Patrick Comerford, publications: books, chapters, pamphlets reports, reviews and features

Visiting Comberford Hall, between Lichfield and Tamworth, in rural Staffordshire

I am the author ten books or monographs, the co-author of another, and a contributor to 39 others, my papers have been published in 24 journals, primarily in the fields of history and theology, and I have been published in 14 countries on four continents. In addition, my photographs have appeared in books and magazines around the world.

2026:

‘The Ikerrin Crown’, in Under Crimblin Hill, Historical journal of Dunkerrin Parish History Society, ed Salvador Ryan (Vol V, 2026), pp 20-27

Five photographs (pp 24, 30, 44, 44, 45, acknowledgement p 94) in Dublin Visitor Guide 2025-2026), ed Sally Davies (Smarttraveller365, 2026), 100 pp.

2025:

‘Four Boys Growing up in Dublin’s ‘Little Jerusalem’ and a Synagogue Fire’, pp 153-156, Chapter 36 in Childhood and the Irish, A miscellany, ed Salvador Ryan (Dublin: Wordwell, 2025), xviii + 344 pp, ISBN: 978-1-916742-19-2 (paperback), 978-1-916742-20-8 (epub)

‘The Children of the Holocaust who Called Ireland Home’, pp 166-170, Chapter 39 in Childhood and the Irish, A miscellany, ed Salvador Ryan (Dublin: Wordwell, 2025), xviii + 344 pp, ISBN: 978-1-916742-19-2 (paperback), 978-1-916742-20-8 (epub)

‘Diversity in Sarawak’, pp 20-21 in Pray with the World Church: Prayers And Reflections from The Anglican Communion, 1 June 2025 – 29 November 2025 (London: USPG, 2025, 64 pp)

Book review: Church Going: A Stonemason’s Guide to the Churches of the British Isles, by Andrew Ziminski (London, Profile Books, 2024), in the Irish Theological Quarterly (Maynooth), Volume 90 Issue 2, April 2025, pp 239-240.

Nine photographs (pp 7, 26, 36, 38, 38, 46, 47, 49, 49) in Co. Clare Visitor Guide, ed Sally Davies (Smarttraveller365, 2025), 64 pp.

One photograph (p 42) in County Kerry Visitor Guide, ed Sally Davies (Smarttraveller365, 2025), 76 pp.

Photographs in Dublin City Visitor Guide, ed Sally Davies (Smarttraveller365, 2025, forthcoming).

Photograph of Saint Peter’s Church, Kuching, in Herald Malaysia (1 July 2025).

2024:

Προλογος / Foreword, pp 5-8 in Panos Karagiorgos, Ελληνικα Δημοτικα Τραγουδια, Greek Folk Songs (Thessaloniki, Εκδοτικος Οικος Κ & Μ Σταμουλη, 2024, 203 pp ISBN 978-960-656-200-6).

‘The Lamport Crucifix’, in: Catriona Finlayson (ed), 50 Years of the Lamport Hall Preservation Trust (Lamport, Northamptonshire, 2024, 100 pp), pp 54-57, with photographs

‘Bourke’s House’, in: Denis O’Shaughnessy (ed), The Story of Athlunkard Street, 1824-2024 (Limerick, 2024, 206 pp), pp 10-13.

‘Foreword’ (pp iv-v) and photograph (p 181) in: Rod Smith, Clancarty – the high times and humble of a noble Irish family (Tauranga, New Zealand: Eyeglass Press, 2024, xviii + 341 pp, ISBN 978-0-473-70863-4)

Patrick Comerford and Sarah Friedman, Milton Keynes & District Reform Synagogue: an introduction (6 pp pamphlet, with six photographs, Milton Keynes, 17 November 2024)

‘Did St Patrick Bring Christianity to Ireland’, Conversations (Dublin: Dominican Publications, ed Bernard Treacy), Vol 1 No 2, March/April 2024, pp 77-80, ISSN 2990-8388.

Book Review: Towards a Theology of Liturgy: A Collection of Essays on West Syrian Liturgical Theology, Fr Dr KM Koshy Vaidyan, Kottayam: Mashikkoottu, 2023, 232 pp, ISBN 978-81-966011-5-7, in The Journal of Malankara Orthodox Theological Studies (Orthodox Theological Seminary, Kerala, India), Vol viii No 2 (July-December 2023), pp 113-115 (published February 2024).

‘Richard Rawle, the Vicar of Tamworth who became a Bishop in Trinidad’, Tamworth Heritage Magazine, Vol 2 No 1, Winter 2024 (January 2024), ed Chris Hills (ISSN 2753-4162 9772 7534 16209), pp 11-14 (with photographs)

‘William Wailes, stained glass artist’, Tamworth Heritage Magazine, Vol 2 No 1, Winter 2024 (January 2024), ed Chris Hills (ISSN 2753-4162 9772 7534 16209), pp 17-18 (with four photographs)

Photograph, ‘Forgiveness and love in the face of death and mass murder … a fading rose on the fence at Birkenau’, p 202 in Frank Callery, Ceangailte Tied Appendixes of Pain (Kilkenny: O’Mega Publications), 250 pp, forthcoming poetry collection

Photograph (Bryce House, February 2025) in ‘Garnish Island Calendar 2025’ (produced by Deirdre Goyvaerts for Scoil Fhiachna National School, Glengarriff, Co Cork, 2024)

Photograph, ‘The Liberties College’, illustrating feature by Mary Phelan in The Liberty (local newspaper, Dublin), 2 November 2024.

2023:

‘The Sephardic family roots and heritage of John Desmond Bernal, Limerick scientist’, pp 60-66 in The Old Limerick Journal, ed Tom Donovan (Limerick: Limerick Museum, ISBN: 9781916294394, 72 pp), No 58, Winter 2023, with nine photographs, 1 December 2023.

‘Church-goers in Limerick During War and Revolution’, Chapter 6, pp 83-89, in Histories of Protestant Limerick, 1912-1923, ed Seán William Gannon and Brian Hughes (Limerick: Limerick City & County Council, 2023, ISBN 978-1-999-6911-6, 132 pp); with three photographs, pp 70-71.

‘The ‘Wexford Carol’ and the mystery surrounding some old and popular Christmas carols’, pp 72-77 in Christmas and the Irish: a miscellany, ed Salvador Ryan (Dublin: Wordwell Books, 2023, ISBN: 978-1-913934-93-4, 403 pp, €25), with photograph on p 71.

‘Molly Bloom’s Christmas Card: where Joycean fiction meets a real-life family’, in Christmas and the Irish: a miscellany, ed Salvador Ryan (Dublin: Wordwell Books, 2023, ISBN: 978-1-913934-93-4, 403 pp, €25), pp 151-155, including a photograph on p 155.

‘‘We Three Kings of Orient are’: an Epiphany carol with Irish links’, pp 103-107 in Christmas and the Irish: a miscellany, ed Salvador Ryan (Dublin: Wordwell Books, 2023, ISBN: 978-1-913934-93-4, 403 pp, €25).

<< Ο Sir Richard Church και οι Ιρλανδοι Φιλελληνες στον Πολεμο των Ελληνων για την Ανεξαρτησια >>, pp 53-75, in Πανος Καραγιώργος και Patrick Comerford, Ο Φιλελληνισμος και η Ελληνικη Επανασταση του 1821 (Θεσσαλονικη: Εκδοτικος Οικος Κ κ Σταμουλη, 2023, 78 pp), ISBN: 978-960-656-115-9.

Who is Our Neighbour? (London: USPG, 2023, ISBN 2631-4995, 48 pp), editor and Introduction, pp 5-6; a six-session study course for Lent 2023.

Daily reading (26 March 2023), ‘Mercy: Be merciful … do not judge …’, Christian Aid online resources

Photograph (p 137) in: Jack Kavanagh, Always Ireland, An Insider’s Tour of the Emerald Isle (Washington DC: National Geographic, 2023), 336 pp, hb, ISBN 978-1-4262-2216-0, $35 in the US (March 2023).

Cover photograph: Tim Vivian, A Doorway into Thanks: Further Reflections on Scripture (Austin Macauley Publishers, London, Cambridge, New York, Sharjah), ISBN: 9781685620004, $14.95 in the US (April 2023)

Three photographs (pp 78, 165, 355) in: Hellgard Leckebusch, Singing our Song, the Memoirs of Hellgard Leckebusch (1944-2023), eds, Silke Püttmann and Kenneth Ferguson (Mettmann, NRW, Germany: Silke Püttmann, May 2023, e-book).

2022:

‘Barbara Heck and Philip Embury: Founders of American Methodism’, pp 109-111, in David Bracken, ed, Of Limerick Saints and Sinners (Dublin: Veritas, 2022, ISBN: 9781800970311), 266 pp.

‘Mother Mary Whitty: Sign of the Cross in Korea’, pp 213-215, in David Bracken, ed, Of Limerick Saints and Sinners (Dublin: Veritas, 2022, ISBN: 9781800970311, 266 pp).

‘Lichfield’s Hidden Writers’ (with Jono Oates), CityLife in Lichfield, August 2022, p 34.

‘For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church’ Studies in Christian Ethics, 35 (2), May 2022 (SAGE: Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC, Melbourne, ISBN 0953-9468), pp 342-359.

‘Saint Patrick: the myths, the legends and his relevance to Ireland today,’ Reality (Redemptorist Communications), March 2022 (Vol 88 No 2 ISSN 0034-0960), pp 12-16.

‘Study 4: Celtic Spirituality: A View from the Church of Ireland’, Living Stones, Living Hope, USPG Lent Study Course 2022 (London: USPG, 2022, ISBN: 2631-4995), pp 29-34.

Book Review: Fifty Catholic Churches to See Before You Die. By Elena Curti. Leominster: Gracewing, 2000. Pp 280. Price £14.99 (pbk). ISBN 978-0-85244-962-2, in The Irish Theological Quarterly (Pontifical University Maynooth), Vol 87 No 1 (February 2022), pp 78-80.

2021:

‘The Meade dynasty in Victorian Dublin and their family roots in Kilbreedy, Co Limerick’, pp 30-32 in ABC News (2021), annual magazine of Askeaton/Ballysteen Community Council Muinitir na Tíre, ed Geraldine O’Brien and Teresa Wallace.

