Boy, was that ever a mistake. For in that interview, Dr Williams for some reason abandoned nuance altogether and left no room for doubt about what he was saying. Which was, in short, that although the sensational reporting of opinion polls recording large numbers of British Muslims who want to live in the UK under Islamic sharia law clouds the issue,the adoption of sharia law in the UK seems unavoidable and indeed desirable, since Muslims should not have to choose between

Wright, 58, talked by phone with TIME's David Van Biema.

TIME: At one point you call the common view of heaven a "distortion and serious diminution of Christian hope."

Wright: It really is. I've often heard people say, "I'm going to heaven soon, and I won't need this stupid body there, thank goodness.' That's a very damaging distortion, all the more so for being unintentional.

TIME: How so? It seems like a typical sentiment.

The Hookses is located in a little valley on the edge of a disused WWII airfield, now occupied by sheep, running down to the Pembrokeshire coast. It looks out onto the Atlantic Ocean, on high cliffs, near the village of Dale. I first visited it in 1964 when I took a group of young people from All Souls Church down there for a weekend.

Why, then, has this idiotic man suggested that some elements of Islam's sharia law should be recognised in Britain? There is no call for it among the majority of Britons, who are quite satisfied with us all being subject to the same laws, and certainly no call for it among his flock. He is doing it for the traditional, British liberal reason: he seeks to capitulate to anyone who offers to challenge the status quo.