Jesus was a social revolutionary in the same way that Mozart was brilliant at counterpoint.

That is, it was a key element in a much larger package, but to imagine that it was the main or the only thing is to ignore all the other things that were going on.

Of course, it needs saying because for years the church has screened out that element of 'kingdom of God' teaching, but once the message has been heard -- which I would have thought it has been in many quarters though not all -- it needs to be re-integrated into the larger agenda which Jesus embraced.

About that, of course, I like many others have written quite a lot elsewhere!

I'm afraid we in the UK have only heard distantly of Jerry Falwell. Most churchgoers in England won't have heard of him at all; nonchurchgoers will only have heard of him as a strange character who pops up from time to time when people are writing 'how weird can they get' articles in our newspapers shaking their heads over American strangenesses.

My own sense, having spent a lot of time in the States over the years, is that he was a classic of his type and with a lot more integrity than some of the shady characters in the religious penumbra. But, insofar as I know what he taught -- which I freely admit would be second or third hand -- he was saying some things which I strongly say myself but I think in a different framework, and some things which I strongly argue against (e.g. on the present state of Israel and prophecy).

Within the strange, large economy of God's grace, which filters the truth of scripture through all of us imperfect interpreters, it may be that I make just as many mistakes as I think he did, but we are each called to be true to what we find in scripture and I have no reason to suppose he was not as obedient to that imperative as I struggle to be.

May he rest in peace and, with the rest of us, rise in glory where we shall look back on present disagreements like an adult looks back on childhood squabbles in the playground.

It all depends what you mean by 'satisfied'. St Paul wrote that he didn't suppose he had attained full maturity but was simply forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, and that's pretty much how it is here, too.

The question presupposes a kind of implicit career path which, beginning as a dream, translates into reality (or not, as the case may be) at a certain pace. In human terms I have obviously 'peaked', since I'm in what is clearly my last job, living in the historic house where not only people like J. B. Lightfoot, B. F. Westcott and H. C. G. Moule lived before me but also great former bishops like John Cosin and Richard Trevor.

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The word 'religion' has had a long and varied career. In some traditions it has referred specifically to the human attempts to do things to earn God's favour; in others it has referred to the entire package of proper human response to God's love.

Of course, I presume the question means, 'is the whole phenomenon of religion, any religion, simply a human construct, I.e. Is it the case that there is nothing that corresponds to the word "God"?' obviously my answer is 'no': God is real, God is good, God is love, God is what we see God to be in Jesus the Messiah and Lord.

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Same as any other time. Say your prayers, study the scriptures, keep close to Christian fellowship (especially at the Eucharist), hold the whole situation up before the God who groans with the pain of the world (Romans 8) and has promised to wipe away all tears from all eyes (Revelation 21). War sharpens some of the horrible things about the way the world currently is but doesn't change the basic structure of a good world in rebellion and longing for redemption -- with humans caught up in the middle of it all.

There is a peculiar aspect to contemporary war because of broadcasting and so on; people can become voyeurs, captivated by scenes of suffering and devastation while they sit in comfortable homes drinking coffee or beer in front of the TV. Like all voyeurism, this can deaden genuine human reactions and give a quite unhealthy sense of false involvement which then breeds the wrong sort of detachment as its reverse. Enough to find out basically what's going on, pray about it, and get on with your real work and the rest of your life.

The idea that wartime somehow suspended all normal human life was undermined two generations ago by a splendid essay by C. S. Lewis entitled "On Learning in Wartime." It's in one of his volumes of collected essays somewhere.