Interviews underlined in red are posted on this site.
Denis Alexander
is emeritus director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge, where he is a fellow of St Edmund’s College. His many books include Creation and Evolution: Do we have to choose? (Monarch, 2008, 2014) and Genes, Determinism, and God (CUP, 2017).
For High Profiles, Denis has interviewed Francis Collins.
Simon Barrow
For High Profiles, Simon has interviewed Nick Clegg and Layla Moran.
Jonathan Bartley
founded the thinktank Ekklesia, of which he was co-director with Simon Barrow until 2016 (when he was elected co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales).
He is the author of The Subversive Manifesto: Lifting the lid on God’s political agenda (BRF, 2005) and Faith and Politics after Christendom: The church as a movement for anarchy (Paternoster, 2006).
For High Profiles, Jonathan has interviewed Brian Mawhinney and Michael Portillo.
Jo Carruthers
is a senior lecturer in English and creative writing at Lancaster University. She is the author of The Politics of Purim: Law, sovereignty and hospitality in the aesthetic afterlives of Esther (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).
For High Profiles, Jo has interviewed Elif Şafak.
Steve Chalke
is a Baptist minister and social entrepreneur. He founded Oasis Trust in 1985, Oasis Media in 1996, Parentalk in 1997, Faithworks in 2001, Oasis Community Learning (which now sponsors 34 academies across England) in 2004, Stop the Traffik in 2006 and what is now the People’s Parliament in 2008.
Since 2003, he has led what is now known as Oasis Church Waterloo, in central London. He writes a monthly column in Christianity and is a frequent conference speaker. His many books include (with Alan Mann) The Lost Message of Jesus (Zondervan, 2003) and Different Eyes: The art of living beautifully (Zondervan, 2010).
He was awarded the Templeton Prize in 1997 and was made an MBE in 2004 ‘for services to social inclusion’. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
For High Profiles, Steve has interviewed Tony Campolo.
Brian Draper
is a retreat leader and consultant on spiritual intelligence. His books include Spiritual Intelligence: A new way of being (Lion, 2009), Soulfulness: Deepening the mindful life (Hodder & Stoughton, 2016) and, with the botanist Howard Green, Soulful Nature: A spiritual field guide (Canterbury Press, 2020).
He was editor of Third Way from 1997 to 2000, and then lectured on contemporary culture at the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity for seven years. He has ‘thought for the day’ for BBC Radio 4 since 2004.
For High Profiles, Brian has interviewed Paulo Coelho, Douglas Coupland, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Satish Kumar, Ellen MacArthur, Chris Packham, Richard Rogers, Mark Thompson and Thom Yorke.
Nelson González
was born in Colombia but grew up in the United States. A former study assistant to John Stott, he was a doctoral student and teacher in the government department of the LSE and founding publisher of the US Christian journal re:generation Quarterly.
In 2012, he co-founded Declara, a company based in Silicon Valley that applies artificial intelligence to improve how adults learn. He also advises banks and other institutions on ‘innovation strategies for social impact’.
For High Profiles, Nelson has interviewed Gerry Adams, Maya Angelou, Ian Paisley, Peter Singer and David Trimble.
Andrew Graystone
is a broadcaster, Faith, Hope and Mischief: Tiny acts of rebellion by an everyday activist (2020).
. He is a visiting fellow at St John’s College, Durham, where he is reading for a PhD on ethics in digital culture. He is the author of Too Much Information? (2019) andFor High Profiles, Andrew has interviewed Peter Bazalgette and Jeremy Paxman.
Harriet Harris
was then chaplain of Wadham College, Oxford and a member of its theology faculty. She is the author of Fundamentalism and Evangelicals (Oxford Theological Monographs, 1998) and Faith without Hostages: The Cross and Resurrection in our lives today (SPCK, 2002).
For High Profiles, Harriet has interviewed Camille Paglia.
Roland Howard
is first deputy headteacher at The Bicester School. He is the author of three books, including Shopping for God (Fount, 2001).
For High Profiles, Roland has interviewed Max Clifford, Paul Mason and Toby Young.
Simon Jenkins
is the founder and editor of Ship of Fools, the online magazine and community. His best-known book, The Bible from Scratch (Lion), has been in print since 1987. His latest is Jumble Sales of the Apocalypse (SPCK, 2017).
