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Nick Spencer

@nickebs.bsky.social

320 followers 13 following 74 posts

Senior Fellow at Theos. Author of Magisteria. Host of Reading our Times. Christian humanist. Graecophile,Person of the Book. PEW Literary Agents.

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Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · 2d

"Flags absorb meaning from the people who do things with them." www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

Analysis: What do flags mean? It depends. . .

They do not signify a single set of values, writes Nick Spencer

www.churchtimes.co.uk

Reposted by Nick Spencer

Theos @theosthinktank.bsky.social · Aug 20

"The empire history wars that have flared up so viciously of late, are about the future as much as the past" 💬

In his latest longread, @nickebs.bsky.social takes a deep dive into imperial history and today’s "empire wars."

🔗 Read it here
www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2025...

The Empire Wars

Recent years have seen ferocious battles about ‘empire’: statues toppled, books cancelled, scholars infuriated, insults hurled. What is going on and, more importantly, why? What is it about our cultur...

www.theosthinktank.co.uk

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Sep 2

www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2025...

(Re)Capture the flag

Across the nation, we’re seeing rising numbers of St George’s flags. Is it nationalism? Xenophobia? Or can our flags mean something better 02/09/2025

www.theosthinktank.co.uk

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Sep 1

“There was an intense apocalyptic smell in the air, and writer after writer claimed they were living at the end of history.” I have written a long read on empires and history ending, then and now. Enjoy. www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2025...

The Empire Wars

Recent years have seen ferocious battles about ‘empire’: statues toppled, books cancelled, scholars infuriated, insults hurled. What is going on and, more importantly, why? What is it about our cultur...

www.theosthinktank.co.uk

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 22

If you're interested in the Future of the West cf this series of Reading our Times which explores its "contours" - choice, growth, democracy, sex, Christianity & with @samirpuri.bsky.social @lucyaash.bsky.social @richarddouglas.bsky.social Jonathan Sumption, Diarmaid Macculloch tinyurl.com/5677vdbf

Reading Our Times

Philosophy Podcast · Updated weekly · Reading Our Times is the podcast that explores the books and the ideas that are shaping us today. It is hosted by Nick Spencer, Senior Fellow at the think tank, T...

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 18

"We're already well aware of the risks and challenges that we face in our own kind of own persons. Having a child means opening yourself up to that vulnerability in the life of another person." What are children for? tinyurl.com/37n7wrj7

What are children for? In conversation with Anastasia Berg

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 07/15/2025 · 45m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 15

Why are we having so few children? Ah, now there's a question. In conversation with Anastasia Berg on her @oneworldbooks.bsky.social book What are children for? tinyurl.com/37n7wrj7

What are children for? In conversation with Anastasia Berg

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 07/15/2025 · 45m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 11

"I'm not trying to say that choice is a bad thing at all. Choice is vital to our independence. That said, it isn't necessarily the solution to everything and some of our collective needs require us sometimes to decide that choice isn't our highest value." tinyurl.com/r323xt4b

How have we come to deify choice? In conversation with Sophia Rosenfeld

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 08/07/2025 · 51m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 10

Yes, I think that's right. (25+??) years ago the Fabian Society published a report called A Better Choice of Choice which made that point well. It's also made, more poetically and more horribly, by Larkin's sonnet To my wife, which begins "Choice of you shuts up that peacock-fan/ The future was"!

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 10

"Our sense of ourselves as free, and what that means, has evolved over time. I think humans do seek freedom in some form, but what they mean by that can be very different in different times and places." Analysing freedom and choice on... tinyurl.com/r323xt4b

How have we come to deify choice? In conversation with Sophia Rosenfeld

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 08/07/2025 · 51m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 8

Choice, choice, choice. Everything is choice. These days, to deny someone freedom of choice is almost to deny them their humanity. Where did this come from? Me in conversation with Sophia Rosenfeld on The Age of Choice: tinyurl.com/r323xt4b

How have we come to deify choice? In conversation with Sophia Rosenfeld

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 08/07/2025 · 51m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 7

"There's a knowledge you derive from a test tube, when everything else is just wishy washy nonsense, on the one hand. But on the other there's a postmodernist approach… Western truth, white truth, male truth, my truth… this is a pretty slippery slope." tinyurl.com/y9kbcfrc

Would it matter if Christianity were eclipsed? In conversation with Rupert Shortt

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 01/07/2025 · 39m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 4

