“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” — Song of Solomon 8:7 History is littered with martyrs, but some rise from the ashes not as mournful relics, but as burning questions. Anne Askew — born in 1521 in Lincolnshire, unwilling wife, unyielding believer, and finally unwilling guest at Smithfield’s stake — … Continue reading Ashes of Defiance: Anne Askew and the Fire at Smithfield
Tag: Faith
The Devils of Loudun: Possession in the Age of Reasonable Madness
There are two kinds of devilry in this world: the kind that froths and foams in the convent, and the kind that wears a signet ring and drafts policy. Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun is about both — a tale where hysteria kneels before power and calls it holy. I’ve long thought that if Lucifer … Continue reading The Devils of Loudun: Possession in the Age of Reasonable Madness
Imagine: A Hymn to Nothingness
For years I tried to learn and perfect this song on my guitar, and then my piano. That is, until I realised just how useless this song is. It’s become something of a secular hymn, hasn’t it? Imagine — that soft, self-satisfied lullaby for the spiritually sedated. A song so sanctified by sentimentality that to … Continue reading Imagine: A Hymn to Nothingness
The Slag Heap of Forgetfulness
In memory of the children of Aberfan, 21st October 1966 Before the Bell Rang There are mornings that never end, only echo. Aberfan was one of them. The rain had fallen through the night — the kind of Welsh rain that softens the hills but sharpens the nerves. By half past nine, the children of … Continue reading The Slag Heap of Forgetfulness
The Trial of God – Faith, Silence, and the Prosecution of Heaven
The Trial of God is a courtroom drama in which the accused is the Almighty Himself, and the charge is silence. It’s not merely literature, but an act of theological rebellion, a Job rewritten for the smoke-stained century. Elie Wiesel, who survived the unspeakable and somehow found words anyway, didn’t write this work to comfort. … Continue reading The Trial of God – Faith, Silence, and the Prosecution of Heaven
Wording 