Stephen Noon

Since autumn 2022, I have been a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity. Before that, I worked for almost 20 years in the world of Scottish politics, most recently as Chief Strategist for Yes Scotland during the 2014 Independence Referendum. After politics, I spent seven years (2015-2022) as a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).

As I will set out in these pages, the aim of my research (a PhD in Ethics and Practical Theology) is to look at the hope/expectation of a ‘new politics’ in Scotland that came with devolution and, with an eye to the 25th anniversary of devolution in May 2024, to see whether or not we have lived up to the promise.

The project is about politics, but also about the theological anthropology of Bernard Lonergan and its philosophical underpinning. For Lonergan, societal progress is more likely when we are attentive, intelligent, reasonable and responsible - open to the range of questions and perspectives that will bring new insights and open up new horizons. Decline comes if we are tribal, short-term in our outlook, and avoid the difficult questions. It is my belief that the more consensual politics that was the hope of devolution is more likely to lead to progress than an either/or, them/us politics (whether that politics manifests itself in the binary of Westminster or aspects of the binary that is the current Scottish constitutional debate).