Published on
28 February 2019
Posted in Christianity, Church of England, Conscience, Freedom, Liberalism, Liberty, Morality in Public, Uncategorized
In the coming year Pope Francis seems now likely to canonise the English Cardinal, John Henry Newman, completing a first step taken by Pope Benedict XVI who beatified him (declared him ‘Blessed’) in 2010. The Pope Emeritus has often referred to Newman in the same vein as his fellow-countryman St. Thomas More as figures who, […]
Published on
8 July 2017
Posted in Christianity, Culture, Marriage & Family, Music & Art
Terrence Malick’s most recent film, which received its UK theatrical release this weekend, is readily being described as the completion of a cinematic trilogy. The thematic unity of ‘contemporary soul-searching’ in Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder (2012), Knight of Cups (2015) and, now, Song to Song, alongside the aesthetic consistency of their highly fragmented, narrative-resistant forms, begins to justify this claim. […]
Published on
19 June 2017
Posted in Abortion, British Politics, Christianity, Conscience, Freedom, Moral Philosophy, Same-Sex Marriage
This is the third and final part in a series of reflections on the 2017 UK General Election. Shortly after the recent General Election the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, offered his resignation, issuing a statement which declared that he had found the tension between ‘remaining faithful to Christ’ and leading his party to be irresolvable. This came after a muted […]
Published on
28 August 2015
‘Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves’ – William Pitt the Younger Earlier in 2015 Baroness Warsi declared that Britain is fighting an ‘ever-losing battle’ against violent extremists and The Guardian reported that ‘more people were being radicalized in their […]
Published on
11 June 2015
Posted in Atheism, Christianity, Church of England, Culture
Nearly half the adults questioned in the most recent British Social Attitudes Survey said they had ‘no religion’, up from 31 per cent in 1983 and 43 per cent a decade ago. The figure now stands at 49 per cent. The survey, carried out every year since 1983, asked around 3,000 adults in the UK […]
Published on
24 February 2015
Posted in Christianity, Culture, Human Life, Ireland, Moral Philosophy, Social Commentary, Virtue
If God exists, says Stephen Fry, then he is an ‘utterly evil, capricious monster’. It is worth bearing in mind that, in the context of his interview for Irish television’s (RTE‘s) The Meaning of Life, Gay Byrne was not asking Fry to speculate on the concept of a Creator in the vague terms sometimes proffered by Hollywood celebrities. Byrne began, […]
Published on
31 July 2014
Posted in British Politics, Christianity, Culture, Education, Islam, Morality in Public, Religion
As details of the Trojan Horse inquiry make their way into the mainstream press, and as it becomes apparent that there really was something very troubling going on in certain state-funded schools in Birmingham, it is to be expected that questions be asked about the place of religion in schools. But while the ‘hardline and […]
Published on
20 December 2013
Posted in Big Society, Christianity, Culture, Marriage & Family, Religion, Social Commentary
There is something more than a little anodyne about the catch-all greeting ‘happy holidays’ which is now catching on in Britain. If no particular religious festival or ‘Holy Day’ – whether Christmas, Hannukah, or whatever – is identified, we are left with the negative notion of that which we are not doing at this time, […]