Dr Paul Allen

On its own, it’s hard to make sense of Jesus’ eye-lamp metaphor. However, the ambiguity fades when our interpretation of “the eye is the lamp of the body” involves reading Jesus’ words in context. He’s using imagery from the Hebrew Bible to say that one's spiritual health can be assessed in part by observing the way one uses material possessions. First, this single sentence belongs to a large body of teaching found in Matthew 5-7, known as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus talks about the body’s eye-lamp in a section of the sermon that focuses on the dangers involved with wealth. This context helps us see that his metaphor specifically speaks to our relationship with money and possessions. Second, as a Jewish teacher, Jesus appeals to common idioms in the Hebrew Bible. Seeing how biblical authors use the metaphorical language of “light-filled” versus “dim” eyes—or “good” versus “bad” eyes—can help us gain a deeper understanding of Jesus’ intended message. For Jesus, the eye becomes an...

The Welsh Government is poised to oust religious education and ban Christianity from schools to “rise to the challenge of community cohesion” and “extremism.” Welsh Minister for Education and Skills Huw Lewis, told Senedd, The Welsh Parliament: “My contention would be that we rename the [religious education] curriculum and transform it into the religion, philosophy and ethics element of the curriculum – where there is an explicit commitment to allowing children to ponder ideas around ethics and citizenship and what it means to be a citizen of a free country.” He argued that the Welsh government must “rise to the challenge of community cohesion” through reforming religious education. At the end of June an “ Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales” by Professor Graham Donaldson, a former chief inspector of schools in the principality, urged that pupils in Welsh schools should be “ethical, informed citizens of the world.” Earlier in the month, a report...