Good for Society: Christian Values and Conservative Politics

Mar 16, 2020 by Chris Sugden

Good for Society: Christian Values and Conservative Politics 680pp

by Dr Martin Parsons

Magnificent, detailed and authoritative Rt Hon Ann Widdecombe

A robust defence of both our Christian heritage and the Conservative Party

Rt Hon Lord Tebbit

The definitive book on Conservativism and Christianity Rev. Dr Jules Gomes

Summary of book

The book sets out a vision for society drawing on the Christian Conservative tradition that emerged from the social reformers William Wilberforce and Lord Shaftesbury in the nineteenth century and in more recent years was explicitly articulated by both Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.

The book argues that over the last thousand years much of the national identity and values of the English-speaking peoples has been derived from the gradual outworking of Christian values. It illustrates this with chapters dealing with

Law
Social justice
Education and the family
Environment
International development
Business and the economy
Defence
National identity and values

Each chapter contains a biblical theological section setting out what these values are, a historical section illustrating how they have influenced development of that issue and a political section showing how this trajectory has influenced Conservative principles in each of these areas.

It also addresses the increasing loss of confidence in our national identity and uncertainty as to what our national values are. The book argues that this is in part due to the rise of Liberalism which has both undermined some of our historic values and freedoms and sought to impose its own rather narrower values on wider society.

However, our historic national values now face a more explicit challenge in the form of radical Islamism. As Conservatism is about conserving ‘the best of the past’ it represents the best chance of providing a counter narrative to the Islamist challenge. However, it can only do so by consciously affirming the historic values derived from its original Judaeo-Christian foundations, regardless of whether or not individuals choose to have a personal faith commitment themselves. Winston Churchill provides a striking illustration of this. Whilst hardly ever even attending church himself, he insisted that the history and freedoms of the English speaking peoples had since the time of Alfred the Great been built on the foundation of Christian values and described the Second World War as a battle between ‘Christian civilisation’ and Nazi ideology.

A preview is available at: www.martinparsons.org/books.html

Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc.