Humpty Dumpty

What a plight it would be if in its folly the human race ended, as Pope’s ‘Dunciad’ ends, with the line ‘And universal darkness buries...

‘Great crowds followed him.’ That is hardly our experience today. Indeed, we find it difficult to visualise a response to Jesus’ teaching...

We think it’s a new problem. It’s not. We have only to unearth a copy of the Book of Common Prayer to make sure. In the preface on...

Mostly when we read for pleasure we can no more remember books we have read than dinners we have eaten. We enjoy the output of craftsmen...

If we are to take the measure of a religious movement by its creative output, we must give attention to the works of Lewis, Chesterton,...

When Jack Aubrey set sail with his crew on Surprise, he was left to his own devices. He could experiment with a bigger yard-arm, drill...

When Augustus Toplady called Wesley ‘a low and puny tadpole’, did he perhaps think he was doing no more than Jude had done in his New...

‘Where does he get it from?’ they asked. They were baffled – they being the wiseacres in Jesus’ home town. It was, of course, against the...

It’s one thing to think great thoughts. It’s another thing to create something out of nothing. This is what poets, painters and composers...

‘My goodness!’ we say. Like ‘Crikey’ and ‘OMG’ it is a minced oath. We may not believe in God but we probably believe in goodness. Pure...

We all recognise an elephant when we see one but, as has been assiduously pointed out to one generation after another, it is not so easy...

It is remarkable that no matter how far Christianity has receded in popular estimation people still have an ungrudging respect for what...

From time to time we hear talk of ‘British values’. It is as though we in the UK have merits denied to others. It’s almost as though we...