Nick Spencer

The report of Christianity’s death has been an exaggeration

Immigration is revivifying congregations, with many people showing signs of spiritual openness, in contrast to the bare-knuckle rationalism that characterised New Atheism, says Rupert Shortt

A moment of intense prayer at the Pentecostalist Mountain of Fire & Miracles Church in Hackney Wick, London. [Gideon Mendel/Corbis/ Getty Images] 
issue 30 November 2024
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  • The Eclipse of Christianity and Why It Matters

    Rupert Shortt

    Hodder, pp. 368, £25

George Orwell began his beautiful, nostalgic pre-war novel Coming up for Air with an epigraph from a popular song. ‘He’s dead, but he won’t lie down.’ It’s tempting to borrow the line when writing about Christianity in the West today. The chronicle of its death has been long foretold, its obituary repeatedly rewritten.

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