‘Returning to a place of spiritual sanctuary in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield’ Koinonia (Kansas City MO, December 2021), pp 22-25.

‘Albert Grant, the Victorian Fraudster Born in Poverty in Dublin’ (Chapter 23, pp 104-107), Birth and the Irish: a miscellany, Salvador Ryan, ed (Dublin: Wordwell Books, 2021, 288 pp, ISBN: 978-1-913934-61-3).

‘Six Boys from Ballaghadereen with the Same Parents … but who was Born the Legitimate Heir?’ (Chapter 32, pp 144-148), Birth and the Irish: a miscellany, Salvador Ryan, ed (Dublin: Wordwell Books, 2021, 288 pp, ISBN: 978-1-913934-61-3).

‘A Reflection on the Crises in Afghanistan following the Fall of Kabul’, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review (Vol 110, No 440, Winter 2021, pp 458-469).

Book Review: The Churchwardens’ Accounts of the Parishes of St Bride, St Michael Le Pole and St Stephen, Dublin, 1663-1702. Edited by WJR Wallace. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2020. Pp. 208. Price €50.00 (hbk). ISBN 978-1-84682-835-5, in The Irish Theological Quarterly, (Pontifical University Maynooth) Vol 86 No 2 (May 2021), pp 213-215.

Photographs in: Michael Christopher Keane, The Crosbies of Cork, Kerry, Laois and Leinster (2021, viii + 321 pp), ISBN: 9781527297418.

Photograph, illustrating Dr Dani Scarratt and Alison Woof, ‘Coming to our senses’ (pp 21-27), Case Quarterly No 60 (2021), pp 21-27 (Centre for Christian Apologetics, Scholarship and Education, New College, University of New South Wales, Sydney).

Photograph: Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, cover photograph, Old Limerick Journal (No 56, Winter 2021), ed Tom Donovan, published by the Limerick Museum.

2020:

‘The banking heir who claimed a title and whose father was Vicar of Askeaton’, ABC News 2020, annual magazine of the Askeaton/Ballysteen Community Council Muintir na Tíre (Askeaton, December 2020), pp 72-74.

‘Saint Mary’s, The Parish Church that Looks Like Part of the College’, We Remember Maynooth: A College across Four Centuries, eds Salvador Ryan and John-Paul Sheridan (Dublin: Messenger Publishing, 2020, 512 pp), ISBN 9781788122634, pp 36-38.

‘A Day in the Sun in mid-November 1987 with RTÉ and the Cardinal’, We Remember Maynooth: A College across Four Centuries, eds Salvador Ryan and John-Paul Sheridan (Dublin: Messenger Publishing, 2020, 512 pp), ISBN 9781788122634, pp 366-370.

Book Review, The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts, Karen Armstrong, London: The Bodley Head, 2019, pp 549 pp, £25, ISBN 978-1-847-92431-5, in Search, A Church of Ireland Journal, Vol 43, No 3 Autumn 2020 (October 2020), pp 231-232.

Book Review, Irish Theological Quarterly, Vol 85, No 3 (Pontifical University Maynooth, August 2020), pp 323-325: Irish Anglicanism, 1969-2009: Essays to mark the 150th anniversary of the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, Edited by Kenneth Milne and Paul Harron. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2019. Pp. 304. Price €35.00 (hbk). ISBN 978-1-84682-819-5.

‘Are ‘conservative evangelicals’ really conservative and evangelical?’ Search, a Church of Ireland journal, Vol 43 No 1 (Spring 2020), pp 5-13.

2019:

‘Chichester Phillips: the MP for Askeaton who gave Ireland its first Jewish Cemetery’, ABC News 2019 (pp 61-63), the annual magazine of Askeaton/Ballysteen Community Council Muintir na Tíre (December 2019)

‘Wellington: the Irish hero at Waterloo who introduced Catholic Emancipation’, Hugh Baker and John McCullen (eds), Drogheda Grammar School, 1669-2019 (Drogheda: Drogheda Grammar School, 2019, xii + 236 pp), pp 31-37.

‘John Leslie, the ‘oldest bishop in Christendom’, Chapter 15, pp 50-52, Salvador Ryan (ed), Marriage and the Irish (Dublin: Wordwell, 2019).

‘Four Victorian weddings and a funeral’ Chapter 47, pp 163-165, Salvador Ryan (ed), Marriage and the Irish (Dublin: Wordwell, 2019).

Book Review, The Future of Religious Minorities in the Middle East, John Eibner (ed), Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2018, pp 276. ISBN 978-14985-6196-9, in Search: A Church of Ireland Journal Vol 42.2, Summer 2019 (June 2019), pp 151-152.

2018:

‘Once in Royal David’s City’: celebrating two anniversaries of a favourite Christmas carol’ Reality Vol 83, No 10 (December 2018), (Dublin: Redemptorist Communications, ed Brendan McConvery CSsR) pp 24-27.

‘A curious link between Askeaton and a plot to kill two kings,’ in ABC News 2018 (December 2018), the annual magazine of Askeaton/Ballysteen Community Council Munitir na Tíre, pp 14-15.

‘Introduction,’ in Robert Wyse Jackson, Life in the Church of Ireland, 1600-1800, ed John Wyse Jackson (Whitegate, Co Clare: Ballinakella Press, 2018), 256 pp, ISBN 10: 0946538557 ISBN 13: 9780946538553.

‘Pilgrimage visit to Lichfield Cathedral’, Koinonia, Vol 11, No 36, Trinity I (Kansas City, Missouri, July 2018), pp 20-23.

‘F.J.A. Hort (1828–92), the Dublin-born member of the Cambridge triumvirate and translating the Revised Version of the Bible’, Salvador Ryan and Liam M Tracey (eds), The Cultural Reception of the Bible: explorations in theology, literature and the arts (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2018, ISBN: 978-1-84682-725-9), pp 189-198.

‘Preaching and Celebrating, Word and Sacrament: Inseparable Signs of the Church’, pp 77-90, in Perspectives on Preaching: A Witness of the Irish Church, ed Maurice Elliott, Patrick McGlinchey (Dublin: Church of Ireland Publishing, 2018), 242 pp.

‘Ballyragget Castle: A ‘sleeping giant’ with hidden potential’, illustrated feature in From Tullabarry to Béal Átha Raghdad (Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny: Ballyragget Heritage Festival, 2018), pp 5-8.

2017:

Book reviews: Jesus: A Very Brief History, Helen K Bond, London, SPCK, 2017, pp 88, ISBN 9780281075997; Thomas Aquinas: A Very Brief History, Brian Davies, London, SPCK, 2017, pp 137, ISBN 9780281076116; Florence Nightingale: A Very Brief History, Lynn McDonald, London, SPCK, 2017, pp 127, ISBN 9780281076451; in Search, A Church of Ireland Journal, Vol 40.3, Autumn 2017 (October 2017), pp 234-236.

‘To praise eternity in time and place … searching for a spirituality of place’, Ruach No 4 (Michaelmas 2017, Weeford, ed Revd Dr Jason Philips, Ms Lynne Mills), pp 50-56.

‘Marking the Reformation: 500 years on – an Irish Anglican perspective’, in the Methodist Newsletter, Vol 45, No 487 (Senior Editor, Lynda Neilands; Editor, Peter Mercer), June 2017, pp 24-25.

‘Going to the movies with Harry Potter and Noah’, Ruach No 3 (Trinity 2017, Weeford, ed Revd Dr Jason Philips, Ms Lynne Mills) pp 28-31.

‘Thomas Cranmer: the Cambridge reformer who shaped the Anglican Reformation’, Reality, May 2017, pp 38-40 (Dublin: Redemptorist Communications), ed Brendan McConvery CSsR.

‘In the Harrowing of Hell, Christ reaches down and lifts us up with him in his Risen Glory’, Koinonia (Kansas City MO) vol 10 no 33, Easter 2017 (April 2017), pp 10-13.

2016:

‘Abide with me’: the funeral hymn of a former curate in Co Wexford, Chapter 28 in Death and the Irish: a miscellany, ed Salvador Ryan (Dublin: Wordwell, 2016, ISBN-13 978-0993351822), pp 108-111.

‘Bringing the bodies home: JJ Murphy and the ‘Pickled Earl’,’ Chapter 40 in Death and the Irish: a miscellany, ed Salvador Ryan (Dublin: Wordwell, 2016, ISBN-13 978-0993351822), pp 151-154.

‘500 years after Wittenberg, what was Luther’s impact on the Anglican Reformation?’ Koinonia (Kansas MO), Vol 10, No 32 (December 2016), pp 12-16.

‘The Orthodox Church as experienced by an Anglican visitor to Greece,’ Search: A Church of Ireland journal, Vol 39.3 (Autumn 2016), pp 210-218.

‘Remembering World War I’: an introuction (pp 1-3) to ‘A Service of the Word for a Commemoration of the First World War in a local church’, on-line liturgical resource (Dublin: Church of Ireland, 2016, 16 pp).

Book review: Ethics at the Beginning of Life, A phenomenological critique, James Mumford, Oxford: Oxford University Press (Oxford Studies in Theological Ethics series) 2015. 212 pages. ISBN 978-0-19874505-1; in Search, A Church of Ireland Journal, Vol 39.3, Autumn 2016 (October 2016), pp 233-235.

Photograph in: Mairéad Carew, Tara, The Guidebook (Dublin: Discovery Programme, Royal Irish Academy, 2016), p 88.

‘John Alcock’ in David Wallington (ed), Friends of Lichfield Cathedral, 79th Annual Report (Lichfield, 2016), pp 28-31.

‘O Come All Ye Faithful – the Christmas carol with forgotten links with Lichfield Cathedral’, in David Wallington (ed), Friends of Lichfield Cathedral, 79th Annual Report (Lichfield, 2016), pp 42-48.

‘Samuel Johnson: a literary giant and a pious Anglican layman’, Koinonia, vol 9 no 30, Lent/Easter 2016 (March 2016), pp 22-26.

Book Review: The God We Worship, an exploration of liturgical theology, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Cambridge, Eerdmans, 2015, pb, xi + 192 pp, ISBN: 978-0-8028-7249-4, in Search, A Church of Ireland Journal Vol 39.1, Spring 2016 (March 2016), pp 68-69.

