Articles

A complete chronological listing of shorter pieces written since 1995.

Any of these articles that are not the copyright of a specified publication may be freely copied and distributed.

Articles are listed in inverse chronological order – i.e. more recent articles first.

  • No Humility Without Humiliation
    12th July 2026
    The deepest Christian conversion occurs in unexpected - and often traumatic - adult experience. The best that early life 'formation' can do is to warn us of this - and not to leave us with the misapprehension that formation and conversion are the same thing.

  • YouCat, Violence and the Cross
    Why does the Catholic Church's official Catechism for young people attribute the Crucifixion of Jesus solely to the will of God the Father - and fail totally to attribute the violence of the Crucifixion to the pride of his enemies? Why does it also fail even to index the sin of pride - when St Augustine of Hippo clearly saw this sin as the root of all violence? To say that YouCat needs revision is to understate the problem.
    The Furrow April 2026

  • The Cross Is God’s Victory Over Violence
    Christian belief cannot arise out of the use of force to build God's Kingdom. It is time for church leaders to say clearly that this was the reason that Jesus accepted crucifixion - and that the Resurrection was proof of God the Father's non-violence also.
    13th February 2026

  • AI is Banal: Humans are Telepathic
    AI will only accentuate the reliance on technology as the gateway to the future when, as ever, it will be crisis itself that will force the turn to deep prayer that reconnects us always with the source of all wisdom.
    1st January, 2026

  • Why No Feast of Christ the Prophet?
    Catholic popes and bishops could never have hidden the abuse of children by Catholic priests if they had truly honoured and faithfully followed Jesus the Nazarene prophet. They have still to trace their failure to a mistaken theology of Christ and a church structure that prevented prophetic protest against abuses of power by clergy.
    ACI site 12th Sept 2025

  • ‘Christus Victor’: Is Catholicism Trending Back to This?
    Is the Catholic theology of the Atonement trending now towards recovery of the belief that through the Cross we are freed from what most heavily oppresses us - fear of the judgement of others? The Microsoft AI tool Copilot confirms a convergence of theology, neuroscience and depth psychology in the summer of 2025.
    7th August 2025

  • The Most Brilliant Thing Ever Said
    In the online 'Attention Economy' - where everybody looks for attention - who gets it? Already many in Generation Z - those aged 15-28 - are seeing through the 'human algorithms' - the attention magnates of the digital age - and looking for something more credible. Jesus nailed the 'looking for glory' problem perfectly long ago (John 5:44). Would Trump have deported him to Guantanamo Bay as a 'very bad person'?
    12th July 2025

  • ‘Holiness’ in the Wake of Catastrophe
    Jesus was crucified for whistle-blowing against religious injustice. As the Church in our time has been seriously unjust to many of its most vulnerable members, its understanding of holiness must be clarified to include the obligation of integrity. The 'cross' to which Christians are called is the challenge to stand against corruption and injustice in the church as well as the world. Our Theology of the Cross therefore needs refurbishment: it was never only to satisfy himself that God the Father asked Jesus to suffer crucifixion. Always and forever the Easter story is one of Resurrection as reward for speaking truth fearlessly to corrupt power - and for the endurance of Gethsemane, the challenge to stand alone if needs be against injustice and hypocrisy.
    The Furrow, May 2025

  • The Pyramid Will Stay Inverted
    Following the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday 2025 it was unthinkable that the reform process he started - Synodality - would be reversed or abandoned by whoever was elected pope by the Conclave of cardinals that would soon follow.
    ACI Website, April 27th 2025

  • Renouncing Satan?
    The normalisation of political lying can be the start of the Satanic process of scapegoating of the innocent, the historical and scriptural pattern identified by René Girard.
    ACI Website, February 2025

  • This Must Not Happen!
    How Peter's protest at Jesus' prediction of his own crucifixion explains the current crisis of leadership and dissolution in the Catholic Church. First drafted in 2020 – on the brink of the coronavirus pandemic – this summary of my own understanding of what scripture is telling us about God’s reason for the Crucifixion of Jesus is now re-edited and published in 2024.
    2nd November 2024

