Very few institutions have contributed to the cultural life of the nation in the way that Rugby School has done. Pioneering religious leaders, educators, authors and philosophers, whose influence has been felt in spheres ranging from the Olympic games to education, were themselves profoundly influenced by their time at Rugby.This book is designed to provide a rigorous yet practical engagement with key questions surrounding faith, philosophy, science, culture and social progress by celebrating the life and thought of these Rugbeian cultural leaders and social pioneers, with an exploration of their continued relevance to contemporary discussions.With contributions from some of the most distinguished historians, philosophers, social and religious commentators writing today - John Witheridge, John Clarke, Anthony Kenny, David Urquhart, Robin Le Poidevin, A N Wilson, Andrew Vincent, A C Grayling, Jay Winter, Ian Hesketh and David Boucher - this is a book which set outs to explore and enrich discussion of the most important and enduring questions of the modern age.

In this, the first biography of Archibald Campbell Tait since his son-in-law, Randall Davidson's in 1891, John Witheridge tells the story of how a Scottish outsider became Queen Victoria's favourite Archbishop of Canterbury, and the most powerful since Laud in the seventeenth century. Following his childhood in Edinburgh and education at Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford, Witheridge describes how Tait's life was shaped by faith, duty and diligence, as well as by harrowing experiences of illness and death. Tait was never content to be an ecclesiastical dignitary, but was ready to intervene and give a lead in the many conflicts, theological and political, that defined his fourteen years at Lambeth. While not always successful, Tait's leadership of the Church during a period of controversy at home and challenge overseas, bravely accomplished against a background of personal tragedy, makes him a landmark figure in the history of the Church of England.