‘The Eucharist or Holy Communion in the Church of Ireland and Anglicanism’, Reality Vol 81, No 1, January/February 2016, pp 14-17 (Dublin: Redemptorist Communications), ed Brendan McConvery CSsR.

Photograph in: Peaks Postings, vol 10, issue 1, the magazine of the Presbytery of the Peaks, Virginia (January 2016).

2015:

‘Why are faith groups so concerned about civil legislation?’, pp 48-50 in Yes We Do, ed Denis Staunton (ebook, Dublin: Irish Times Books, 2015)

‘O come, all ye faithful’: the story of the most popular Christmas carol, Koinonia, Vol 9 No 29, Advent/Christmas 2015 (Kansas City MO, December 2015), pp 24-27.

‘Henry Bate Dudley (1745-1824): the ‘fighting parson’ who retained an affection for his County Wexford parish’, Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, No 25, 2014-2015 (Wexford, 2015), pp 44-62.

Photograph in: Professor M Harunur Rashid, Cambridge: Look Back in Love (Dhaka, Bangladesh: MetaKave Publications, 2015).

Hooker’s understanding of justification – finding the Anglican ‘middle way’, Koinonia, vol 8, no 28, Trinity I and II 2015 (Kansas City MO, September 2015), pp 5-7.

‘Richard Church (1784-1873): An Irish Anglican in the Greek Struggle for Independence’ Treasures of Ireland, Vol III, To the Ends of the Earth, Salvador Ryan (ed), (Dublin: Veritas, 2015), pp 117-120.

‘The Dublin Family Who Became Missionary Martyrs in China,’ Treasures of Ireland, Vol III, To the Ends of the Earth, Salvador Ryan (ed), (Dublin: Veritas, 2015), pp 142-145.

‘Introducing Spirituality and Cinema … Who are these like stars appearing?’ Koinonia, Lent/Easter 2015, Vol 8, No 27 (Kansas City MO, April 2015), pp 14-18.

‘I do not like thee, Doctor Fell … but you are a child of Lichfield Cathedral,’ Friends of Lichfield Cathedral, 78th Annual Report, 2015 (ed, David Wallington), pp 42-47.

2014:

‘Half a century after his death, TS Eliot remains the greatest Anglo-Catholic poet’, Koinonia, Christmas/Epiphany 2014-2015, Vol 8, No 27 (Kansas City MO, December 2014), pp 13-17.

‘Seeing ‘the glory of the Lord’ in Kempe’s carvings on the triptych in the Lady Chapel’, Spring Edition of Three Spires (Lichfield) and Friends of Lichfield Cathedral, 77th Annual Report, 2014 (ed, David Wallington), pp 31-36.

‘Mid-Lent is passed and Easter’s near, The greatest day of all the year’ … John Betjeman, an Anglo-Catholic Poet, Koinonia, Vol 7, No 25, Lent/Easter 2014 (Kansas City MO, April 2014), pp 12-16.

‘A one-name study that disentangles myths about the origins of the Comerford family’, Ireland Region Newsletter, Guild of One-Name Studies, pp 1-5, April 2014.

Book review: The Lion’s World: a journey into the heart of Narnia, Rowan Williams, London, SPCK, 2012, xiii + 152 pp, paperback, £8.99, ISBN 978-0-281-06895-1; in Search, A Church of Ireland Journal Vol 37, No 1, Spring 2014 (March 2014), pp 71-72.

‘The corner kiosk: An essential part of the Greek way of life,’ Neos Kosmos / Νέος Κόσμος (Melbourne, 3 January 2014).

2013:

‘Josiah Hort (1674?-1751), Bishop of Ferns: ‘A Rake, a Bully, a Pimp, or Spy’ and ‘Bp Judas’,’ Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, No 24, 2012-2013 (Wexford, 2013), pp 94-114, ISSN 0790-1828.

‘An Anglican apologist and a literary giant: recalling CS Lewis 50 years after his death’, Koinonia, vol 7 No 24, Christmas, 2013 (Kansas, Missouri, December 2013), pp 5-9.

‘The Centenary of the Anglican Church, Bucharest: 1913-2013’, Romanian Studies (Bucharest: Centre for Romanian Studies, 10 December 2013).

‘Crete’s icon writers: a living tradition offering new opportunities for mission’ Koinonia, vol 7 No 24, (Christmas 2013 (Kansas, Missouri, December 2013), pp 20-21.

‘Agia Irini: a newly-restored Byzantine monastery in Crete’, Koinonia vol 6 no 23, Trinity II, 2013 (Kansas, Missouri, October 2013), pp 12-13.

‘Comerford Monuments in Callan and the Search for a Family’s Origins’, Chapter 2 (pp 23-39) in Callan 800 (1207-2007) History & Heritage, Companion Volume, ed Joseph Kennedy (Callan: Callan Heritage Society), 2013.

‘Bale’s Books and Bedell’s Bible: Early Anglican Translations of Word and Liturgy into Irish’, Salvador Ryan and Brendan Leahy (eds), Treasures of Irish Christianity, Volume II, A People of the Word (Dublin: Veritas, 2013, ISBN 978–1–84730–431–5), pp 124-128.

‘Thou my high tower’: The Celtic Revival and Hymn Writers in the Church of Ireland,’ in Salvador Ryan and Brendan Leahy (eds), Treasures of Irish Christianity, Volume II, A People of the Word (Dublin: Veritas, 2013, ISBN 978–1–84730–431–5), pp 203-206.

'Deacons, the Diaconate and Diakonia: The Church of Ireland experience,’ pp 6-11 in ‘Companion Papers to Truly Called … Two’ (Edinburgh: Scottish Episcopal Church), April 2013.

‘Being an Anglican in a pluralist and suffering world’, Oscailt (Dublin, vol 9, no 3, March 2013), pp 2-7.

‘The Finest Expressions of Anglican Piety at its Best: Lent and Easter with George Herbert’, Koinonia, vol 6, no 21, Lent 2013 (Kansas, Missouri, March 2013), pp 14-18.

‘An Irish Anglican Response to Vatican II,’ Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, vol 101, no 404, Winter 2012/2013 (Dublin, February 2013), pp 441-448.

Photograph in: ‘Serbian Theological Seminarians in Great Britain: Cuddesdon Theological College 1917–1919: Appendices and Supplements I’, in Serbian Theology in the Twentieth Century: Research Problems and Results, vol 14, Proceedings of the Scientific Conference (PBF/FOT Belgrade, 24 May 2013), ed B Šijaković, Belgrade: Faculty of Orthodox Theology 2013, 52-127: 111.

2012:

Two photographs in: Maurice Curtis, Portobello (Dublin: The History Press, 2012), 128 pp, ISBN: 9781845887377, p. 25.

‘Anglo-Catholicism’, Koinonia, Vol 5, No 19, Trinity 2, 2012 (Kansas, Missouri, January 2012), p 3.

‘Finding hope in Greece in the midst of economic and financial crises’, Koinonia, Vol 5, No 19, Trinity 2, 2012 (Kansas, Missouri, January 2012), pp 3-6.

‘In Retrospect: Gonville Aubie ffrench-Beytagh’, Search, a Church of Ireland Journal, 35/1, Spring 2012 (February 2012), pp 47-54.

Book Review: The Works of Love: incarnation, ecology and poetry, John F Deane, Dublin, Columba Press, Paperback, 416 pp, €19.99 / £16.99, ISBN 9781856077095), in Search – a Church Ireland Journal Vol 35, No 1, Spring 2012 (February 2012), pp 63-65.

Book review: Letters from Abroad: The Grand Tour Correspondence of Richard Pococke & Jeremiah Milles, Vol. 1: Letters from the Continent (1733-1734), edited by Rachel Finnegan. Piltown, Co Kilkenny, Pococke Press, 2011. Pb, 336 pp, ISBN: 978-0-9569058-0-2), €18; in Astene Bulletin, Notes and Queries, No 50, Winter 2011-12 (London: Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East, February 2012).

2011:

‘Advent, a time of preparation for the coming of Christ’, Koinonia, Vol 5, No 13, Advent 2011 (Kansas, Missouri, December 2011), pp 3-6.

‘James Comerford (1817–1902): rediscovering a Wexford–born Victorian stuccodore’s art’, Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, No 23 (2011-2012), pp 4-32 (Wexford, November 2011).

‘The springtime of the Fast has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to Open’, Koinonia, Vol 4, No 13, Lent 2011 (Kansas, Missouri, March 2011) pp 10-13.

Photographs of Saint Edan’s Cathedral, Ferns, Co Wexford, in: Madoc 24/1, illustrating René Broens, ‘Madoc in Madoc’ (pp 13-21); specialist journal on the Middle Ages, edited in Utrecht and published in Hilversum by Uitgeverij Verlorem.

2010:

‘Anglo–Catholicism: Relevant after 175 years?’, Koinonia, vol 4, No 12, Christmas 2010 (Kansas City, Missouri, December 2010), pp 13-23.

Photograph and text: ‘Memorial plaque to … Henry Wallop …’, Enniscorthy, A History, ed Colm Tóibín (Wexford: Wexford County Council Public Library Services, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9560574-7-1), pp 122-123.

‘Bishop Joseph Stock (ca 1740-1813) and the Clergy of the Diocese of Killala and Achonry during the 1798 Rising’, Victory or Glorious Defeat?: Biographies of Participants in the Great Rebellion of 1798 (Westport: Carrowbaun Press, Dublin: Original Writing, 2010, ISBN: 978–1–907179–75–4), pp 113-145.

‘Heroism and Zeal’: Pioneers of the Irish Christian Missions to China, China and the Irish (Mandarin translation, Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2010, ISBN 978–7–01–009194–5), pp 77-92.

Photographs in: René Broens, ‘Madoc in Madoc, Madoc 24/1 (Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verlorem, August 2010), pp 13-21, specialist journal on the Middle Ages.

2009:

A Romantic Myth? Kilcronaghan’s link to ‘Zorba the Greek’ (Tobermore: Kilcronaghan Community Association, in association with Magherafelt Arts Trust, January 2009), pamphlet.

‘Celebrating the Oxford Movement’, Chapter 1 (pp 7-34) in Celebrating the Oxford Movement (Belfast: Affirming Catholicism Ireland, 2009), ACI Occasional Papers 1.

