Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Church of England Bishop introduces the Noahide Laws to British House of Lords as "imperatives"


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According to his Wikipedia page "Richard Douglas Harries, Baron Harries of Pentregarth, FRSL (born 2 June 1936) is a retired bishop of the Church of England and former British Army officer. He was the Bishop of Oxford from 1987 to 2006. From 2008 until 2012 he was the Gresham Professor of Divinity." In 2016 in the House of Lords Hansard, he introduced the Noahide Laws as " imperatives given to all humanity". The Church of England in 2019 also published as a suggestion that Christian "natural law" is Noahide Law (here).

This was, of course, the starting point for John-Paul Sartre and the post-war existentialists. It is not a view I share. Everyone, whatever they believe or do not believe, has some inkling of the good, some capacity for moral discernment, some ability to take others into account. It is part of what is meant by being made in the image of God, from the Christian point of view. The Jewish tradition has its own equivalent in the concept of the Noachide laws, according to the Talmud, the seven imperatives given to all humanity. So does Islam. As for humanism, the very name indicates the possibility of values and virtues simply by reason of our shared humanity, as does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

SOURCE: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (CB). "National Life: Shared Values and Public Policy Priorities". 02 December 2016. Volume 777. Retrieved 08/12/2020 from: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2016-12-02/debates/37E807CF-3A7E-4060-B139-8A30257E770F/NationalLifeSharedValuesAndPublicPolicyPriorities

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