The Return to Religion ~ Part One

The first in a two-part essay about whether we're seeing a renewal of religion in Western culture and what it might mean. Today, my own journey "there and back again" with faith.

Photo by Jon Flobrant

Once, when I was working as a bookseller, I came across a book by Richard Holloway called On Forgiveness. Although my natural curiosity led me to take the book home and read it, I still had defensive walls up; having been burned by religion in ways that left scorch marks on my psyche, I read his book with a cautious eye out for any hint that this ex-bishop might be smuggling in religious bigotry or faith-based irrationality. I found none of it.

In fact, I found nothing of the Christianity I knew and that sermonised weekly on the same subjects this book was about. Just as Holloway sounded nothing like the pastors I’d known, his forgiveness and love and hope sounded nothing like that of the churches I’d attended. Holloway himself is sensitive to these differences, writing, “I have asked myself repeatedly in recent years whether I can still call myself a Christian, holding the faith in the way I now do. The answer to my question may be No ...”

Holloway was also very d…