Tag: history

One of the books I read during my etimasthe summer break was Peter J. Williams’ Can We Trust the Gospels? In it, Dr. Williams puts forward a range of considerations why the four Gospels of the New Testament are not only credible, but should be believed. He explicitly does not claim that the truth of

“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he… would be justified in silencing mankind.” John Stuart Mill, On Liberty[1] One of the obvious phenomena in UK society over the last few years

I would like to share here three of the great legal declarations pertaining to freedom of thought, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression in the UK. We need constantly to remind ourselves of these great legal principles, because what has been clear for over a decade is that these freedoms are now under serious

I recently read the Proslogion of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, written in 1077-78, together with the written criticism of Anselm’s argument by Gaunilo, a monk of Marmoutiers, and Anselm’s subsequent reply. In Gaunilo and Anselm’s correspondence over the Proslogion we see a wonderful example of how to argue graciously — an example which has a

According to Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109, the existence of God is proven from his being ‘that-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought.’ He sets forth this proof in his work, the Proslogion, written in 1077-78.[1] I recently had the joy of reading it in Anselm, Brian Davies, and G. R. Evans, The Major Works, Oxford World’s Classics

Last week I commented on a beautiful passage by the second-century Christian theologian Irenaeus (c. 180 A.D.) showing his belief in both the full humanity and the full divinity of Christ. One of the things that comes across loud and clear in that passage is that, for Irenaeus, Christian faith is biblical faith. Before we

The passage below by the second-century Christian theologian Irenaeus of Lyons (around 180 A.D.) shows us very clearly the Christian belief, already at this period, in both the full humanity and full divinity of Christ, and in his virgin birth. (Not that any of this should come as a surprise to those who are familiar

On Friday the implication was made by Rugby Union referee Nigel Owens that a person is free to change their religion. But is this true? His comments were made in relation to Rugby Australia’s recent sacking of Israel Folau following his social media comments. Owens praised the action of Rugby Australia, saying that it sent

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons was one of the great theologians of the Christian Church in its first two centuries. He asked the question, “How was it that the Lord Jesus Christ saved the human race?” and came up with the idea (prompted by Paul in Romans chapter 5) that Christ relived obediently every stage of

[<<] [Contents] [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7] [Part 8] [Part 9] [Part 10] [Part 11] [>>] The Christian faith is not infrequently derided as irrational, delusional, fairyland. Though such arguments are sometimes made in an intellectually vigorous manner, I would argue that at least as often