by Alister McGrath, Premier Christianity
Secularism has failed to deliver on its promises, says Alister McGrath. Now is the time to explain how Christianity offers stability in a volatile world
Why is there growing interest in Christianity, especially among young people?
While it’s hard to figure out what is going on, I and many others have noticed a change in the cultural mood.
Twenty years ago, the questions I was asked about Christianity by young people were shaped by the New Atheism of Richard Dawkins. How can a thinking person possibly be a Christian? Isn’t faith a dangerous delusion for the intellectually inadequate?
A changed cultural mood
I have recently retired. During the final ten years of my career as a theology professor at the University of Oxford, I was visited by many young people. They had read my books and wanted to talk about Christianity. They thought I might help them with their questions. And so they came – men and women from Europe, the United States and China. And they had questions – but not the ones I was expecting. Instead of challenging me about whether God exists or if the resurrection really happened, they wanted to understand how Christianity helped people to find meaning: How does faith bring me stability and security? They sensed that Christianity offered a deeper and richer vision of life than secularism. But they wanted me to explain more.
Some of these people had been attracted to New Atheism during their teenage years but now found this worldview vacuous and unfulfilling. Others were secularists struggling with the bleakness of their beliefs and wondering if they had dismissed Christianity too soon. And some were Christians who felt they had only skimmed the surface of their faith and wanted to deepen their understanding. They reasoned that, if Christianity has lasted for 2,000 years, it must have something important to say – but they weren’t sure what it was.