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Politics and the Good Samaritan

Politics and the Good Samaritan

Nick Spencer discusses his book on the ABC’s ‘The Spirit of Things’.

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“Many people would have heard the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’, a story found in the Gospel of Luke, where a traveller is beaten and left half–dead on the road.

The victim is avoided by both a priest and a Levite, until a Samaritan comes to his aid and shows him mercy.

Colloquially, the term ‘good Samaritan’ has been used to describe someone who comes to the rescue of a stranger in need.

But the parable has also been used by politicians pushing a specific agenda – which has been the area of research for author Nick Spencer.”

 

Nick Spencer appears on Australian radio show ‘The Spirit of Things’ to discuss his latest book, ‘The Political Samaritan’.

 

Listen here

 Image from the ABC.

Nick Spencer

Nick Spencer

Nick is Senior Fellow at Theos. He is the author of a number of books and reports, including Magisteria: the entangled histories of science and religion (Oneworld, 2023), The Political Samaritan: how power hijacked a parable (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Evolution of the West (SPCK, 2016) and Atheists: The Origin of the Species (Bloomsbury, 2014). He is host of the podcast Reading Our Times.

Watch, listen to or read more from Nick Spencer

Posted 16 April 2018

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