Heather Bellamy spoke with spoke with author John Bradley.

How have Christian men and women contributed to the Britain we know today? This is the question John Bradley sets out to answer in his book The Mansion House of Liberty. John has worked as a professional businessman and church leader and Heather Bellamy caught up with him to find out about Britain's Christian heritage.

Heather: In your book you quote former Home Secretary Jack Straw, who said, "We have a deep Christian heritage in our society, which underpins many of our institutions, including Parliament and the law." Which institutions have been underpinned by the Christian faith?

John: As Jack Straw has said, it is many institutions. There is a very wide definition of institutions. It's not just Parliament, or the monarchy, but it's anything that is public, which serves in what today they call the public sphere. It could be anything from the National Health Service, or the arrangements a Government has for dealing with poverty.

Heather: In what way has Christianity underpinned those institutions?

John: We might begin by looking at the law, because when the law of England and then more widely Britain, was first being written, it was very much underpinned by scripture. King Alfred was one of the first to actually write British, or English law. He wrote just over one thousand years ago, in the nine hundreds and he introduced the writing of the law with whole chapters of scripture, from Exodus and other books in the Bible. The law was necessary to protect the country and make it safer and he based that on his interpretation of scripture. Down the many centuries since then, it has been much adapted, but still underlying it is much of the widely accepted morality that emanates from the Christian faith.

Heather: What about the NHS? In what way has that been underpinned by Christianity?

John: That's an interesting one. In 1942 someone called William Beveridge, who was a civil servant, wrote the Beveridge report. From that report flowed the National Health Service and state pensions and a little later the Education Act just after the last war.

William Beveridge had a strong Christian faith. He was educated at a college at Oxford University and was the head person at that college. He was very much advocating the application of Christianity to daily faith. He called it 'thinking Protestantism', meaning the way the church has been set up with its doctrines in this country. He was very much in favour of applying Christianity to the Christian faith. That is how William Beveridge was brought up. He did a lot of social work after leaving university and then he worked for the Government. The Beveridge report was one of these and he is certainly acknowledged today as the main founder of the report and other aspects of Government involvement in health and social security matters.

Heather: Can you still see elements of the Christian faith within our law, or the NHS, or has that been eroded away now?

John: Where the law still stands, in those areas I don't think in any way it's contrary to the Christian faith. The Christian faith has become so enmeshed and embodied in the culture of the society that over time people have just become used to it. Quite possibly a lot of people don't really see it from that point of view, but that is its origins. They have come from being inspired by those who have that Christian motivation in their lives. That is why they have brought about the improvements in society that we enjoy today.

Heather: Do you think that Christians and the wider church should still have a voice into political, moral and social issues in the nation?

John: They should have, because the moral issues have to come from somewhere. They don't come out of thin air. If you do not have a foundational faith, then where do you get your morals from? Where do you get your standards and your values from? You can only get them from people who might dream them up as it were. There is no outside authority, so it's equally anybody's opinion as to what might be right in terms of those issues.

Heather: Why have you written this book?

John: I've written this book because I would love people more widely to understand how the country we live in today, which we enjoy today, has arrived at the position it has. As my book explains, there are so many Christians who have been involved in very important episodes in this country's life, for example the extension of voting to all men and later to all women and issues like that, practical issues that have affected our lives.

Heather: How can people buy your book?

John: They can buy my book by going on to Amazon and from my own website mansionhouseofliberty.org.