One of the most striking faith stories of the year has been the return to faith of well known British writer A N Wilson. In his thirties Wilson abandoned Christian faith and went on to write a skeptical book about Jesus and a jaundiced biography of Christian apologist, C S Lewis. But, as time passed, he found himself becoming disillusioned with what he calls "the bleak, muddled creed" of materialist atheism. Two essays written this year recount the reasons for his return to Christianity.

Twenty years on, he now sees that his conversion to atheism was largely the result of the pressure of a culture that is overwhelmingly secular and anti-religious. "To my shame," he writes, "it was this that made me lose faith and lose heart in my youth. It felt so uncool to be religious." For the next 10 to 15 years he joined the ranks of the mockers, but then began going back to church before coming, slowly and gradually, to convinced faith.

What has brought about this intriguing re-conversion? Wilson says it was in large measure the examples of believers he has known and the way in which Christian faith transforms lives. He writes: "I was drawn, over and over again, to the disconcerting recognition that so very many of the people I had most admired and loved, either in life or in books, had been believers." As a literary person, he rejoices that he now has, as companions in belief, such figures as Dostoevsky, T S Eliot, and Samuel Johnson.

For Wilson the heart of Christian faith lies in the events of the Easter story. Although he once questioned the veracity of that story, he is now convinced of its truth: "Easter confronts us with a historical event set in time. We are faced with the story of an empty tomb, of a small group of men and women who were at one stage hiding for their lives and at the next were brave enough to face the full judicial persecution of the Roman Empire and proclaim their belief in a risen Christ." One of his essays movingly recounts his experience of an Easter procession in his local parish in north London.

Along with his embrace of faith, Wilson's rejection of atheism is clear cut: "Materialist atheism says we are just a collection of chemicals. It has no answer whatsoever to the question of how we should be capable of love or heroism or poetry if we are simply animated pieces of meat. The Resurrection, which proclaims that matter and spirit are mysteriously conjoined, is the ultimate key to who we are."

The two articles in which Wilson spells out his change of heart are "Why I believe again" (newstatesman.com) and "Religion of hatred: why we should no longer be cowed by the chattering classes who sneer at Christianity" (dailymail.co.uk).

0 Comments