Elizabeth Oldfield

My essay this week:

morefullyalive.substack.com/p/lead-it-an...

Please can we have moratorium on novels which slowly reveal a characters trauma related to the death of a parent/sibling/child. There must be other ways to make characters psychologically complex and interesting. I can spot it a mile off now and I’m bored

What to do if you can’t go AI Sober Some questions to help you stay loyal to your values as AI accelerates

Liked this from @elizabetholdfield.bsky.social

“Commit in some way. Make it more than a vague intention …Humans have an almost limitless capacity for self-justification and self-deception. Alone, we are pretty crap at living by our principles & values”

morefullyalive.substack.com/p/what-to-do...

“Brutally honest” is one of the most regular things people say about the book and it makes me so glad. We spend so much time tiptoeing around the truth, tidying ourselves up for others to stay safe and it just deadens our common life. Note: being brutally honest is not the same as being an A-hole.

Thank you! So glad it was helpful

my favourite miracle is when jesus is healing the blind guy with his spit and he fully does the "better or worse?" optometrist thing a few times til he gets it right and the dude is like "i can KIND of see people but they look like spooky trees walking??" and jesus is like "ok almost there one sec"

How to Find Meaning in the Life You Already Have | Joshua Luke Smith The Sacred · Episode

open.spotify.com/episode/7szk...

This is possibly the best podcast episode I've heard all year. It was deeply moving, and full of rich wisdom. I was in tears at several points. It encouraged me to slow down and ponder on the richness of the everyday

I’m so glad to hear it was nourishing

The music we play on each other Emotional contagion, predictive processing and a poem

A new essay from me about the moral seriousness of everyday human encounters, with a poem by @martinwroe.bsky.social

morefullyalive.substack.com/p/the-music-...

Dutch church shelters migrant family with 192-day service Open Hof church in Kampen is providing sanctuary to a family facing deportation by using an ancient law to prevent police entering the building

A rare acceptable explanation for a long church service. 'Under an ancient Dutch convention that prohibits the state from entering a church in service, the Open Hof has for the past 192 days been running a continuous service to protect the Babayants family.'
observer.co.uk/news/interna...

‘In Great Waters’ - #RSThomas
(Frequencies, Macmillan)
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem

Really looking forward to this event in Exeter on June 19th

www.ticketsource.co.uk/growingspiri...

The Tragedy of the Social Commons Or, why individualism is a sin.

morefullyalive.substack.com/p/the-traged...

New essay from me over on Substack today

TikTok and AI are junk food — start dieting In the smartphone age it’s increasingly clear that developing and maintaining our critical faculties requires hard work

Really great piece from @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social comparing digital life to ultra processed foods and the misery that comes from over indulgence

‘TikTok and AI are junk food — start dieting’

www.thetimes.com/article/3136...

Integration requires willingness from refugees, but also structures, institutions, people who can support that integration. In June, @theosthinktank.bsky.social launches
@glapshynov.bsky.social's 👌 report showing how the Church moves beyond welcome to help forced migrants integrate holistically.

Faith is a half-formed thing A new generation is turning away from established churches in search of a different way to believe

'I once believed atheism was better than lazily defined half-belief. But maybe half-belief is better than nothing. This rare and arresting book raises the possibility that it might be better than anything that came before...'
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

People are like "is the Pope left wing or right wing?" and I hate to break it to you but you cannot place a Pope's politics onto a simple line like that. In fact, the kind of space onto which you can plot the politics of a Pope requires a degree in Quantum Physics to even begin to understand.

‘The Chapel’ - #RSThomas
(Laboratories of the Spirit, Macmillan)

Book review: Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever: A new generation’s search for religion by Lamorna Ash Elizabeth Oldfield reads about an experiment in participating in church

Book review: @elizabetholdfield.bsky.social reads about an experiment in participating in church

Book review: Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever: A new generation’s search for religion by Lamorna Ash Elizabeth Oldfield reads about an experiment in participating in church

My review of Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever by Lamorna Ash is out now. Spoiler: it’s really good.

www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

Papal Conclave: how the next pope is elected Marianne Rozario unpacks the centuries–old processes that take place in the Catholic Church when the Pope dies. 24/02/2025

The conclave is set to begin on 7 May. Read this helpful explainer from our senior researcher Dr Marianne Rozario on the @theosthinktank.bsky.social website:
www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2025...

My latest substack is on the uncontrollability of the world and the many ways we resist that.

morefullyalive.substack.com/p/the-soul-w...