This morning’s Thought for the Day, given by the Revd Dr Michael Banner of Trinity College, Cambridge, used the death of Desmond Morris to raise an old question in a new form: are human beings fallen angels or risen devils? That reflection led me back to the postwar cultural watershed and to a select list of books that challenged inherited ideas about religion, science, human nature, and modern civilisation.
The lotus rises pure from the mud, uniting science and symbol, matter and mind. This reflection explores how the flower’s ancient imagery bridges the two magisteria of human understanding — the measurable and the mysterious.