An oil trader and an Old Etonian with a genius for PR, was Justin Welby the worst Archbishop of Canterbury since Thomas Arundel?
You could argue that Welby, having endured all that, surviving probably the worst pain someone can experience, was well equipped for a life of spiritual contemplation. You could also argue that such experiences would emotionally rupture almost anyone, changing them for good. We can’t say exactly how the events we have described affected Welby but the Archbishop has gone public with his depression, his ‘self-hatred, self-contempt, real, vicious sense of dislike of oneself.’