Introduction
The
majority of these pieces were written for the Parish Magazine of St Bridget’s,
West Kirby, in the Wirral, and generally relate to some date in the associated
month. Some contain references to features of St Bridget’s Church: a description
of the Church can be found on the parish web site.
The
pieces are organised in several ways. There is an organisation by date,
reflecting their origin in a monthly magazine. This covers most of the pieces.
Many are about particular saints, organised alphabetically. Others are about
specific holy days celebrating important events. There are also some pieces on
other people, a couple of book reviews, and a few meditations on various
topics. An index can be found here.
Some
of the pieces were written for other purposes.
My D.
Phil thesis was written in 1980. This was mainly motivated by philosophical
concerns. Chapter 1 considers the logical role of the word “God”, concluding
that it is the proper name of an incorporeal person (so that it both is
intended to be a referring expression, and as opposed to a title, definite
description, or some other kind of referring expression). Chapter 2 argues for
the possibility of an incorporeal person, arguing against the view, common both
then and now, that a person has some necessary connection with a body. The
third chapter explains how it is possible to introduce a proper name referring
to an incorporeal person (taking it that proper names are introduce through a
naming ceremony involving ostention).
The
journal article On Reinterpreting
the Proofs of the Existence of God, was also written in the late
seventies, and arose from a graduate seminar Models and Metaphors. Taking as its starting point the idea that
the so-called proofs are too obviously unsound to be intended as such, it
offers an alternative account of how they may lead people to God.
The Meditation on the Trinity was also not written for
the magazine, but as a one off reflection. I was inspired by the diagram it
features, which I had doodled a couple of years earlier, while listening to a
talk on the Trinity.