Category: Colonialism and ‘Decolonisation’
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Phillip’s British Intrusion
19 October 2024. By Nigel Biggar for The Australian. The version below was originally given on 14 October 2024 as an address to St Mary-le-Bow Church, London, on the occasion of the birth of Admiral Arthur Phillip. I Did Admiral Arthur Phillip spearhead the invasion of Aboriginal Australia? While an annual commemoration of his birth…
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SDP Talk with Nigel Biggar
22 September 2024. In this episode of SDPTalk, William Clouston is joined by Nigel Biggar, former Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford, and author of several books including the Sunday Times bestseller, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning. As calls for ‘decolonisation’ echo through our institutions and our fellow citizens…
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The history culture war and how to fight it justly: a Christian view
19 August 2024. An essay History has always been contested. The indubitable facts may provide firm common ground, but how to make sense of them, which ones to foreground and which to marginalize, how to distribute the weight of significance among them, and above all how to evaluate them morally will always be a matter…
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The Elgin Marbles: ‘They weren’t stolen – or even treasured’
6 August 2024. By Nigel for the Daily Express. None of the reasons for returning to Athens the sculptures known as the ‘Elgin Marbles’ adds up. The historical reason – theft – is untrue. The sculptures originally adorned the Parthenon, which was used by the Ottomans as a military base for centuries. In 1687 a…
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Deconstructing decolonisation
6 August 2024. Deconstructing “decolonisation”: what it is, why it matters, and why it’s (mostly) wrong “The ‘decolonisation’ movement assumes that the colonial record of the West is simply a litany of racism, exploitation, and oppression of ‘black’ victims by ‘white’ victimisers. As a matter of historical fact, this is false. But when ‘decolonisers’ are…
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The risk of ‘loaning’ the Elgin Marbles to Greece
4 August 2024. By Nigel for The Spectator. Sir Keir Starmer’s government looks ready to smile upon the British Museum’s apparent desire to by-pass the legal prohibition of the return of the Elgin Marbles to Athens by negotiating a ‘long-term loan’ instead. Since Greece believes that the Marbles were stolen, that ‘loan’ is bound to…
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Podcast Against Antisemitism
25 July 2024. “Reverend Canon Nigel Biggar is a historian, theologian and ethicist currently serving as Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford. Nigel has been described as “one of the leading living Western ethicists” by the New Statesman, and is named as one of Prospect Magazine’s Top Thinkers of 2024.…
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Was Colonialism All Bad?
20 June 2024. Nigel joins the Bigger Than Me Podcast, exploring the distinctions between colonialism and colonisation, motivations behind European expansion, Sir John A. Macdonald’s legacy, and the ongoing impact of First Nations people, including the controversial claims of unmarked graves at Kamloops Residential School, while advocating for integrity and humility in confronting our colonial…
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Nigel discusses colonialism on the Ill Literacy Podcast
20 June 2024. Nigel joins Tim Benson of the Heartland Institute to discuss his Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning. They discuss whether the British Empire was driven primarily by greed and the lust to dominate, whether we should speak of “colonialism and slavery” in the same breath, and whether the Empire was essentially racist. They also…
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History lessened: Who gets to decide how we see the past?
13 June 2024. By Nigel for The Spectator. Three weeks ago, I received an SOS from a distressed citizen of Glasgow, urging me to protest against a recently installed display at the Kelvingrove Museum, ‘Glasgow – City of Empire’. Predictably, the exhibition falls over itself to clock every conceivable association between the city and slavery,…