Cambridge Papers: Engaging with a Complex World

Ian Randall

An account of the history of the Cambridge Papers and its key contributors.

It was in the context of discussions within a group in Cambridge about a “Christian Mind” that a Cambridge Papers Writing Group was formed. An influence on the discussions was the book Issues Facing Christians Today, by John Stott, first published in 1984.^[1] The first two Papers were published in 1992 and throughout the 1990s and beyond, typically four were published each year. In 2000 a collection of Papers was published under the title Christianity in a Changing World: Biblical Insight on Contemporary Issues. Tribute was paid in the “Acknowledgements” to Roy Clements, who had been the pastor of Eden Baptist Church in Cambridge, “who contributed so much to our discussions and to these Papers over the first ten years of our meetings”. Among those commending this volume were Elizabeth Catherwood, who wrote that the Papers were “sometimes provocative, always stimulating, invariably worth reading”, and John Stott, who spoke of the “consistently high standard of Christian reflection on contemporary issues” of the Papers. Professor Brian Heap, Master of St Edmund’s College and a distinguished biological scientist, recommended the Papers “to all those interested in applying Christian principles to contemporary social, political, economic and scientific issues”.^[2]

The venue for the early meetings of the Group was the home in Cambridge of Michael Schluter, an economist with a PhD from Cornell University, USA, who argued in his writing and speaking that many social, economic and political problems were caused by a lack of attention to personal, organisational, national and international relationships.^[3] Schluter had known Roy Clements when they were in East Africa. In Cambridge, Schluter set up the Jubilee Centre, to explore current issues, and for over two decades the Centre published the Papers and covered the costs. Distribution of the printed Papers was on a wide scale.^[4] As well as stimulating discussion, Schluter was widely involved, for example, in low-profile peace conferences in South Africa from 1987 to 1997. Although a significant proportion of those who wrote the early Cambridge Papers were in Baptist churches, notably Eden Baptist, the group was from different denominations. There was also a breadth of interests and academic backgrounds.

One theme ongoing in discussions and papers was possible ways in which reflection on the experience of Israel in the Old Testament might contribute to the area of social ethics. Given this emphasis, it is not surprising that few of the papers had to do with the nature of the church as seen in the New Testament, a topic that has been crucial for Baptists. Indeed, in Christianity in a Changing World in 2000 the only paper dealing directly with the church was by Julian Rivers, on “Disestablishment and the Church of England”, in which he offered a clear analysis of different models of church and state and suggested that there was a continuing coherent case for the Established Church.^[5] Rivers, an Anglican, was a member of the Eden congregation while an undergraduate and Master’s student in Cambridge. He became a Lecturer in law and subsequently Professor of Jurisprudence in the University of Bristol.^[6]

The areas of Christian thought dealt with in the first decade of the Papers were: human identity and sexuality; Christianity and society; crime and justice; economics and finance; science and medicine; history and providence; and postmodernism and culture. Schluter wrote on “Relationism,” “Roots,” “Should Christians support the Euro?”, and “The Rise and Fall of Nations.” As well as his work on disestablishment, Rivers wrote on “Blasphemy Law in the Secular State.” Among the other contributors to the volume in 2000 were Michael Ovey, later a Research Fellow and then Principal of Oak Hill Theological College, London. He wrote on “The Human Identity Crisis,” “Women, Men and the Nature of God” and “Deconstruction.” Another Anglican was Christopher Townsend, who worked for the Jubilee Centre and became a solicitor. He wrote on “Homosexuality,” “The Morality of Punishment” and “Hell: A Disputed Doctrine.” Ranald Macaulay, who planted two Presbyterian congregations and led Christian Heritage for apologetics and outreach at the Round Church, Cambridge, wrote on “The Great Commissions.” Some who contributed at an early stage moved on, for example Peter Walker, who wrote on “Jerusalem.” He became a Lecturer at Wycliffe College, Oxford. One Baptist contributor, Mark Dever, wrote on “Reflections on Providence.” He had been associate pastor at Eden, and undertook a PhD on the Puritan, Richard Sibbes, then became pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington DC.^[7]

