Author Archives: admin

Let us begin, then, by considering the religious symbol in general.  What do we mean by it, if not simply the image or likeness of something? In responding to this question, we face a very specific problem not widely recognized … Continue reading →

There are two – not altogether consistent – ways in which people understand the word religion.  There’s an everyday, non-technical sense which you would find reflected in the contents of your average school textbook of religious education.  We could sum … Continue reading →

The books treated here are concerned with telling largely the same story. We could call this the ‘history of Christianity’ – though, as is clear from their titles, that story is also the story of contemporary western civilization and its … Continue reading →

References to mortal transience are on every page – some of them taken up by countless adaptations and imitations in later Western literature. As for mortals, their days are like grass: they flourish like a flower of the field;/For the … Continue reading →

What view should Christians take of Liberalism – by which I mean the exaltation of the ‘individual’ and the ‘secular’ ideology of the ‘nation state’ which sustains, and is sustained by, that concept?  Is Liberalism an unqualifiedly good thing and … Continue reading →

When visiting the local Waterstones, and other bookshops, I tend to take a quick glance at the section of the shelves variously marked ‘Mind, Body, Spirit’, ‘Spirituality’ or ‘Self Help’.  That often includes ‘religion’, though I’ve been struck recently by … Continue reading →

If you were born in middle-class UK of the 60s onwards, the chances are the ‘Learnabout’ series of ‘Ladybird’ books for children on non-fictional (informational) subjects will form part of the backdrop to your childhood.  At a half-a-crown (two shillings … Continue reading →

The fall in church attendance suggests a decline in religion. How are would-be Christian evangelists to respond?  I ask, because upon our answer to this question will depend how we preach the Gospel.  Here is why. No religion or the … Continue reading →

My attention was first drawn to this book by a recent interview given by its author, Angela Saini, on the BBC radio 4 programme ‘Woman’s Hour’.  There, she described the idea for the book as having first come to her … Continue reading →

Multiple Christmas services at our Evangelical Anglican church greeted the usual throng of local, and not so local, folk, for whom Christmas constitutes a rare exception to their more regular practice of non-attendance.  This sudden, but predictable, annual re-kindling of … Continue reading →