A look at Rutger Bregman’s book, Humankind: A Hopeful History, with an in-depth look at a real life shipwreck incident, similar to Lord of the Flies but with a very different outcome. How might we look at humanity and ourselves differently, if we were aware that people in emergencies tend to be very generous and caring, rather than self-centered and panicky?
Speaker & Worship Leader:- Joel Hildebrandt
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Joel Hildebrandt © 9 November 2025
I’m curious how many of us read Lord of the Flies in school? Raise your hand.
The book is evidently a popular one for school reading (both here and in the US). It was written by William Golding and published in 1954. Golding was strongly influenced by the Cold War and the ongoing threat of nuclear war; WWII, the bombings of London and Dresden, and the horrendous testing of atomic bombs on the people of Japan were recent events that must have weighed on his mind. Golding had read another book, The Coral Island, which focused on Christian messages and the supposedly civilizing effects of British colonialism. He decided he would write his own book, – and here I quote him – “a book about children on an island, children who behave in the way children really would behave”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies) Interestingly, the original title of Golding’s book was Strangers from Within.