Bishop Martyn and his Social Policy Advisor, Florence Gildea, have launched a blog designed to help Christian leaders participate in public debates about contested questions.
The aim behind “Faith in the Public Square” is to bring evidence from the social sciences together with theology to help readers think through areas of our common life which are the subject of heated debate.
Posts will be published on a monthly basis, addressing topics related to how Christians should be involved in politics, divisions in society, immigration, and the impact of social media and A.I.
Florence Gildea explains the reasoning behind the blog: “For a long time it was expected that Christianity and religion more generally would play a smaller and smaller role in our public and political life. But the opposite appears to be true.
“Christianity is now regularly referenced by politicians and campaigners, but it is not always clear how to respond. On one hand, it presents an opportunity to speak to the relevance of Christianity to the modern world. But, on the other, there are risks of fracturing relationships, and reducing the depth of our faith to soundbites and pithy tweets.
“Theological training offers rich resources for thinking about Scripture, doctrine, and pastoral care, but it rarely covers the political theory or social science needed to engage constructively with thorny questions of policy and politics. So, we hope Faith in the Public Square can begin to fill in the gap, and help Christian leaders feel more confident speaking about issues facing our society.”
You can subscribe to Faith in the Public Square here and receive new posts directly to your inbox.