Published on
17 April 2019
Last week, Sir Roger Scruton was sacked from his role as Chairman of the ‘Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission’ following an interview that he gave to the New Statesman. Scruton’s appointment in November had caused considerable controversy, so perhaps his deposition from his unpaid position might be seen in retrospect as all but inevitable. Nevertheless, […]
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
30 January 2019
Posted in Uncategorized
This week has been one marked by many for recall of Holocaust Memorial Day. Acts of collective remembrance do play powerful roles in a nation’s psyche. Remembering historical events faces the challenge of stirring a continuous relevance, as memories fade with each passing generation and perceptions – however slowly – change. Yet Holocaust Memorial Day […]
Published on
9 January 2019
Posted in Ethics in Business, Europe, Freedom, Political Economy, Uncategorized
In our current malaise(s) it is worth musing on the work of the great German-born economist E.F. Schumacher (1911–1977). Schumacher brought the social teaching of the Catholic Church, in the form of the worked theories of subsidiarity and distributism, back to the forefront of economic debate. His legacy emphasises the Christian truth that ‘the substance […]
Published on
30 October 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Professor John Finnis delivered the 5th annual Anscombe Memorial Lecture at St John’s College, Oxford, entitled “Body and Soul: on Anscombe’s ‘royal road’ to true belief.’” The event was chaired by Professor Luke Gormally, hosted by the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, and co-sponsored by Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford.
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
13 September 2012
Posted in British Politics, Culture, Human Life, Moral Philosophy, Same-Sex Marriage, Uncategorized
For many supporters of same-sex marriage (SSM) in the UK their opponents are ‘bigots’. They are entitled to their opinion but the epithet in question is, to parody Samuel Beckett, fast becoming a word in search of some meaning. The assumption is that there are people who want something, and that there is no problem […]
Published on
5 September 2012
Posted in Culture, Human Life, Moral Philosophy, Uncategorized
There is a school of thought that holds we are at our most honest, and most essentially human, when at our most animal level. This, at least, is a suggestion made by Marc Cooper in his book, The Last Honest Place in America, about high-stakes poker games in Las Vegas. ‘Its thesis’, writes David Flusfeder, […]