By Subhadip Majumdar | 30 Mar, 2026

"Faith is a leap in the dark. Faith is a mystery."

There could scarcely have been more fitting words to open Voices of Faith 2026 in London, as Sir Trevor Phillips took the stage. The renowned British writer, broadcaster, and former politician reflected on the place of faith in a world increasingly marked by mistrust, suspicion, and political turmoil. He described what he saw as an “inexorable march towards abandonment, of what some people regard as superstition,” urging the audience to reconsider the quiet, abiding role of belief.

Drawing from his own life, Phillips spoke of being raised in the Methodist Church within a large family, where rituals of faith shaped everyday existence. Whether in marriages or funerals, religion was ever present, offering structure and meaning. As a Methodist married to a Catholic, he noted that the “punctuations” of their lives remained deeply connected to faith and tradition.

He reflected, too, on his early career as a chemist, a world governed by numbers and equations, yet one that revealed something beyond itself. What stayed with him was the fundamental understanding that there exists something greater than human comprehension. In science, he said, he learned "the business of doubt," a discipline that continually asks whether we truly know what truth is. The answer, he suggested, is always no.

Turning to faith, Phillips spoke of two essential qualities, the first being humility. “I think we could all be a little better, if there were a little more humility.” Humility, he suggested, allows us to live with mystery, to accept that some questions cannot be resolved alone, and to find meaning within that uncertainty.

He recalled a moment with his daughter, who once asked why one would choose to be a person of faith. In response, he turned to the legend of Pandora. Though Pandora released the world’s ills, at the bottom of the box remained something: "there was a feeble, fragile, delicate creature waiting to get out. And the name of that creature was hope."

For Phillips, it was hope that lay at the heart of faith. It enabled the imagination of a better world and sustained belief in the possibility of change. Faith, he suggested, however irrational or insane it may seem, gives shape to the future.

"But actually, I think, that is the best part of being human."

In the end, his address left a quiet but profound reminder that faith, grounded in humility and sustained by hope, remains essential to how we understand ourselves and imagine a better world.

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