class, conversion, atheists and theists
Church Mouse reports on the various findings of Theos, concerning whether belief, education and social class are interconnected. Apparently you are more likely to find faith, having previously not believed, if you are educated.
As always, there are various possible interpretations of such data? Is it because the smarter you are the more likely you are to find God? (the gospel would suggest otherwise). Mouse proposes that the Church aims its mission in a style that appeals to people who like reading, studying, analysing. Much more likely to be the right answer.
I started out in ministry on street corners among the homeless, many of whom couldn't read at all. I now work in one of the best universities in the land. I've read lots of those books like Mission Shaped Church, and Blue Like Jazz, and Velvet Elvis, and A New Kind Of Conversation – they all talk about the need for the gospel to cross cultures. I would say crossing the wide range of educational experience is a far bigger cultural gap than anything suggested in those books.
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author musician theologian
Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
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