Jonathan Bartley

Jonathan Bartley (born London, 1971) is the founder and co-director of Ekklesia, a Christian think tank based in London, and a religious commentator who appears regularly on UK radio and television programmes.

Biography

After graduating from the London School of Economics (1994), he worked at the UK Paliament as a researcher and parliamentary assistant for a number of years, and was part of John Major's campaign team in the 1995 Conservative Party leadership election against John Redwood. Between 1997 and 2001 he was General Secretary of the cross-party Movement for Christian Democracy. He founded Ekklesia, a think-tank which "works to promote radical theological ideas in public life".

Broadcasting

He is a regular contributor to BBC One's "The Big Questions", BBC Radio 4's 'Thought for the Day' and ITV1's 'The Moral of the Story', and is a columnist for The Church Times. He has been a guest on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze and has written for The Guardian newspaper.

Public Theology

Bartley has lectured in Theology and Politics at Sarum College in Salisbury, has served on the Church of England Evangelical Council, and is a regular speaker at the Greenbelt Christian festival. He is a supporter of Christian Peacemaker Teams, a pacifist organisation, and acts as press officer on their behalf in the UK.

Bartley has spoken publicly in defence of Dr Jeffrey John's attack on penal substitutionary atonement. He defends the full participation of gay and lesbian people in the church as an outworking of the Christian gospel.

His theological perspective is shaped by a commitment to Christian nonviolence.

Books

*"The Subversive Manifesto: lifting the lid on God's political agenda" (Bible Reading Fellowship, 2004).
* "Your Child and the Internet" (Hodder, 2004).
* (Co-editor) "Consuming Passion: Why The Killing of Jesus Really Matters" (DLT, 2005)

*"Faith and Politics After Christendom: the church as a movement for anarchy" (Paternoster, 2006).