Radical Hope
The William Temple Foundation is exploring the concept of Radical Hope and what it might mean for citizens, communities and institutions shaping the public square in the UK and around the world. Language of Radical Hope has it roots in the book of the same name by Jonathan Lear and was first introduced at the Foundation in 2023, through a blog by Simon Lee exploring radical hope in terms of the The true value and values of universities. This staked out an agenda which might also be considered by other institutions contributing to the public sqaure. In 2024, Fellows of the Foundation, Dr Val Barron and Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell developed gatherings around the idea of Radical Hope in an Election Year in the north east and north west of England respectively. This was inspired by the fact that democratic processes were taking place in 82 countries around the world that year and legitimate questions were being raised about what forms citizen engagement might take. Further gatherings have followed, including the Finding Radical Hope roundtable at Liverpool Hope University in 2024, and the Communicating Radical Hope Conference at the Inner Temple in London in partnership with Spaces of Hope and the Virginia Theological Seminary in 2025. Publications, podcasts and dialogues which are feeding into this agenda have been curated here.
The William Temple Foundation Podcast: Radical Hope Series (2)
In Series 2 of the Podcast, we are offering a series of book reviews, where we interview the author about a given text with respect to question of radical hope.
In episode 3 of the podcast Matthew Barber-Rowell interviews Professor Martyn Percy about his new book, The Crisis of Colonial Anglicanism: Empire Slavery and Revolt in the Church of England.
In Episode 2 of the Radical Hope Podcast, Matthew Barber-Rowell interviews Rev Dr Jesse Zink about his book, Faithful Creative, Hopeful: Fifteen Theses for Christians in a Crisis-Shaped World
In Episode 1 we interview Dr Joseph Forde from the Urban Theology Union about his edited collection compiled with Dr Terry Drummond ‘Celebrating 40 Years of Faith in the City’.
Radical Hope Temple Tract
House and Home: Sacred Space and Radical Hope in Secular Society
Martyn Percy
In this Temple Tract, Martyn Percy, Professor of Religion and Culture at St Joseph’s University, Macao, applies the emerging concept of radical hope, within contexts of sacred space and secular society. The working concept for radical hope is simple enough with radical understood in terms of a return to and drawing on the roots of things in a way that gives life. Percy offers his own experience as the roots for his argument. Two roots stand out. The first root is as Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, which involved leadership of both the university college and the mother church of the Diocese of Oxford. The second root is as a contextual and pastoral theologian where Percy addresses themes pertinent to the contemporary church, often in relation to issues of boundaries, borders, inclusion, and exclusion. Utilising examples from his own experience, and also turning to sacred spaces such as Coventry Cathedral, and St Paul’s Cathedral, Percy engages with the nature of those spaces, their counter cultural and revolutionary potential for gathering, and their role in equipping people to nurture radical hope.
Radical Hope – Temple Book
Communicating Radical Hope in an Era of Poly-crisis: Proceedings from a Conference at the Inner Temple, London.
Edited by Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell
This Temple Book offers a record of a conference which took place at the Inner Temple, London, on the 30th April 2025. The conference was a partnership led initiative between the William Temple Foundation, Spaces of Hope and Virginia Theological Seminary, with contributions from a great many others, set out in the Contributors section and chapters to in the book. The conference carried the same title as this ebook Communicating Radical Hope in an era of poly-crisis, and was derived from two main sources. 1) dialogue in summer 2024 between Nicky Burridge, Vice President for Communications and Institutional Advancement at Virginia Theological Seminary and the General Theological Seminary, New York, and Dean’s Scholar and Temple Fellow Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell, and 2) the Radical Hope campaign, roots for which can be found in our 2024 ebook and a 2025 volume by Barber-Rowell Curating Spaces of Hope: Transformational Leadership for Uncertain Times published by SCM Press.
