Blair's religion is based as much on conviction about right and wrong as on specific doctrines, say many of those who know him.
"This is a man who, in terms of judgment of right and wrong, would think that his own judgment was at least as good as that of the archbishop of Canterbury, the cardinal of Westminster and the pope combined," a former Blair aide is cited as saying in "Blair Unbound" by biographer Anthony Seldon.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, May 02, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
Blair and religion: In a report in Wednesday's Section A about the religious faith of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the name of his foundation was omitted. It is the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.
In his Westminster speech, Blair said his foundation would "help partner those within any of the faiths who stand up for peaceful coexistence and reject the extremist and divisive notion that faiths are in fundamental struggle against each other."
He will also explore the interaction of faiths around the world for good and ill in a course he has agreed to teach next year at Yale University on faith and globalization.
"Faith," Blair said, "answers to the basic, irrepressible, irresistible human wish for spiritual betterment, to do good, to think and act beyond the limitations of selfish human desires.
"Faith is not something separate from our reason, still less from society around us, but integral to it, giving the use of reason a purpose and society a soul, and human beings a sense of the divine," he said.
"This is the life purpose that cannot be found in constitutions, speeches, stirring art or rhetoric. It is a purpose uniquely centered around kneeling before God."
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kim.murphy@latimes.com
