Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Can we actually find freedom in a world of endless choice, or is true liberation found in the people we refuse to leave?
John hosts Elizabeth Oldfield and her husband Chris for the first in a three-part Lectern Dialogues series on communal living as a spiritual practice, especially within a Christian orientation, and its connection to John’s “philosophical Silk Road” work. Elizabeth, who writes and speaks on spirituality and relational life, and Chris, a philosopher at the Faraday Institute, describe their intentional shared household in a small London home with other adults, marked by legal commitment and a “rule of life” of collective prayer, hospitality, play, and administration. They contrast this with casual cohabitation by emphasizing commitment, rhythms, and formation through proximity, conflict, and repair. The discussion links fellowship, attachment, and “renewing the senses” to critiques of individualism, while noting risks of self-deception and toxic religion and the need for discernment.
Christopher and Elizabeth Oldfield are writers, thinkers, and practitioners of intentional Christian community living in London. Together with their children and three other adults, they share a home shaped by a common “rule of life” — a rhythm of prayer, hospitality, study, and shared formation rooted in the historic Christian tradition.
Christopher is a philosopher affiliated with the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge. His work explores the love of wisdom, the renewal of metaphysics, and the recovery of pre-modern insights about personhood, participation, and the sacred. He is particularly interested in how modernity reshaped concepts like “religion” and how they might be reclaimed.
Elizabeth writes and speaks on spirituality, community, and relational living, exploring how modern individualism has fragmented our capacity for intimacy and how shared practices can restore deeper forms of connection — with one another and with God. Her work bridges theology, culture, and everyday life with warmth and intellectual depth.
Christopher’s Web - chrisoldfieldphilosophy.com
Elizabeth’s Linkedin - linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-oldfield-5a5b6216/?originalSubdomain=uk
The Seventh Letter – Plato - http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/seventh_letter.html
A Hidden Life - imdb.com/title/tt5827916
The Thin Red Line - imdb.com/title/tt0120863
00:00 Welcome to the Lectern
02:00 Elizabeth on friendship
02:15 “Friendship is my theory of change… because relationships are very fundamental to everything.”
04:30 Chris introduction
08:00 Why intentional community
09:30 Commitment and covenant
12:30 Rule of life rhythms
16:30 Plato and collective spirit
21:30 Creed we and I
27:00 Dialogical self and science
31:30 Relearning wisdom today
39:00 Intimacy and modern culture
46:30 Expanding eros misreadings
48:30 Hearth and fellowship
49:00 Covenant friendship model
49:30 Life inside community
52:30 Religion as holy listening
54:00 Religion as care and rebinding
56:30 Empire and invented religions
59:00 Shared scripture to live together
01:01:00 Is religion accessible
01:03:00 Practice and participation
01:05:00 Communal maturation argument
01:08:30 Rupture repair intimacy
01:13:00 We too identity in ephesians
01:17:30 Renewing the senses
01:24:30 Attachment and attunement
01:27:30 Discernment and toxic religion
01:30:00 Friendship as the path
Explore courses and teachings from The Lectern
lectern.johnvervaeke.com
Support the Lectern and join a growing community of wisdom seekers
patreon.com/johnvervaeke
John Vervaeke:
johnvervaeke.com
twitter.com/vervaeke_john
youtube.com/@johnvervaeke
patreon.com/johnvervaeke
Can we actually find freedom in a world of endless choice, or is true liberation found in the people we refuse to leave?
John hosts Elizabeth Oldfield and her husband Chris for the first in a three-part Lectern Dialogues series on communal living as a spiritual practice, especially within a Christian orientation, and its connection to John’s “philosophical Silk Road” work. Elizabeth, who writes and speaks on spirituality and relational life, and Chris, a philosopher at the Faraday Institute, describe their intentional shared household in a small London home with other adults, marked by legal commitment and a “rule of life” of collective prayer, hospitality, play, and administration. They contrast this with casual cohabitation by emphasizing commitment, rhythms, and formation through proximity, conflict, and repair. The discussion links fellowship, attachment, and “renewing the senses” to critiques of individualism, while noting risks of self-deception and toxic religion and the need for discernment.
Christopher and Elizabeth Oldfield are writers, thinkers, and practitioners of intentional Christian community living in London. Together with their children and three other adults, they share a home shaped by a common “rule of life” — a rhythm of prayer, hospitality, study, and shared formation rooted in the historic Christian tradition.
Christopher is a philosopher affiliated with the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge. His work explores the love of wisdom, the renewal of metaphysics, and the recovery of pre-modern insights about personhood, participation, and the sacred. He is particularly interested in how modernity reshaped concepts like “religion” and how they might be reclaimed.
Elizabeth writes and speaks on spirituality, community, and relational living, exploring how modern individualism has fragmented our capacity for intimacy and how shared practices can restore deeper forms of connection — with one another and with God. Her work bridges theology, culture, and everyday life with warmth and intellectual depth.
Christopher’s Web - chrisoldfieldphilosophy.com
Elizabeth’s Linkedin - linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-oldfield-5a5b6216/?originalSubdomain=uk
The Seventh Letter – Plato - http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/seventh_letter.html
A Hidden Life - imdb.com/title/tt5827916
The Thin Red Line - imdb.com/title/tt0120863
00:00 Welcome to the Lectern
02:00 Elizabeth on friendship
02:15 “Friendship is my theory of change… because relationships are very fundamental to everything.”
04:30 Chris introduction
08:00 Why intentional community
09:30 Commitment and covenant
12:30 Rule of life rhythms
16:30 Plato and collective spirit
21:30 Creed we and I
27:00 Dialogical self and science
31:30 Relearning wisdom today
39:00 Intimacy and modern culture
46:30 Expanding eros misreadings
48:30 Hearth and fellowship
49:00 Covenant friendship model
49:30 Life inside community
52:30 Religion as holy listening
54:00 Religion as care and rebinding
56:30 Empire and invented religions
59:00 Shared scripture to live together
01:01:00 Is religion accessible
01:03:00 Practice and participation
01:05:00 Communal maturation argument
01:08:30 Rupture repair intimacy
01:13:00 We too identity in ephesians
01:17:30 Renewing the senses
01:24:30 Attachment and attunement
01:27:30 Discernment and toxic religion
01:30:00 Friendship as the path
Explore courses and teachings from The Lectern
lectern.johnvervaeke.com
Support the Lectern and join a growing community of wisdom seekers
patreon.com/johnvervaeke
John Vervaeke:
johnvervaeke.com
twitter.com/vervaeke_john
youtube.com/@johnvervaeke
patreon.com/johnvervaeke
