Interested by this? Share it on social media. Join our monthly e-newsletter to keep up to date with our latest research and events. And check out our Friends Programme to find out how you can help our work.

"We are in danger of suffering from historical amnesia, prone to thinking that all our modern values - democracy, rule of law, human rights - are all the product of the Enlightenment. While we do indeed owe a lot to the Enlightenment, the Enlightenment itself owes a lot to Christianity. It's no accident that values such as democracy and the rule of law emerged in the West when they did."

"The Bible and biblical thinking and theological reflection utterly permeated European culture right up to the 19th century"

"The Rule of Law, which states that there should be a law for all, for the powerful as much as for the powerless, for the king as well as for the king's subjects is directly traceable to the book of Deuteronomy. It's there that you find the idea that the King takes the Book of the Law and obeys it."

Listen to the full interview here (from min. 01:01:10)

Image available from Google Commons