The Air We Breathe
The Air We Breathe
Is Christianity history? Or is Christian history the deepest explanation of the modern world?
Today in the west, many consider the church to be dead or dying. Christianity is seen as outdated, bigoted and responsible for many of society’s problems. This leaves many believers embarrassed about their faith and many outsiders wary of religion. But what if the Christian message is not the enemy of our modern Western values, but the very thing that makes sense of them?
In this fascinating book, Glen Scrivener takes readers on a journey to discover how the teachings of Jesus not only turned the ancient world upside down, but continue to underpin the way we think of life, worth, and meaning. Far from being a relic from the past, the distinctive ideas of Christianity, such as freedom, kindness, progress and equality, are a crucial part of the air that we breathe. As author Glen Scrivener says in his introduction: “The extraordinary impact of Christianity is seen in the fact that we don’t notice it".
This is a book for both believers and sceptics—giving Christians confidence to be open about their faith and showing non-Christians the ways in which the message of Jesus makes sense of their most cherished beliefs. Whoever you are, you’ll gain a deeper appreciation for the values you hold dear as you discover the power and profundity of Jesus and his revolution.
Glen Scrivener up-ends common assumptions about the origins of the values now held dear in Western cultures today. He examines each of these values and traces their origin to Jesus' teachings, demonstrating the vast gulf that lay between the values of the world in which he lived and the values he taught and embodied in his sacrificial death, and which went on to underpin much of what we believe to be self-evident today.
It's one of the most lively, stimulating and eye-opening books I've read in years and usefully informs my conversations with both Christians and non-Christians alike. I'd recommend it for the opening chapter alone 'The Night Before Christmas' - if nothing else it should help to correct any tendency you've had to reduce Jesus' crucifixion to a dry theological concept!
The Air We Breathe is Glen Scrivener’s explanation of how The American Declaration of Independence has it wrong. How we have it wrong. How the values we hold to are not at all self-evident, but have come to us from the teachings of Jesus. He has drawn from secular and Christian students of history to help us see that freedom, kindness, progress and other values are not found in Greek and Roman philosophers, but came into the world quite suddenly in the first century AD.
One of his most interesting arguments is that objections to Christianity are often making Christian assumptions, not shared by those from pre-Christian times. He says that when we complain about Christians who are hypocrites, or who are corrupt, greedy, oppressive and exploitative, we are saying the same things that Jesus said to the religious folk of his day, and calling them to embrace the Christian values they claim to believe in.
His book is beautifully structured and logical. Its short chapters are easy to read and hold your attention.
Scrivener gives us a clear and simple digest of some of the academic material circulating today in large, forbidding tomes (and a few more popular works).
He aims to share his vision with people he calls nones, dones and wons: those who have never been Christian, those who have, but are now done with the church, and those who are believers. Some of the secular folk he cites tell us that the book is worth the read for believers and unbelievers.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and think you might find it engaging, too.
