(Tyndale House Publishers)
ISBN 976 1 4964 6677 8
Price £17.99
249 pages
Justin Brierley has done the Church a great service with his popular Unbelievable show on Premier Radio, also available as a podcast, in which he has hosted conversations and debates between committed Christians, friendly agnostics and less friendly atheists.
This book uses some of the exchanges from those podcasts to build an argument that there is something of a sea change in the way that people are thinking about the Christian faith.
A recent article in The Spectator magazine has described some of the figures highlighted in the book as The New Theists. These include the historian Tom Holland and the psychologist and YouTube influencer Jordan Peterson.
Brierley suggests that the aggressive atheism of scientists like Richard Dawkins is gaining less traction as we move through the 21st Century. There seems to be a growing openness to explore the possibility that they might be a God and that the sub-structure of Western civilisation and culture owes much to its Christian heritage.
It remains to be seen if this change is any more than a blip, but this book does bolster the confidence of those who are seeking give an answer for the hope that is in them.
It is also a call to Christians to enter into a serious conversation with their friends and colleagues about the possibility that behind the order of the universe there is a personal genius, which Christians call God.
John Woods is a writer and Bible teacher based in West Sussex. He is Director of Training at the School of Preachers in Riga, Latvia.