Contributor to: Health Services Intercultural Guide: Responding to the needs of diverse religious communities and cultures in healthcare settings (Dublin: Health Service Executive, 2009, 226 pp, ISBN: 978-1-906218-21-8), April 2009.

2008:

Book Review (‘House of Gold’): St Paul’s Ephesus: Texts and Archaeology, by Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, Liturgical Press/Michael Glazier, 289 pp, $29.95, ISBN 978-0814652596, Dublin Review of Books, December 2008.

The Anglo–Catholic Movement: more relevant today than ever? (Dublin: Saint Bartholomew’s Parish, 2008), 24 pp pamphlet.

Reflections of the Bible in the Quran: a comparison of Scriptural Traditions in Christianity and Islam (Dublin: National Bible Society of Ireland, 2008), ISBN: 978 0 9548 6723. (Bedell–Boyle lecture series, Bedell-Boyle lecture in the Milltown Institute for Philosophy and Theology, Dublin, 2006).

‘Foreword’, Mainland Chinese Students and Immigrants and their Engagement with Christianity, Churches and Irish Society (Dublin: Agraphon Press for Dublin University Far Eastern Mission and China Education and Cultural Liaison Committee, 2008).

‘Matching prayer life and spirituality with temperament and personality’, Search 31/1 (January 2008), pp 37-45.

‘The Fifth Sunday of Epiphany’, A Year of Sermons at Saint Patrick’s Dublin, ed, Robert MacCarthy (Dublin: Typemasters, 2008), pp 19-22.

‘The Spirituality of Icons’, in Panhellenic Society of Iconographers and Dimitris Kolioussis, ed Richard Gordon (Derry: Gordonart Publications, 2008), exhibition catalogue, January 2008 (Exhibition catalogue, in collaboration with the Hellenic Foundation for Culture and Christ Church Cathedral Dublin).

2007:

Embracing Difference: The Church of Ireland in a Plural Society (Dublin: Church of Ireland Publishing, 2007), 88 pp, ISBN-10: 190488413X, ISBN-13: ‎978-1904884132.

(Anonymously): Guidelines for Interfaith Events and Dialogue, the Committee for Christian Unity and the Bishops of the Church of Ireland, 32 pp pamphlet (Dublin: Church of Ireland Publishing, 2007).

‘Anglican-Orthodox Dialogue: open door or distant object?’, Search 30/2 (Dublin, 2007) pp 141-152.

‘Prayer, spirituality and liturgy in the Orthodox tradition’, Affirming Catholicism Ireland Newsletter, Epiphany 2007 (January 2007).

‘Sir Richard Church and the Irish Philhellenes in the Greek War of Independence’, opening chapter in The Lure of Greece, eds JV Luce, C Morris, C Souyoudzoglou-Haywood (Dublin and Athens: Hinds/Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies, Athens, in association with the Department of Classics, TCD, 2007), pp 1-18.

‘The Hon Percy Jocelyn (1764–1843): Bishop of Ferns and the “most idle of all reverend idlers”,’ chapter in The Wexford Man: Essays in Honour of Nicky Furlong (ed Bernard Browne), festschrift to Nicky Furlong (Dublin: Geography Publications, 2007), pp 39-47.

2006:

From Mission to Independence: Four Irish bishops in China (Dublin and Shanghai: Dublin University Far Eastern Mission, 2006), 24 pp pamphlet.

‘Pastoral issues in Muslim-Christian relations’, Search 29/2 (Dublin, 2006), pp 152-157.

‘The Reconstruction of Theological Thinking – what are the implications for the Church in China?’, Search 29/1 (Dublin, 2006), pp 13-22.

(Anonymously) The Hand of History (Dublin and Belfast: CMS Ireland, 2006), study pack on Christian-Muslim dialogue.

2005:

‘Edmund Comerford (d. 1509) and William Comerford (ca 1486–1539): the last pre-Reformation Bishop of Ferns and his ‘nephew’, the Dean of Ossory’,Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, Vol 20 (Wexford, 2005), pp 156-172.

‘The Bishop of Meath and the Ratoath impostor: Thomas Lewis O’Beirne (1748–1823) and Laurence Hynes Halloran (1765–1831)’, Ríocht na Midhe, Journal of the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society, vol 16 (Navan, 2005), pp 69-82.

2003:

‘Cead Mile Failte to Repentance and Reconciliation’, chapter in Untold Stories: Protestants in the Republic of Ireland 1922–2002, eds C Murphy, L Adair (Dublin: Liffey Press, 2003).

‘Just war and jihad: whose holy war in Iraq?’, Search 26/2 (Dublin, 2003), pp 65-73.

‘The Fethard Boycott’, The Encyclopaedia of Ireland, ed Brian Lalor (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan / New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003). Encyclopaedia entry on the Fethard-on-Sea boycott in Co Wexford.

2002:

‘A Schism or a Tradition? The Church of Ireland and the Nonjurors’, Search 25/2 (Dublin, 2002), pp 100-111.

‘An innovative people: the laity, 1780–1830’, chapter in The laity and the Church of Ireland, 1000–2000: All Sorts and Conditions, eds. R Gillespie, WG Neely (Dublin: Four Courts, 2002).

‘Understanding Islam – A Year after 11 September’, Doctrine and Life 52/2 (Dublin: Dominican Publications, 2002), pp 396-404.

‘Vienna plays pivotal role in promoting dialogue with Islamic world’, Euro–Med dialogue between Cultures and Civilizations: the Role of the Media, eds E Brix, M Weiss (Vienna: Diplomatic Academy, Favorita Papers, special ed, 2002), pp 32-34.

2001:

‘A Brief History of Christianity’, Part 2 of Christianity, ed Patsy McGarry (Dublin: Veritas, 2001); co–authors Hans Küng, Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, &c.

‘Bishop Ricards and Dean Croghan: The contrasting tale of two Wexford missionaries in South Africa’, Journal of the Wexford Historical Society (Wexford, 2001), pp 21-44.

‘Pilgrimage to Patmos: Jerusalem of the Aegean and Mount Athos of the islands’, Spirituality 7/37 (Dublin: Dominican Publications, 2001), pp 210-213.

2000:

‘Apartheid, Myth and Reality’, Tribute to Nelson Mandela, ed Louise Asmal (Dublin: IAAM, 2000), pp 11-13.

‘Defining Greek and Turk: Uncertainties in the Search for European and Muslim identities’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs 13/2 (Cambridge: Centre of International Studies, University of Cambridge, 2000), pp 240-253.
.
‘Genealogies, Myth-making, and Christmas, Doctrine and Life 50/11 (Dublin: Domincan Publications, 2000), pp 552–556.

‘Simon Butler and the forgotten role of the Church of Ireland during the 1798 Rising’, Journal of the Butler Society (Kilkenny, 2000), pp 271-279.

1999:

‘Edward Nangle (1799–1883): the Achill Missionary in a New Light’, Search 22/2 (Dublin, 1999), pp 123-136.

‘Edward Nangle (1799–1883): the Achill Missionary in a new light, Part II’, Cathar na Mairt, Journal of the Westport Historical Society, 19 (Westport, 1999), pp 8-22.

‘From India to Brazil: Nicholas Comerford, a seventeenth-century Kilkenny cartographer’, Old Kilkenny Review, Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society (Kilkenny, 1999), pp 92-102.

‘Star Wars: new age theology or exploiting the children?’, Doctrine and Life 49/8 (Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1999), pp 494-498.

‘The other Christian traditions’, chapter in Memory & Mission: Christianity in Wexford 600 to 2000 AD, ed Walter Forde (Wexford: Diocese of Ferns, 1999).

1998:

‘1798: Learning from the Commemorations’, Doctrine and Life 48/7 (Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1998), pp 405-412.

‘Edward Nangle (1799-1883): the Achill Missionary in a New Light, Part I’, Cathar na Mairt, Journal of the Westport Historical Society, 18 (Westport, 1998), pp 21-29.

‘Not Forgive and Forget, but Remember and be Reconciled’, Chapter in From Heritage to Hope: Christian Perspectives on the 1798 Bicentenary, ed Walter Forde (Gorey: Byrne-Perry, 1998).

‘Remembering can unite’, chapter in From Heritage to Hope: Christian Perspectives on the 1798 Bicentenary, ed Walter Forde (Gorey: Byrne-Perry, 1998).

‘The Church of Ireland in County Kilkenny and the Diocese of Ossory during the 1798 rising’, Old Kilkenny Review, Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society (Kilkenny, 1998), pp 144-182.

1997:

‘Church of Ireland Clergy and the 1798 Rising’, chapter in Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter: The Clergy and 1798, ed Liam Swords (Dublin: Columba, 1997).

‘Co Wexford in 1798: Understanding the role of Church of Ireland clergy and laity’, Search 20/1 (Dublin, 1997), pp 32-41.

‘Euseby Cleaver, Bishop of Ferns, and the clergy of the Church of Ireland in the 1798 Rising in Co Wexford’, Journal of the Wexford Historical Society (Wexford, 1997), pp 66-94.

1996:

‘Islam and Muslims in Ireland: Moving from Encounter to Understanding’, Search 19/2 (Dublin, 1996), pp 89-93.

‘A Bitter Legacy?’, chapter in The Great Famine: A Church of Ireland Perspective, ed Kenneth Milne (Dublin: APCK, 1996).

1994:

‘Arafat visit heralds a new era for Palestinians’, paper in Prerequisites for Peace in the Middle East (Elsinore, Denmark: UN Department of Public Information, 1994).

‘John Comerford of Ballybur, 1598-1667: Tracing his later life’, Old Kilkenny Review, Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society (Kilkenny, 1994), pp 23-36.

1992:

Saint Maelruain: Tallaght’s Own Saint (Dublin: Tallaght Parish, 1992). Pamphlet marking parish commemoration of Saint Maelruain.

1991:

‘Compassionate and Passionate – Colin O’Brien Winter (1928–1981)’, Search 14/2 (Dublin, 1991), pp 34–41.

‘In Prosperity and Adversity’, short story in True to Type, ed Fergus Brogan (Dublin: Sugarloaf/Irish Times Books, 1991); short story in collection of short stories by Irish Times writers in tribute to the Revd Stephen Hilliard.

