Those familiar with A. N. Wilson might have heard of him through his books on C. S. Lewis or Jesus which are anything but flattering. To much delight, he confesses to have changed his mind in this article of the Daily Mail. Wilson grew up in the faith but sometime in early manhood he began to question and then to “rail against Christianity” (his words) only to return in the last few years. He notes the prevalant anti-Christian stance of the culture, media and even the church in Britain.

Like most educated people in Britain and Northern Europe (I was born in 1950), I have grown up in a culture that is overwhelmingly secular and anti-religious. The universities, broadcasters and media generally are not merely non-religious, they are positively anti.

One suspects this is how it is viewed in most liberal circles, in university common rooms, at the BBC and, perhaps above all, sadly, by the bishops of the Church of England, who despite their episcopal regalia, nourish few discernible beliefs that could be distinguished from the liberalism of the age.
Some time over the past five or six years – I could not tell you exactly when – I found that I had changed.

Wonderfully, Wilson wasn’t convinced by apologetic arguments or sudden crisis (though these are good too!). The mundane and gracious witness of Christian friends living faithful lives put him over.

But there is more to it than that. My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known – not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in the light of the Resurrection story, or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die.

The only mistep, in my opinion, of his article lies in the dismissal of historical evidence. Rather than seeing the historial reality and evidence of Jesus’ resurrection as adequate adequate for rational faith, Wilson seems to dismiss it or leave neutral ground.

Anyone who believes in the truth must heed the fine points that such scholars unearth. But at this distance of time, there is never going to be historical evidence one way or the other that could dissolve or sustain faith.

Of course, only hard evidence will satisfy the secularists, but over time and after repeated readings of the story, I’ve been convinced without it.

I’m glad he didn’t need it, but for those who do, it’s there. One shouldn’t complain. Another one meets the Christ.