Holy Smoke Easter special: in praise of faithful dissent, a conversation with Nigel Biggar and Mary Wakefield
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The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
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Summary
Nigel Biggar, Regius professor emeritus of moral theology at Oxford University, now a Conservative peer, celebrates the heroic ‘faithful dissent’ of Christian heroes such as Thomas More and Helmuth von Moltke, who lost their lives rather than defend injustice.
Meanwhile Spectator columnist Mary Wakefield interviews Roman Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury. She’s inspired by his holiness but depressed by his use of ‘C of E bureaucratese’ to uphold liberal orthodoxy on subjects such as gender ideology. But, she says they can share an uncomfortable space together within faith.
In this episode of Holy Smoke, Nigel and Mary join Damian Thompson, who asks them: how can Christians embrace ‘faithful dissent’ in an era of conformist Christian leaders who parrot the platitudes of secular opinion?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews. |
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| 0:32.6 | Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast. I'm Damien Thompson. |
| 0:41.8 | The Easter issue of The Spectator includes two remarkable articles exploring different aspects of Christianity, |
| 0:46.9 | and I'm delighted to welcome their authors to this episode of Holy Smoke. |
| 0:52.8 | One is by the new neol noblemal conservative peer Lord Bigger of Castle Douglas. |
| 0:56.3 | Nigel Bigger, Regis Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at Oxford University, and also an Anglican priest. He writes in praise of |
| 1:01.5 | faithful dissenters, Christian heroes ranging from the Reformation Martyrs, Thomas Moore, |
| 1:07.6 | to Helmut von Malka, hanged in 1945 for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler. |
| 1:13.6 | Nigel writes that these isolated dissidents, risking and indeed losing their lives for unpopular |
| 1:19.4 | truths, reflect faith in God's love. The other article is a typically subtle and penetrating |
| 1:26.2 | interview with the former Archbishop of Canterbury |
| 1:29.1 | Rhone Williams by the spectator columnist Mary Wakefield. She's impressed by Lord Williams |
| 1:34.7 | Evident Holiness, his face luminous with empathy, but disappointed by 10 minutes of the interview |
| 1:41.1 | in which she says he's diverted into deadly C.OV. Buretese. Two very |
| 1:46.8 | different articles, then, but they complement each other. Mary challenges Rome Williams about how |
| 1:52.7 | to bring the excitement of Christianity into daily life, while Nigel Bigger writes about seeing |
| 1:58.0 | God's love at work. And I think they both raise questions about |
| 2:01.7 | what faithful dissent might look like in the 21st century. Lord Bigger significantly is himself |
| 2:08.7 | a dissenter from liberal orthodoxes that exert such a tight grip on establishment Christianity |
... |
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