Plagiarism may not be the most holy of pastimes, but an Australian archbishop has been accused of passing off the arguments of Terry Eagleton as his own in a desperate attempt to fend off nonbelievers.

Seeking to refute Richard Dawkins’s polemic against all religion, set out in The God Delusion, Mark Coleridge, the Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, turned to the most unlikely of sources.

He allegedly copied, or closely paraphrased, six passages written by the British intellectual Terry Eagleton, the literary critic and an unrepentent Marxist revolutionary, in a review of Dawkins’s bestseller.

Professor Eagleton, whose review appeared in November in the London Review of Books, wrote: “Believing in God, whatever Dawkins might think, is not like concluding that aliens or the tooth fairy exist.”

Archbishop Coleridge wrote in The Australian in February: “Believing in God is not, as Dawkins seems to think, like concluding that there is alien life or that the tooth fairy exists.”

Even Professor Eagleton’s conclusion, that Dawkins may “have avoided being the second most frequently mentioned individual in his book — if you count God as an individual”, is almost identical. Archbishop Coleridge concludes in his article: “Dawkins himself is the second most frequently mentioned person in the book [God is number one, if you count God as a person]”.

Professor Eagleton, of Manchester University, told The Times of his surprise that his work had inspired so senior a churchman. “It does sound as thought he has coolly lifted my review,” he said. “It looks like straight plagiarism.” He thought that it would have been “wise and prudent” of the Archbishop to rely on more than one source, and said that he would be keen to speak to him. “Perhaps I should ask if I can be of help for any future reviews he is doing,” he said.

The Age newspaper e-mailed Archbishop Coleridge in an attempt to contact him but was told that, although he would have seen the e-mail, the archbishop was travelling and would be unable to respond.

The Australian has apologised for printing a review with “some similar content” to Professor Eagleton’s work.

The archbishop does credit the professor at one point during the article, but does not acknowledge that he has paraphrased a further six passages.

Professor Eagleton said that he did not intend to take any formal action through the courts. “I suppose, if the paper has apologised, that is it.”

Archbishop Coleridge was ordained as a priest at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in 1974, according to The Agearticle. He was promoted to the Canberra Diocese in June.

Coincidence?

“ Faith, rather like love, must involve factual knowledge, it is not reducible to it. For my claim to love you to be coherent, I must be able to explain what it is about you that justifies it" Prof Eagleton, Nov 2006

“ But like love, faith is not reducible to factual knowledge. To love you I must know a good deal about you and even be able to explain to a certain point why I love you" Archbishop Coleridge, Feb 2007

“ Dawkins speaks scoffingly of a personal God, as though it were entirely obvious exactly what this might mean" Eagleton

“ Dawkins scorns the notion of a personal God, though his understanding of what this means is entirely one-dimensional" Coleridge

“ He might also have avoided being the second most frequently mentioned individual in his book – if you count God as an individual" Eagleton

“ In fact, Dawkins himself is the second most frequently mentioned person in the book [God is number one, if you count God as a person]" Coleridge