Cristo is a new Speaker and Tutor at OCCA The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. With over 20 years of experience in education, Cristo brings a background in Modern Foreign Languages and Religious Education in secondary schools, having worked in various contexts including Alternative Provision and youth work. He is passionate about supporting schools in teaching high-quality Religious Education and is particularly excited about fostering critical thinking and engaging with students across the Midlands and the North of England. In 2024/25, Cristo will be a Farmington Scholar at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, researching RE exam questions.
Through Cristo’s new role at OCCA, he is excited to join his two spheres of education and evangelism to faithfully and fairly present Christian beliefs and answers to significant questions in education.
Welcome to the team, Cristo!
Where are you from? What’s your background?
I was born in the Midlands Forest Town Mansfield I was interested in science and languages at school. From Mansfield I went to the University of Birmingham and studied German Studies spending a year at the University of Augsburg. I also lived in Vienna for a year working with the British Council as a language assistant. Upon returning to the UK I worked in Alternative Provision leading a small life skills project for disaffected young people. I later took an MA in Translation studies at the University of Sheffield focusing my dissertation on Bible Translation Theory. I had intended to become a translator, but the 2008 economic downturn meant the global information management company I was going to work for announced a worldwide recruitment freeze. God used this plot twist to bring me into teaching and I took a PGCE in Modern Foreign Language. After training and teaching MFL in Hucknall and Mansfield for around 10 years, I took a job working as Managing Director of a Christian Education Charity and became a School Chaplain. I always questioned why I had not chosen a PGCE in Religious Education so kept up to date with the various reports from Ofsted and the Religious Education Council and supported RE teaching through my charity work. While an MFL teacher I ran clubs and groups at lunch and break looking at theology, the Bible, science and faith, and critical thinking. I spent thousands of hours over 15 or so years reading theology philosophy world religions apologetics, textual criticism, and bible translation theory as well as teaching weekly in youth work, children’s work, and occasional congregational teaching. In 2019 I began to support a multi-academy trust with their Religious Education provision and I later became a trust-wide subject leader in Religious Education. My role is to support a subject community of Religious Education teachers to develop a high-quality RE curriculum and to support its implementation.
I really wanted to know how Jesus and the word of God touches every part of life and reality so studying and thinking about this leads to questions which leads to answers.
What will you be doing at OCCA?
My role at OCCA is speaker/tutor with responsibility for schools work. I will be developing new relationships with schools across the country. Reaching out into areas in the midlands and north of England and beyond is a focus for me. One layer of this is speaking in schools another is collaborating with schools and other speakers to create events in schools such as debates, conferences, or training. Some of this will be supporting Christian schools and some will intentionally be schools with no faith status where we bring speakers together from various worldviews into conversation to debate and dialogue big questions and demonstrate critical thinking.
The next layer is to move into resourcing for schools, students, and religious studies teachers. I hope to support schools in teaching religious education and to help teachers understand Christianity and the Christian worldview. At OCCA we do have expertise in various religions and philosophies so part of my vision is to leverage this to appropriately resource the education space with faithful, fair, and detailed representations of religions and worldviews other than Christianity.
…some will intentionally be schools with no faith status where we bring speakers together from various worldviews into conversation to debate and dialogue big questions and demonstrate critical thinking.
What questions do you see shaping our culture?
What is truth? Where is meaning? Who am I and what am I worth? Who can I trust and who is lying to me?
What sparked your interest in defending the Christian faith?
When I became a Christian a huge component of my experience was that Jesus is true. Given this truth, it animated me to see how Jesus Christ and his teachings impact my understanding of myself, the world, and others. The fear of God was the beginning of wisdom for me. This invigorated me intellectually. As an undergrad I had a decent memory and a desire to understand theories and beliefs but not because there was a true reality or any merit to proposing another theory. I wanted to know how Jesus and the word of God touch every part of life and reality so studying and thinking about this leads to questions which leads to answers. I realised lots of these questions which God had answered were being asked by others but they had come to different conclusions. Especially around the translation of the scriptures for example I found there were widespread assumptions about the history of the bible and its textual foundation. I quickly realised that although a person’s response to the answers is down to them and the work of God’s spirit there is a significant space to speak helpfully into the space where there are huge gaps in understanding basic Christian beliefs as well as complex answers to deep and variegated questions.
The fear of God was the beginning of wisdom for me. This invigorated me intellectually.
What topics are you most passionate about engaging within apologetics?
Historical Jesus, Jesus as Teacher demonstrating his identity, problem(s) of evil(s), moral arguments, faith at work (the Bible’s references to the world of work and trades), Bible translation.
What excites you the most about the work of OCCA and what you’ll be doing?
I never had the opportunity through school to hear anything significant or central to the Christian faith. I think there is a dearth of understanding about Jesus Christ, Christianity, and the Bible in education, and yet the culture assumes a high degree of familiarity. This combination yields misconceptions and I’m excited to be able to faithfully and fairly present Christian beliefs and answers to significant questions in education. In my role, this will have two spheres. I will support the high-quality teaching of Religious
Education through conferences debates dialogues and discussions on the big questions and resources as well as other events where our invitation is to speak specifically and intentionally in an evangelistic context. I am excited to be able to work in both these spheres and to add value to the institutions that invite us with high-quality speaking, events, and materials that fit the brief.
If you were stranded on a desert island and could only take one book with you?
The Bible, obvs!
Who would be the one person (alive or historical) you’d like to be stranded with?
My wife, Megan.
What luxury item would you bring, assuming it has no practical use?
I find it hard to think about luxury without practicality. I’d say waterproof socks but these aren’t very luxurious!
Khadija Paul