The conference, now in its second year, is the brainchild of Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson. In addition to Peterson, a lovely woman named Philippa Stroud played a major role. According to a journalist, Baroness Stroud is “the most influential right-winger you’ve never heard of.” The financial foundations for the organization were provided by Paul Marshall, a wealthy British hedge fund manager and conservative media mogul.

Not surprisingly, the participants gathered in moderately picturesque East London were majority Anglo-Saxon. 1,300 people came from the United Kingdom, 1,100 from the United States, and 300 from Australia, but there were also 1,000 continental Europeans present.

Groping for Truth

In her opening speech, Stroud emphasized that guests had been invited because they loved their countries and believed in the principles that made Western civilization great. Western civilization now needs to be rebuilt. Everyone knows that something is going wrong. We are in a civilizational moment, Stroud remarked, and we need to discuss how to respond to the challenges arising on social, technological, and energy related fields. The response must be optimistic, people- and virtue-centered, and built on spiritual and philosophical foundations. The wording of the first speech made it immediately clear that this conference was casting a wide net.

After a strong start, the low point of the event arrived immediately as Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the British Conservative Party, took the floor. Badenoch was polite and agreeable, but her response to the challenges facing Western civilization was tired and uninspiring. She blamed the problems facing Western civilization on weakness, not on a flaw inherent to classical liberalism.

After Badenoch’s speech, Peterson raised the bar. In the style of a Greek sage, he thought aloud on stage and attempted to define the fundamental principles of Western civilization. Unfortunately, his attempt fell short. He set himself the impossible task of unifying traditional conservatism and classical liberalism. Peterson rightly condemned hedonism and called attention to the importance of the unifying principle of sacrifice.

On the concept of sacrifice, he began by pondering the altars of Christian churches, but his thinking derailed while recalling the meta-narratives of the Holy Scriptures.

Among the speakers who were open to Christianity mainly for its cultural, civilization-preserving value, Douglas Murray announced the era of reconstruction. First, he offered an American example to Europeans: not to be afraid to take risks. Without taking risks, like investing in AI, there can be no innovation. Second, he emphasized that Europeans must be able to look back at the past and love the West. Those who do not want to identify with the Western Christian tradition should live elsewhere.

I would not have thought that in the homeland of the “new atheism”, where the flag of confused sexual and gender identities still flies in front of City Hall, I would experience such openness towards Christianity. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a relatively new convert provided a compromise position by speaking only in favour of “the inseparability of Christian morality and the West.”

Back to the roots

The internal tension felt throughout the conference about the role of Christianity was most clearly expressed by veteran Anglican theologian Os Guinness:

“Christianity does nothing for civilization if it is merely seen as useful.”

According to Guinness, culture is a way of life lived together, and if a culture rises high enough, spreads far enough, and persists long enough, then we speak of civilization. If a civilization loses its connection with the inspiration that gave birth to it, it has three options: renew the original inspiration, replace it with an equally good inspiration, or begin to decline. Guinness pointed out that replacing Christianity with secular liberalism has already failed. The solution to the civilizational moment is this: we must show ultimate loyalty to the ultimate reality, because the Christian faith is true. As a first step, it is enough for creative minorities to do so. This concept may be familiar, Guinness learned it personally from Arnold J. Toynbee.

Archbishop Anba Angaelos, the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London, agreed with Guinness and spoke in the same vein. He said that Christians do not need to be in the majority to be effective. To succeed, we must embody the message of the Gospel and learn from the example of the Libyan martyrs.

Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Barron proposed a similar solution and also focused on the highest good. He argued that without God there can be no real political or economic development. In any case, the history of Western civilization cannot be told without God. God cannot be cut out of the human experience, because the dynamism of the soul goes towards infinity, towards the transcendent. Although secularization poses a great challenge, in his personal experience, young people in the West increasingly feel that God is the key.

Not only useful, but true indeed

When it comes to Catholicism, I have good news. There is a very serious Catholic revival taking place in London. This may be partly because being Catholic in England means making a clear statement, as Catholics are a strongly persecuted minority. I also got a very good impression of the Australians, especially the Archbishop of Sydney, who celebrated mass every morning for the Catholic participants of the conference in a small, secluded church.

It was joyous to see how many of the attendees of the conference recognized that Christianity is not only useful, but true indeed, even if not everyone came to this conclusion. I owe them my gratitude!