  • No Historical Transparency in the Church?
    The Universal Synod on Synodality (2023-24) concluded without recognising that denial of transparency on the past policy of secrecy on clerical child sexual abuse is for many an insuperable barrier to trust - and therefore also to communion, participation and mission. A final reckoning on this issue seems as far away as ever.
    12th July 2024

  • The Prayer That Changed Everything for Me
    The music of what can happen when - in sheer desperation - we pray.
    24th June 2024

  • Apocalypse Soon – or New Pentecost?
    Apocalypse means revelation not disaster. It is the imminent threat of the latter that will lead to sincere prayer and bring the former, an historical turn to the Gospel of just enough
    ACI Website, 24th May 2024

  • Why did Jesus of Nazareth accept Crucifixion?
    30th April 2024
    Summary of an argument for a return to the original Christian understanding of atonement - as rescue - by the God of Abraham and of Jesus - from the power of evil that keeps the world at war.

  • ‘The Lightest Burden’ – Origin and Purpose
    April 2024
    Is it possible to encapsulate catholic Christian faith as a 'light burden' - free of medieval baggage that attributes self-absorption to God the Father? Let's see!

  • On Exodus? From What?
    The Furrow Jan 2024
    Is status anxiety - our persistent tendency to doubt our own value, and to look for a solution in the positive regard of others - the root of all evil?

  • 2024: Irish Catholic Vocations Office Mired in Clericalism
    ACI Website 17th Jan 2024
    In its zeal to promote the calling to the ordained ministry Ireland's National Vocations Office forgot the central message of synodality - that it is Baptism that calls all Christians to the challenge and risk of mission.

  • Church Is Mission?
    ACP Website Nov 2023
    The synodal calling of all to mission is hampered by an outdated medieval theology of atonement that obscures the liberating message of the Gospel.

  • René Girard: The Creed Overcomes the World
    Japan Mission Journal, Autumn 2023
    How René Girard's take on the Creed and on history can help combat digital imperialism and algorithm enslavement in the era of the Internet.

  • Comeuppance or Confession – A ‘Reckoning’ on Clerical Abuse?
    La Croix International, June 2023
    Faced with apparently unending scandal - and dwindling credibility and authority in the societies it has scandalised - should Catholic church leadership look to scripture, especially the story of King David of Israel, for insight into a scenario for resolution?

  • A Reckoning on Catholic Clerical Abuse? Seriously?
    ACI Website 2022
    If Irish Catholic bishops are serious about the need for a 'reckoning' on the issue of clerical sexual abuse will they call for full disclosure of the causes of the mishandling of the issue in the 20th century, including the global practice of secrecy that delayed child safeguarding until some victims finally rebelled and made the matter public?

  • The Gospel as a Takedown of Celebrity
    ACI Website 2020
    To make any individual person an object of fascination is a delusion and a mistake. Christians need to realise that this is why Jesus will not return until all have realised that he is present to all of us already as the Holy Spirit. To pray directly for the gifts of the Holy Spirit is to pray to the Trinity, and to become the person we have always wanted to be.

  • What do we mean by the Kingdom of God?
    Doctrine and Life Apr 2002
    God was not pleased that the Israelites demanded a king 'like the other nations' - and told the prophet Samuel 'they have rejected me as their king'. Given the known failings of so many nominally Christian kings in the historical era known as Christendom we need to reflect on this when thinking about 'the kingdom of God' - and to remember that Jesus saw worldly power as temptation and told us that 'the kingdom' is 'within' and 'among' his followers.

  • Did God want Jesus Dead?
    Aug 2022
    St Anselm of Canterbury's 11th century explanation of the crucifixion of Jesus - that he died on the cross to repay a debt to God the Father that humans had compiled by sin - is both mistaken and a barrier to the 'mission' that Pope Francis is calling us to. Instead, the intent of the Trinity is to free us from all violence, selfishness and fear - especially fear of the future.

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