4 November 2022

Laity: Lay people as distinct from the clergy; ordinary people, as distinct from professionals and experts. 

• Ms. Armstrong is one of the most popular and respected writers on religion in the English-speaking world. Her defection from a youthful spell as a novice nun is both a credential of her expertise and a qualification for talking to the laity. 

Nigher: Within a shorter distance; closer, nearer. 

• The "very survival of our species is at stake", she writes, and the end is nigher than we think: "We have to change not only our lifestyle but our whole belief system. We have ransacked nature, treating it as a mere resource, because over the last 500 years we have cultivated a world view that is very different from that of our forbearers".