Long before this prompt became favoured as an interview question, Christians were told they had a ‘one-word’ answer to it. The word that describes each one of us is ‘sinner’.

To tell truth, this question is one the many hoary interview questions that are prompts to elicit from their respondent a word they think makes them seem acceptable to the interviewer(s) and avoid those which can be predicted to make you seem unacceptable. Nothing is further from its purpose than to elicit truths, or even … More Long before this prompt became favoured as an interview question, Christians were told they had a ‘one-word’ answer to it. The word that describes each one of us is ‘sinner’.

One word? Why? Cannot ‘one’ say: ‘My name is Legion’.

If Judaeo-Christian thought gave us an obsession it is that of claiming a false integrity: the view that we are beings that can be summed up in one word – a thing that defines us. It has, in ways that monotheistic cultures must, made us prone to idealise the ONE. In truth this idealisation is … More One word? Why? Cannot ‘one’ say: ‘My name is Legion’.