The decline of the west is often compared with Hemingway's famous description of bankruptcy. How did it happen? It happened two ways.
Gradually and then suddenly. I was born in China in World War II just a few weeks before Pearl Harbor. By the end of that war, 20 million had been killed around us.
including my brothers. We moved to what was then the capital of China, Free China. And I was there and I'll never forget the day when my father said to me, "Son, we're in trouble.
Chianka has abandoned the city and we're at the mercy of the Red Army. " And they came two years of the reign of terror. Many years later, I was at Oxford and my tutor was at All Souls and I remember going to dinner at All Souls and his great friend was Sir Isaiah Berlin, the great Jewish philosopher of freedom.
And as we were sharing our stories, it suddenly struck him that I had been a 7-year-old to 10year-old in the Chinese Revolution and he had been a seven-year-old in the Russian Revolution, the two great revolutions that shaped the 20th century. And he would then say, although he was an atheist, thank God that the English-speaking world came to the rescue of freedom. I shudder to think what Sir Isaiah would think today, to see the mounting anti-semitism in Britain, in Europe, and even in the United States.
and also the red green alliance, cultural Marxism, radical Islamism, not only at the gates, but within the gates and the English-speaking world not rising to defend itself. My own vision ever since I came to faith many years ago is not only for the renewal of the west but for a renewal of the west in terms of a building a global human friendly future not just for England or America or Europe but people for all around the world who are longing for worlds with a high view of the sanctity of life of the dignity of the individual person of equality and and dignity for all and liberty and justice for all. That surely is what we're about.
And sometimes the discussions have been too English or too American whereas surely the issue today is humanity and the global future. Let me just mention, [applause] let me just remind you of three well-known stories and each of them with a challenge. The first from the well-known film The Titanic.
You remember that scene where the captain and various people including the engineer are discussing how long they have. Four compartments, the engineer says they might survive, but five, no. And someone cries out, "But this ship cannot sink.
" And the engineer says, "I assure you, sir, she's made of iron. She can, she will. It's a mathematical certainty.
" The lesson there is surely there are too many people who presume that what we have will last forever. The great Moses, the great Abraham Lincoln, and the great Alexander Solzaniten all reminded us we have forgotten God. Remember, remember, remember because people at a certain point forget and there's always a double presumption.
They've done so well they think they've done it themselves and they think it will last forever. Let's be absolutely clear and make it clear to all our friends and colleagues across our countries. The great ideas we cherish, human dignity, freedom, they need a foundation.
They need a framework and without that they will not last. It's a mathematical certainty. [applause] The second story, a Russian story, the scorpion and the frog.
You remember they both want to cross the river. And the frog naturally is a little weary about carrying the scorpion, but eventually the scorpion says he wants to live too, so he'll behave. And the frog sets out.
Halfway across the scorpion stings him and they're both drowning. And the frog said, "Why? You promised not to.
" And the scorpion answered famously, "It's my character. I can't help myself. " We must know that ideas have consequences and bad ideas have bad consequences and victims.
And as we look at these alternative alien ideas, neither we nor our friends must be naive. These revolutions never succeed. These oppressions never end.
These promises that they make to us are never delivered. What does history show us? Their pyramids of sacrifice have only mounted higher and higher.
And we must make clear it's their character. It's in their assumptions. They cannot help themselves.
And we must not be naive. [applause] The third well-known story, the third well-known story is a Persian story that has come down to us through Turkey and then Austria and so on. It's a story of a lamp light.
Someone is down on his knees searching desperately for something and a policeman comes by and says, "What are you looking for? " "My keys," he says. So the policeman gets down on his knees and searches furiously.
And after a few minutes, they can't find anything. And the policeman said to him, "Are you sure you lost it here? " And the man said, "No, it was over there.
" And the policeman said, "Why were you looking here? " "Well, there's more light here. In other words, a lot of the human search and discussion goes to the easy, the convenient, the fashionable, and the comfortable.
And I say that because when we're discussing the renewal of civilization, there's no way around the fact that at the core of every discussion along with many other important discussions is the place of religion, faith, the dreaded issue, the uncomfortable discussion. And I just like to share with you, I've been a person of faith for 60 years now. and have longed for the renewal of the West and still in my 80s.
That's what I fight for almost day every day. But let me just share with you some very obvious conclusions that we need to share ourselves so that people know what we're about and we're aiming in the same direction. First, the supreme global menace of our day is unprincipled, unbounded power.
Nature talked to the revaluation of all values. Do you want a name for my world? His last words in his postumous book.
Do you want a name for my world? This world is the will to power and nothing besides. And you can see that written over much of our modern world.
The shift so-called from the weak gods to the strong gods. The shift from a concentration on the west to Eurasia. And the shift in many of our countries from a liberalism to a post-lberalism and now a soft authoritarianism.
Power is the issue and we need to have a principled answer to that. Secondly, faith is always the wellspring of culture and civilization. I said it last year.
If you look at great civilizations, there's usually a geographical element less important today. The Nile in Egypt, the Tigris and Euphrates in Babylon, the Yangze and the Yellow River in China, and so on. And there's a factor that's about ideals and institutions, the rule of law, what Neil Ferguson so well called the killer apps and so on.
But in every great civilization, there are profound answers to the basic meaning of human existence. And without that, the civilization found us. And that of course is ours.
We owe a lot to the Greeks, much to the Romans, but our western civilization is essentially a Christian civilization rooted of course in Judaism. And that's an inescapable fact and we must never forget it in the discussions however ordinary and uncomfortable and so on. And we have to work out today how we advocate that in a day of high diversity and pluralism.
But it's an essential fact. Thirdly, our greatest debt is to the Jewish people. It's often said the West is a product of three cities.
