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Theo Hobson

Theo Hobson

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Is Richard Dawkins a Christian?

When the New Atheism thing was new, I wrote a piece saying that the people who supported it were pretentious and cowardly. They pretended to know what...

02.04.2024 10

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

How Justin Welby should have responded to Gove’s extremism crackdown

When the government raises big questions about our national values, one has a choice: to see it as an opportunity to say something constructive, to...

18.03.2024 5

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

Is there anything wrong with ‘Christian nationalism’?

When does radical religious conservatism become a dangerous bid for theocracy? It’s a question that some American commentators are pondering, in...

05.03.2024 10

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

Ukraine attacks the Church of England’s ‘pro-Russia propaganda’

Perhaps Justin Welby expected gratitude from Ukraine, after the Church of England’s Synod debated the war this week. He certainly didn’t expect a...

28.02.2024 10

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

The Church of England shouldn’t be neutral about the Ukraine war

The Church of England’s Synod is debating the war in Ukraine today. There will be a vote on a motion that sounds uncontentious: Synod affirms the...

27.02.2024 20

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

Why won’t Justin Welby call out Russia’s Patriarch Kirill?

Justin Welby has just visited Ukraine. While there he spoke clearly against the false religion that underlies Russia’s ideology, and called...

17.02.2024 10

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

The Bishop of Oxford: why I support gay marriage

We all know the Church of England is ‘divided’ over homosexuality. But it’s not a very equal division. Reform is favoured by a clear majority of...

15.02.2024 10

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

Why do I keep falling for Boris Johnson’s charm?

On Saturday, I was in a public library, waiting for an old guy to finish with the Times. But he seemed to be reading every word of every section, and...

12.01.2024 2

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

When will Rory Stewart’s time come?

Can a dose of moral earnestness revive Tory fortunes? This is the question raised by Rory Stewart’s recent memoir, Politics on the Edge: A Memoir...

05.01.2024 8

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

The joy of middle-aged football

I can tell when my life’s going OK. My stray thoughts are not about what a loser I am but about what a terrible footballer I am. Why didn’t I...

04.01.2024 8

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

Did Richard Dawkins’s ‘New Atheists’ spark a Christian revival?

The battle between New Atheism and religion was never likely to have a clear winner. It was never very likely that the arguments of Richard Dawkins...

27.12.2023 20

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

Praying with the Pentecostalists

I go to my local church. But not my very local church. There’s a Pentecostal church, a plain building used mostly by worshipers from the Caribbean,...

20.12.2023 7

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

Limbo / When will the CofE have an honest debate about homosexuality?

At the Church of England’s General Synod on Wednesday morning, I had a good view of the sign-language person. In a bored moment (sorry for the...

17.11.2023 7

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

The Church of England must clarify its stance on homosexuality

The Church of England has realised that its decades of dithering over homosexuality must end. It must finally bite the bullet, and introduce liberal...

10.11.2023 10

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

The trouble with Canterbury Cathedral’s rave

I will not be attending the silent disco that is soon to be held in Canterbury Cathedral. I will not witness ‘some of the UK’s best 90s DJs...

07.10.2023 6

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

Why don’t we talk more about sexual morality?

The Russell Brand story shows, once again, how sexual morality is only usually debated in relation to allegations of abuse made against male...

21.09.2023 4

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

Religion / In praise of Justin Welby’s ‘less bossy’ Church of England

Justin Welby is not my sort of Anglican. Or maybe he is, in a way. I’m not really sure who he is. And I don’t mean that entirely negatively. When...

15.09.2023 7

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

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