Kenneth O Morgan
Holy Orders
Freedom and Order: History, Politics and the English Bible
By Nick Spencer
Hodder and Stoughton 370pp £16.99 order from our bookshop
The Bible is both the most conservative and the most subversive of books. Throughout the centuries, it has been repeatedly cited both to prop up the established regime and to proclaim a totally different, rival source of authority – the individual conscience rather than the dictates of the state. As Nick Spencer shows in this engaging and stimulating new book, it has provided texts for the divine right of kings and Milton’s democratic republicanism, for Malthusian political economy and the egalitarianism of the Chartists. Spencer’s argument pivots on the rival claims of freedom and order. In practice, it would seem, the political uses of biblical precepts mean that anything goes.
Spencer, based in the theological think-tank Theos, aims to reduce all this to coherence with an extended historical analysis of the influence of the Bible in English (rather than British) political history. He succeeds in doing so. His tone is moderate and non-dogmatic, unlike that of most of
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'In 2007, German scientists analysed the soil of this lunar landscape and found that 17 per cent of its weight was made up of arsenic. The ground wasn’t poisoned – it was poison.'
http://ow.ly/Ck7j50Er3mu
'Rivalries are intense and dangerous, and someone has to die.'
@NJCooper_crime on new thrillers by @HenryCPorter, @k_faulkner, @annafbailey, @mserinkelly, @JoelDicker, @AlanJParks, @whartonswords and more.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/april-2021-crime-round-up
This spring, give the gift of reading.
Give a friend a gift subscription to Literary Review for only £33.50.
https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/literary-review/promo/spring21/