For High Profiles, Simon has interviewed Richard Ingrams, Mary Midgley, Jürgen Moltmann and Frank Wilczek.
Simon Joseph Jones
was editor of Third Way from 2002 to 2016, and is now editor of the Quaker weekly The Friend.
For High Profiles, Simon Joseph has interviewed Simon Armitage, Billy Bragg, Julie Burchill, Martin Carthy, Nick Cohen, Nadine Dorries, Tracey Emin, Nick Griffin, Darcus Howe, Dafydd Iwan, Simon Jenkins, Owen Jones, Mike Leigh, Ben Okri, Michael Rosen, Dennis Skinner, Patti Smith, Kae Tempest, Francis Wheen, Benjamin Zephaniah and Slavoj Žižek.
Hannah Kowszun
read theology and classics at Cambridge and industrial and organisational psychology at Birkbeck. She is currently head of fundraising at the charity thinktank NPC.
For High Profiles, Hannah has interviewed Kate Manne.
George Luke
is a writer, radio producer and DJ. He won the Jerusalem Radio Award in 2006 for the mini-series ‘9/11 Stories’, and co-authored Leroy Logan’s autobiography, Closing Ranks: My life as a cop (SPCK, 2020).
For High Profiles, George has interviewed Elaine Brown.
Roy McCloughry
taught social theology and ethics at St John’s College, Nottingham (now St John’s School of Mission) from 1984 to 2015. He was director of Kingdom Trust, a consultancy on applied social ethics, from 1984 to 2016, and a director and then chair of Lion Hudson Publishing from 1998 to 2015.
He is now national disability adviser for the Church of England and vice-president of Livability. His many books include Men and Masculinity: From power to love (Hodder & Stoughton, 1992) and The Enabled Life: Christianity in a disabling world (SPCK, 2013).
For High Profiles, Roy has interviewed Kate Adie, Tony Benn, Tony Blair, David Blunkett, Andy Burnham, Vince Cable, Menzies Campbell, Lynda Chalker, Janet Daley, Tam Dalyell, Amitai Etzioni, Harriet Harman, Peter Hitchens, Will Hutton, Michael Ignatieff, David Jenkins, Boris Johnson, Trevor Kavanagh, Helena Kennedy, Charles Kennedy, Hans Küng, Peter Lilley, Mary McAleese, Michael Mansfield, Andrew Marr, Theresa May, Peter Melchett, Andrew Mitchell, Frances O’Grady, Chris Patten, Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, John Stott, Polly Toynbee, Ann Widdecombe, David Willetts, Shirley Williams and Hugo Young.
David McMillan
is a Baptist minister. He was for 12 years a pastor in Belfast and from 1987 to 2004 was a director (and latterly chair) of Econi (Evangelical Contribution on Northern Ireland).
For High Profiles, David has interviewed Martin McGuinness.
Anthony McRoy
is a freelance journalist, author and lecturer and independent researcher into Christian-Muslim relations.
For High Profiles, Anthony has interviewed Omar Bakri Muhammad, George Galloway, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Tariq Ramadan, Mona Siddiqui and Shagufta Yaqub.
Pete Moore
is a science communicator and author, and director since 2005 of the training company ThinkWrite. His many books include Being Me: What it means to be human (2003) and Enhancing Me: The hope or hype of human enhancement (2008), both published by John Wiley & Sons. He is a member of the Physiological Society and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
For High Profiles, Pete has interviewed Susan Blackmore, Steve Jones, James Lovelock, Carlo Rovelli, E O Wilson and Robert Winston.
Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley is Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge. He was formerly a canon of St Paul’s Cathedral and, prior to that, rector of ‘the Actors’ Church’, St Paul’s, Covent Garden. His books include The Collage of God (DLT, 2001) and The Splash of Words: Believing in poetry (Canterbury Press, 2016), which won the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing.
For High Profiles, Mark has interviewed Judi Dench.
Simon Parke
is CEO of the Mind Clinic. Formerly a Sony Radio Award-winning writer of satire and then a priest, he has written many books, including Conversations with Mozart, Van Gogh, Meister Eckhart, Arthur Conan Doyle, Leo Tolstoy and Jesus of Nazareth (all White Crow Books, 2010) and One-Minute Mindfulness: How to live in the moment (Hay House, 2011).
