Category: Colonialism and ‘Decolonisation’
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Colonialism by Nigel Biggar: defending the British empire, this book is spoiling for a fight
‘Decolonialism’ misrepresents history, the Oxford professor argues in a book that’s perfect ammunition for dinner-table debates Review in The Telegraph by Tim Stanley. 26 January 2023. Prof Nigel Biggar, the Oxford ethicist, has written thebook on the morality of the British Empire, a kind of Encyclopaedia Pax Britannica. It is not, he insists, a defence of…
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Erasing Berkeley’s name would do nothing to combat racial prejudice in Ireland
Nigel Biggar: In celebrating people, we admire them only for some things they’ve done ‘Ireland’s famous 18th century philosopher, George Berkeley, was guilty of racial prejudice and slave – owning. He once described the Irish poor as “a lazy destitute race” and he bought a slave plantation on Rhode Island. Since the Irish today deplore both racism and slavery, shouldn’t…
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Empire is never black and white but decolonisers just won’t see it
My run-in with the Rhodes Must Fall movement shows how little appetite there is for nuanced discussion of colonialism. Instead, activists are driven by hatred of the Anglo-American liberal world order, writes Nigel Biggar ‘It was early December 2017 and my wife and I were at Heathrow airport, waiting to board a flight to Germany.…
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Nigel Biggar: the academic who dared to say Rhodes should stay
When the Oxford theologian wrote that the British Empire was not all bad, he faced a backlash. Here he defends his views to Andrew Billen ‘Five years ago Nigel Biggar feared that his 40-year career was about to meet a sudden and unpleasant end. Academia had cottoned on that the Oxford University theologian and priest…
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Deconstructing decolonisation
The full video of Nigel Biggar’s Roger Scruton Memorial Lecture is now available on YouTube. Speakers include: Professor Nigel Biggar, CBE, is Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology and Director of the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at the University of Oxford. Described as ‘one of the leading living Western ethicists’ (John Gray, New Statesman, 25…
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Conference, ‘Faithful to the Call: Renewing Theological Ethics from the Ground Up’
The 2022 McDonald Centre Annual Conference was hosted in May. The presentations featured at the conference are now available on YouTube. See the playlist for the ‘Faithful to the Call: Renewing Theological Ethics from the Ground Up’ conference event here. Alternatively, see links to the following sessions below: McDonald Distinguished Lecture SeriesProfessor Oliver O’Donovan: “Statues”Professor Nigel Biggar: ‘”Honour…
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History Defended
Oriel College’s statue of Cecil Rhodes has become a lightning-rod in the debate about Britain’s colonial past. But the complexities of the man and his activities in South Africa are often reduced to crude hyperbole and absurd analogy. The Telegraph has recently posted Steven Edginton’s interview of Nigel Biggar, in which they explore Rhodes’ life and work in…
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The Rhodes Controversy, Continued
In April 2021 Oriel College published the report of its Commission of Inquiry into Issues Associated with Memorials to Cecil Rhodes: see here. In an Historical Appendix to the report, William Beinart, Rhodes Professor Emeritus of Race Relations at the University of Oxford, discussed a selection of controversial issues raised by Rhodes’ life and work, especially…
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At the West Cork History Festival
At the recent, virtual West Cork History Festival (28 July 2021), Nigel Biggar offered an assessment of the fashionable view that the British Empire was essentially racist, even Nazi, concluding that it lacks all merit. Explaining why he holds the view he does—one that has aroused much critical attention—Biggar considers three issues: racism, genocide, and…
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Calling for Rigour and Honesty
The Critic published (18 March) Nigel Biggar’s review of The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Cultural Violence and Cultural Restitution (Pluto Press), a book by archaeologist Dan Hicks (Professor of Contemporary Archaeology, University of Oxford). Biggar’s review, ‘Whites and wrongs’, offers a counter-examination of the claims and conclusions set out by Hicks and closes with a clarion call for scholarly rigour…