Theo Hobson

Theo Hobson

Theo Hobson is co-editor of Created for Love: Towards a New Teaching on Sex and Marriage.

Monday

Theo Hobson

The Creationism debate

From our UK edition

Here's the latest instalment of Theo Hobson's regular Coffee House column on religion. Is the Telegraph’s religion correspondent, George Pitcher, a creationist? Last week he came out as one – sort of. But what he really means, he says, is that he believes in creation as a ‘meta-narrative.’ This is not the same thing. It is muddying the waters to confuse creation-faith with creationism. All Christians believe in God’s creation of the world – but if they are thoughtful and honest they will admit that this is a hugely problematic matter, which more or less defies rational explanation. Creationists are Christians who cannot admit this, who need a pseudo-scientific account of God’s creation, which is of course incompatible with evolution.

Sunday

Theo Hobson

A matter of faith | 14 September 2008

From our UK edition

Theo Hobson is writing a regular column for Coffee House on religion. This week he tackles the legacy of Cardinal Newman and the Alpha Movement’s new ad campaign. Frankly I don’t care whether or not Cardinal Newman’s remains are dug up and buried somewhere more saintly; the phrase ‘let the dead bury their own dead’ springs to mind. But it slightly amuses me that Peter Tatchell defends Newman’s right to be left where he is, next to the man whom he loved, Ambrose St John. On Newsnight,Tatchell was coy about what sort of love he thought was involved. He laughably described the friendship as a ‘same-sex’ relationship: it’s quite hard for two men to have a non-same-sex relationship.

Monday

Theo Hobson

A matter of faith

From our UK edition

Is the debate about faith schools becoming more constructive and intelligent? The reason for hoping so is the launch of a new campaigning group called Accord which calls for major reform of the system, but in a relatively nuanced way. It is composed of more than the usual atheist suspects, who think that anything religious is intrinsically demonic. Its chairperson is Rabbi Jonathan Romain, and there are a few Anglican vicars on board. The core aim is not to ban faith schools but to make them open to all locals; to end selection on the basis of parental religious allegiance. It is good to hear from believers who don’t toe the line, who dare to question whether the institutions are serving the common good. I think this lobby has the right idea.

Wednesday

Theo Hobson

Doing the Lambeth walk

From our UK edition

Theo Hobson reports from the Lambeth conference.  Do take the time to read Theo's magazine piece from a few weeks ago, on a Church of England "damaged beyond repair" - Pete Hoskin The first press conference is taken by the Archbishop of Brisbane, Philip Aspinall. It’s a bit like the press conferences in The West Wing: authority is wearing a friendly, jokey face, but with the expectation of having to fend off awkward questions any minute. Like C.J., Aspinall is conspicuously calm about the negativity-hunger of the hacks. The subtext is something like this: ‘We are completely ready for the cynicism that you the media are bringing – and we forgive you. Watch us overcome it with faith, hope and charity.

Wednesday

Theo Hobson

A very English coup — and the end of our national church

From our UK edition

On the eve of the General Synod and the Lambeth Conference, Theo Hobson says that the sleeping giant of evangelical and orthodox Anglicanism has been awoken by liberal agitation and Rowan Williams’s failed leadership. The church is damaged beyond repair Some years ago a vicar gave a sermon in which he tried to explain the latest developments in the Anglican Communion to his congregation. Afterwards an old lady came up to him, a bit bemused. ‘How does all this stuff about Anglicans affect us?’, she asked. ‘Well,’ he replied, smiling warmly at the old biddy, ‘we’re all part of the global Anglican Communion, aren’t we?’ She looked still more bemused: ‘I thought we were Church of England.’ She had a point.

Saturday

Theo Hobson

‘It’s harder for straights to feel Christian charity than gays’

From our UK edition

Theo Hobson meets Gene Robinson, the only openly gay Anglican bishop, who says that homosexuals are more open to the Christian ‘message of radical change’ I am sitting in St Mary’s church, Putney, home of right-on Anglicanism. Bishop Gene Robinson — the gay American whose election nearly split the Anglican church — is seeking reassurance from his fans. He’s had a grilling from our nasty press, he says, and is relieved to be among friends. I get out my pen and prepare to dip it in poison. I feel deeply ambivalent about Gene — not hostile, but very much in two minds. And I think he may hold the future of the Anglican communion in his hands.

Saturday

Theo Hobson

Don’t blame religion

From our UK edition

Theo Hobson says that the suicide bombers are not inspired by a belief in an afterlife so much as by political ideology — like the kamikaze pilots of the second world war Heaven is the problem. That is what the atheists are saying. Religion is dangerous because it hooks us on heaven; it encourages us to prefer another world to this one. Once people are gulled into believing in eternal bliss, they are likely to be impatient for it. Is it any great surprise that some believers lose all respect for this world and its inhabitants, when they have been told that it is a shadowy antechamber to the real deal? This is what Matthew Parris said soon after the London bombings: that the problem lies not with extremist Islam but with any faith that dangles the afterlife before us.

Saturday

Theo Hobson

Where Blair has gone wrong

From our UK edition

Frank Field tells Theo Hobson about Christianity, socialism — and the Prime Minister’s failure of leadership I am expecting to meet Edmund Blackadder’s Puritan uncle, who frowns on suggestively shaped turnips, and worries that someone somewhere is having fun. But Frank Field does not fit the description. He’s smiley, forthcoming, chatty. Field is more interesting than most ex-ministers. He embodied New Labour’s early attempt at stern moral idealism and intellectual rigour — the Keith Joseph of the movement. He looks beyond party labels (he is a friend of Lady Thatcher); he writes books about the politics of behaviour and the Kingdom of God (he is a staunch Anglican).