New post on my Substack, A Golden String. I am now beginning in earnest to promote my new book, Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination, out in June/Sept (UK/US). Do have a read! And/or do consider pre-ordering! (Thanks: it really helps early sales and so bookshop notice.) “The best overall study of… Continue reading Jesus is the only God. And so am I and so are you. William Blake’s mystical Christianity
Category: Blog
Andalusia and machine anxiety. How the Iberian philosophers can help us now
The extraordinary spread of Islam after 632 – from Central Asia to North Africa in a century – reached Europe in the eighth century, generating issues that still matter to this day. Not ones of religion, though, but of technology. Within a few generations, the technologies of the new civilisation hit the Iberian peninsula: vertical… Continue reading Andalusia and machine anxiety. How the Iberian philosophers can help us now
Christ at the turning point of history. Owen Barfield in a secular age
Owen Barfield was the genius Inkling, said CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. But why does he so much matter today?They consider how Owen Barfield addresses the idea of secularism developed by CharlesTaylor and why that might matter in a cultural moment that feels like a fork in the road.They speak personally of how Barfield… Continue reading Christ at the turning point of history. Owen Barfield in a secular age
Why Humanity Evolves and Civilisations Pivot. But collapse and crisis are poor catalysts of change
Jerusalem rises as Albion falls asleep. William Blake understood that the modern mentality was uncoupled from the inside of the world New post on my Substack, A Golden String. Every so often the human imagination changes. Deep switches tend not to happen following major events, because people are inclined to react to wars and… Continue reading Why Humanity Evolves and Civilisations Pivot. But collapse and crisis are poor catalysts of change
Living in an Age of Spiritual Crisis. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake & Mark Vernon
An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. Much of the modern world has become uncoupled from the transcendent in a cultural experiment Nietzsche called the death of God. But might this spiritual crisis prove to be a time of rebirth? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon… Continue reading Living in an Age of Spiritual Crisis. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake & Mark Vernon
The Abolition of Man, That Hideous Strength, Till We Have Faces. The importance of CS Lewis today
An audio version of the conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. A discussion with Jason Baxter, Nicholas Colloff and Mark Vernon. The Abolition of Man is a series of three lectures given by C.S. Lewis in defence of objective value, arguing that modernity has undermined our humanity by uncoupling intellect… Continue reading The Abolition of Man, That Hideous Strength, Till We Have Faces. The importance of CS Lewis today
Evolution. From natural selection to omega point. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. Darwinian evolution shapes modern biology, but the notion of evolution has a wider history, too. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore linear and cyclical conceptions of human and cosmic evolution and ask… Continue reading Evolution. From natural selection to omega point. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
Physics and reality. Francis Lucille on the nature of matter, the flaws of panpsychism & God
An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. Francis Lucille is teaching of Advaita Vedanta who brings together nonduality with science, amongst other subjects, his past having been in physics. Here, he talks with Mark Vernon about the universality of consciousness and how that fits with modern… Continue reading Physics and reality. Francis Lucille on the nature of matter, the flaws of panpsychism & God
On Mysticism. Discussion with Simon Critchley on his new book
An audio version of the conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. Mysticism is a modern word, as Simon Critchley discusses in his tremendous new book, On Mysticism. And its novelty is not a happy intervention in the history of mystics and their significance, Fundamental aspects of the insights pursued by… Continue reading On Mysticism. Discussion with Simon Critchley on his new book
In Search of Wild Gods. Reflections on Nick Cave and Tom Holland in conversation about Christianity
An audio version of this talk is at my podcast Talks and Thoughts available via podcast feeds. Nick Cave and Tom Holland discussed Christianity in an event organised by Unherd entitled In Search of Wild Gods on Thursday 9th January 2025. Chaired by Freddie Sayers, the conversation revolved around whether and why there is renewed… Continue reading In Search of Wild Gods. Reflections on Nick Cave and Tom Holland in conversation about Christianity