ness on contemporary witchcraft — explor-
ing the dark side of feminist power, or some
such drooling nonsense.I
ncidentally, living in London these past
few months I found it a bit more anti-God
and generally PC even than Australia. At
seminars people often approached to tell me
they couldn’t say the things I said any long-
er. That is little consolation to me, however.
Australia is generally just a few years behind
London in these trends.
Most of the things alleged against Chris-
tian belief turn out, on closer inspection,
not to be true. For example, religion is not
oppressive but liberating. The most radical
statement in favour of human dignity in the
ancient world comes in the Book of Gen-
esis — human beings are created in the like-
ness and image of God. When Christianity
came along it provided the best deal
for women history had offered so far.
Each woman, like each man, possessed
an immortal soul (though the doctrine of
the soul took a little time to develop) and
was involved in a personal relationship with
the living God.
One of the main reasons Christianity
spread so quickly in the years after Christ’s
death was its treatment of women and girls.
Christian families didn’t kill baby girls, so
they had a lot more daughters. As a resultthey were happier. Christian daughters then
converted the pagan men they married.
The Disneyland version of Christian
history has it that Jesus was a kindly social
worker or at best a political activist — a sort
of Jewish Mahatma Gandhi — and the first
disciples tried to follow his vague teach-
ings. But then in the 4th century along came
Emperor Constantine who made Christian-
ity the state religion and there was nothing
but darkness and rule by wicked priests and
bishops for a thousand years.
In reality everything we like about west-
ern liberalism grew directly and organicallyfrom Christianity. Tertullian in 3rd- century
Carthage declared: ‘Everyone should be
free to worship according to their own
convictions.’ Benedict in the 6th century
established the first democratic, egalitarian
communities — the Benedictine monasteries
— which combined hard work, social welfare,
profound scholarship and a life of prayer.
The church wrestled the concept of sin away
from that of crime. Both St Augustine and
Thomas Aquinas argued that prostitution
should not be illegal, because while morallywrong it was inevitable, and the law should
not try to enforce every moral teaching.
Across 2,000 years lots of Christians have
done lots of bad things. Formal adherence
to Christianity does not absolve anyone of
the human condition with all its frailties. But
Christianity always calls its followers back
to the gospels’ first principles. You can read
the gospels, or St Augustine in the 4th cen-
tury, or Thomas Aquinas in the 13th, or John
Wesley or William Wilberforce in the 18th,
or Nicky Gumbel today, and recognise that
you and they all inhabit the same moral uni-
verse, the same culture. That is astonishing.
Liberalism today, in rejecting its Chris-
tian roots, is cut off from all limits, all com-
mon sense, from a living tradition. It is
careening down ever more febrile paths of
identity politics, rejecting the Christian uni-
versalism from which it sprang. It is harm-
ing people in the process. Sociologists have
established beyond reasonable doubt that
religious belief and practice lead to the
greatest human happiness.
There is, however, only one reason that
counts for believing in Christianity: it’s true.
Come on in, the water’s fine.Greg Sheridan is the foreign editor of
The Australian and author of God Is Good
for You. He has been a visiting fellow at
King’s College London this year.Master’s in Philosophy
Course Director
SIR ROGER SCRUTON
LONDON PROGRAMMES
THE UNIVERSITY OF
BUCKINGHAMThis is a one-year, London-based programme, starting in October 2019, of ten evening
seminars and individual research led by Professor Sir Roger Scruton. It explores
contemporary thinking about ‘the perennial questions’, and includes lectures by Sir Roger and
other internationally acclaimed philosophers.Each of the seminars is followed by a working dinner in the congenial surroundings of a
London club (in Pall Mall) where students can engage with the Course Director and the
guest speaker. The course is intended for all appropriately qualified adults with a serious
interest in the subject.Topics for consideration include consciousness, emotion, justice, art, God, culture and
fakery, and nature and the environment. Students pursue their research, under the guidance
of their supervisors, on a philosophical topic of their choice. Scholarships are available.For further details contact: the Graduate Admissions Officer T: 01280 827514
E: [email protected]
or visit: http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/humanities/ma/philosophyMost British people seem
to take it on faith that
to have faith is stupid