This article in The Spectator by Justin Brierly has been doing the rounds among Christians on Facebook recently, and not without good reason. The first two decades of this century saw the rise of new atheism, a general mood of scepticism, and increasing indifference, even hostility, to Christianity. No wonder it is encouraging and refreshing to see how the truth of the Christian faith, and its power to give meaning and to make sense of life, is being reconsidered by some significant thinkers in our culture. It is also especially encouraging that young people are taking more interest.

However, I sometimes feel about this parade of public intellectuals who now approve of Christianity as I did about the tendency of some Christian evangelists, in years past, to support the preaching of the gospel by using celebrities who had apparently become Christians. It seemed to suggest that the Christian message must be true if [insert your choice of celebrity name here] had become a Christian. But the truth of the gospel is not dependent upon its popularity or its high profile supporters. The call of the gospel is a call to a countercultural kingdom that will often not have the approval of the world. In fact, God seems to call the weak, the foolish, those who ‘are not’ to shame those who think they ‘are’ (1 Cor 1:26-29). He does not seem to be into calling those who ‘are’ to make those of us who ‘are not’ feel a little better about not fitting in. Christians often will not fit in. We will be unpopular, and feel as exiles in this world. And there is some evidence that true and radical faith has thrived especially when it was opposed, when it did not have the approval of the cultural elites. The message of the cross has often been foolishness to Greeks.

I would signal another note of caution. Christians should be careful of their bedfellows. Of course I am very encouraged by thinkers like historian, Tom Holland. It feels to me that he gets what true Christian faith is about. Listen to his Christmas Day appearance on Leading from the popular The Rest is Politics podcast. Or read his book Dominion (I’m hoping to do a review on this, and maybe a Key Points Summary, soon). He understands something of the subversive, upside-down nature of God’s different kingdom. He gets the way of Jesus, and the way of love. If he is finding faith, and not just recognising the historical influence of Christianity, then it seems he is finding it in in the rubble and carnage of northern Iraq, among the martyred, at the cross. That’s the different kingdom.

However, I find that people like Jordan Peterson and Douglas Murray miss this different kingdom message. Instead, there is a danger that they encourage the co-opting of Christianity to support a kind of cultural and political conservatism. (The Spectator has long been a bastion of such traditional conservatism). Sometimes, Christians don’t see this more worrying undercurrent and are just happy to have such high profile people on their side. Unwittingly, we end up takings sides in the culture wars – and followers of the different kingdom are not called to fight in this way. Cultural Christianity is not without some value but it must not be confused with the kingdom of God. Some writers are now extending this kind of Christian conservatism into a disturbing Christian Nationalism that wrongly equates the kingdom with the idea of a Christian nation (I hope to write more on this). Such a development is certainly not a revival of a true faith that gives rise to cross-bearing, radical discipleship.

Having sounded those notes of caution, I do applaud Justin Brierley who tries to make a balanced response to these interesting developments within the culture. He is absolutely right to point out the importance of believing in the actual historical resurrection. Without it our faith is useless. He also rightly points out that it is not enough just to see ‘wisdom’ or a ‘useful fiction’ in the Christian story. If its true, then it makes all the difference in the world. We should be grateful to Justin Brierley because, through starting the Unbelievable? radio programme and subsequent podcast (I am currently writing a review of this), he has done the Christian Church a great service in encouraging and facilitating sincere intellectual engagement with faith, and for a popular audience. This kind of engagement in fundamental questions of truth and faith is certainly a positive trend.

Time will tell whether the ‘new theism’ is just a fad that will pass just as the ‘new atheism’ seems to have passed, or whether it is one of the ways that God is using to awaken faith in a new generation. I pray it is the latter. But I also pray that it will lead not simply to intellectual approval but to transformed lives, to radical, cross-centred, discipleship, and to a greater commitment to work for love, truth and justice in our world. That will be revival worthy of the name.