Among those who continued to contribute regularly, in addition to Schluter and Rivers, was Paul Mills, a researcher at the Jubilee Centre for a year, who after completing a PhD in economics in Cambridge was in policy roles at the Treasury. In the 2000 volume he wrote on “The Biblical Ban on Interest,” “Christianity and Financial Security,” “Investing as a Christian” and “A Brief Theology of Time.” From the Treasury he joined the International Monetary Fund as a senior adviser on matters such as innovative risk transfer, climate change and financial markets, and Islamic finance.^[8] Another ongoing contributor was Denis Alexander, a member of Eden, who at the time of the 2000 volume was heading the Molecular Immunology Programme at the Babraham Institute, Cambridge. He was later co-founder and first Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. Part of his commitment was to showing that the biblical accounts of creation were fully compatible with evolution. The subjects of his early papers were “Science: Friend or Foe?”, “Genetic Engineering,” and “Can Science Explain Everything?”^[9] John Coffey, who studied history and then completed a PhD in Cambridge, was in an informal group of graduate students that met to listen to a speaker and discuss ideas.^[10] He moved to the University of Leicester, as a Lecturer and later Professor of History.

From 2000 onwards, it was increasingly the case that Papers written by guest contributors were being published, and the Writing Group morphed into an editorial group of about eight people. Papers since 2000 are available on the Cambridge Papers website and thus their readership expanded considerably.^[11] In the period from 2000 to the present, the number of writers has expanded. At the same time, Eden connections have remained strong, illustrating the influence of a local church. Amy Donovan, who became part of Eden when an undergraduate, went on to undertake a PhD and further research and became a Lecturer, a Fellow of Girton College, and then Professor in the Department of Geography in the University of Cambridge. She brought to the Papers her expertise and experience in environmental hazards, volcanology, political geology, and social aspects of risk – which formed the subject of one of her Papers, in 2016.^[12]

Association with Eden also featured in the editorial group, which was typically composed of eight people. In addition to those who went back to the early days of the Writing Group, two newer members of the editorial group were part of Eden: Caroline Eade, who having read theology at the University of Cambridge, went on to become Head of Charities at Edward Connor Solicitors, a law firm and a Christian charity; and Margaret Wilson, who was a Lecturer in Art History at the Universities of Southampton, Oxford and Cambridge. A further addition to the editorial team was Christopher Watkin, who having completed a PhD and lectured in Cambridge, moved to Monash University, Australia.^[13]

The intention of the Papers was always to be on the lookout for current issues of importance and to bring Christian thought to bear. The categories under which the Papers were grouped expanded from seven to ten: arts and popular culture; economy and business; education; environment; family and sexual ethics; local church and community; politics and government; science and technology; welfare; and worldview and ideologies. Paul Mills wrote on such subjects as globalisation and the world economy (2005), the financial crisis (2011), and Brexit (2017). Often thinking in the Papers issued in a subsequent book, with Schluter and Mills producing, for example, After Capitalism: Rethinking Economic Relationships.^[14] Denis Alexander wrote regularly, with his “Genes, Determinism and God” (2014), which had been the subject of his Gifford Lectures in St Andrew’s University in 2012, being developed and in 2017 published as a major book by Cambridge University Press.^[15]

Discussion of “law and religion” – and specifically a Christian contribution – was led by Julian Rivers.^[16] Among several Papers he wrote was one on three basic types of arguments that have a proper place as Christians engage in public life: arguments from the common good, from institutional independence, and from conscientious witness.^[17] Another lawyer who from 2004 onwards wrote several Papers was a leading barrister, David McIlroy, a Baptist. He completed a PhD through Spurgeon’s College in 2008, on “A Trinitarian Theology of Law.”^[18] A regular contributor on historically-related issues was John Coffey, for instance on “The Myth of Secular Tolerance” (2003) and “To Release the Oppressed: Reclaiming a Biblical Theology of Liberation” (2009). Again, substantial publications followed, such as John Goodwin and the Puritan Revolution (2006), looking at religion and intellectual change in seventeenth-century England, and a book on “deliverance politics,” from John Calvin to Martin Luther King Jr. (2013).^[19]

