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One Solitary Life

JesusEyes

Clearing out some old files recently, I came across this famous meditation, written almost a century ago:

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book, never held an office, never went to college, never visited a big city. He never travelled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend … All the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned put together, have not affected the life of mankind on earth, as powerfully as that one solitary life.[1]

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Jesus: Man, Myth, Prophet … or More?

JesusEyes

It has been remarked that if you were to make two lists: on one, write the ten most influential people in history, on the other, write people who have claimed to be God, that only one name would appear on both those lists: Jesus of Nazareth. Indeed, it would be hard to overstate Jesus’s influence: much of art, politics, ethics, literature, music, and culture—in the west but also in large swathes of the east—has been influenced by his life.

And, of course, Jesus is the central figure of Christianity—making Christianity, uniquely, a historically grounded religion. Consider this: you could remove the founder of any other religion and that religion could still stand. Somebody else could have taught the system of thought that became Buddhism. The Qur’an could have been brought by somebody other than Muhammad. But Christianity is not a system of teaching taught by Jesus, in a very real sense, Christianity is Jesus Christ. Jesus’s personality, his character, his identity, are the heart of the Christian faith. Christianity stands or falls on Jesus.

For Christianity claims that “God” is not some mere abstract idea, some vague higher power, something “out there” like the Force in Star Wars, or a distant, remote deity, like the God of Islam, but a God who is very, very real. A God who took on human nature and, in Jesus Christ, walked and talked in history.

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Lessons from the Beauty of the Highlands

Every year around this time, the outdoor bug gets hold of my kids and they start dropping hints: “Dad, it’s going to be 5 degrees on Saturday—please can we go camping?” Thus last weekend the shed was prised open and miscellaneous dusty camping paraphernalia stuffed into our elderly Volvo until its springs groaned. Despite my wife’s trepidation, the sun actually shone and we had a fantastic weekend, the highlight of which was bribing the kids to climb their first Munro, the gnarly rock summit of Càrn Aosda that overlooks the Glen Shee pass. 

My six-year-old son’s reaction on arriving at the top was priceless. As the cries of “Wait for me!” and “Parents shouldn’t be allowed to make their kids climb mountains” died away he stood, open-mouthed, gazing at the incredible view down Glen Clunie, with the snow-capped Cairngorms glittering in the distance. “Dad! That’s amazing!” my son cried out. “Look at the view!” And then he flopped to the ground and just stared for a few minutes. It’s one of the few times I’ve ever known him silent.

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The Circle of Rights

Being British, I have a naturally mischievous streak and one of the things I occasionally enjoy is gently poking students with the sharpened end of a question to get a reaction. This can easily be done with the aid of a whiteboard and a marker pen. Draw a large circle on the whiteboard and say to the class something like: “This circle represents the entire set of genomes of every living thing on planet Earth. Everything is here, from whales to whelks, ants to antelopes, bacteria to bats, hippopotami to humans.”

Now I ask the class a further question: “Raise your hand if you do not believe in human rights?” Rarely will a hand go up (peer pressure can be a wonderful thing). “Excellent!” say I, taking my pen and drawing a second, much smaller circle, within the bigger circle. “Now what those of you who believe in human rights are saying is that anybody who lives inside your smaller circle, whose genome is ‘human’, enjoys a special set of rights that inhabitants of the bigger circle do not. Agree?”

Again, rarely will anyone protest.

“Wonderful,” I enthuse, rubbing my hands together in anticipation of what is about to follow. “So here’s the problem. Along comes the white supremacist, armed with a marker pen of his own, and he draws a much tinier circle within your small circle and says, ‘No, only those who are white and European enjoy full rights. Any other races do not.’. See the problem? You have drawn a circle, he has drawn a circle, you have both drawn circles. So tell me: why is your circle acceptable (even laudable, as the we give awards to people who defend human rights) but the circle drawn by the racist is not?”

Usually, there is a stunned silence at this point.

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New Book Launched: “Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?”

My latest book, Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God? launched with IVP on 18 March 2021 in the UK (it’s coming a few weeks later in Canada and the USA).

If you’re in the UK, you can order it from a number of booksellers including 10ofThose, Eden Books, IVP direct, Aslan Christian Books — or, if you’re desperate, Waterstones or Amazon.

American and Canadian folks can pre-order it from ChristianBook.com — it launches in North America in May.

It is also available in ebook (most formats) as well as an audiobook — the audiobook can be purchased direct from IVP, or from Audible.


Read a Free Sample!

Download chapter 1 (and the table of contents) as a PDF.


Listen to a Free Sample!

