A question that has been haunting me one way or another for a long time received some kind of an answer in an article in The Guardian Magazine on Saturday 20 September 2025. The article, by Alex Curmi, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, was titled “What if we just weren’t made for these things?”
I have great difficulty knowing and trusting what the point of being an active, committed Christian is nowadays (apart from being an irritant, pursued by God, keen on writing and posting blogs). Forty years ago the question didn’t arise. Being a Christian priest then was obviously a wise, fulfilling, vocational, fundamental of my life. God, trusted to be some kind of reality somewhere with very specific qualities and identities, was also open to be questioned, change, development according to radical new ideas in theology and liturgical performance and texts. God was open-minded about gay clergy and women priests. We, modern committed Christians, were wiser about the complexity of the Biblical text when and where and by whom the books of the Bible were (and weren’t) written. We knew about textual criticism, how the books had been edited and assembled, not necessarily in date order, we knew about Qumran and the Dead Sea scrolls – and evolution as a fundamental reality.
Alex Curmi’s article reminded me of the things I’ve become more conscious of in the last forty years, a more detailed awareness of the evolution of the human species and of ‘society’. Curmi gave a simplified timeline:
human genetics and anatomy have remained largely unchanged for about 100,000 years
For the next 90,000 years we lived as nomadic hunter/gatherers in tribes
About 10,000 years ago an agricultural economy began to develop; settlements formed
5,000 years ago civilisations began to form, independently in five geographical centres. The Hebrew journey of faith began in this period.
Christianity was formed 2,000 years ago.
Explorers, archaeologists and historians provide us with an increasingly detailed and still expanding knowledge of the many eras of civilisation that have evolved, succeeded and failed over this 5,000 year period. My awareness of the landscape of history and of my Christian faith has been transformed, raising the question for me: “Why do I still believe, and what is it I really believe – about God? The is partly a question of age: eighty, 45 as a priest. But there is more to it than that. Life itself has become far more complex that it was when I was a child, more unsettled, more fragile, more demanding. Human societies and cultures are clearly regressing to a more decadent state in parallel with our evolving scientific discoveries and inventions. Societies are electing or being subjected to tyrannical, emotionally immature, authoritarian leaders. Combine the fragile state of national and global leaders and institutions with the fragility and uncertainty about our capacity to respond effectively to the climate crisis and it’s no surprise that people feel insecure and uncertain about the security of our lives on the planet as well as about our personal faith when we are witnessing extremes of human aggression, destruction, murder and we are haunted by physical and emotional neuroses, addictions, diagnoses and syndromes. Curmi says there is a powerful explanation for many of these manifestations – the world has developed in ways our biology hasn’t been able to keep up with. My body knows this.
A visit to Foyles bookshop
Last week I had time to kill in the West End and wandered into Foyles and started browsing among the categories of human spiritual, emotional and psychological health and well-being, religions, Bibles, Church history, theology, Islam, Buddhism, philosophy, mythology, esoteric studies, the occult, mindfulness, astrology, ethics, epistemology, psychoanalysis, new personal development, self-development, self-help, spiritual guidance and relationships. I took photos of each pair of bookcases – 30 photos of two or sometimes three bookcases, about 70 in all, 1 metre wide by 2 metres high, seven shelves in each, maybe 40 books per shelf, 20,000 books in total, so many books, so much space occupied in Foyles, so many people reading these books. Maybe all these books, all these subject categories are responding to people’s physical, emotional, spiritual and religious anxieties and their search for understanding and reassurance, to find answers to the questions and experiences that haunt us.
Back to Alex Curmi – and obesity
Curmi says the contemporary human habitat isn’t the one we were made for, have evolved to live successfully within. Obesity, previously rare, has now overtaken malnutrition as the leading public health issue relating to diet in many parts of the world. He says the realm of dating and mating has also changed beyond all recognition. The process of finding a mate, a partner, has often become protracted and overwhelming:
“a phase of life characterised by choice paralysis, hurtful behaviour such as ghosting, and the constant anxiety that our true soulmate is just a swipe away.”
“Rising rates of depression and other mental health problems can also be viewed through the lens of mismatch. Many of us are living a life disconnected from others, lacking in fulfilling work and devoid of meaning.”
“Low mood is not the misfiring of a broken brain but a signal that we might be missing out on important aspects of human experience.”
“Reports are emerging that chatbots can fuel the delusions and paranoid thinking of people vulnerable to psychosis.”
Previous eras and generations may have been fortunate enough to live in communities rich with tradition, ritual and meaning. I understand why among my friends are those who continue to be deeply attached to their particular Christian traditions and practices. The traditions don’t particularly work for me any longer.
Curmi suggests that “understanding the life evolution designed for us allows us to look at our problems with more clarity and self-compassion, and can nudge us towards better, more informed decisions.” “Some solutions are straightforward, like keeping junk food out of the house, deleting social media apps or limiting screen time.”
“Community, collaborative problem-solving, ritual and meaning are vital ingredients for a satisfying life and will remain so. Thinking about how to building these into our lives so that they’re part of its fabric, rather than optional extras, is a potentially life-changing exercise.”
I think the Holy Spirit is working extra hard in my life at the moment, because a day after reading Alex Curmi’s article, I read on p10 of Ken Leech’s book a quotation from Eric Hobsbawn dated 11th July 1988:
“Britain after Thatcher will be a scene of destruction. Those who need to rebuild what has to be reconstructed – not necessarily in the same way as before – need a preliminary survey of the bomb damage . . . Answers to particular questions are given by most reports but nobody has sketched the general picture.”
John Major, the next Prime Minister, restored in a dull, grey way, some stability and Tony Blair’s New Labour restored some excitement, progress and creativity, but global events and regressions have halted progress towards reconstruction and are presenting us with a new, worse question. If Trump hasn’t destroyed too much of Western culture and society beyond repair, will we have the people to sketch the picture of repair we are going to need?
My understanding of the experiences I’m having as I visit church buildings and congregations in the Stepney area of London Diocese is that much Christian teaching, life and worship is being corrupted by the Trumpian revolution and the ways in which modern life is making us sick, identified by Alex Curmi. I am more convinced than ever that the Church of England is being corrupted by the multiple failures to engage with changing cultures, beliefs and practices and is already in a position where recovering a healthy spiritual and religious culture is going to be almost impossibly challenging. The good news is that I continue to meet individuals and churches where the congregations and their lives of worship and Christian witness and practice continue to display signs of health that respond to the question “What if we just weren’t made for these things?” These individuals and churches can lead people more deeply into the quality of “life in all its fulness.”