"For all the immense flaws of Western civilization, many of the goods that we take for granted - individualism, parliamentary democracy, belief in human equality, science itself - these derive from Christian culture." tinyurl.com/y9kbcfrc

Would it matter if Christianity were eclipsed? In conversation with Rupert Shortt

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 01/07/2025 · 39m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 3

It's one thing to say that Christianity has a richer account of the human person than secular alternatives. But that prompts an inevitable response from the sceptic who might say, “ultimately the comfort that it offers is spurious because atheism is true.” tinyurl.com/yw69cfnk

Would it matter if Christianity were eclipsed? In conversation with Rupert Shortt

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 01/07/2025 · 39m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 2

"He rang me up and said, 'Rupert I'm a lifelong agnostic. I can't speak to any of the philosophy or theology in your book. The point is that Richard is wrong about the science let alone the theology.'" I speak to Rupert Shortt on science, religion & Richard Dawkins tinyurl.com/yw69cfnk

Would it matter if Christianity were eclipsed? In conversation with Rupert Shortt

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 01/07/2025 · 39m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 1

If you are interested in what the discovery of alien life would mean for humanity - and how could you not be? - please join me tomorrow for an on-line talk with the Scientific and Medical Network. Details here: tinyurl.com/2tbd2dkc

Dr Nick Spencer – Science, Religion and Alien Life - Scientific and Medical Network

The prospect of intelligent alien life has always been seen as vaguely challenging to humanity, and especially to religious belief. Quite apart from any

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jul 1

This week on Reading our Times, in conversation with Rupert Shortt: Would it matter if Christianity were eclipsed? podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w...

Would it matter if Christianity were eclipsed? In conversation with Rupert Shortt

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 01/07/2025 · 39m

podcasts.apple.com

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jun 30

Lots of debate today from Chris Coghlan MP, Tim Stanley, @politicshome.bsky.social et al on the proper role of religious in the assisted dying debate. Here is the @Theosthinktank take on this tinyurl.com/bdhcpfjb

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jun 30

“Asking about the limits to growth is not just an interesting policy question. What we're doing here is not just questioning how we should navigate the policy minefield. We're fundamentally questioning who we are, what is our foundation of our existence.” tinyurl.com/2t8sk2tb

Are there limits to economic growth? In conversation with Richard McNeill Douglas

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 24/06/2025 · 45m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jun 27

“You might see this as a single crisis, an environmental crisis, a physical crisis. Beyond that, it's also a political crisis… But fundamentally, I think it’s a philosophical or even a theological crisis... the fundamental cause of political inaction” : tinyurl.com/2t8sk2tb

Are there limits to economic growth? In conversation with Richard McNeill Douglas

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 24/06/2025 · 45m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jun 26

"What environmentalism has done is it has contradicted an idea of progress, which is providing a secular understanding of meaning, of what it means to be human, without offering something to replace it." The Meaning of Growth @cusp.ac.uk @theosthinktank.bsky.social tinyurl.com/2t8sk2tb

Are there limits to economic growth? In conversation with Richard McNeill Douglas

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 24/06/2025 · 45m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jun 25

The future is endless. Once you buy into that, the idea of progress, whereby humanity would, over time, through scientific learning, understand & master the universe, you have the idea of a future which is material, but which is attaining God like mastery. tinyurl.com/2t8sk2tb

Are there limits to economic growth? In conversation with Richard McNeill Douglas

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 24/06/2025 · 45m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jun 24

In the latest episode of Reading our Times, I talk to Richard Douglas about his book on "The Meaning of Growth", and we explore how the environmental challenge "is really a treble crisis": physical, political and philosophical. tinyurl.com/2t8sk2tb

Are there limits to economic growth? In conversation with Richard McNeill Douglas

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 24/06/2025 · 45m

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jun 24

This is a great piece by @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social on the importance of reading. tinyurl.com/ms66muuu I confess I am far from unbiased on this topic. tinyurl.com/yrzm389t

Not reading or writing would be unthinkable

The evidence is clear: those who don’t read or who outsource their essays to AI lose the facility for complex thought

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jun 23

"I wanted to understand why Patriarch Kirill seemed so craven, so blindly loyal to Putin, and why he was coming up with all this rhetoric that seemed so warmongering, so unlike anything you associate with the Christian faith." @lucyaash.bsky.social @theosthinktank.bsky.social tinyurl.com/jexnt8hk

Why is the Orthodox church so supportive of Putin's war? In conversation with Lucy Ash

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 17/06/2025 · 45m