BLACK MASS
Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia
By John Gray. Allen Lane. 244 pages. £18.99
ISBN 978-0-7139-9915-0
Utopia, of course, stands for an imaginary place with a perfect social and political system, and its adjectival expression ‘utopian’ carries the connotation of an impractical and innately unreachable ideal.
The main thesis of this powerful book by the Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics is that much of world history in the last few hundred years has been driven by utopian projects which have actually ended up causing mayhem.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …