Broadcaster and author Tom Holland has been installed into Salisbury Cathedral’s College of Canons. He will be the cathedral’s first Canon Historian.
Holland is famous for books such as Dominion, which examines Christianity's lasting legacy in the Western world and for his podcast, The Rest is History.
Despite an atheist father, Holland was brought up as an Anglican by his mother, once telling the New Humanist, "I've always associated Anglicanism with goodness and decency and generosity of spirit and compassion, so I never had that visceral association of Christianity or institutional religion with repression or dogma or illiberalism."
However, as an adult, Holland became an atheist, struggling to find proof for the existence of God.
This started to change, it seems, as Holland considered the crucifixion, in particular its significance in forming the morals of the West.
In 2016, he told the New Statesman, “Familiarity with the biblical narrative of the crucifixion has dulled our sense of just how completely novel a deity Christ was ... [Christianity] is the principal reason why, by and large, most of us who live in post-Christian societies still take for granted that it is nobler to suffer than to inflict suffering.
“It is why we generally assume that every human life is of equal value. In my morals and ethics, I have learned to accept that I am not Greek or Roman at all, but thoroughly and proudly Christian.”
Holland was welcomed into his new position at Salisbury Cathedral, by the Dean of Salisbury, the Very Rev Nicholas Papadopulos.
“Tom Holland’s erudition, wit, and dazzlingly wide range of interests have won him a massive audience; he writes with intelligence and insight on the overwhelming impact that Christian faith has had on our world; he is a son of Wiltshire and long-time supporter of Salisbury: we are delighted to welcome him as our first Canon Historian," he said.