His series of Abbot Peter mysteries so far runs from A Vicar, Crucified (DLT, 2013) to A Hearse at Midnight (White Crow Books, 2021). His historical novel The Soldier, the Gaoler, the Spy and Her Lover was published by SPCK in 2017.
For High Profiles, Simon has interviewed Ruby Wax.
Christina Rees
is a writer and broadcaster. She was made a CBE in 2015 ‘for services to the Church of England’ after 25 years as a member of General Synod and 13 as chair of Women and the Church.
She is a senior partner in Pumpkin Media/Media Maxima, through which she provides coaching, strategic consultancy and training in communications and media.
For High Profiles, Christina has interviewed Virginia Ironside, Jenni Murray and Cristina Odone.
Andrew Rumsey
is a priest in the Church of England. He is the author of Strangely Warmed: Reflections on God, life and bric-a-brac (Mowbray, 2010) and Parish (SCM, 2017), as well as an early book of poetry, Homing In (STL, 1998). He is also a songwriter.
For High Profiles, Andrew has interviewed Andrew Motion.
Bev Sage
is an artist who has worked in photography, songwriting, printmaking and painting. She is currently studying fine art at the Art Academy in London.
For High Profiles, Bev has interviewed Marina Abramović and Katharine Hamnett.
Harry Smart
For High Profiles, Harry has interviewed Kate Forbes, Tom Holland and Rory Stewart.
Huw Spanner
is managing editor of highprofiles.info. He has commissioned and edited all the High Profile interviews since he introduced the series to Third Way in 1993. He was editor of Third Way in 1993–97 and 2001–02. His byline has appeared in the Independent, Church Times, Developments, Green Futures and Sublime.
For High Profiles, Huw has interviewed Marina Abramović, Franny Armstrong, Steve Baker, Jonathan Bartley, Alan Beith, Martin Bell, Natalie Bennett, George Carey, Steve Chalke, Nick Cohen, Jeremy Corbyn, Iain Duncan Smith, Nigel Farage, Niall Ferguson, Daniel Finkelstein, Claire Fox, Zac Goldsmith, Jane Goodall, Brian Greene, Susan Greenfield, Dominic Grieve, Nick Griffin, Johann Hari, Werner Herzog, Polly Higgins, John Humphrys, Mike Jackson, Bianca Jagger, Tony Juniper, David Lammy, Bjørn Lomborg, Caroline Lucas, Len McCluskey, Alastair McIntosh, Bill McKibben, Khalid Mish’al, Zara Mohammed, Michael Morpurgo, Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Kumi Naidoo, Michael Nazir-Ali, Barry Norman, James O’Brien, John Pilger, Jonathon Porritt, Philip Pullman, David Puttnam, Anita Roddick, Carlo Rovelli, Ash Sarkar, Jon Snow, Mark Thomas, Mark Thompson, Sayeeda Warsi, Tom Watson, Salma Yaqoob and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
Nick Spencer
is senior fellow of the religion-and-society think tank Theos, having served as its director of research from 2006 to 2018.
He is the author of Atheists: The origin of the species (Bloomsbury, 2014), The Evolution of the West: How Christianity shaped our values (SPCK, 2016) and The Political Samaritan: How power hijacked a parable (Bloomsbury, 2017).
For High Profiles, Nick has interviewed Julian Baggini, Phillip Blond, John Carey, Shami Chakrabarti, Alain de Botton, Daniel Dennett, Maurice Glasman, Oliver James, Rod Liddle, Julia Neuberger, Peter Oborne and Robert Skidelsky.
Elaine Storkey
is a feminist social scientist and theologian. Her first book, What’s Right with Feminism (1985), and her latest, Scars across Humanity: Understanding and overcoming violence against women (2015), are both published by SPCK. She has been president of Tearfund since 1997.
For High Profiles, Elaine has interviewed Melvyn Bragg, Bea Campbell, Claire Rayner and Gloria Steinem.
Andrew Tate
is reader in literature, religion and aesthetics at Lancaster University. His books include Contemporary Fiction and Christianity (Continuum, 2008), The New Atheist Novel (Continuum, 2010), co-authored with Arthur Bradley, and Apocalyptic Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2017).
