On the podcast this week, Dr Selina Stone is interviewed about her new book, A Heavy Yoke: Theology, power and abuse in the Church, by Dr Lisa Adjei, the C of E’s Head of Racial Justice Priority. It was recorded at the book’s launch last month at Bridewell Hall in London.

In A Heavy Yoke, Dr Stone lifts the lid on the ways in which Christian theology can, often unwittingly, uphold existing power structures to the detriment of the flourishing of the whole Church. It calls for a more rigorous and critical understanding of Christian theology and how it is shaping Christian leaders, churches, and organisations.

Reviewing the book in this week’s Church Times, Lyle Dennen describes it as “well written, challenging, and disturbing. . . Stone’s powerful contention is that it is not just some bad apples on a good tree: there are narratives, twisted theologies, and cultures that significantly enable abusers to control others and justify terrible behaviour.”

Read Dr Stone’s recent Analysis piece, “Theology can be spiritually abusive”, here.

Dr Selina Stone is a lecturer in theology and ethics at the University of Edinburgh.

A Heavy Yoke is published by SCM Press at £16.99 (Church Times Bookshop £13.59).

Click the play button above to listen to this podcast. You can also listen to the Church Times Podcast on the Church Times app for iPhone and iPad, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast platforms. Music for the podcast is by Twisterium.