Looking Beyond Brexit: Bringing the Country Back Together

by Graham Tomlin

The referendum may have rent the country asunder like no other issue in recent memory, but there are significant resonances with events in the past. Almost 500 years ago, in a sixteenth-century version of Article 50, Britain made a break from Europe, declaring the King – rather than the Pope – Supreme Head of the English Church.

The split did not end the story. In the turmoil that followed, ‘fake news’ spread, families were divided and blood was shed.

However, an attempt was made to find a peaceable solution. In this brief but powerful book, Graham Tomlin draws on that history to remind us of the age-old political and spiritual task of harmonizing past and future, identity and openness, the local and the universal. The events of the last three years have shown how polarization can affect even those who are naturally generous and accommodating; the challenge of rising above division, of loving our neighbours – and even our enemies – has never been greater for us all.

28 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 21, 2019

About the author

Graham Tomlin (Ph.D., Exeter University) is dean of St. Mellitus College, London. He taught on Martin Luther and the Reformation in the theology faculty of the University of Oxford for eight years. He is the author, among many other publications, of The Power of the Cross: Theology and the Death of Christ in Paul, Luther and Pascal and Luther and His World.

Reviews

[Ian Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a timely call for unity from the Bishop of Kensington, comparing the post-Brexit world to the aftermath of the English reformation where Britain separated from European Catholicism. I found it thought provoking.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

One chapter excerpt of a forthcoming book rushed through to meet the times, and reads like it.

[Thomas Creedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful little book. Timely! Full review on my my blog.