Elizabeth Oldfield (podcaster)
Elizabeth Oldfield | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1983 or 1984 (age 40–41)[1] |
| Occupation(s) | Christian podcaster and author |
| Known for | The Sacred podcast and Fully Alive book |
| Website | https://www.elizabetholdfield.com/ |
Elizabeth Oldfield is a British podcaster and author.
Career
[edit]Oldfield has a degree in English and history.[1]
She worked as a journalist at the BBC, and was Director of Theos, a religious thinktank, for ten years.[1][2][3]
Podcaster
[edit]
She is the host of The Sacred podcast since 2017.[4] Explaining its purpose in Church Times, Oldfield quoted Barack Obama: "If you listen hard enough, everybody’s got a sacred story. . . How did they come to believe what they believe?". She said that this story becomes a glue that perhaps can "mend our broken common life".[2]
Author
[edit]She is the author of the book Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times (ISBN 9781493446971, Hodder/Brazos, 2024).[4] The title is from a quotation of St Irenaeus: "The glory of God is a human being fully alive".[3] Anglican priest and poet Rachel Mann describes the book as "part spiritual memoir and part self-help manual".[3] Mann commends the book to those who appreciated Unapologetic by Francis Spufford, those who "can’t quite give up on the Song of Love despite all the evidence to the contrary".[3] Anglican pastor Aaron Damiani describes the book as a "lively conversation with poets, social scientists, cultural critics, philosophers, and psychologists".[5]
Oldfield considers that Spufford's Unapologetic changed the debate about religion and science introduced by New Atheism in the 2000s.[6] According to Oldfield, Unapologetic shifted the discussion from being about the Big Bang, Biblical criticism, and proofs of God and into the area of feelings: "for almost all of us, that’s what drives not just our metaphysics, but most of our deepest decisions".[6]
Personal Life
[edit]Oldfield is married to Chris, a philosopher.[1] Their two children are a boy and a girl.[1] She and her husband are committed Christians.[1] Since December 2020, she and her family live in an intentional Christian community in London.[1][5]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g Denyer, Lucy (5 June 2024). "Our middle-class commune (joint bank accounts, noisy sex and all)". The Times. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
- ^ a b Oldfield, Elizabeth (31 August 2018). "Elizabeth Oldfield: Listen hard for the sacred story". Church Times. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
- ^ a b c d "Book review: Fully Alive: Tending to the soul in turbulent times by Elizabeth Oldfield". Church Times. 17 May 2024. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
- ^ a b "Elizabeth Oldfield". Elizabeth Oldfield. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
- ^ a b Damiani, Aaron (1 July 2024). "Live Like a Christian, Even if You're Not Sure What You Believe". Christianity Today. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
- ^ a b Oldfield, Elizabeth (25 December 2019). "Why aren't we all atheists?". UnHerd. Retrieved 27 January 2025.