Is Christianity compatible with wealth? | Mark Vernon
The Christian tradition is not anti-money. Rather, it is excess and luxury that pose the spiritual problemsNo one expected the steps of St Paul's to become the epicentre for a nation's debate about money. But it is not surprising that faith should be s...
Carl Jung, part 5: Psychological types | Mark Vernon
The Myers-Briggs test is but one offshoot of Jung's attempt to show how radically people's perceptions and instincts can differIt is striking how differently individuals can react to precisely the same thing. Some love Marmite and others loathe it. And...
Carl Jung, part 4: Do archetypes exist? | Mark Vernon
Jung's theory of structuring principles remains controversial – but provides a language to talk about shared experienceJung took the inner life seriously. He believed that dreams are not just a random jumble of associations or repressed wish fulfilme...
Carl Jung, part 2: A troubled relationship with Freud – and the Nazis | Mark Vernon
On the 50th anniversary of Jung's death it is time to put accusations of him collaborating with the Nazis to restJung's relationship with Freud was ambivalent from the start. First contact was made in 1906, when Jung wrote about his word association te...
The Final Testament of the Holy Bible is shocking. Shockingly bad, that is | Mark Vernon
The problem with James Frey's book isn't blasphemy per se. Good blasphemy, unlike this adolescent theology, is valuableBlasphemy is in the news again, and this time it has nothing to do with the Qu'ran or the prophet Muhammad. The novelist James Frey h...
On Ash Wednesday, consider the gift of death | Mark Vernon
The ultimate limitations imposed upon us by our mortality do not dissolve meaning. Quite the opposite, in fact"If there wasn't death," mused the poet Stevie Smith, "I think you couldn't go on."The poet neatly captures the ambivalence that mortals must ...
Is mind more real than matter? | Mark Vernon
Energy, information or something like consciousness may in fact be the real basic stuff of the cosmosThe question: Can spirituality exist without religion?Nicholas Humphrey's new book, Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness, has to be about as good as i...
William James, part 7: Agnosticism and the will to believe | Mark Vernon
James observes that the idea you can will belief in God is 'simply silly', as the nature of real assent consists of many strandsThere is an agnostic sensibility that runs through William James – in this sense: he knows that any claim of knowledge bas...
William James, part 6: Mystical experience | Mark Vernon
James's discussion of mysticism is not unproblematic, but there is significant value in the way he frames the subjectMysticism is a crucial aspect of the study of religion. "One may say truly, I think, that personal religious experience has its roots a...
William James, part 3: On original sin | Mark Vernon
Are humans born happy, able to create their own well-being, or do we need to be born again to overcome a 'sick soul'?Original sin is a religious doctrine that divides perhaps more than any other. For some, it only makes sense – maybe not the part abo...
William James, part 1: A religious man for our times | Mark Vernon
Existentially troubled and intellectually brilliant, James is still well worth reading for matters of truth, pluralism and GodOne of the many spiritual confessions that William James records in The Varieties of Religious Experience stands out. It comes...
Roger Scruton and the kindly atheists | Mark Vernon