Radical Hope Editorial
Authentic Communications – learning lessons from Communications expert Nicky Burridge
At William Temple Foundation we are searching for radical hope in an era of polycrisis. We have located the search in the public square, and are considering specifically how this search relates to faith based organisations and their search for and proliferation of hope… In the Temple spirit of consultation with global leaders in their field, for our Communicating Radical Hope campaign, we have engaged with Vice President for Communications and Institutional Advancement at Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria and the General Theological Seminary New York, Nicky Burridge. Read the full editorial here
Conference – Communicating Radical Hope in an era of poly-crisis:
On the 30th April 2025, William Temple Foundation hosted a one day conference at the Inner Temple, London, in partnership with Virginia Theological Seminary and Spaces of Hope. This conference emerged following the award of a Dean’s Scholarship to William Temple Foundation Research Fellow Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell following the Radical Hope gathering at Liverpool Hope University in April 2024. This conference opened up questions and debates relevant to faith based organisations in the public square and their responses to poly-crises. The conference was a hybrid gathering to reflect the conditions and spaces of engagement that make up the public square in the 21st Century. The gathering explored questions relating to freedom of religion and belief (FoRB) in the public square, truth and propaganda in an age of AI, and the role that dialogue can play in developing shared values in the public square. The conference was used to launch an international search for hope, which has continued since – details of the launch can be found in the Conference write up, and Conference proceedings included in the Communicating Radical Hope Temple Book and the William Temple Foundation Podcast.
The William Temple Foundation Podcast: Radical Hope Series (1)
In this series we explore the contours of communications faith based organisations and dialogue in the public square. We will draw on stories and experiences from both sides of the Atlantic and consider what these might mean for people and institutions who are seeking to contribute to public life in the UK, US and around the world. This podcast is hosted by Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell, Communications Officer and Research Fellow for the William Temple Foundation, and a Dean’s Scholar at Virginia Theological Seminary and Vice President for Communications at VTS and the General Theological Seminary in New York, Nicky Burridge. Contributors include Bishop John Arnold, Martyn Percy, Simon Lee, Kerim Balci, Mark Hill KC, Emma Briant, Emma Gardener, Grace Thomas, Francesca Bernardi and Julie Guegan.
To listen to all 7 episodes, head over to our Podcast page or Spotify, now
Curating Spaces of Hope: Transformational Leadership for Uncertain Times – SCM Press.
The William Temple Foundation is delighted to announce the publication of this new monograph by Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell in March 2025, with SCM Press. Matthew completed his PhD with support from a Temple Scholarship (2019) and was recipient of the inaugaral Temple Postdoctoral Fellowship (2022) and now offers a new paradigm and methodology for Leadership in the Temple Tradtion. An endorsement has been provided by Chair of the Board of Trustees of the William Temple Foundation Professor Simon Lee who said,
“Matthew Barber-Rowell reinterprets or even reinvents the Temple legacy for the first half of this century. This is much needed for the renewal of the Church of England’s leadership but there are plenty of lessons here also for all leaders, all institutions and all who think they are on the peripheries … I can see how Matthew Barber-Rowell’s multiple roles within and beyond this tradition have informed his insights into radical hope”.
The book is available from SCM Press now
Radical Hope in an Election Year – Temple Book
Finding Radical Hope in an Election Year? Reflections from a Roundtable at Liverpool Hope University (edited by Matthew Barber-Rowell, 2024)
This Temple Book is an outcome of the Roundtable hosted by William Temple Foundation at Liverpool Hope University on the 26th April 2024. The gathering addressed the question of how we might find Radical Hope in an election year? This volume is both a record of the proceedings of the day and should be taken up as a basis for a possible agenda of Radical Hope for the future. The election year of 2024 is an important marker for the enactment of democracy at the voting booth. However that is in itself only one expression to which we believe Radical Hope might be applied. An understanding that is present across these papers is that Radical Hope might be ongoing, as both an emerging influence and as an effective driving force for ongoing change. We commend this volume to anyone seeking change in this time of crisis, which is rooted in hopeful alternatives to the status quo.
Radical Hope Blogs:
Deirdre Brower-Latz – Resilience, Resistence and Radical Hope – “Our hope would be that as we talk, share and shape each other through story, we can also align our lives together in new ways to ensure human dignity across the UK and around the world. We can find ways of holding fast to that which is good in the light of anything that would seek to destroy it.”
