Simon Barrow

A writer, commentator, theologian and educator, I am co-director of Ekklesia, the think-tank and news service concerned with religion and public life from a radical, post-Christendom perspective. I also work as a trainer, facilitator and consultant with church and community initiatives, as well as continuing to publish for a wide variety of audiences - from general to academic. Football and music are my balancing passions.

Faithfully schooled for debate? - Thinking Aloud, by Simon Barrow

Simon Barrow is involved in the new Accord coalition, aiming at Reform of Faith Schools in the UK. Here he explains why, and what changes he would like to see made.

At the end of an interview about the work of Ekklesia last year, I was asked a pertinent personal question. “Is your own major professional concern in all this journalistic, campaigning or academic?” It wasn’t something that came out in the final product, because I think I just said “a bit of each”. But it made me reflect more on how those three approaches may complement or contradict one another.

Put positively, it seems to me that good journalism is about condensing fact and opinion for rapid consumption without confusing the two; that good campaigning is about effective advocacy which builds bridges for change; and that good academic work is about deepening human enquiry so that the difference between a matter of thought and an arcane point of scholarship becomes clearer.

The problem with campaigning is that there are enormous temptations to simplify, exaggerate and polarise in order to get a point across or build a support base sufficiently indignant to apply political pressure. This is not helped by the media naturally preferring ‘either-or’ narratives to ones marked by the kind of complexity, plurality and ambiguity which are the features of actual life… but which require a bit more unravelling than 2 minutes, a sound bite or 500 words will allow. Yet these are the currency of modern communication, along with a blogsophere that can dish out enlightenment and bile, discussion and demonisation in equal measures (with a far greater preponderance of the latter, the observant cynic might suggest).