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Wednesday 8th February, 6.05pm

JustShare Christian Social and Political Thought Lecture
The Revd Dr Jeremy Morris, Dean of King's College Cambridge
'Two Christian Churches? Renewing Confidence in the future.'

It was a pleasure to welcome Dr Morris for the first of the 2012 series of lectures on Christian Social and Political Thought. He took us back to one of the key Victorian Christian Social thinkers, F.D. Maurice, exploring how Maurice's social views were rooted in his ecclesiology.

Maurice believed that both Christianity and social justice were universals which needed to be locally expressed. Maurice's understanding of socialism, Dr Morris argued, was an applied ecclesiology, a way of living out the incarnation. Maurice has often been criticised for being too theoretical but his own practical application of local activism refutes that; he led a movement of producer co-operatives in Lincoln's Inn which committed to paying workers a minimum wage, he supported the education of women and established the precursor to the WEA, as well as campaigning for better housing and sanitation for the poor.

Maurice suggested Christianity is for the whole world because God made the world, but that worship divided from social righteousness is an abomination to God. For Maurice, the Church was a prism which brought together Christianity and social justice - but only when both were embodied at local community level.

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