Revd Dr John L Bell

Minister of the Church of Scotland and Member of the Iona Community

John has worked for over 30 years in the areas of music, worship, spirituality and social justice. He conducts workshops and seminars across the globe and, with his colleagues, develops new and accessible liturgical materials. He is an occasional broadcaster and contributor to Radio 4's Thought for the Day.

Virtual lectures

John is available to deliver his lectures online, via Zoom or streaming. Please ask about this option when making your booking.

Publications

To date, John has published 17 collections of original and global songs, and numerous collections of liturgical material. His most recent books are:

Ten Things They Never Told Me About Jesus (Wild Goose Publications)
Living with the Psalms (SPCK)

Lecture titles

Gentle, Meek and Mildly Deceptive
What is it about Jesus, or what is it about us, that favours a Saviour whose primary characteristics – as regards the preaching and iconography of the church – suggest a rather passive and ineffectual man? In this lecture, the Apostles’ Creed, Victorian hymns and a desire for undemanding discipleship are contrasted with the incarnation, the vitality of worship in non-European churches, and the inherent dynamism in Jesus.
The Imagination as a Key to Unlocking Scripture
Many Christians have been brought up with a reverence for intellectual interpretations of scripture from people with whom they have little in common. The suspicion is that the ‘right answer’ to puzzling scriptures can only be unlocked by the learned. In this lecture, the ‘right answers’ mentality is questioned and the proven worth of experience, insight and imagination celebrated in graphic detail.
The Strange Silence of Biblical Women
Despite churches having a preponderance of women in the pews, there has been an amazing neglect, especially by male preachers and theologians, of the witness of women, both in the Hebrew scriptures and in the Gospels. John Bell spent a year reading only those chapters in the Bible which mentioned women, and shares insights and conclusions he would never otherwise have reached.