Our team members have put together some thoughts and research in a series of blogs. Click the Read more button for the list of other blogs. 

THE THEOLOGY OF WELLBEING (some thoughts and reflections)

John says: "As we continue to reflect on the theological underpinnings of wellbeing, it was very helpful to be at a conference in November 2025 in Edinburgh, where John Swinton was speaking. This was organised by the Maclellan Foundation who hold an annual event under the heading of Transforming Scotland. This last conference was on Mental Health and Wellbeing.

John is so clear that wellbeing is theological by its very nature and I love a phrase that I have heard him use before “FIRST, there was creation and THEN there was psychiatry” – not because John dismisses anything about psychiatry but because we are also to be clear that we are made fully human by God and he knows us."

Read more here GOD'S PRESENCE IN AN ANXIOUS WORLD

Margaret says: "God’s ways look very different, and often completely opposite, to the power plays of mankind. What does the lord require of us? ‘To do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.’ Does what we are seeing around us look like justice and mercy? And what about that third posture of humility?" 

Read more here LEARNING HABITS

Margaret says: "Being a Christian and becoming an active part of a faith community involves learning habits and participating in these. But I wonder if too often we have over complicated these habits, turning them into a performative gesture, rather than a regular, ingrained habit that enables us to fully participate in our faith?" 

Read more here A THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION ON THE 5 WAYS TO WELLBEING

Margaret says: "When Jesus meets with the woman at the well he offers her ultimate wellbeing, something the old testament refers to as ‘Shalom’ – a state of wellbeing where we are at one and at peace with ourselves and can enjoy fullness of life."

Read more here WIDE OPEN SPACES

Margaret says:  "During the pandemic and often since, our thinking at Renew Wellbeing has been drawn towards words from Psalm 18:19 ‘He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.’ These words are repeated in Psalm 31 and 118. We have stopped to wonder at what a spacious place might look like; what a spacious place might feel like."