Welcome to my site!
You'll find notes for students, articles and books on philosophy, religion and ethics, along with examples of my travel photography.
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Covid-19 places us under lockdown, but does not stop us dreaming of where we'd most like to be. My choice, right now, is hiking in the meadows above Murren in the Bernese Oberland, looking across towards the Jungfrau and Eiger. See more of the Alps here.
I hope you've enjoyed the five weeks of extracts from the Beach Book during lockdown. For a list of all its questions, and a sample section, just click here.
If, at this stage, you still dream about sitting on a non-socially-distanced beach, here's how the book ends...
'Wiggle your toes in the sand again. Shut your eyes and let the sun burn orange discs through your shades. You simply are, you exist, you – on the surface of this planet at this moment – are something of a mystery, a bundle of questions not all of which are answerable.
'Breathe deeply and allow the ideas and then the book itself to slip from your grasp. There is a point when every philosopher should recognise that enough is enough.' read more
Why 'Philosophy and Ethics'?
I believe that there is nothing more important than exploring the fundamental existential questions. Who am I? What is the purpose of life? What should I do? How can I find and promote happiness? How should I relate to those around me and the natural world? Such questions are crucial, urgent and universal, whether they are asked from a religious perspective or a secular one. They impact on morality, politics, sociology, psychology and the environment.
Where religious questions touch on the issue of what it means to be human, I believe they deserve to be examined carefully (but also critically) by secular thinkers. But I think it is equally important for religious thinkers to pay attention to secular questions, for they embody the exploration of meaning and value that is universal and relevant, irrespective of a person's cultural or religious background.
I take a broadly secular and humanist approach, but have been, at different times, both an ordained Anglican and a practising Buddhist. If you think that's weird, just read 'About Me'!
Doing A-Level?
I've re-published my former Hodder textbooks in cheap paperback and e-book editions for students and for anyone interested in getting to grips with the subject. Click any cover for more information.
In June 1916, two remarkable religious thinkers found themselves on opposite sides of the battle of Verdun; for both the experience was uniquely formative, but they responded to it very differently. It transformed their ideas of God, their careers and their lives.
A German Lutheran chaplain and a French Jesuit stretcher bearer, although separated by only a few hundred yards of mud and barbed wire, tried to cope with, and make sense of, that horror of death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. They – Paul Tillich and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin – reflect a century of thinking about religion, politics, humanism, existential angst and the global future.
It's the story of two men and their struggles with religious belief, but also of the whole way in which ideas about God and religion have been shaped and re-shaped during the last hundred years. Paperback @ £7.99 / $11.50 | Kindle ebook @ £1.99 / $2.99
Click here for more information and a sample section.
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Fancy a trip to Bali? Click the image to see some of my travel photography, or here for the whole range of destinations.
