Fergus McGinley - Christianity and the Making of the Western Mind

In his 2019 tour de force, Dominion, Tom Holland explores "what it was that made Christianity so subversive and disruptive ....... and why, in a West that is often so doubtful of religion's claims, so many of its instincts remain - for good and ill - thoroughly Christian." Joseph Henrich says we are just W.E.I.R.D. (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic - in The Weirdest People in the World, 2021), tracing it all back to 1517, Martin Luther, sola scriptura and the massive increase in general literacy rates that followed in their wake. Luke Bretherton (in Christ and the Common Life, 2019) puts the "case for why Christians should be committed to democracy as a vital means for pursuing a flourishing life". Meanwhile Russia is laying waste to Ukraine, and the age-old contest between freedom and tyranny is on again. In this presentation we'll attempt to draw all these currents together - the Gospel, the Western mind, democracy and freedom – see if we can make sense of them, and try to guess where it all might be going.

Tonight's speaker, Fergus McGinley, is an Adelaide writer, teacher, lay preacher, a member of Christ Church, Wayville, the PCNet SA Task Group and is current Chair of the Effective Living Centre Management Committee. Fergus has a background in science, philosophy and education.