‘Zephania Kameeta: Namibia’s Black Liberation Theologian’, Doctrine and Life 41/3 (Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1991), pp 133-141.

1989:

Desmond Tutu: Black Africa’s Man of Destiny (Hyperion Books, 1989, ISBN: 1853900052), 32 pp.

1988:

Desmond Tutu: Black Africa’s Man of Destiny (Citadel Series 6, 1988).

1987:

Desmond Tutu: Black Africa’s Man of Destiny (Dublin: Veritas; and Athlone: St Paul Publications, 1987, ISBN: 9781853900051), 32 pp Launched by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Lenihan.

1984:

Do You Want To Die for NATO? (Dublin and Cork: Mercier Press, 1984). Launched by Senator Brendan Ryan.

1983:

‘The Storm that Threatens: A comment’, The Furrow (Maynooth) 34/10 (1983), pp 620-625.

‘ML King’, Dawn Train (Dublin, an Irish journal of nonviolence), No 2, Spring 1983 (special edition, ‘Parents of Nonviolence’), pp 3-5.

‘Dietrich Bonhoeffer’, Dawn Train (Dublin, an Irish journal of nonviolence), No 2, Spring 1983 (special edition, ‘Parents of Nonviolence’), pp 6-7.

1981:

‘Political theology, theological politics: Nuclear Insanity’, Springs (Birmingham and Dublin: Student Christian Movement) 1981.

1976:

Paper and illustration in Eamon de Valera, ed PT O’Mahony (Dublin: Irish Times Books 1976).

1973:

‘The Early Society of Friends … in Kilkenny’ Old Kilkenny Review (Kilkenny, 1973).

Journalism:

The Irish Times: Staff journalist, 1974-2002; Foreign Desk Editor, 1994-2002; continuing to contribute as occasional feature writer and leader writer.

The Wexford People: Staff journalist, 1972-1974; Contributor to Wexford People, Enniscorthy Guardian, Gorey Guardian, New Ross Standard, Wicklow People, Ireland’s Own. Latest contributions, 2022 (news and features).

Lichfield Mercury: freelance journalist, 1970-1973.

Rugeley Mercury: freelance journalist, 1970-1973.

Tamworth Herald: freelance journalist, 1970-1973.

Editor, What’s On In Wexford (Wexford Junior Chamber), 1973-1974.

Editor, Unity, quarterly magazine, Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin, in the 1990s.

Features and reports in:

Athens News; CityLife Lichfield; Church of Ireland Gazette, features and editorial writer; Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough), monthly feature; Church Times; D4 Living (Dublin); Diocesan Magazine (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory), monthly feature; EnetEnglish, an online news service from Eleftherotypia (Athens); Horse and Hound; Ireland’s Own; Lichfield Gazette; Newslink (Limerick and Killaloe); MultiKulti.gr; Neos Kosmos (Real Corfu).

Photographs in: Herald Malaysia (Kuching, 2025), The Liberty (Dublin, 2024), Limerick Leader (2018, 2020, 2022), Clare Echo (2022).

Last updated: 2 December 2025

Why academics should resist these tempting invitations from predatory journals

Predatory Publishing … an image from the website ‘The Scholarly Kitchen’

Patrick Comerford

I was cleaning out my Spam folder in my email account the other day when I came across an interesting invitation. At first I was surprised. Had I simply emptied my Spam folder without going through each message individually, I might have missed an invitation to contribute articles to the International Journal of Philosophy and to join the journal’s editorial board and reviewer team.

The invitation certainly managed to massage my ego … well, at least for a moment or two. I rescued the email from the Spam folder, and started to read it with a little more attention.

The message claimed the International Journal of Philosophy (IJP) ‘is a double-anonymous peer reviewed international scientific journal. Our journal is created with the goal of facilitating academic communications in fields related to philosophy.’

It seems the invitation had come my way because people at the journal had ‘noticed that your published work titled ‘For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church’ has caught great attention.’ They told me they feel honoured ‘if you could contribute articles to our journal and join the Editorial Board/Reviewer Team.’

Was I being asked to join the ‘Editorial Board’ or the ‘Editorial Committee’ of the International Journal of Philosophy? Why did they feel so honoured, after all my paper has been published only recently in the in the current edition of Studies in Christian Ethics.

Studies in Christian Ethics is the leading English-language journal in theological ethics in Europe. It offers first-rate work by British theologians and ethicists, but also showcases the best in North American and Continental scholarship in the field.

However, my paper in this journal makes no reference to my academic qualifications, experience or background, and simply identifies me as of ‘Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick.’ There are no references to my degrees, previous books and papers, to the places where I have worked as an academic, or the reasons why the editors and reviewers of Studies in Christian Ethics thought I was the appropriate person to write this paper.

I read the invitation more carefully.

I was addressed ‘Dear Comerford, P,’ and the author of the letter signed off ‘Assistant, Editorial Office of International Journal of Philosophy’. I had no titles or qualifications, not even a full first name; the writer of the letter had no name at all, and did no reveal his or her qualifications. Yet, I was being told, ‘In light of your academic background and experience, we invite you to contribute other unpublished manuscripts of relevant fields to the journal.’

Indeed, I do not even know where they are based or where they are writing from.

I was also ‘advised to encourage students and colleagues around you to use this journal, help manuscript submissions from potential authors, and cite the published papers in the journal.’

My ego is easily massaged, but was I as honoured as my correspondent was, this anonymous letter writer who assures me, ‘on behalf of the Editorial Board of the journal,’ that ‘it is honored for us to invite you to join our team as one of the editorial board members/reviewers.’

I was told I could ‘refer to this link to know more about us’: http://www.intjphil.org/jyip3/fzqva.

Well, it seems anyone can join their team as a member of their editorial board or committee, and anyone and everyone is invited to submit ‘academic articles,’ share their ‘latest scientific research’.

I was assured they are ‘looking forward to cooperating with me’ and told me I could submit my papers to: http://www.intjphil.org/sfmgx0v/fzqva

The communication was very flattering in tone, but I thought the fact that my specialisms are in theology, liturgy and church history and not in philosophy sent out warning signs, and the spelling mistakes and grammatical in one short email raised a number of red flags.

With a little research over the weekend I soon found the publishers of this ‘journal’ are listed on ‘Beall’s List of potential predatory journals and publishers,’ a list of ‘potential predatory scholarly open access publishers’ created by Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado until 2017. His list is available HERE.

A lengthy review of the controversy started Beall started appears in The Journal of Academic Librarianship. But leading scholars and publishers from ten countries have also agreed to a definition of predatory publishing that can protect scholarship.

Predatory publishing, also write-only publishing or deceptive publishing, is an exploitative academic publishing business model that involves charging publication fees to authors without checking articles for quality and legitimacy, and without providing editorial and publishing services that legitimate academic journals provide, whether open access or not.

The phenomenon of ‘open access predatory publishers’ was first noticed by Jeffrey Beall, when he described ‘publishers that are ready to publish any article for payment.’

Predatory publishers trick scholars into publishing with them, although some authors may be aware that the journal is poor quality or even fraudulent. New scholars from developing countries are said to be especially at risk of being misled by predatory publishers. According to one study, 60% of articles published in predatory journals receive no citations over the five-year period following publication.

Beall’s List sets out criteria for categorising publications as predatory. Since then, other efforts to identify predatory publishing have emerged, such as the paywalled Cabell’s blacklist, as well as other lists.

Predatory publishers have been described as the ‘black sheep among open access publishers and journals’ and compared to vanity presses. They pretend to provide services such as quality peer review that they do not implement. They have been reported to hold submissions hostage, refusing to allow them to be withdrawn and in this was preventing submission to other, reputable journals.

John Bohannon, a writer for the journal Science, tested the open access system in 2013 by submitting to a number of these journals a deeply flawed paper on the purported effect of a lichen constituent. He published the results in a paper called, ‘Who’s Afraid of Peer Review?’ About 60% of those journals and several universities accepted the faked medical paper.

Four researchers created a fictitious sub-par scientist named Anna O Szust – oszust is Polish for ‘fraudster’ – in 2015 , and applied on her behalf for an editor position to 360 scholarly journals. Her qualifications were dismal for the role of an editor: she had never published a single article and had no editorial experience; the books and book chapters listed on her CV were made-up, as were the publishing houses that published the books.

One-third of the journals ‘Dr Szust’ applied to were sampled from Beall’s list of predatory journals. Forty of these predatory journals accepted Szust as an editor without any background vetting and often within days or even hours.

The number of predatory journals has grown exponentially since 2010. Predatory journals have rapidly increased their publication volumes from 53,000 in 2010 to an estimated 420,000 articles in 2014, published by around 8,000 active journals. Early on, publishers with more than 100 journals dominated the market, but since 2012 publishers in the 10-99 journal size category have captured the largest market share. A report in 2019 found 5% of Italian researchers have published in predatory journals, with a third of those journals engaging in fraudulent editorial practices.

A study in 2020 study found hundreds of scientists say they have reviewed papers for ‘predatory journals.’ Authors pay an average fee of $178 each for papers to be published rapidly without review, typically within two to three months of submission.

Predatory journals are a global threat, and they are driven by self-interest, usually financial, at the expense of scholarship. They accept articles for publication — along with authors’ fees — without performing promised quality checks for issues such as plagiarism or ethical approval. Predatory publishers collect millions of dollars in publication fees, often paid out by funders of the research.

Of course, it can be difficult to distinguish a predatory journal from a journal that is under-resourced. Both can be low quality, but under-resourced journals do not have an intention to deceive.

In the past I have been happy, indeed honoured, to contribute to under-resourced journals and journals that often miss strict academic criteria such as independent peer review, including the journals of local history society and the Church of Ireland journal Search.

But predatory publishing is an ever-multiplying problem. To the researcher eager to make an impact with their work, these ‘journals’ can seem like very tempting offers. But publishing with these publishers often entails signing away copyright that means authors lose the right to publish elsewhere.

The threat posed by predatory publishing is not going to disappear as long as universities use how many publications an academic publishes as criteria for graduation or career advancement.

Academic institutions need to ensure that researchers avoid submitting manuscripts to these journals or listing these publications on their CVs. But the ‘publish-or-perish’ culture in academic life fosters the environment that encourages predatory publications.

