Michael Nazir-Ali
Bloomsbury
160, £10.99
ISBN: 978-1-4411-1347-4
Star Rating: 3
Many people no longer think of Britain as a Christian country, yet Michael Nazir-Ali argues that Christians must counter the aggressive secularism, radical Islamism and multiculturalism that are encouraging many to believe that the Judeo-Christian ethic has now been superseded by other views of morality.
In this wide-ranging book Bishop Nazir-Ali deals with this triple threat to the Christian faith.
Some of the book is easy to read and other parts require more effort. The reason for this is that ‘Triple Jeopardy for the West’ includes some of the author’s writings that have previously appeared in learned journals and newspapers.
Part one is concerned with ‘Society and living in multicultural Britain today.’ The second part is taken up with radical Islam, and includes a detailed essay that first appeared in a study called, ‘Sharia in the West.’
The remaining two sections highlight Science (evolution, bioethics and assisted dying) and Politics (values and good government).
This final part contains an intriguing chapter entitled, ‘What would Jesus do? Certainly not vote for the BNP.’
The Bishop argues against the mentality that shuts the doors as we gather for worship. Instead he wants Christian services to be more readily accessible to those who do not normally attend church. As there is less and less Christian worship in the media he says, ‘in a digital age … Christian churches [should] have their own arrangement for transmission and broadcasting’
He is finds that ‘in an age where every kind of depravity can be relatively easily viewed, the reluctance of regulators to allow adequate mainstream Christian broadcasting is very strange’ (p.36).
In his closing chapter, ‘Where do we go from here?’ the author says that generations today have not been taught what we owe the Bible. He writes not only of the value of the Bible in language, literature, art and architecture. He also wants to see the Bible taking its full place in the moral and spiritual fibre of the nation.
He wants the biblical basis for integrity and responsibility in business to be brought out more clearly. ‘Whatever the nature of the market and its processes, we are never excused from being moral agents there as anywhere else’ (p.167)
Michael Bentley, retired pastor living in Bracknell, Berkshire.