Athens, Rome, and you can choose between Paris and London. No. The greatness of the west is due to certain cities but primarily due to a desert.
And it's those words from the burning bush. Those words from the smoking mountain of Si, I am who I am. I will be who I will be.
Those words are actually the most revolutionary words in all human history. and they are the primary factor of western civilization. But it's not only general.
You look at the United States, Americans think it came from the Enlightenment or John Lock. No, the American Republic came from the rediscovery through the Reformation of what the 17th century called the Hebrew Republic. So the Mayflower compact was a covenant coming from Exodus and Deuteronomy.
John Winthrop talked about a covenant on the Arbella. John Adams he says we owe more to the Jewish people than to any other race in civilizing humanity. And you could go on down the line.
Where does the consent of the covenant come from? Exodus. God proposes his covenant and three times it says all that the Lord says we will do.
The Declaration of Independence mentions it but it comes from Exodus and it could go on down the line. In other words, today the horrific mounting anti-semitism is not only evil, evil, evil, it is also profoundly stupid because many of our best ideas come from the Jews. [applause] Fourthly, confession is a matter of strength, not weakness.
There are many who despise confession. They think it's a matter of weakness, giving in. No, no.
Michelle Fukco, who hated the Christian faith, he said there was one thing he envied and recognized, and that was confession. Why? Because when someone confesses, I screwed up.
I did wrong. I lied. I committed adultery or whatever.
They're going on record against themselves. A very rare act and the essential for about turn going in the right direction. Maggie Thatcher's famous phrase, "This lady's not for turning sounds good, but actually is dangerous because if you're going in the wrong direction to turn around is right.
" And the old shaker song is actually much closer to turn turn until you turn round right. Confession, courageability, fall. We all go wrong is a source of strength, not weakness.
Fifthly, and an important one, we've talked a lot about changing culture. If you look at cultural change, it's never a goal. It's a byproduct.
A culture is a way of life lived in common. A civilization is a culture that's risen high enough, spread far enough, and lasted long enough. And we give it the term civilization.
But at the heart of culture is the way of life. And at the heart of the way of life is the faith. And it's people who know how to live that way of life.
The culture is the byproduct and if they live it strongly enough the civilization is the product but we get the cart for the horse. If we think we can set out as a goal to change culture. No, it is living a certain way that becomes the culture and then the civilization.
Sixly and very obviously but often forgotten. This task is for everyone everywhere in everything. We talk of William Wilberforce and great heroes like Barthole Lascas who fought slavery and so on.
These are the heroes. These are the Mount Everests of achievement. But think of all the people around them unknown.
the anonymous people who prayed and petitioned and organized and protested and made the movement that eventually changed the world. And of course, that's most of us. And we must encourage ordinary people to realize that it's all of us together in every area of our life making the difference.
One last point that's always meant a lot to me. Faith is uniquely the key to renewal. Politics goes in swings.
Economics goes in cycles. But the story and the life of nations and also superpowers and civilizations follows the trajectory of the human life cycle. birth, growth, maturity, flourishing, decline, fall.
If you think of history, why is it that all the great civilizations, where do you find them? They're in ruins. They're in museums.
They're in history books. Now, in the ancient world, what ruled life was fate. It was in your stars or the oracle has spoken about you or whatever.
There was no way to beat the odds of fate. You say, "We're modern. We're free.
" But have you ever considered there's not a single great atheist with a high view of human freedom? They're determinists. For Marx, it was economic determinism.
For Freud, psychological. For Dawkins, genetic. You go on down the line.
Sam Harris has a puppet on the front cover of his book. Freedom is a fond illusion. We are determined.
Where does the deep foundation for human freedom come from which gave birth to the modern liberalism and freedom? From the Bible. And Jews and Christians have a unique foundation of knowing why we are free made in the image of God.
Now that's important of renewal because there's a freedom even to repent. I was saying last night the Greek word for repentance is profound. Metaninoia that total about turn of heart and mind and spirit putting you back on the right track.
But the Hebrew word is even richer. The word cheshuva not only means that total about turn of heart, mind and spirit. It means coming home.
Coming back to truth, back to reality and back to the author of existence itself. Homecoming. Our cultures in the west need to come home.
They're an alienated cultures. They're prodigal cultures and they need nothing more than coming home. David mentioned William Wilberforce.
I'm very grateful that my family were friends and supporters of William Wilberforce and the Clapam Circle. I have several autographs of his and one of my most prized possessions is a book of his lovely leather hound book that David mentioned and he signed it but more importantly there's a letter in the front in which he's writing to a young couple about to get married and Wilberforce wants them to know the secret of the great life change that has set him on the course of his life as they set out on their marriage. He sent it to the couple and you can see each of them has ticked it and signed it at the end.
But what's moving is the date, three months before the great man died. As you know, slavery was abolished three days before he died. And he lived to see it.
the end of his life and the end of his calling and task coincided. Very rare. But you can see the great man to the very end of his life was concerned not only to fight slavery with all he was worth, but to share with people the secret of the life change that put him on the course to be the world's greatest social reformer.
Not that he said that, but we can say that with hindsight. Can there be renewal? Will there be renewal?
I'm often asked those two questions. I would certainly answer the word can because the biblical pairing is not decline and fall, but exile and return. And so there can be restoration.
But I would say solemnly, we must never say that glibly or casually because whether it happens or not may be decisive for the future of humanity. Because with the mixture of authoritarianism and some of the ways AI is being used, look at the police country like China with three or four cameras following everyone. You can see that one possible future for humanity is the inhumanity of authoritarianism and the posthumity of AI.
And against that we are standing for a human friendly future with a high view of the sanctity of life. A high view of the dignity of every single human person and a high view of the equality and dignity of all and of liberty and justice for everyone. May God help us.
Thank you.