For High Profiles, Andrew has interviewed Margaret Atwood and Alan Garner.
Jenny Taylor
is a cultural analyst and journalist. She is currently a research fellow in communication, media and journalism at the Kirby Laing Institute in Cambridge.
Her books include Faith and Power: Christianity and Islam in ‘secular’ Britain (SPCK, 1998; Wipf & Stock, 2005), co-authored with Lesslie Newbigin and Lamin Sanneh, and A Wild Constraint (Continuum, 2008).
For High Profiles, Jenny has interviewed Michael Gove, Iqbal Sacranie, Indarjit Singh and Fay Weldon.
Nick Thorpe
is a freelance journalist and author who was features editor of Third Way from 2001 to 2016. He is now head of communications for the charity Fathers Network Scotland.
His books include Eight Men and a Duck: An improbable voyage by reed boat to Easter Island (Abacus, 2003), Urban Worrier: Adventures in the lost art of letting go (Abacus, 2013) and The Danube: A journey upriver from the Black Sea to the Black Forest (Yale University Press, 2014).
For High Profiles, Nick has interviewed Annie Lennox, Ken Loach, Jon Ronson and Jeanette Winterson.
Steve Tomkins
is editor of Reform, the magazine of the United Reformed Church. He has written a number of books, including biographies of John Wesley (Lion, 2003), William Wilberforce (Lion Hudson, 2007) and David Livingstone (Lion, 2013), The Clapham Sect: How Wilberforce’s circle transformed Britain (Lion, 2010) and The Journey to the Mayflower: God’s outlaws and the invention of freedom (Hodder & Stoughton, 2020).
For High Profiles, Steve has interviewed Armando Iannucci.
Steve Turner
is a journalist, biographer and poet whose byline has appeared in Rolling Stone, the Times, the Guardian, Q and many other publications. His first book was Conversations with Eric Clapton (Abacus, 1976) and his latest is Beatles ’66: The revolutionary year (Ecco, 2016).
For High Profiles, Steve has interviewed Rob Bell, Richard Branson, Wendy Cope, Michael Eavis, Matthew Fox, William Gibson, John Peel, Gene Robinson, Will Self and Peter Tatchell.
Catherine von Ruhland
is a freelance writer and author. Her latest book is Living with the Planet: Making a difference in a time of climate change (Lion Hudson, 2008), and her journalism has appeared in the Independent, New Internationalist and Church Times among others. She blogs (about Christmas in film) at kissbangchristmas.
For High Profiles, Catherine has interviewed Francesca Martinez.
Keith Ward
was Gresham Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, London from 2004 to 2008. He was previously until 2003 Regius Professor of Divinity and head of the faculty of theology at Oxford University and canon of Christ Church, Oxford. He is a fellow of the British Academy and sits on the council of the Royal Institute of Philosophy.
His many books include – all published by Oneworld Publications – God, Chance and Necessity (1996), The Case for Religion (2004) and Pascal’s Fire: Scientific faith and religious understanding (2006).
For High Profiles, Keith has interviewed Lewis Wolpert.
Keith White
is a sociologist and theologian. He is the director of Mill Grove, a ‘therapeutic community for children and adolescents’, and chair of the Child Theology Movement.
For High Profiles, Keith has interviewed Camila Batmanghelidjh.
David Wilkinson
is principal of St John’s College, Durham and professor of theology and religion at Durham University. He has written several books on the relationship between science and religion, including God, the Big Bang, and Stephen Hawking (Monarch, 1993) and Science, Religion and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (OUP, 2013).
For High Profiles, David has interviewed Paul Davies and Steven Weinberg.
Martin Wroe
makes his living as a writer but is also associate vicar of St Luke’s, Holloway in north London. He co-produced BBC Radio 1’s Sony Award-winning series The Big Holy One in the 1990s, and with Malcolm Doney has co-authored The Rough Guide to a Better World (Rough Guides, 2004) and LifeLines: Notes on life and love, faith and doubt (Unbound, 2018).
For High Profiles, Martin has interviewed Brian Eno, Ian Hislop, Charles Moore and Lemn Sissay.