I gave a reflection on Jesus and his radical ideas for Fair Observer:

“In recent years, we have wrung our hands about decolonizing statues and syllabi; I wonder what it would be like to decolonize this, the Christian faith itself, so it might sit with greater humility (a Christian virtue!) in its place among the ‘family of man’.”

“it is not entirely preposterous to suggest that Jesus himself, and even many of the Christians who followed him, are somewhat interested in that most radical and least loved idea in left-wing political theory, the abolition of the family.”

Thank you to Jonathan Rowson for requesting the talk version of this essay, and to Sophie Lewis for the inspiration.

This text is lightly adapted from a short talk given at St. Ethelburgas’s Church in London on December 15 for Perpectiva. It was a response to a request for a non-Christian reflection on Christmastime.

Perspectiva is a community of expert generalists working on an urgent 100-year project to improve the relationships between systems, souls and society in theory and practice.