You don't have to 'be religious' to believe there may be a life after death! The Medium and the Minister explores psychical and religious approaches to the possibility of an afterlife. The tensions and conflicts between these two approaches and the heated controversies they have generated are illustrated by a number of case studies. These focus on the challenges posed by psychical research and spiritualism to orthodox religion as the ultimate authority for information and teaching about the afterlife. Prominence is given initially to the campaigns of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sir Oliver Lodge which aimed to publicise the psychical evidence and to the Church’s reaction to them. Later developments and initiatives to try to reconcile the opposing positions are then examined in the light of further psychical research. The issues raised are shown to be still highly relevant to current beliefs and attitudes and to the question of what might constitute evidence for life after death.

Roger Straughan (Ph.D) spent his career teaching in schools, colleges and universities, culminating in his holding the post of Reader in Education at the University of Reading, UK specialising in the philosophy of education. His university research has led to the writing and editing of many books and articles on issues in education, philosophy and ethics. He lives in Newbury, UK.