Kester Brewin certainly has a different take on the story of the prodigal! Pirate Theology is not a homiletical method that I’ve ever employed. But then pirates tend to work for themselves. Brewin’s playful pirate theology encourages us to leave our places of comfort in order to view a familiar story as a tragedy in order to grasp what he calls “radical theology” in which we take responsibility for who we are rather than defer to “the Big Other”.

Brewin is a founding member of Vaux-London, a collective of artists and faithful urban dwellers that served as an early model of fresh expressions of church in the UK.

Kester teaches Mathematics in London and works as a consultant for the BBC, as well as writing for the national educational press. He is also an acclaimed poet and has been described by Brian McLaren as ‘one of the leading public theologians for a new generation of thoughtful Christians.’