L'Abri Canada

"Wildlife and the Wild Woman are both endangered species... The feminine instinctive nature has been looted, driven back, and overbuilt."

For many women, the words of Dr. Clarissa Estes tell a story that represent them. For this bestselling feminist psychologist, the natural in being female has been sterilized, the female diminished and the body disregarded. Those starving for the reality and meaningfulness of being female are spun a strange but familiar tale by Estes in all of its gruesome, bloody glory. 

In this talk we will dialog with the popular resurgence of Estes's 1992 book, Women Who Run with the Wolves and compare it to Christianity's perspective on the recovery of femaleness, its pitfalls, and an embodied connection to the natural world.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. Also, note that not all views expressed in the lectures or in the discussion time necessarily represent the views of L'Abri Fellowship. © Canadian L'Abri 2020

In the tension between evolutionary theories and creationist accounts, some have felt that one solution to bridge the divide is to see Adam and Eve as two hominins given an awareness of the divine ("breathed in life") and thus becoming images of God and representatives of modern humanity. Yet this solution isn't as simple as it first seems. When it is drawn out, it requires a reinterpretation of crucial aspects to Scriptural claims. This talk will examine this (often naturalistic) reinterpretation of the biblical trajectory and ask if the traditional view can still be defended. 

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. Also, note that not all views expressed in the lectures or in the discussion time necessarily represent the views of L'Abri Fellowship. © Canadian L'Abri 2020

Certain forms of AI are increasingly being experienced as personal contact. In a time of growing anxiety and loneliness, more and more people are turning to LLMs for easy and convincing companionship and advice. What will help me more? Something that mimics personality, sycophantically made in my image? Or someone truly ‘Other’, in whose image I am made, offering true sympathy and the challenge of healing and growth? In the Bible this very contrast is literally the difference between an idol and the true Creator and Redeemer. What might that mean for us today?

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. Also, note that not all views expressed in the lectures or in the discussion time necessarily represent the views of L'Abri Fellowship. © Canadian L'Abri 2020

Grief was once thought of as a linear process that helps us to "get over" loss. But as the book of Psalms shows us, grief is an ongoing dialogue between loss and redemption. In this talk, we'll explore how the grief process can help us dwell more deeply in God's goodness.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. Also, note that not all views expressed in the lectures or in the discussion time necessarily represent the views of L'Abri Fellowship. © Canadian L'Abri 2020

While Christians accept that Jesus should not only be Saviour but Lord over all their life, many remain confused about how to do this in their work and in their interests. This talk will look at how we can apply a biblical framework to whatever we do so that Jesus may be all in all. It will also increase our curiosity and invention.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. Also, note that not all views expressed in the lectures or in the discussion time necessarily represent the views of L'Abri Fellowship. © Canadian L'Abri 2020

What on the surface seems like just another conversion story in the book of Acts is in fact an epiphany of the wideness of the gospel for the world. It was not only a sign that the gospel was spreading to "the ends of the earth," as far as Ethiopia, it also meant that the Gentiles were being incorporated through Christ. This passage has much to teach us about what it means to more radically welcome people and how we might welcome them into the gospel.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. Also, note that not all views expressed in the lectures or in the discussion time necessarily represent the views of L'Abri Fellowship. © Canadian L'Abri 2020

“Once upon a time, words began to vanish from the language of children.”

So begins the preface to The Lost Words, written by Robert Macfarlane and illustrated by Jackie Morris. Words for childhood like acorn, adder, and bluebell have been replaced with words like blog, bullet-point, voicemail. As this book plays with various genre, through word and image, The Lost Words re-enchants us into a vision of the natural world which is remarkably consistent with a biblical theology of creation. This talk looks at three themes which are central to the biblical account of creation: forming, filling, and naming. Macfarlane and Morris’ playful exploration of these themes re-enchants us into a participatory engagement with the natural world which does not claim mastery, but marvels at mystery—and thereby compels us to orthopraxy in creation-care.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. Also, note that not all views expressed in the lectures or in the discussion time necessarily represent the views of L'Abri Fellowship. © Canadian L'Abri 2020

"For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding." (1 Chronicles 29:15) Pilgrimage is a metaphor that lends embodiment and physical imagery to the invisibly felt experience of walking through life seasons, internally and externally. Life is seemingly outstretched like a long weary road and we the travelers, making our way toward a distant destination. We will be taking a look at the symbol of pilgrimage through the Biblical lens, specifically how it is used in the Psalms of Ascent - the Pilgrim Psalms traditionally known for those traveling on pilgrimages to the temple in ancient Jerusalem. What does it mean to be a pilgrim sojourner and what does this symbol reveal about our journey through life, our spiritual seeking, and our desires for a place to belong?

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. Also, note that not all views expressed in the lectures or in the discussion time necessarily represent the views of L'Abri Fellowship. © Canadian L'Abri 2020

This talk will look at three views - that Jesus was a mythic creation to mimic the Greek gods, that Jesus was historical figure but a failed prophet that the church has propped up through desperation, and that Jesus was the historical figure who was and is what his followers have claimed, the Lord of glory. 

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. Also, note that not all views expressed in the lectures or in the discussion time necessarily represent the views of L'Abri Fellowship. © Canadian L'Abri 2020

Guest speaker Mark Ryan join us to discuss the complicated relationship Christians have to Israel. He is the director of Sage Christianity, adjunct professor of Covenant Seminary, associate professor of Calvin Seminary, former director of the Francis Schaeffer Institute, and former director of Canadian L'Abri! He walks the tightrope of a biblically informed tension, between full acceptance and full rejection. (The date of this talk was Nov 2025.)

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. Also, note that not all views expressed in the lectures or in the discussion time necessarily represent the views of L'Abri Fellowship. © Canadian L'Abri 2020