I enjoyed rereading Flatland, and I go to Great St Mary's church, so when I found out Abbott had a book of the sermons he'd preached at GSM, I thought it would be interesting to pick up a copy and read it.

It is so very very Victorian. It is right in the middle of wrestling with 'oh, evolution! Can we still believe in God and evolution?'

And very interesting in a study of how the things people used to be able to say wholeheartedly now sit awkwardly with us (which makes you start to wonder, which things do we accept as good that we will cringe at in another 100 years time?) It is stirring to hear someone talk about Goodness and Beauty and Love. Concepts like 'Mankind as the pinnacle of evolution', and 'the need to improve the social condition of the poorer classes' feel complicated to our modern ears. And the whole digression about whether it's OK to pray for the dead feels like being in the middle of an argument you weren't actually having in the first place now! ( )