In God is an Englishman, Bijan Omrani presents a compelling argument that Christianity was the foundational “software” for English nationhood.
He emphasizes the pivotal role of the Anglo-Saxon era, arguing that the Christian faith, through monastic foundations and figures like Bede, laid down the codes of law, morality, and kingship that would define England. It also served as a vector for more, as Omrani’s work is particularly strong in its analysis of how the abstract ideas of faith became concrete institutions.
God is an Englishman: Christianity and the creation of England by Bijan Omrani
He also deftly highlights how a related classical philosophical tradition profoundly shaped the spiritual and intellectual landscape of the early English state.
On reading this well-received text, Omrani’s perspective opens up a fascinating line of thought for us in the West of what is now called England.
Here, the dramatic story of St. Augustine of Canterbury was not as central to the Christian narrative, as the evidence suggests that the Celtic continuities of Lowland Britain show fewer fractures than an Eastern focus gives you.
This perspective points to a comparative approach, encouraging an appreciation of a more complex and layered origin story for English identity, viewing it through the lens of cultural persistence rather than a simple religious conversion.
While Omrani focuses on the Anglo-Saxon conversion in the East of lowland Britain as a beginning, we wonder, from the Welsh border, and influenced by its distinctive story, if a deeper look reveals the survival of classical and Christian traditions in the British kingdoms of the West, including the area of modern-day Shropshire?
Some accounts hold that St. Chad’s Church in Shrewsbury was founded on a site that was part of a royal palace established in the 500s AD, and kingdoms, such as Powys, maintained a direct continuity of the Christian faith established during the Roman era. The Church was a key institution that preserved and transmitted classical knowledge, acting as a cultural anchor in a period of political flux. The key kings of Powys who ruled from Pengwern (modern-day Shrewsbury) and their links to Christianity were Cyngen Glodrydd (c. 475–547 AD) and his son, Brochwel Ysgithrog (c. 540–610 AD). Cyngen’s Christian faith is supported by the fact that he was condemned by the monk Gildas, which implies that he was expected to uphold Christian ideals. Later accounts also credit him as a patron of saints. His son, Brochwel, was also a staunchly Christian king, and his own son, Saint Tysilio, became a prominent bishop and scholar.
This line of rule in Pengwern places a Christian seat of power at the heart of what is now Shropshire essentially as soon as the Roman administration ended, which is a contrasting insight to the story close to London.
Monasteries in these western areas acted as intellectual hubs, preserving Latin literacy and the heritage of Rome. These institutions and their learning technologies carried the social reproduction of ideas from well before and reached back to classical antiquity. Ideas like Neoplatonism and the mathematical principles of the Quadrivium were not lost to Britain but were carefully curated in the West, providing a continuous intellectual tradition.
Omrani’s book is a valuable contribution, and it presents an opportunity for further reflection.
It has been justly highly praised for its scholarly and affectionate look at the creation of England’s identity
An interesting thesis is that the intellectual foundation of England’s religious heritage was even more enduring. It was not born from a void but was a continuation of ideas, not all of them explicitly spiritual, that have been incredibly and conspicuously persistent on this island, going further than what God is an Englishman contends. This perspective deepens the book’s narrative of the “rise of England” not as a singular event, but as the result of a fascinating cultural and religious synthesis, which is a significant contrast to the story of other places. It offers a tantalizing thought that the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the high medieval flowerings of philosophy and mathematics are not isolated peaks but rather crests on long-persisting cultural and intellectual waves.
The book’s second half presents a sober and acute analysis of whether this foundational “software” still has a future in our country. Omrani identifies the shift in education, particularly the move away from asserting a clear ideal of life in favor of a handful of “disjointed theoretical notions” like “fundamental British values.” He argues that without a compelling narrative, these values are thin gruel, incapable of providing the sense of identity and purpose that anchoring it to the divine once did.
This deeply realistic perspective on the current malaise is a powerful and essential part of the book’s overall contribution.
