Author Archives: admin

Have you ever discovered that a personal hero of yours – or someone you regard as a strong influence on your life – had also been a decisive influence on a person of whom you really disapprove? There are, I … Continue reading →

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 three books discussed in this blog all tell the same story. We could call it ‘the story of Christianity’. Yet, for at least two of our writers, it is also, as their titles suggest, ‘the history of Western values’. … 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 →