An ‘Open Research’ paper at the University of Cambridge on the dangers of predatory publishing suggests the following websites offer help to make an informed decision on where to publish:

Think, Check, Submit

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

Open Access Scholarly Publishers’ Association (OASPA)

In the meantime, I am not joining the ‘Editorial Board’ or the ‘Editorial Committee’ of the International Journal of Philosophy.

The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts, a book review

The Lost Art of Scripture:
Rescuing the Sacred Texts,

Karen Armstrong, London: The Bodley Head, 2019, pp 549 pp, £25, ISBN 978-1-847-92431-5

The writer and broadcaster Karen Armstrong is a former nun of Irish descent who is known for her books on the history of comparative religion. In her books, she has focussed on mutual understanding and compassion, and they have brought her many awards and much public recognition. But she has also drawn criticism from a wide range of people, from atheists to evangelical Christians, for her supposed ‘religious apology for Islamic fundamentalists,’ for her ‘anti-realist’ views of statements about God, and for her comparisons of the treatment of Muslims in the West today with the treatment of Jews in Europe in the 1930s. Apart from her biographical account of her time in a convent, Through the Narrow Gate (1982), her best-known books include Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet (1991) and A History of God (1993), none of which has been without controversy.

Her critics are not going to be comfortable with this latest book, which seeks to rescue the ‘Sacred Texts’ of many traditions from their ‘fundamentalists’ – from the texts of Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Taoists and Confucianists, to the Torah, the Bible and the Quran, texts in Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, in Chinese and Sanskrit, or other languages such as the Latin of Jerome’s Vulgate.

Today, the Quran is used by some to justify war and acts of terrorism, the Torah to deny Palestinians the right to live in the Land of Israel, and the Bible to condemn homosexuality, the ordination of women and contraception. But she argues it is not scripture – but the misunderstanding of scripture – that is often at the root of many of today’s controversies.

She argues that in every tradition, sacred texts have been co-opted by their fundamentalists, who insist that the texts must be read in what they understand as a literal reading, and by others who interpret scripture to bolster their own prejudices. These texts are seen to prescribe ethical norms and codes of behaviour that are divinely ordained; they are believed to contain eternal truths.

But, Armstrong argues, as she seeks to chart the development and significance of major religions, narrow readings of scriptures are a relatively recent phenomenon. For most of their history, the world’s religious traditions have regarded these texts as tools that allow us to connect with the divine, to experience a different level of consciousness, and that help us engage with the world in a more meaningful and a more compassionate way.

She points out that the word ‘fundamentalist’ as we apply it today to a variety of groups we may seek to marginalise – from Islamic jihadists to Hasidic Jews – did not originate among them, but among Protestant Evangelicals in the US in the early 20th century when they could not cope with evolving understandings of faith, tradition and the Bible.

She continues, ‘fundamentalisms – be they Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or Confucian – all follow a similar trajectory. They are embattled spiritualities that have developed in response to a perceived crisis. They are engaged in a conflict with enemies whose secularist policies and beliefs seem inimical to religion itself. Fundamentalists do not regard this battle as a conventional political struggle, but experience it as a cosmic war between the forces of good and evil. They fear annihilation, and try to fortify their beleaguered identity by means of a selective retrieval of certain doctrines and practices of the past.’

We see this today in Anglicanism, with the rise of Gafcon, Reform and similar groups. But, as the Netflix series Unorthodox has shown, it is also found in Judaism. Many years ago, I had some Buddhist monks as house guests who rose early in the morning each day, and sat outside chanting a paean of praise to one Buddhist scripture, the Lotus Sutra.

If evangelical ‘fundamentalists’ have misunderstood the origins, nature and purpose of scripture and sacred texts – and therefore continue to misread the Bible, interpreting poetry and drama as historical narrative and scientific fact – then they share an approach found in other religious traditions too.

For example, she writes, while terrorist atrocities committed in the name of Islam have led many people in the West to assume that the Quran ‘is an inherently violent scripture and addicted to jihad,’ and believe that jihad means ‘holy war,’ she points out that the word jihad often has a figurative meaning, applied to giving to the poor in times of personal hardship and ‘striving in the path of God.’ She points out that only once does the term harb (‘fighting’) ‘refer to a righteous war waged by the Prophet.’

‘In the Quran … jihad is associated not with warfare but with non-violent resistance.’

She might also have pointed out that the term ‘holy war’ has its origins not in Islam but in Christianity, in the writings of Augustine and later justifications for the Crusades.

It is difficult to accept her understanding of the Gospels and the New Testament as hadith or midrash – commentary on the text – rather than Scripture and Sacred Text in its own context.

In dealing thoroughly with Luther’s use of the Bible to justify the slaughter of the peasants, she might also have taken account of his use of Scripture to develop an ugly anti-Semitism that had severe out-workings in 16th century Germany, and has a direct link, in an unbroken chain, with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.

She traces the roots of modern biblical fundamentalism to its expressions in the 19th century, including the writings of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), founder of the Plymouth Brethren, though surprisingly – given her own Irish roots – she does not mention his Irish background. Christians, by and large, have been rescued from 19th century fundamentalist approaches to the Bible through ‘Higher Criticism,’ which she sees exemplified in Essays and Reviews, published in 1860 within weeks of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. But credit too must go to the Cambridge Triumvirate – JB Lightfoot, BF Westcott and the Dublin-born FJA Hort – for making Higher Criticism acceptable throughout the English-speaking world of scholarship, and for influencing every subsequent translation of the Bible.

In reading this book, I am reminded of a point made by John Dominic Crossan, ‘My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally.’

Patrick Comerford
Askeaton

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is priest-in-charge, the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes (Diocese of Limerick) and a former adjunct assistant professor at TCD and CITI.

An edited version of this book review is published in the Autumn 2020 edition of Searcch, A Church of Ireland Journal (Vol 43, No 3), pp 231-232.

Some new books, with new chapters, fresh papers and book reviews

With Professor Salvador Ryan of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and Dom Colmán Ó Clabaigh of Glenstal Abbey at the launch of ‘Marriage and the Irish’ in the Royal Irish Academcy last year

Patrick Comerford

It is that time of the year when the Church of Ireland Directory is asking me to update my entry, with any changes to my personal details, including lists of any new publications since the 2020 edition of the Directory was published.

I had three papers to list in this year’s Directory: a feature in the Redemptorist publication Reality on Cecil Frances Alexander and her hymn ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ and two chapters on weddings and marriages in a book edited by my friend and colleague Professor Salvador Ryan of Maynooth, Marriage and the Irish (Dublin: Wordwell, 2019), one on the 17-year-old wife of Bishop John Leslie, the ‘oldest bishop in Christendom’ and the other on ‘Four Victorian weddings and a funeral.’

The chapters in Salvador Ryan’s book follow two chapters in an earlier book on a similar theme, Death and the Irish (Dublin: Wordwell, 2016).

Like any writer, I have any number of projects on the go at any one time, and sometimes I lose track of papers submitted for publication in between the submission date and actual publication.

Since the 2020 edition of the Directory was prepared for publication, I have seen the publication of these papers or chapters:

‘Wellington: the Irish hero at Waterloo who introduced Catholic Emancipation’, in Hugh Baker and John McCullen (eds), Drogheda Grammar School, 1669-2019 (Drogheda: Drogheda Grammar School, 2019, xii + 236 pp), pp 31-37.

‘Are ‘conservative evangelicals’ really conservative and evangelical’ Search, a Church of Ireland journal, Vol 43 No 1 (Spring 2020), pp 5-13.

But there are other papers in the pipeline, or going to press, and I wondered in recent days whether they had been accepted or were being published. When I was in academic life, publication in books and peer-reviewed journals was important for one’s academic reputation and standing. So, it was good to hear this week that five more papers are going to see the light of day this year or early next year.

Two submissions are to appear in a new book edited by Salvador Ryan and John-Paul Sheridan marking the 225th anniversary of Maynooth. One looks at the history of Saint Mary’s Church of Ireland parish church, which abuts the grounds of Maynooth College, and the other recalls the day I graduated STB, BD, at Maynooth in 1987:

Salvador Ryan and John-Paul Sheridan (eds), We Remember Maynooth: A College Across Four Centuries (Dublin: Messenger Publications, in press, to be published October 2020).

Two further submissions are to appear in Salvador Ryan’s planned follow-up to Death and the Irish and Marriage and the Irish. One looks at the birth in poverty in Dublin of Albert Grant, who became a Conservative MP and a financial fraudster, and the other tells the story of sons in the French family in Co Roscommon who were born to parents who married each other, not once but twice, and why some of them were unable to inherit the family title:

Salvador Ryan (ed), Birth and the Irish: a Miscellany (Dublin: Wordwell Press, forthcoming, 2021).

In addition, Professor Ryan is one of the co-editors of the Irish Theological Quarterly, and one of my book reviews is being published in the August 2020 edition (85: 3).

It is always pleasant for a writer to work with an appreciative and encouraging editor. There might even be a few Christmas presents in the making here.

We Remember Maynooth: A College Across Four Centuries

Are ‘conservative evangelicals’ really conservative and evangelical?

Patrick Comerford

There are stages in my life when I have been strongly influenced by the Evangelical tradition, a tradition that has helped to nurture my personal prayer life and that has also encouraged me in my vocation.

In my late teens and early twenties, I attended evangelical youth camps in Moyallon near Tandragee and rallies in Co Wexford organised by the late Revd Robert Dunlop as he toured the south-east in his ‘churchmobile,’ with its gothic-style decorations, forty seats and a fold-away steeple.

To this day, when I think of evangelicals, I think of the many radical evangelicals of the nineteenth century involved in the Clapham sect and the abolition of the slave trade, slavery and child labour. Evangelicals instigated many of the revolutionary policies in social history, including mass education, poor law reform, prison reform and the establishment of trades unions. Evangelical concern for the salvation of souls extended into the sewers and schools, the factories and the slums.

The critical social engagement of Anglican evangelicals may have been sharpest and most focussed at a time when my own faith and commitment were growing and developing. The Shaftesbury Project was established by evangelicals in 1969 as an initiative to promote a biblically-based approach to areas of social concern. Study groups worked on projects on the Inner City; Crime, Law and Punishment; Nuclear Energy; and Marriage and the Family. The project was associated with journals and magazines such as the monthly Third Way and the quarterly Shaft.[1] The War and Peace Group of the Shaftesbury Project and evangelical magazines in the US such as Sojourners strongly influenced my peer group at a time in the 1980s when I was involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and chairing Christian CND.

