Let's tell our story boldly again

Podcaster and author Justin Brierley encourages us to be bold as the tide of ‘New Atheism’ begins to turn.

 “I recently received an email from a podcast listener saying that they’ve begun to call themselves a ‘lapsed atheist’ and a ‘reluctant Christian’.

Ever since launching ‘The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God’ book and podcast series, I’ve received a stream of similar comments. I believe something has changed in our culture. There’s a new receptivity to faith.

Some 18 years ago, I began to host weekly radio conversations between Christians and non-Christians at a time when ’New Atheism’ was a dominant cultural force. Anti-God books were topping the bestseller lists.

The ‘Atheist Bus Campaign’ emblazoned red London buses with the slogan ‘There’s probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life’.

For several years it became fashionable to be an atheist and to dismiss religion.

But as the years wore on, more and more of the non-believers I met distanced themselves from this aggressive form of non-belief. New Atheism grew old pretty quickly.

As well as being somewhat fundamentalist itself, the movement suffered an internal implosion.

In ‘The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God’ I chart the rise and fall of New Atheism and the growth of a new conversation among secular intellectuals who are reconsidering the value of Christianity.

People like Jordan Peterson, a psychologist whose lectures on the Bible are reaching millions of people.

And historian Tom Holland whose book ‘Dominion’ tells the story of how the Christian revolution shaped the West’s moral imagination.”

 … story continues