Peacemaking after Christendom

During Christianity’s early years, as the church moved from being a series of transitional movements to a collection of settled institutions, a blurring occurred in the distinction between Pax Christi, the kind of peace made possible by Jesus the Son of God, and Pax...

Gongs, grins and faith in politics

William Hague, the Conservative MP for Richmond and current Shadow Foreign Secretary, has made what many regard as a remarkable political transition from an electorally unsuccessful Leader of the Opposition mocked for his baseball-cap diplomacy to a ‘national...

What lies beyond Lambeth’s Sharia humiliation?

Funnily enough, I declined the opportunity to attend the inaugural Temple Festival lecture given by Dr Rowan Williams on 7 February. I figured that I could read his talk online, and that it wouldn’t be that exciting an event. What do I know? By mid-afternoon the...

Australian Christians wrestle with a political Rudd slide

In commenting on the significance of the defeat of John Howard and the Coalition Liberal/National Party government less than twenty-four hours after the election, and assessing the victory of the Australian Labor Party and Kevin Rudd, one needs to bear in mind that...

Open secularism meets open religion

This is the text of a speech at an RSA lecture meeting in response to a new booklet from the Humanist Philosophers’ Group, The Case for Secularism: A Neutral State in an Open Society. ——————- As the director of a Christian...