Listen to the first chapter of the audio book, brilliantly narrated/read by Neil Gardner. If the media player below doesn’t work, or if you’d prefer to listen to it using a different app, you can download the MP3 here.


Here’s what people are saying about the book:

A nuanced and sensitive examination, from an overtly Christian perspective, of how to negotiate a truth that is no less self-evident for being one that many prefer to draw a veil across: Christianity and Islam are not remotely the same.”
~ Tom Holland ― author of Dominion and In the Shadow of the Sword

“A must-read for the curious whether you have faith already or not. Prepare to be entertained, edified and gripped – I found myself unable to put it down.”
~ Dr Amy Orr-Ewing ― President, OCCA The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics

“We need thinkers who have studied both religions extensively. Andy Bannister is just such an expert and he helps us wrestle with this important question with the depth and care it deserves.”
~ Randy Newman ― Senior Fellow at The C. S. Lewis Institute and author of Questioning Evangelism.

“This book is a must-read for all interested in inter-religious issues, both believers and non-believers.”
~ Peter G Riddell ― SOAS University of London and Australian College of Theology

“Persistently challenging, consistently provoking, deeply searching, and endlessly witty!”
~ Anna Robbins ― President and Dean of Theology, Acadia University

“A sharp witted, big hearted, and clear minded romp through one of the most pressing religious questions of our time.”
~ Dr Richard Shumack ― Research Fellow, Centre for Public Christianity and Director, Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam, Melbourne School of Theology

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Brand New Experimental Podcast

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve teamed up with two friends to create an an experimental and occasional podcast. Each episode, I join evangelist Michael Ots and theologian Aaron Edwards to explore a contemporary issue in culture from a Christian perspective. Featuring banter, philosophy, culture, theology, bad jokes, apologetics, and more — the podcast aims to help Christians think wisely about the challenges of living in the 21st century.

You can find it on:

SoundCloud

Spotify

(More platforms to come soon).

Do check it out and let us know what you think! If you like the podcast, you can also support us on Patreon.

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Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?

Cover Art and Endorsements Announced

It’s only a few weeks until the launch of my new book, Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God? and I thought you might like to see the cover art. I’m thrilled with some of the kind and generous comments from folks who endorsed the book. (Click the image to see a larger version, if you wish).

Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God? is being published on 18 March in the UK (available a few weeks later in the USA/Canada). It’ll be available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats as well.

If you’d like to get your hands on a signed copy of the book before it is officially published then sign up for the Solas email list (the organisation I lead in the UK) and we’ll be letting folks know very soon how to get hold of a copy earlier than the rest of the world!

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A Year of Reading

One of my new year traditions is to look back at what I read in the last year — my goal was to read 30 books in 2020 and one impact of COVID/lockdown was that I managed to read (re-read in some cases) 51! An eclectic mix in here … (I’m kicking off 2021 by re-reading the The Lord of the Rings) …
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How to Avoid Being a Village Atheist

It is never a good idea to try to set fire to your shorts whilst wearing them, I thought to myself, as Darren departed the football field shrieking, white smoke trailing behind him. During my high school years, Darren was the class idiot. (I think he’d been aiming at class joker but had missed, badly: as somebody once remarked, many people who attempt to be a wit only make it halfway). Darren was always ready to interrupt a class with a stupid remark or snide heckle, was often in trouble because of pranks or stupid stunts gone wrong, and was the first person I ever saw wounded off a sports field with scorch marks.

Every community has its brilliant members, its leading lights and all have their single-watt flickering light bulbs, their village idiots. This goes for every community, not least the atheist and secular community.

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Lost and Found: The Story of John Newton

A sample from 'Heroes: Five Leaders From Whose Lives We Can Learn'

What follows is a sample first chapter of my book, Heroes: Five Leaders From Whose Lives We Can Learn.

If you enjoyed it, please do consider buying the full book, which is available as an ebook through Amazon.

In the full book, you can also read the stories of William Wilberforce, C. S. Lewis, Lesslie Newbigin, and Tim Keller.

The date was 10 March 1748; the location was the Atlantic ocean. The winds that had been building for days had finally exploded with violent ferocity and in the midst of a crashing gale with waves as tall as buildings, a wooden merchant ship called The Greyhound was struggling to stay afloat. The storm had already wrecked huge sections of the ship, even punching a hole in its side. As flood waters raced through the breach, crew members worked feverishly to patch the hole whilst others desperately manned the pumps. Some unfortunates screamed in terror as they were swept overboard, along with much of the provisions. The end looked near and it was surely just a matter of time before the ship was consumed by a hungry sea. But for one man in particular, this storm was to prove even more significant, for it would mark a radical and dramatic turning point in his life. That man was John Newton.