In recent years, Simeon’s research has focused on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the role of emotion and embodiment in Christian experience. His most recent book on The Holy Spirit and Christian Experience was published in 2020 with Oxford University Press.