HOW CHRISTIANS CAN SUCCEED TODAY: RECLAIMING THE GENIUS OF THE EARLY CHURCH

Rediscovering the radical, transcendent and downright weird message of Jesus, How Christians Can Succeed Today is the third title in Greg Sheridan's bestselling trilogy about Christianity in the modern world.

The first Christians confronted a cultural environment vastly more hostile than today's. They had no powerful backers, very little money and numbered no more than a few hundred. Yet they revolutionised the ancient world and spread their movement far and wide.

There is a deep, pervasive crisis of meaning and purpose across all Western societies today. Greg Sheridan encourages us to listen to the voices of the early Christians, and emulate their commitment, integrity, resilience and smarts. He shows how early Christians built communities, met persecution with courage and grace, dispensed universal mercy during plagues, pioneered equality for women, and redefined the nature and purpose of the human experience, always with Jesus Christ at the centre of their lives.

He also charts the journeys of modern Christians who live by those same values today: Leila and Danny Abdallah, who met great suffering with great forgiveness, young people making a radical commitment to faith, country pastors, and Christians inspired to welcome and help the homeless. He profiles cultural leaders who communicate Christianity with great effect, including Marilynne Robinson, Jordan Peterson, Bishop Robert Barron, Pastor Mark Varughese, former US Vice President Mike Pence and Dallas Jenkins, the creator of The Chosen television series.

It's a powerful and inspiring message of what living Jesus-centric lives, seeing God in every human being, and finding access to the transcendent for ordinary people can mean. It could once again transform our fractious, polarised world.

Many practising Christians believe that Christianity is unfairly treated in mainstream culture these days, and that their faith needs to be returned to its rightful place at the centre of public life. In the 2021 Australian census, 43.9% of Australians identified as Christian, down from 52.1% in 2016. In the 2023 NZ census, only 32% identified as Christian, down from 59% in 2001.

Includes long and inspiring interviews with influential Australian, NZ, US and UK Christians - most of whom are public/community figures rather than church figures.