Ekklesia | Columns | The Giles Fraser Column

A can-do approach to climate change

Giles Fraser — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:26:32 +0000

The climate-change campaign needs a sense of can-do enthusiasm, says Giles Fraser. It would be really something if faith leaders were able to help replace gloomy defeatism with a broader version of something Christians call hope.

Urgent action for peace is needed in Sudan

Giles Fraser — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:57:48 +0000

The UK must take urgent and decisive action to reinvigorate the peace processes in Sudan, says Giles Fraser. Only with real international leadership can we hope to realise our commitment to protect the dignity of human life in Sudan.

When risk gives way to superstition

Giles Fraser — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:53:35 +0100

Faith in mathematical modelling looks little more than hubris after the recent economic collapse, says Giles Fraser. The unknown cannot be so easily tamed, as any half-decent theologian would know.

Finding new hope in bankruptcy

Giles Fraser — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:39:58 +0100

Bankruptcy is on the increase, says Giles Fraser. There is tragedy in economic brokenness, but also hope. Debt forgiveness has the whiff of salvation and biblical Jubilee about it.

Ignorant barracking of the NHS

Giles Fraser — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:32:13 +0100

The National Health Service has continued to take a bashing in the USA, says Giles Fraser. The outrage of the religious right is fuelled by ignorance and prejudice, he argues.

Marriage and its enemy-like friends

Giles Fraser — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:37:55 +0100

Some hardline pressure groups within the church are sucking marriage into a narrow religious ghetto, associating it with suburban 1950s curtain-twitching, thus making it even less popular than it is now, says Giles Fraser.

Being tested by the text

Giles Fraser — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:38:02 +0100

Talmudic study opens the door to an understanding of obedience that does not crush the enquiring mind, says Giles Fraser. The text of Scripture, rightly understood, both questions us and affirms our questioning.

We need both the rational and the non-rational

Giles Fraser — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:10:00 +0100

Try to imagine a world in which only things acceptable to pure reason are deemed legitimate, suggests Giles Fraser. It would be to imagine the most desperately impoverished cultural and emotional (let alone spiritual) desert.

The dark side of liberalism

Giles Fraser — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:20:23 +0100

Few words are bandied about with such casual abandon as “liberal”, says Giles Fraser. It can stand for the liberality and generosity vital to any outlook, but it can also mean an exulting of individualism and a damaging denial of inherited wisdom.

Sharing a liberation meal

Giles Fraser — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:35:11 +0100

The 'freedom principle' is not some alien liberal implant into historic Christianity, says Giles Fraser. It is the essence of the Easter and Passover message.

The cross is anti-sacrificial

Giles Fraser — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:36:17 +0100

The Cross of Christ is God's identification with the victim, says Giles Fraser. It abolishes the order of sin and death by abolishing sacrifice, not sanctifying it.

Facing human limitations

Giles Fraser — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:23:27 +0100

We got suckered by Fichte’s freedom fantasy, says Giles Fraser. The credit crisis is a reminder that, however clever we think we are, we cannot escape the limitations of reality.

Learning to die well

Giles Fraser — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:32:16 +0000

The idea of preparing for death makes sense, says Giles Fraser. In a society that fears dying it has taken a reality TV celebrity to remind us of what is truly important in negotiating mortality.

Acting hopefully in a Slumdog world

Giles Fraser — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:13:39 +0000

The slums of West Africa and of Mumbai are a reminder that the world's horrors are immune to pieties and romanticism, says Giles Fraser. What is needed is compassionate action.

Deadly procedure, life-giving action

Giles Fraser — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:34:40 +0000

The Church of England's General Synod produces the headlines, says Giles Fraser. But this is not the true church. They are somewhere else, trying to make a real difference to the world.