New Club

I just listened to this long interview between Louis Theroux and Nick Cave. I don't listen to contemporary music so I have little idea about Cave's work in that area. However, I am always stimulated by the interviews with Cave that I've read or listened to, and this one is no exception. Among the topics covered are: drug addiction - surprising insights there; Kylie Minogue - as radiant and oddly brave as I've always hoped she might be; and Cave's churchgoing.

This last is the thing that especially caught my attention. Cave admits that he goes to church very regularly, but he goes out of his way to emphasise that he is not a Christian, even though he also explains how very significant going to church is for him.

This dabbling on the edge of faith is becoming more and more common. The two other examples that spring to mind immediately are Louise Perry and Tom Holland. Jordan Peterson is hovering somewhere in the same "faith adjacent" area, I gather. Douglas Murray, as an ex choir scholar, is presumably steeped in the Christian faith and has said he cherishes Christianity, describing himself as a Christian atheist. Ayaan Hirshi Ali has even come out of the closet and declared herself Christian, but in a rather equivocating kind of way, so that I feel she also is still really a member of this new club of teeterers.

I suppose they are all embarassed to make any further leap, because to say you are a Christian is to provoke the not in-valid accusation that you are entirely irrational. How can you believe some bloke who lived 2,000 years ago was the embodiment of God? How can you even admit a God exists?

There is no proof. None of it is measurable scientifically. But for me at least, irrationality is not a criticism. The whole of existence is irrational and in the face of that I feel only humility (not a particularly encouraged trait at present). We understand nothing on the vast scale of existence, only a few bits of the mechanics. I am therefore content to ignore other people's scorn and pity and follow Saint Anselm's lead when he said:

"I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe - that unless I believe I shall not understand."

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PS If I wanted to be cynical, I might ask how it happens to be so easy for one group of people - Muslim asylum seekers in Britain - to embrace Christianity when it is so hard for the majority of the British population. It is a puzzling phenomenon, (hem hem, as Nigel Molesworth would say).