It was fantastic to welcome Dr. Craig Bartholomew (Director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics) to our TFN conference Why the world is failing and what we can do about it.
Craig’s first talk was focused on understanding our contemporary world. Some say that we live in a postmodern world but Craig argues that we can discern at least four different forms of secularism that shape the western world. He distinguished classical modernism (faith in scientific progress), the structural-critical worldview e.g. Marxism and the Neo-Marxists of the Frankfurt School, the Cultural-Critical Modern Worldview e.g. romanticism and the adulation of feelings and individual autonomy as well as postmodernism and its focus on playfulness, irony and the avoidance of all commitments.
This was very illuminating and reminded me how important it is to understand the many different kinds of idolatry that plague modern Britain. Craig, in his second talk, really earthed this excellent critique by showing us how the NHS is impacted by what he calls ‘instrumental rationality’, the efficiency idol. In brief you are ill and you want to see a doctor but within the system you have become a number on a page. You no longer exist as a person but an ‘it’. Craig opened up how the NHS is gripped by an instrumental and controlling form of idolatry.
It was also very moving to hear Craig speak about how Christians lived with apartheid. Craig, a South African, lived under apartheid and observed very clearly how born-again, Bible-believing, Holy Spirit filled Christians accomodated their racism! He unpacked this by arguing that if Christians ignore culture (not even recognising how they swim in it) and refuse in dualist fashion to engage with culture they easily become its victims. Brilliant stuff!
In conclusion I was impressed by how Craig responded to the questions he fielded. He reminded me of his friend and co-author, Bob Goudzwaard, in the delightful way he showed sensitivity and a gracious and pastoral spirit. For example, when Mike, a friend from Barnsley, told us the sad story of the Christian school in Barnsley being forced to close down because the Ofsted inspectors were horrified to find a statement of Christian faith in the school’s missional documents negating what they called ‘British Values’. Craig opened up the biblical theme of ‘lament’ and that the faithful witness of Mike’s school would one day be present in the new heaven and new earth. Mike’s painful story highlights the pervasive intolerance of liberalism and the desperate need for Christians to grasp Kuyper’s insights into both pluralism and sphere sovereignty. Much more could be said here.
Craig is a very rare Christian. He is both a very insightful scholar and a pastorally sensitive and empathetic disciple. Thank you so much Craig for a great day.
Mark is a lively storyteller and the author of four books, including The Spy, the Rat and the Bed of Nails: Creative Ways of Talking about Christian Faith. His work is focused on storytelling and how this can help us to communicate the Christian faith. He has written many articles for the Baptist Times, RE Today, Youthscape, Direction magazine and the Christian Teachers Journal.
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