Hannah Campbell: Peter Vardy
Peter Vardy comes to mind as someone who inspires me as he attempted to put a modern spin on topics I am extremely interested in and that are often most associated with texts from the 1700s and 1800s; philosophy, theology and ethics. In his Puzzle book series including The Puzzle of God and The Puzzle of Ethics, published in the 1990s, Vardy considers some of the great theological conundrums that have been questioned for centuries, in a modernised and inspired fashion.
Using examples involving unicorns, mobile phones and laptops to illustrate his theories, Vardy’s texts make the complex world of religious study accessible to the masses. When the topics of theology and philosophy encompass a book such as The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, a text so advanced in ideas that it brought many early readers close to suicide, it is certainly refreshing to witness Vardy expressing ideas in, yes a complex way, but in a style much more suited to a mind only just starting out in the never-ending exploration of religious theory.
As someone who hopes to study theology in university, Vardy inspires me, and many others, to continue to pursue the modern take on the subject and express it to the world, a revolution that has most certainly begun with his writing.