Category: National Loyalty and Nationalism
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Scottish Separation: A Faith in Search of an Adequate Rationale
25 October 2023. By Nigel Biggar for the Scottish Episcopal Institute Journal. I have a dog in the political fight over Scottish independence. Proud to have been born in Kirkcudbrightshire, the son of a Scottish father and an English mother, educated on both sides of the border, and now living in England, I would not…
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The Bishops are wrong: there’s nothing immoral about controlling our borders
26 May 2023. Nigel Biggar for The Telegraph. The end is just and the means, while severe, are not immoral Earlier in May, the Archbishop of Canterbury described the Government’s illegal migration bill as “morally unacceptable”. This week, he advanced his opposition to the bill’s proposal to remove illegal cross-Channel migrants to Rwanda, by tabling…
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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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The importance of being British
In an essay published in UnHerd (10 January 2022), Nigel Biggar offers Christian reflections on patriotism in general, as well as an apologia for the British species. Read ‘The importance of being British’ here.
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Politics at the Cross+Roads
Nigel Biggar joined Simeon Burke for his podcast, Politics at the Cross+Roads. The conversation between Biggar and Burke ranged in scope, including discussions about duties and rights during the pandemic, thoughts concerning Christianity and the nation, and the importance of realism in moral and political theology. You can view the interview at YouTube here. Moreover, you can find…
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Nationalism and Reconciliation
Nigel Biggar delivered the keynote lecture at the recent ‘Nationalism and Reconciliation’ conference hosted by Aoyama Gakuin University (Tokyo, Japan). The lecture was part of the annual International Association of Methodist-related Schools, Colleges, and Universities(link is external) (IAMSCU) Research University Symposium. Biggar’s lecture was titled ‘Patriotism, Historic Grievance, and Reconciliation’, and began as follows: I. An ethical view from somewhere There is no…
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Patriotism as a Limited Loyalty
In a recently published essay on patriotism and loyality for the recently launched project “These Islands”, Nigel Biggar discusses the differences between Protestant and Catholic stances towards nationhood in European countries.
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The Nation State: How Ethical Is It?
Ongoing news reports concerning the plight of migrants in Calais and the Mediterranean have brought into renewed focus the ethical questions and policy challenges presented by immigration. Prof. Nigel Biggar recently joined Dr. Stephen Backhouse and Prof. Sajjad Rizvi to discuss these issues with Mark Dowd. A recording of the discussion can be downloaded here…
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Getting Our Way: The Ethics of National Interest
On 5 February, the McDonald Centre hosted a remarkable colloquiuim on national interest and foreign policy. Inspired by Sir Christopher Meyer’s book, Getting Our Way, the colloquiuim was co-sponsored with the Royal Institute for International Relations at Chatham House and the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict. Meyer, who was formerly HM’s Ambassador to the United States, is…