So, I rejoice comfortably in an Anglicanism that is a place where evangelicals, radicals, conservatives, Anglo-Catholics, liberals – and even the questioning and the doubting – can find a welcome and share fellowship and communion. My positive engagement with evangelicalism throughout those decades means I continue to think of the phrase ‘conservative evangelical’ as an oxymoron.

I am comfortable with the phrase ‘conservative’ when it comes to describing my understanding of Scripture and the Creeds, and the traditions and liturgy of the Church. Despite my personal approach to liturgy and ecclesiology, I was comfortable as I worked for four years with the Church Mission Society (CMS) whose support base is mainly, though not exclusively, evangelical.

It is against this background, and for these reasons, that I am uncomfortable and concerned about the increasing use of the phrase ‘conservative evangelical’ in current debates in the Church of Ireland. My background keeps telling me evangelicals, by the very definition of the word, seek to preach the Gospel. But today it can appear that many people who assume the mantle of ‘conservative evangelical’ show little evidence of bringing good news to the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger or freeing the prisoner. It is this background too that keeps telling me that those who use the label ‘conservative’ should seek to conserve the creeds, liturgy and traditions of the Church.

It is with these difficulties in mind, then, that I find myself arguing that many of those who use the label ‘conservative evangelical’ are neither – neither conservative, nor evangelical.

Proclaiming the Good News

If preaching the Good News is at the heart of evangelical self-understanding, then who needs to hear the Good News today? Who are the people who are enslaved today, trapped in a system that refuses to recognise their shared humanity and that refuses to accept their right to marry at choice?

Instead of a radical evangelicalism marked by a commitment to lift up the lowly and to set free the prisoner, what has come to be labelled as ‘conservative evangelicalism’ in the US is now long beholden to a political leadership that works hand-in-glove with President Donald Trump.

The two clear, identifiable groups that are unwavering in their support for Trump’s style of presidency are the far-right, including neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, and the so-called ‘conservative evangelical’ leadership.

Evangelical leadership in the White House

Paula White, who was served as spiritual adviser to President Trump, recently joined his administration in an official capacity as religious adviser in the Office of Public Liaison, so she now advises Trump’s ‘Faith and Opportunity Initiative.’

White was one of six clergy who prayed at Trump’s inauguration. She teaches a prosperity gospel that says God will reward believers with wealth and health. Other ‘conservative evangelical’ leaders who advise Trump regularly include Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham, James Dobson, Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins, Darrell Scott, Wayne T. Jackson and Mark Burns.

Although many of these are labelled as conservative evangelicals, they often share a belief in ‘Oneness Pentecostalism,’ whose teaching on the Trinity is best understood as a form of modalistic monarchism. Despite its use of trinitarian language, this school of thinking distorts traditional Christian trinitarian teaching, stating instead that there is one God, a singular divine Spirit, manifested in many ways, including as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Despite these heretical beliefs, the support of ‘conservative evangelicals’ for the Trump administration seems unwavering and has produced headlines that worry me – and I refer to only a sample rather than offering a close analysis – including:

● ‘Why evangelicals like Rick Perry believe Trump is God’s chosen one’ (The Washington Post, 25 November 2019)

● ‘Why evangelicals support Donald Trump’ (The New York Times, 7 November 2019)

● ‘False idol – Why the Christian Right Worships Donald Trump’ (Rolling Stone, 2 December 2019).

When business leaders and retired military figures showed they had some principles and moral backbone, these ‘conservative evangelicals’ remained on White House advisory committees. Even the murderous events in Charlottesville failed to act as a wake-up call.

Bishop Paul Bayes of Liverpool recently said ‘self-styled evangelicals’ risked bringing the word evangelical into disrepute, and added there was no justification for Christians contradicting God’s teaching to protect the poor and the weak. He told the Guardian: “Some of the things that have been said by religious leaders seem to collude with a system that marginalises the poor … builds walls instead of bridges … says people on the margins of society should be excluded [and] says we’re not welcoming people any more into our country.”[2] He regretted that “people who call themselves evangelical in the US seem to be uncritically accepting” positions taken by Trump and his allies, with certain ‘so-called evangelical leaders’ playing down the seriousness of things which in other parts of their lives they would see as really important.

‘Conservative Evangelicals’ and conserving the Church

I also believe that many – though not all – who describe themselves as ‘conservative evangelical,’ are not conservative when it comes to key theological concepts such as ecclesiology or an understanding of the Church, ministry, the creeds, and the sacramental and liturgical life of the church.

1. Ecclesiology:

Conservatives, by the very meaning of the word, should respect and conserve the traditions of the Church. But I often find among ‘conservative evangelicals’ there is little respect for or understanding of ecclesiology.

Article XIX ‘Of the Church’ states: “The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men [i.e., people], in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.” Article XIX goes on to refer to four of the five traditional Patriarchal sees of the Church: Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch and Rome. This article presumes two understandings of the Church: the Church universal but invisible; and the Church local. The reference to four geographically specific churches indicates an Anglican understanding of ecclesiology in which the local church is a diocese or focussed on a primatial see.[3]

But recent initiatives by Irish Church Mission to ‘plant’ churches in Dublin in 2019-2020 show no respect for diocesan or parochial boundaries and structures in the Church of Ireland. These new churches have already been named without diocesan or synodical discussions: Christ Church, Sutton; City Church, Dublin; Redeemer Church, East Wall; and Globe Church, Clontarf. ICM’s eventual plan is to “place 10 churches in Dublin by 2028.”

The contempt in which other parish churches are held is expressed in the claim by ICM: “The bottom line is that many long-established churches have given up preaching the gospel.” It goes on to claim: “The Republic of Ireland itself has 72 towns with populations of more than 5000 that remain without any gospel-centered [sic] church … Further research suggests that out of these 72 there are 17 towns with a population of 15,000 people who remain without any gospel witness. The closer you get to the cities, the worse the problem becomes.”[4]

2, Liturgy and sacramental life

Presumably many of these ‘new churches’ will work against rather than with the local parishes and dioceses, and whatever about the claims to preaching the Word of God, the Sacraments will not “be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.”

I was personally concerned that the introduction of new forms of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer reflected a diminution of regular, Sunday celebrations of the Holy Communion in parishes in the Church of Ireland. The dismissive attitude to the liturgical tradition and sacramental life of Anglicanism in general and the Church of Ireland in particular was found in a variation of Eucharistic Prayer 3 I found being used in one church in the Belfast area:

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ:
dying you destroyed our death,
rising, you restored our life;
Lord Jesus, come in glory

Holy Spirit, giver of life, come upon us
now; may this bread and wine remind
us of the body and blood of the
Saviour Jesus Christ.
As we eat and drink these holy gifts
make us, who know our need of
grace, one in Christ, our risen Lord.

In changing the agreed text, “may this bread and wine be to us of the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ” to “may this bread and wine remind us of the body and blood of the Saviour Jesus Christ”, the sacrament has been reduced to something far less than a Zwinglian commemoration – to no more than a social and whimsical reminder. But I have encountered worse: I have been present at what was supposed to be a celebration of the Eucharist in the Church of Ireland at which no words of institution were used.

3, Doctrine:

The Lambeth Quadrilateral sees the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creeds as “the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.” This has been affirmed by the Gafcon declarations. But in recent years ‘conservative evangelicals’ among Anglicans who identify with Gafcon have started to unilaterally alter or mutilate the Nicene Creed, or go further and invent their own credal statements.

Archbishop Foley Beach, primate and archbishop of the ‘Anglican Church in North America,’ led the service of consecration of Jay Behan as a Gafcon bishop in a school chapel in Christchurch, New Zealand, in October 2019. When reciting the Nicene Creed, Foley Beach did not affirm “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church,” but clearly remained silent while the congregation continued the recitation. The Revd Bosco Peters, an Anglican priest and liturgist who has described the service in detail, comments, “This is a fascinating, very overt picking and choosing of what elements of the faith to affirm and which to discard.”[5]

The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa, known until 2013 as the Church of England in South Africa, and closely related to the Diocese of Sydney, is a key player in Gafcon. It has decided unilaterally to delete the phrases ‘catholic’ and ‘communion of saints’ from both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed.

Its version of the Nicene Creed, now phrased in the first personal singular, declares: “I believe in Christ’s holy universal and apostolic church.” Its version of the Apostles’ Creed now says: “I believe in the Holy Spirit; Christ’s holy universal church; the fellowship of Christians.”

Another creed

Within the past two or three years, I have come across this credal affirmation being used in a Church of Ireland parish church while the bishop of the diocese was present:

With all Christians everywhere,
we believe in one God,
who made everything.
The Father sent his Son Jesus
to die on the cross.
Jesus rose again as Lord of all,
that we might live forever with him.
God sent his Holy Spirit to live in us,
that we might grow more like Jesus. Amen.

It is a credal formula that amounts to neo-Arianism, and that parallels teachings on the Trinity that are best understood as forms of modalistic monarchism but are found increasingly among people who claim the label of ‘conservative evangelical’ label in the US.

A controversial anthem

A song by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, “In Christ alone,” has become an anthem for ‘conservative evangelical.’ This hymn contains many views that could be regarded as unorthodox if not heretical, and I have never agreed to the use of this song at any service for which I have had responsibility. The authors refuse to allow the full words of the hymn to be published in journals or on the Internet. In addition, they insist that whenever the hymn is published under licence, it must include every word, every spelling and every capitalisation in their original version. This stifles a full and robust debate about the full impact and meaning of the hymn; it allows the authors to control the expressions of doctrine and beliefs of hymn-singers, forcing them to accept penal substitutionary atonement as the only understanding of Christ’s salvific work on the cross.

The hymn is in danger too of being interpreted as denying the Trinity and teaching Arianism or adoptionism. For example, it includes the words:

Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied.

These words imply that God the Father alone is God, and that Christ is his born or chosen agent – what Arius named as the Logos. It implies that God is angry at us in our sinfulness, that God takes out this rage on Christ instead of on us, and that this now enables God, who is God the Father, to love us.

