Houellebecq’s ATOMISED: a crude & brutal exposure of the ‘suicide of Europe’
I hated this book. I can’t even remember who suggested it or exactly why (it must have been something to do with the work I’m doing on our culture of suspicion and alienation) – but that’s probably just as well! Michel Houellebecq’s ATOMISED came out in France in 1999, and then in English translation in […]
The Loser Letters: impish wit and a satirical dissection of atheism
Mary Eberstadt has a wonderful turn of phrase and an impish wit, which are used to devastating effect in her 2010 book The Loser Letters. She boldly takes on the mantle of C S Lewis’ Screwtape, but instead of infiltrating the murky world of Wormwood’s diabolical apprenticeship, she joins the New Atheists in their quest to […]
Cynicism or Criticism? Developing an integrated mind at University
This is an update of a talk I gave nearly 15 years ago to some students back in Sheffield. My aim was to help them avoid the classic polar mistakes of either avoiding the intellectual challenges of university or being swamped by them altogether. There are all kinds of other joys, opportunities and challenges when […]
Convictions of an octogenarian minister: John Stott reflects on 60 years
Having spent a few days weeding out stuff from my bursting filing cabinet, I came across a real gem previously forgotten. Back in October 2005, John Stott, then aged 85 and just a year or two off his formal retirement from public ministry, addressed a small group of ministers, invited for the occasion. We’d only […]
Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 48 (September 2012)
Sacred Treasure Bart Ehrman is a widely respected atheist NT scholar – this is an important site that engages with many of his controversial (though not particularly original) assertions The complexities of translation: you never realised John 3:16 could be so complicated – a great little video from Wycliffe Phillip “Red Tory” Blond has a […]
Et in arcadia essemus: a visit to Wilton
With both children away on camp, Rachel & I ventured out on rather a road trip from Wiltshire along the South Downs and up. Marvellous. At the start of the week, we had a chance to visit the original Arcadia of Sir Philip Sidney’s imagination (see right for poet pic) – Wilton House near Salisbury, home […]
Friday Fun 23: Hobbes knows the answer to the Meaning of Life
It speaks for itself…
The Apples’ Adventure: Another Stop-motion Triumph
This post is not motivated simply by beaming paternal pride – I also got to have a cameo role in Joshua’s latest triumph… albeit as banana. And I got to be musical director. I have to say that I doubt my acting career will ever get much better than this. (And don’t forget, I ‘starred’ […]
The view from Olympian gods
What an extraordinary night. I’ve never been to an athletics event before in my life (not since defying the odds and coming second in the U13 100m at my prep school – nb there were only 3 other runners and only about 4 others in the qualifying age group in the whole school). But this […]
A Renaissance Paradise: The costs and glories of a Wiltshire Arcadia
I have a mild obsession with human attempts to create heaven on earth. Of course, their idealism is infectious: who doesn’t want heaven on earth? But such visions always come with a cost – in whatever society, in whatever generation. But if modernist visions of utopia have been about projecting the dream of the future […]
The dehumanising metrics of modernist ministry 3: The Past
No man is an island entire of itself said the prophetic priest-poet of old. Modernism and its western offspring, individualism, have done their utmost to prove him wrong. In vain. For whether we like it or not, we are all part of one another. And while Donne was clearly speaking of human society, he could equally […]
Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 47 (August 2012)
Sacred Treasure Nick Spencer writes the new Cambridge Paper on The Bible and Politics Catherine Weston has an interesting blog here reflecting on her experiences working across cultures. Threads is a pretty cool initiative by some media folk at EA – definitely worth following
