Welcome to 'Illuminations'

Something about the flavour and scope of this newsletter...

ILLUMINATIONS is about seeking to cast light (rather than more heat) into the many different concerns of life, large and small, that bind us together in both expected and unexpected ways.

Those include the intersections of politics, ethics, economy, spirituality and beliefs (the preoccupations of Ekklesia, the think-tank of which I was director for nearly 20 years), but also — crucially — music, poetry, culture, art, books, nature / environment, photography and more. So you can expect a pretty varied menu, with a little philosophy and theology woven in. But also personal elements and angles.

My growing conviction is that when we are seeking the right things in life (by which I mean those things which lead towards community, creativity, clarity and collaboration) we will find ourselves curiously illuminated by what we are searching or struggling for — even when it is “through a glass, darkly”, and often without quite knowing it.

The good, the true and the beautiful are always there to be found, well before we arrive. And that despite the trials, sorrows and losses around us and within us. In due course, I hope to say a little more about how I have found this to be so. But it is, and remains, something of a mystery — albeit a mystery to be reasoned with and put into effect.

Practically speaking, I aim to post regularly from the end of the month. I hope that will be around once a week. Sometimes briefly, sometimes at greater length. I haven’t fully decided yet. But life’s contingencies and distractions are always there to be negotiated, of course, and I’d prefer not to overpromise.

From time-to-time I will also be re-posting articles and material of mine published elsewhere, as well as sharing ‘thinking aloud’ (always a risk, but why not?), and offering occasional tasters from the various book projects and collaborations I am invariably involved with.

Occasional guest posts will be more than welcome, from old friends of Ekklesia and from others. So if you have an idea, or thoughts one what I have said here by way of introduction, do drop me a note. And thanks for reading this far!