The senior pastor at Eden following after Roy Clements was Julian Hardyman, who had been associate pastor. He sought to continue to develop the “Christian Mind,” with his first book being Glory Days (2006), republished in extended form as Maximum Life (2009).^[20] Hardyman preached a series of sermons from biblical passages that could encourage a view that reclaimed all of life for God’s glory: work, leisure and culture, as well as evangelism. Maximum Life, with its subtitle All for the Glory of God, was subsequently used as the basis for UCCF seminars.^[21] There was renewed encouragement to develop a “Christian Mind,” which had been the initial vision that led to the Cambridge Papers.

Ian Randall is a Senior Research Fellow of the Kirby Laing Centre. He has written extensively on evangelical history, especially in relation to spirituality, community and mission.

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^[1] John Stott, Issues Facing Christians Today (Basingstoke: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1984). Reprints followed.

^[2] Michael Schluter and the Cambridge Papers Group, Christianity in a Changing World (London: Marshall Pickering, 2000), inside cover.

^[3] See Michael Schluter and David Lee, The R Factor (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1993).

^[4] For the history of the Jubilee Centre, see https://www.jubilee-centre.org/our-history.

^[5] Julian Rivers, “Disestablishment and the Church of England,” in Christianity in a Changing World, 63-80.

^[6] Julian Rivers to Ian Randall, 23 May 2023.

^[7] His thesis was published as: Richard Sibbes: Puritanism and Calvinism in Late Elizabethan and Early Stuart England (Macon, GA.: Mercer University Press, 2004).

^[8] Among Mills’ writings was – with John Presley – Islamic Finance: Theory and Practice (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999).

^[9] For a widely-read book by Denis R. Alexander: Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose? (Oxford: Monarch Books, 2008).

^[10] John Coffey to Ian Randall, email, 9 May 2023. Coffey’s thesis was published as: Politics, Religion and the British Revolutions: The Mind of Samuel Rutherford (Cambridge: CUP, 1997).

^[11] See https://www.cambridgepapers.org/.

^[12] See further, Adam Bobbette and Amy Donovan, eds., Political Geology (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). I am indebted to a conversation with Amy Donovan, 14 April 2023.

^[13] For an example of his writing: Jacques Derrida (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P & R Press, 2017).

^[14] Paul Mills and Michael Schluter, After Capitalism: Rethinking Economic Relationships (Cambridge: Jubilee Centre, 2012).

^[15] Denis Alexander, Genes, Determinism and God (Cambridge: CUP, 2017).

^[16] See, in this context, his “Theology and Legal Education” in Oliver D. Crisp, Gavin D’Costa, Mervyn Davies, and Peter Hampson, eds., Christianity and the Disciplines (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2012). Also, his “The Secularisation of the British Constitution” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, vol. 14, no. 3 (2012): 371-399.

^[17] Julian Rivers, “Three Principles for Christian Citizens,” Cambridge Papers (2009).

^[18] His thesis was published as: A Trinitarian Theology of Law: In Conversation with Jürgen Moltmann, Oliver O’Donovan and Thomas Aquinas (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2009).

^[19] John Coffey, John Goodwin and the Puritan Revolution: Religion and Intellectual Change in Seventeenth-Century England (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2008); Exodus and Liberation: Deliverance Politics from John Calvin to Martin Luther King Jr. (Oxford: OUP, 2013).

^[20] Julian Hardyman, Maximum Life: All for the Glory of God (Nottingham: IVP, 2009).

^[21] I am indebted to a meeting with Julian Hardyman, 8 March 2023.