Matthew Barber-Rowell – Just Decison Making II – “It is important to be attentive to the details of what is going on around us and to maintain a critical eye on what is shaping our lives and our experiences. Of this, Bishop Bell painted a vivid picture. His account noted that after the first World War lessons had not been learned, wounds were not healed, silos were deepened, injustices and frustrations remained and even grew. Bishop George noted that as time went on, principles and traditions which held together a sense of common life ‘melted away’ (Bell, 1940, p11)”
Matthew Barber-Rowell – Just Decision Making – “Temple argued that we should each speak from our own position, be open to scrutiny and challenge and seek justice in a consultative way. For those who have followed the work of the Foundation post-pandemic, they will know that we are operating in this space, but we are not arguing for applying Temple’s specific contributions from the 1940s, to public policy debates in the 2020s. We have acknowledged that we must imagine a fresh approach to seeking justice in the public square, suitable for the 21st century”
Andy Robertson – The Unexpected (and Undiscovered) Public Good of Video Games – “Discovering the work of the William Temple Foundation was instantly fascinating to me. The organisation has a similar challenge to the one I face, albeit at a different stage of its life cycle. It focuses on capitalising on the lost benefits that church and faith have to play as a positive role in shaping life and giving voice to those on the margins”
Matthew Barber-Rowell – The [im]possibility of Hope – “So what is going on? How has day-to-day life suddenly become juxtaposed with such violence and disorder? Are we, as Elon Musk has suggested descending inevitably into civil war? I think he’s being utterly irresponsible saying this – if I owned a social media platform, I hope I would use it substantially differently – nonetheless, something serious is going on.”
Paul Monk – Food hope and love: the local church in a time of crisis – “To give hope, churches must know their context: to that end, they must explore then change. Jesus himself tells us to explore context by commanding us to love our neighbour. He then asked, ‘who is my neighbour?’ We cannot pick and choose.”
Grace Thomas – Radical Hope in the midst of poverty in the city – “I was given the remit recently to speak about radical hope in the midst of poverty. I didn’t know where to start, so I started by telling my story. Stories matter – they tell us about the reality of life. Narratives of experience and context can be rich with insight and innovation, but story as a source of knowledge is still contested within a Eurocentric rationalistic paradigm.”
Matthew Barber-Rowell – Radical Hope: Reflections on a Roundtable at Liverpool Hope Univertsity – “On Friday 26th April 2024, the William Temple Foundation hosted a roundtable in partnership with Liverpool Hope University, exploring an emerging interdisciplinary agenda framed in terms of “Radical Hope”.
Chris Baker – Three Core Principles of Radical Hope to Bring to the Policy Table – “This blog also builds on one written on the same theme by our Chair of Trustees Professor Simon Lee last year in respect to Higher Education. It also expands, in its later references to ‘assemblages’ and ‘pop-up spaces of hope and radical solidarity’, on the many ideas and practices developed in his PhD thesis by Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell”
Val Barron – Radical Hope after 10 years with Communities Together Durham – “Almost ten years ago to the day I joined Communities Together Durham (CTD) as a community development worker and today is my last day as I move to another role.”
Chris Baker – Finding Radical Hope in a Year of Election? – “At the start of this election year of 2024, we at the Foundation are asking the question: If what we need to rediscover as a society is a sense of radical hope, then what might that look like; and how might we feed this hope into the policy areas that are already shaping the forthcoming election debates?”
Maria Power – Where might we find Radical Hope? – “Through the Magnificat, Mary outlines for us Christ’s mission and demonstrates that we have a role to play in its fulfilment. We are taught what God will do for us, if we take up his offer of freedom by serving others. The mighty will be cast down and the lowly exhalated. This is the good news that Jesus brought and asks us to continually work for.”
Simon Lee – Radical Hope: The True Value and Values of a University – “The true genius of university education is that what prove to be the deepest influences on you in the long run are often people, places, experiences, ideas and graces which you hardly noticed when they first came into your student life.”