Logo

 

Banner Image:   Baptist-Times-banner-2000x370-
Template Mode:   Baptist Times
Icon
    Post     Tweet

The Magna Carta Unravelled 

The Case for Christian Freedoms Today

MagnaCarterunravelledMagna Carta Unravelled. The Case for Christian Freedoms Today
Baroness Cox, and others
Wilberforce Publications, London
ISBN: 978-0957572546
Reviewed by Alec Gilmore

If you are looking for a book on the facts and technicalities of Magna Carta in an attempt to understand how the Great Charter relates to today’s problems, this book is not for you. ‘Unravelled’ is slightly misleading.

The subtitle is more accurate. It is a collection of Papers delivered at a Conference to celebrate the 800th Anniversary of Magna Carta on Freedom Today (as presented in Westminster and popularised in the media) and how eight individuals (who share common values) would like to see them handled, mainly in defence of Christianity which they see as currently under fire in the interests of political correctness, a desire not to offend other faiths (mainly Islam), and in an ever-watchful battle against constantly encroaching secularism (though I think they really mean secularisation).

Though useful and helpful on the Background to Magna Carta (Nazir-Ali), with an Historical Perspective on the Case for Christian Freedoms (Philip Quenby), the Centrality of Religious Freedom (Roger Trigg), Sharia Law (Baroness Cox) and Freedom and the State (John Scriven), the give-away comes with Robert Harris (Religious Belief and Conscience) and Paul Diamond (The Clash of Moralities).

Don’t imagine this book is in any way an objective approach. Harris sets himself to examine how ‘restrictions on the manifestations of Christian beliefs and conscience are incompatible with human rights’ and Diamond has us in the territory of head dress, wearing a cross, praying with patients, fostering a child, or conscientious objection to same-sex marriage in a registry office, and so on, all leaving us in no doubt where they are coming from and where they intend to go.

Quite apart from their rather confused use of ‘religion’, ‘Christianity’ and ‘rights’ as if we all understood them the same way, as a Baptist I find it incredible that they can handle this topic at all without a serious attempt to introduce Thomas Helwys with his Mystery of Iniquity.
 


Alec Gilmore is a Baptist minister

Baptist Times, 28/01/2016
    Post     Tweet
Clever Cub Forgives a Friend, and Invites Someone New, by Bob Hartman  
Latest titles in series which takes the world of the child seriously and then tries to choose appropriate stories from the Bible to address their experiences - relevant and readable
The Hardest Problem: God, Evil and Suffering by Rupert Shortt 
'Not only helpful to Christians but worth passing on to thoughtful unbelievers who find the problem of evil and suffering an obstacle to belief'
Heroes or Villains by Jeannie Kendall 
'A gem of a book, thoughtfully and insightfully exploring the qualities we share with Bible characters'
Poverty, Riches and Wealth by Kris Vallotton
A book which makes you think with sections you might disagree with - but the golden thread that you are wealthy in proportion to your generosity, not according to your riches - is an excellent, Biblical principle
Lydia by Paula Gooder 
'Thoroughly recommended, not just as a historical novel, but also as a useful reference book kept close to the regularly-used commentaries'
Swansong by Jo-Anne Berthelsen
'This book certainly challenges us, but also encourages us that our words have real power to transform the lives of others'
     Reviews 
    Posted: 01/03/2024
    Posted: 22/09/2023