Faith, Politics, and Belonging: A Reflection on Identity, Complexity, Simplicity, and Obsession

Drawing on the author's years spent working in and around Westminster, this essay collection provides a personal perspective on the themes of faith, politics, and belonging. To understand identity and place we need faith. Faith should lead to engagement in the wider world, and engagement in the wider world should deepen our faith and sense of purpose. In three sections, each drawing on his experience, Ian Geary reflects on the cognate themes of faith, politics, and belonging. Each section concludes with some questions for discussion and some suggestions for further reading. Written from personal experience via immersion in British political life and informed by his understanding of theology, the author seeks to animate a generous debate about the key themes, not to secure readers' attachment to a cause or political ideology. These essays are written in the hope that Christians engaged in politics will find them helpful and that they will also reach a wider audience to show how viewing politics through the lens of faith might yield a fresh perspective. Ian Geary would venture to suggest that politics--despite its critics--is a necessary and good thing.

Ian Geary has over twenty years' experience in UK politics, including working for two Labour MPs, a trade union, and the Salvation Army. He is the co-editor of Blue Labour: Forging a New Politics (2015), a committed Christian, and a fan of West Bromwich Albion. He is currently based in Athens, Greece, with his wife and three children while studying remotely for a PhD in divinity at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.