A leading Methodist broadcaster and writer has urged Christian and Muslim leaders to return to the theological bases of their religions in order to understand the suicide bombings in London fully.

The Dr Rev Colin Morris, a former President of the Methodist Convention, was speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day programme, when he commented "in Iraq and possibly now in Britain we are witnessing a growing worship of death."

Dr Morris continued: "Anger at western foreign policy may indeed be an element in the psyche of the suicide bomber, but I suspect the actual trigger is to be found not in the realm of politics but of theology."

The Reverend said it was possible that the perpetrators of such heinous crimes might experience "some alteration of religious consciousness, akin to conversion, which incites the most unlikely people to do the most extraordinary things; in this case, making paradise seem fatally attractive and the lives of the innocent expendable."

During the programme, the Reverend also went on to emphasise the trans-religious aspect of the tragedy, saying "this is not a case of Islam versus Christianity nor of one branch of Islam against another. At the most elemental level, it is death contending against life."

Dr Morris called for both Islam and Christianity "to revisit and reaffirm their doctrines of eternal life in order to repudiate utterly the ultimate egotism of those who believe they can achieve their eternal destiny at the expense of the innocent."