Damian Thompson

Damian Thompson
Damian Thompson
Born	Template:Birth year and age
Occupation(s)	Journalist, editor, writer
Years active	1990–present
Known for	Associate editor at The Spectator; former editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald; religious affairs correspondent at The Daily Telegraph

Damian Thompson (born 1962) is a British journalist, editor, and writer. He currently holds the position of associate editor at The Spectator. His previous roles include serving as editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald and working at The Daily Telegraph as a religious affairs correspondent, blogs editor, and Saturday columnist.

Career

Thompson received his education at Presentation College in Reading before pursuing history at Mansfield College, Oxford. In 2003, he completed a doctorate in the sociology of religion at the London School of Economics, focusing his dissertation on how apocalyptic beliefs are managed within Kensington Temple, a Pentecostal church located in London.

Between 1990 and 1994, he was the religious affairs correspondent for The Daily Telegraph. Later, from 2003 to 2019, he took on the role of editor-in-chief and director of the Catholic Herald. Starting in 2011, Thompson contributed as a Saturday columnist and managed blogs covering politics, religion, finance, and culture for the Telegraph Media Group. He amicably departed from The Telegraph in June 2014. Shortly thereafter, in August 2014, he joined The Spectator as an associate editor.

Thompson has written extensively on topics such as apocalyptic beliefs and conspiracy theories, which he describes under the term "counterknowledge"—falsehoods masquerading as truth. His 2012 publication, The Fix: How Addiction is Invading our Lives and Taking Over Your World, examines the pervasive influence of addiction. Additionally, he authors a monthly column on classical music for The Spectator and frequently contributes to UnHerd.

Books

The End of Time: Faith and the Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium (University Press of New England, 1997)
Loose Canon: A Portrait of Brian Brindley (editor) (Continuum, 2004)
Waiting for Antichrist: Charisma and Apocalypse in a Pentecostal Church (Oxford University Press, 2005)
Counterknowledge: How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History (Atlantic Books, 2008)
The Fix: How Addiction is Invading our Lives and Taking Over Your World (Collins, 2012)

External links