But God is not divided. There is no internal battle within the trinitarian God, pitching the Father’s wrath against the love of Christ. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3: 16).

The danger in talking of Jesus satisfying God’s wrath and then separating the actions of the Trinity on the cross, is that it portrays a loving Jesus saving us from an angry God who metes out his punishment upon the innocent. Conversely, it is from our sin and its consequences that Jesus saves us, rather than from a hateful God.

It was over this issue that the Presbyterian Church in the US voted to leave ‘In Christ Alone’ out of the new PCUSA hymnal, Glory to God. The editors had proposed substituting the lines:

Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The love of God was magnified.

But they were told the authors would not approve this version. Townend and Getty insist that all hymnal editors and compilers adhere to their original words. So, because they considered the words too offensive to sing as well as theologically offensive, the Presbyterians were left with no choice but to vote to omit the hymn altogether.

The hymn is also in danger of being interpreted as denying the trinitarian action in the resurrection. Traditionally, Christianity has taught that Christ was raised from the dead by God the Father. If he had not died fully, he was not fully human; if he raised himself from the dead, he had not died fully. Yet the hymn proclaims:

Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again.

Nor does this hymn use inclusive language, speaking of ‘no scheme of man’:

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand

But of course all too many who pride themselves on their ‘conservatism’ believe that women should be submissive to men in all their schemes!

On their own website, Townend and Getty describe this as a ‘credal song.’ But they also say it is an ‘incredible lyric.’ Incredible? Indeed. Giving God the right praise? I fail to agree. Expressing Orthodox doctrine? Hardly. Orthodox? Definitely not.

Conclusion:

I fear many conservative evangelicals are neither conservative nor evangelical. They are unlikely to be disturbed by my opinions. But I am worried that they are increasingly being heard as the only voice of evangelicalism, and that the voice of open evangelicals and liberal evangelicals, once an important tradition within Anglicanism, will be silenced and eventually extinguished.

A greater long-term fear is that what passes today as ‘conservative evangelicalism’ may eventually develop and teach trinitarian, ecclesiological and sacramental understandings that bring them beyond Christianity, becoming a post-Christian religion of the twenty-first century, as happened with Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian Scientists in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Footnotes and references:

[1] Randal Manwaring, From Controversy to Co-existence, Evangelicals in the Church of England 1914-1980 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p 202
[2] The Guardian, 28 December 2017
[3] The Anglican “Articles of Religion” in The Book of Common Prayer (2004), pp 778-789.
[4] Irish Church Missions website < https://www.irishchurchmissions.ie/give-v2 >, last accessed 25 January 2020.
[5] Bosco Peters, ‘A schism’s consecration,’ < https://liturgy.co.nz/a-schisms-consecration > (25 October 2019), last accessed 25 January 2020.

Biographical Note:

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is priest-in-charge, Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin (Diocese of Limerick), Precentor of Limerick, and a former Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute and Trinity College Dublin.

This paper was first published in ‘Search: A Church of Ireland Journal,’ Vol 43.1, Spring 2020, pp 5-13.

Searching questions in the latest ‘Search’ about conservative evangelicals

Patrick Comerford

The ‘Church of Ireland notes’ in The Irish Times today open with the following paragraphs:

The Spring edition of the Church of Ireland journal, Search, edited by Canon Ginnie Kennerley, has been published.

With the Lambeth Conference coming up this summer and anxieties about the coherence of the Anglican Communion on the rise, some respectful and good-humoured dialogue is called for, along with a modicum of self-criticism. An attempt to model this is offered by Canon Patrick Comerford and the Ven David Huss, sharing and comparing different views of what it means to be both conservative and evangelical. Readers are invited to ponder and respond – and the Revd Earl Storey’s reflection on the Hard Gospel project of 2005-2009, which follows, may help them to do so.

The other nagging issue is the growing threat to life on earth of the ‘civilisation’ we have developed. Apocalyptic is a word we use increasingly to describe this nightmare; but Jewish apocalyptic writing was intended to bring comfort – an assurance that beyond present and future tribulations God would bring joyous deliverance. Dr Margaret Daly-Denton considers how we should understand such writing today. Not unconnected with these concerns, is Prof Benjamin Wold’s exploration of the Jewish background to the petition Lead us not into temptation in the Lord’s Prayer. Is Pope Francis right that it gives a misleading view of God in our time?

In her Editorial in the Spring 2020 edition of Search (Vol 43 No 1), the Editor, the Revd Canon Dr Ginnie Kennerley, writes in similar terms:

‘With the Lambeth Conference coming up this summer and anxieties about the coherence of the Anglican Communion on the rise, some respectful and good-humoured dialogue is called for, along with a modicum of self-criticism. An attempt to model this is offered by the first two contributors of this issue, Patrick Comerford and David Huss, sharing and comparing different views of what it means to be both ‘conservative’ and ‘evangelical’. Readers are invited to ponder and respond – and Earl Storey’s reflection on the Hard Gospel project of 2005-2009, which follows, may help them to do so.

‘The other nagging issue is the growing threat to life on earth of the ‘civilisation’ we have developed. ‘Apocalyptic’ is a word we use increasingly to describe this nightmare; but Jewish ‘apocalyptic’ writing was intended to bring comfort – an assurance that beyond present and future tribulations God would bring joyous deliverance. Margaret Daly-Denton in this issue considers how we should understand such writing today. Not unconnected with these concerns, is Benjamin Wold’s exploration of the Jewish background to the petition ‘Lead us not into temptation’ in the Lord’s Prayer. Is Pope Francis right that it gives a misleading view of God in our time?

‘Returning to Search’s recent concern with the development of effective ministry today, we look in this issue at a recent initiative, that of ‘Messy Church’, which shows huge promise, and consider how best to renew a time-honoured but problematic institution, that of Confirmation. Alistair Doyle, regional co-ordinator of Messy Church for Leinster, considers the former, while Canon Cecil Hyland (a one-time C of I youth officer!) fields an experienced team to ponder the confirmation dilemma.

‘The issue continues with a reflection on prayer and contemplation by N.I. religious studies teacher Nigel Martin and the latest in our Liturgica series by liturgist Professor Bryan D Spinks. It concludes with Book Reviews by a distinguished team gathered by reviews editor Raymond Refaussé.

This being the first issue of 2020, may I beg readers to renew their subscriptions for this year if they have not yet done so. This will be much appreciated by our treasurer and subscriptions manager, Michael Denton. My thanks to all concerned for help with this issue.’

‘The Future of Religious Minorities in the Middle East’: a book review

The Future of Religious Minorities in the Middle East

John Eibner (ed), Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2018, pp 276. ISBN 978-14985-6196-9

A new report commissioned by the British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, shows that the persecution of Christians is pervasive in parts of the Middle East, sometimes amounting to genocide, and has prompted an exodus in the past two decades. Millions of Christians have been uprooted from their homes throughout the Middle East, and many have been killed, kidnapped, imprisoned and discriminated against. The report also highlights discrimination across south-east Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and in east Asia – often driven by state authoritarianism.

The interim report is based on work by Bishop Philip Mounstephen of Truro, makes for sobering reading. It says ‘the inconvenient truth’ is ‘the overwhelming majority (80%) of persecuted religious believers are Christians.’

The Christian population in the Middle East and North Africa stood at 20% a century ago. In recent years, this proportion has fallen to less than 4%, or roughly 15 million people. In countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia the situation of Christians and other minorities has reached an alarming stage, according to the report. The Arab-Israeli conflict has caused the majority of Palestinian Christians to leave their homeland, so that the population of Palestinian Christians has dropped from 15% to 2%.

For people reflecting on reports such as this, it is all the more disturbing that the persecuted and persecutor all share religious belief-systems that not only share so much in common but all three major monotheistic religions originated in the fertile crescent of the Middle East.

What is the future for religious minorities in the Middle East?

Do they have a future?

These are questions that have been asked in Constantinople and throughout the Middle East since the seventh century. But perhaps, as Taner Akçam of Clark University points out, modern ‘ethnic cleansing’ can be traced to the genocide of Armenians in 1915, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the forced ‘population exchanges’ between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s.

These questions are asked yet again in a fresh way in a new book edited by John Eibner, a Swiss-American historian who is runs the Middle East programmes of the human rights organisation Christian Solidarity International (CSI). He has brought together essays by 20 scholars, journalists, human rights activists and political practitioners who spoke in Switzerland and the US on the topic. Now they have been published together in book form.

The contributors are from diverse political, cultural, and religious backgrounds. Each draws a deep wellspring of scholarship and experience as they seek to understand the threat to religious minorities and social pluralism. The one Irish contributor is the journalist Patrick Cockburn; the one Anglican is Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali.

The future of religious minorities in the Middle East is an issue for more than Christians and Muslims. Jewish communities have all but vanished apart from within Israel. Groups such as the Alawites, the Yezidis, Druze, Kakais and Mandaeans, like Christians, struggle for survival.

In recent years, the West has focused on the threats posed by jihadist terrorism. But the delicate fabric of inter-communal relations in the Middle East has been unravelling for the past century, at the expense of religious and ethnic minorities.

As early as 2011, CSI was warning of a genocide against religious minorities and called for action. The warning followed similarly dramatic appeals by then president of France, Nicholas Sarkozy, and the former president of Lebanon, Amine Gemayel, one of the contributors to this collection. At the time, the warning was scarcely heeded. Yet, since then, the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) carried out a systemic genocide, targeting Christians, Yazidis, and Shi'ite Muslims

During a recent visit to Tangier, when I visited churches and synagogues in the Moroccan port city, I tried to convince myself that there is still hope in the Middle East and North Africa. In these papers, some of the contributors still express hope for the future, but others view the situation more pessimistically. As John Eibner writes, there are few ‘silver linings around the dark clouds … the future is grim indeed.’

Patrick Comerford
Askeaton

This book review is published in the current edition of ‘Search: A Church of Ireland Journal’ (Vol 42.2, Summer 2019), pp 151-152.

This biographical note is included on p 155:

Patrick Comerford is priest-in-charge of Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin (Diocese of Limerick & Killaloe), Precentor of Limerick and Killaloe cathedrals, and a former Foreign Desk Editor of The Irish Times.