The Magna Carta Unravelled

The Case for Christian Freedoms Today

Magna Carta Unravelled. The Case for Christian Freedoms Today
Baroness Cox, and others
Wilberforce Publications, London
ISBN: 978-0957572546
Reviewed by Alec Gilmore

If you are looking for a book on the facts and technicalities of Magna Carta in an attempt to understand how the Great Charter relates to today’s problems, this book is not for you. ‘Unravelled’ is slightly misleading.

The subtitle is more accurate. It is a collection of Papers delivered at a Conference to celebrate the 800th Anniversary of Magna Carta on Freedom Today (as presented in Westminster and popularised in the media) and how eight individuals (who share common values) would like to see them handled, mainly in defence of Christianity which they see as currently under fire in the interests of political correctness, a desire not to offend other faiths (mainly Islam), and in an ever-watchful battle against constantly encroaching secularism (though I think they really mean secularisation).

Though useful and helpful on the Background to Magna Carta (Nazir-Ali), with an Historical Perspective on the Case for Christian Freedoms (Philip Quenby), the Centrality of Religious Freedom (Roger Trigg), Sharia Law (Baroness Cox) and Freedom and the State (John Scriven), the give-away comes with Robert Harris (Religious Belief and Conscience) and Paul Diamond (The Clash of Moralities).

Don’t imagine this book is in any way an objective approach. Harris sets himself to examine how ‘restrictions on the manifestations of Christian beliefs and conscience are incompatible with human rights’ and Diamond has us in the territory of head dress, wearing a cross, praying with patients, fostering a child, or conscientious objection to same-sex marriage in a registry office, and so on, all leaving us in no doubt where they are coming from and where they intend to go.

Quite apart from their rather confused use of ‘religion’, ‘Christianity’ and ‘rights’ as if we all understood them the same way, as a Baptist I find it incredible that they can handle this topic at all without a serious attempt to introduce Thomas Helwys with his Mystery of Iniquity.

Alec Gilmore is a Baptist minister

Baptist Times, 28/01/2016

Post Tweet

After Amen, by Tyler Staton

'This superb 50-day devotional is an honest and vulnerable guide to exploring what it means to both slow down and seek to root our prayer life in reality'

Healing in the desert, by Christine D’Clario

'A conflicted review - lots to commend here, but ultimately I wouldn't recommend to someone struggling in these areas'

The Middle Eastern Jesus, by Nadim Nassar

'This book by a Syrian priest in the Church of England has many valuable insights, alongside some questionable assertions'

Faithful Presence in a Fractured World, edited by Helen Paynter

'A timely book and it is hard to imagine any minister or church not benefiting from it in one way or another'

Faith, hope and autism: learning to love neurodiversity, by John Allister

What does church feel like if you're autistic? And how can churches become places where autistic people truly belong? John Allister - a vicar who is also autistic - shares stories, insights, and letters to his younger self