Renaissance, Reformation, Revolution The philosopher Antony Flew told me an engaging story about Wittgenstein at a meeting of the Moral Science Club in Cambridge in the late 1940s. The speaker began his talk on Descartes: “Cogito ergo sum…” Whereupon Wittgenstein said in a loud stage whisper, “That’s a f****** stupidRead More

It’s endlessly fascinating to observe how modernity rapes the very reason in whose name it was inaugurated,the foundation on which it’s supposedly built. Upon closer examination, however, one realises that the foundation is subsiding and termite-ridden. Detached from its divine source, reason can become very unreasonable indeed. Actually, as ifRead More

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, (aka Willie Wonga of the Payday Loans Factory) has cancelled or postponed the 2018 Lambeth Conference. This is no small beer. It’s as if the prime minister should cancel budget day. First held in 1867  at Lambeth Palace, the Conferences have gathered the bishops of the Anglican CommunionRead More

This morning’s Sunday Programme on Radio Four offered a rare treat. That nice, matey, Justin Welby, Arch-community Songster of Canterbury, came on to tell us that he says the Creed and believes it – “without having to cross my fingers.” But should we believe him? In a manner of speaking. Or,Read More

You know all that money which your parish church pays in tax each year through the diocesan quota? Do you ever wonder what they spend it on? Happily, I can enlighten you. I have just read an advertisement, a job description, issued by the Diocese of St Alban’s which spellsRead More

He was crucified also for us. It’s the for us which gives us trouble. Those two words are in a different register from the rest of that sentence. The evangelical missioner turns up on the doorstep and asks the householder if he knows the Lord Jesus Christ. The un-churched householderRead More

A financial consultant shouldn’t have fundamental misgivings about the morality of money. A geography teacher shouldn’t doubt that the Earth is round. A nuclear physicist shouldn’t wonder if the atom is really divisible. If these professionals are indeed beset by such doubts, any sensible person would be justified in thinkingRead More

Media conveys immediacy, but it doesn’t convey culture. Its famous flattening effect makes shoppers at a Staples in D.C. or a Whole Foods in Berkeley feel like they’re right among the toppled buildings of Aleppo or Gaza, without actually giving them any insight into the motivations of the players. They’reRead More

One of the main features of fascist regimes is their unwillingness to listen to rational, informed criticism. Well, if a perverse unwillingness to respond to criticism and to enter reasonable discussion and debate is a defining characteristic of fascism, then the Church of England authorities qualify perfectly. When the Liturgical CommissionRead More

It must be contagious. First George enlarged on the advisability of returning the Elgin marbles to Greece, a subject with which he’s manifestly and self-admittedly unfamiliar. Then Britain’s Catholic leader Archbishop Nichols accused the government of causing mass starvation by introducing some very marginal delays in processing welfare applications. InRead More