Author: Mark Vernon

Part 1 Part 2 I was delighted to get the chance to range over a wide variety of key questions put by Michael Leighty, gathered from an online audience, to reflect on the relevance and thought of the Inkling, Owen Barfield. The discussion includes the ideas of Dante, Jung, Kant, CS Lewis and Steiner, and… Continue reading Barfield on Jung, Dante, Steiner, Lewis, imagination & meaning – a QnA

I hugely enjoyed this further conversation with Paul VanderKlay about Owen Barfield and modern Christianity. It ranged over the meaning of parables and the reality of miracles, the eyes that can see today and the ears that can detect what’s coming tomorrow.

The origins of religion lie deep in the story of human evolution. But as Rupert Sheldrake and I discuss in this new episode of The Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, the scientific study of our encounter with other worlds is changing. It has been proposed that humans believe in gods because punishing presences keep individuals in check, but… Continue reading The Evolution of Religion with Rupert Sheldrake

My talk at the Temenos Academy, The Inkling Owen Barfield, Jesus, and the Evolution of Consciousness, on 1st October is now online.

It was a joy that Owen Barfield’s grandson, Owen A Barfield, who has done so much to champion his grandfather’s work, spoke at the book launch of A Secret History of Christianity.

This article is published in The Friend, the Quaker magazine this week. I was on holiday with friends in a sunny corner of Cornwall, when one of them confessed she was engaged in a personal enquiry. She had decided to ask each of us about our image of God. It was a good idea. As… Continue reading I saw that silence…

If Owen Barfield had written a Mere Christianity, like his “oppositional friend” C.S. Lewis, this is what he might have said. Where Lewis started with morality, Barfield would start with vision. Where Lewis addresses a flawed humanity, Barfield would invite us to seek participation in divine life. This was a talk I gave at Southwark… Continue reading Mere Christianity by Owen Barfield

This article was written for The Church of England Newspaper, published on 26th Sept 2019 as “Uncovering the last Inkling”. Everyone has heard of C.S. Lewis. Not many have heard of Owen Barfield. However, Lewis would not have become the famous author and apologist without the man he called his “oppositional friend”. I have found… Continue reading Owen Barfield on C.S. Lewis

This article was written for The Idler. The new William Blake exhibition at Tate Britain is tremendous. It features three hundred of his works, any of which on their own would command a room. Together they present an extraordinary energy. It’s a rare chance to be immersed in the images of the prophet and poet,… Continue reading William Blake’s therapy for the soul

I was a panelist for the latest edition of the long-standing BBC Radio 4 religious discussion programme, Beyond Belief. We discussed the nature of God. “God is a presence that runs in and through all things that’s quite quiet and still but there’s something very powerful and strong in that presence and stillness.” “You can… Continue reading BBC Radio 4’s Beyond Belief on God