Published on
28 October 2013
‘We don’t do God’ said Alastair Campbell. In an increasingly secularised world the idea that religion might play any constructive role in public life is ever more considered a relic of the past. Religious institutions are considered at best well-meaning repositories of old thoughts in beautiful buildings the like of which we shall simply not […]
Published on
1 October 2013
With publication of a series of YouGov polls the State’s funding of religious education is once again in the news. Secularists have renewed their assault on all things religious, and public and religious leaders have responded saying that State-backed faith schools are a ‘precious right’ and that it is wrong to drag children into an […]
Published on
22 November 2012
Posted in Christianity, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Human Rights, Liberty, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy, Religion, Social Commentary, Virtue
Religious experience is, for many sceptical or simply indifferent secularists, something unintelligible. The idea that there is a God who can become a man and forgive sins — even that there is such a thing as God or as sin — is for them unacceptable. Religious people must remember that this is no simple matter […]
Published on
1 October 2012
Posted in Christianity, Civil Liberties, Culture, Philosophy, Religion, Social Commentary
The idea that there exists today a Christendom such as existed in the pre-modern era is as fanciful as the suggestion that the followers of Mohammed have established a truly global Caliphate. Nonetheless, to cast the recent rioters against portayals of Mohammed perceived as insulting and their political leaders as only mere descendants of clannish […]
Published on
16 August 2012
‘Modernity’, wrote Hegel, ‘is the secularisation of religion’. In many ways this is true of twentieth-century Europe during which we saw one responsibility after another pass from churches into the hands of government. Chief among these was, of course, the Welfare State, but education and moral authority followed not far behind. The last-mentioned is most […]
Published on
23 May 2012
Posted in Christianity, Religion, Social Commentary
There is a consensus among the leaders of the main political parties that, when reformed, the House of Lords should retain a number who sit as Lords Spiritual. This ‘bloc’ of peers is made up of twenty-six Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England. In a recent blog post it was argued that, were […]
Published on
3 May 2012
Posted in Christianity, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Legal Affairs, Public Policy, Religion
From a guest blogger: Regular readers of this blog will have seen posts over the last year in response to the Government’s decision to hold a consultation on whether to extend marriage to same-sex couples, as well as on developments in marriage law elsewhere. Frequently debate over redefining marriage has produced conflict between mainstream religious […]
Published on
29 February 2012
Posted in British Politics, Christianity, Conscience, Marriage & Family, Religion
In August 2011 a cross-party group of MPs and Peers called Christians in Parliament set up an inquiry into the freedom of Christians. Its preliminary report, Clearing the Ground, was published on Monday. The need of such an inquiry was felt due to media reports of Christians feeling that the law was discriminated against them. […]