Insights

Insights into the mysteries of faith might be expected to come mainly from notable pulpits, where our trained theologians and men and women of religious eminence offer their views on life and belief. Of late, though,  I have been blessed with Godly insights from people with no obvious right to speak of holy things. It is as if those who are very busy in the secular world, pause for a moment - perhaps it has to do with Christmas - and reveal a light granted to them in their daily labours. They do not seek it, but it descends on them en passant and is the more powerful as a result than anything we professional God-botherers know. Here is that very worldly man Taki in the Spectator magazine: 'Although the Gospels were written by non-professionals, they exude more truth and power than you find in Homer and Dante and Milton put together.... People like Dawkins have never engaged with religion in a serious manner. They are shoddy self-proclaimed scholars who can only doubt and proclaim their doubts as proof of the absence of God and Christ. Give me a real scholar like Pascal, who proved mathematically that one cannot go wrong by believing in God. Then I happened on finance expert Martin vander Weyer writing that he waa asked to preach a sermon in his parish church at Helmsley, Yorkshire - 'A thing I was certain I would never be asked to do'. It was about Godliness and economics, setting out things 'the City must learn to avoid if its professionals and companies are ever to be trusted again.'  He pointed to a blistering report by a law firm on 'The Trust Deficit' which contains more ethical wisdom than anything I have read lately in the religious press. So 'Where can wisdom be found?' asks Job (28.12) In unexpected places, and do not forget anything by Matthew Parris, a reluctant atheist who writes like a prophet in The Times and elsewhere.