The ‘Surprising Rebirth’ at Oxford
by Carolyn Morris-Collier, The Gospel Coalition:
Perspectives from a Graduate Student.
Five years ago, I would have been embarrassed to say I was a Christian here at the University of Oxford.
When I started my master’s program, I came mentally prepared for the ridicule I’d been told Christians inevitably receive in academia. I even read historian Tom Holland’s Dominion to arm myself with positive moments in Christian history, ready to face the gauntlet of accusations about colonialism, imperialism, and misogyny. To my surprise, I encountered a far different posture toward my religious beliefs.
Instead of aggressive antagonism, I experienced unexpected spiritual openness from my friends and classmates. While this thousand-year-old institution houses a highly secular and progressive student body, its architecture can’t help but subtly remind inhabitants of its deeply religious heritage. The cultural mood might just be shifting. Conversations about faith, once taboo or marginal, now feel relevant. Over this last year, it seems that religion has become a trendy topic for lively discussions at seminars, lectures, and pub chats around the city.
Justin Brierley has taken the Christian internet by storm with his recent book and podcast series titled The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God. His proposition thunders: Maybe our doom-and-gloom predictions about secular society have been misdirected. Brierley charts the fall of the New Atheism movement and the migration of public intellectuals toward Christianity, nothing how some have professed belief in Christ while others laud Christianity’s cultural benefits. Suddenly, Christianity seems like an intelligent option, especially amid the West’s frantic search for what cultural story it should cling to as secular narratives collapse around us.
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