The book's content is orientated towards a Christian engagement with the contemporary culture of Western countries, whose often adverse influence on nations across the world is growing. Its main intent is to provide a biblical/theological analysis of cultural changes over the past 60 years, which have been increasingly critical of Christian claims to interpret accurately human life in a fast-changing world. The author is not aware of any other publication that, from a biblical perspective, has attempted to analyse the main reasons why there has been an accelerated decline in the confidence of the Christian faith to address truly the most profound questions of human life. Outcomes of the decline are attested in identity crises, mental anxiety and depression, and a turn to sources that pretend to alleviate their worries and dilemmas, such as spiritual mysticism, drugs, drink, pornography, and gender transition, all of which increase the distress faced. The book explores the teaching of the New Testament on the fundamental rift that exists between two worlds, in which human beings live and move and have their being, according to their divergent views of what is true and what is false about existence on this earth. By way of illustration of a world that has deviated seriously from the world that God has created and is recreating in Jesus Christ, I have chosen to look at two of the most contested realities in the world today: the humanity and personhood of pre-born babies in the light of the cult of abortion, and human sexual identity in the light of the rejection of God's creation of humankind as male and female. Undoubtedly the NT teaching elucidates both the causes and the remedies of such a distressing current conflict. I believe, therefore, that this study offers a coherent and original interpretation and guidance concerning the complex questions surrounding human significance and destiny. It presents a fresh approach to the perennial question about Christ and culture in a contemporary set of circumstances.
Kirk, John A.: - Andrew Kirk has spent most of his adult life in theological education. After a three year curacy in a North London parish, where he met his future wife, he lived and taught in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There with his growing family (3 children) for 12 years, he worked with a number of different theological institutions. He was a founder member of the Latin American Theological Fraternity (1970) and the Kairos Community (1976). Whilst in Latin America he wrote on the use of the Bible in Liberation Theology and on the revolutionary nature of Jesus life and ministry. Returning to the UK, he helped found the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (a lay academy) and taught there for eight years. He also acted as Theologian Missioner for the Church Mission Society during the same period. Subsequently he was appointed as the Dean of Mission at the Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham and later a Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham in the field of Mission Studies. Since retirement in 2002, he has been involved with theological institutions in the UK, Prague, Amsterdam and Budapest. He has also been involved in leading study sessions in Romania, Sweden, Singapore, the Lebanon, Armenia, South Korea and New Zealand. He.has continued writing. His latest books are Being Human: An Historical Inquiry into Who We Are, The Abuse of Language and the Language of Abuse (both published in 2019), and Truth to Tell: Basic Questions and Best Explanations (published in 2021). He is married to Gillian. They have four grandchildren. When not staring at a screen, he busies himself in local ministry, gardening, walking, playing badminton, trying to finish crosswords and supporting Arsenal FC.He is qualified to write books, as he has already had 21 published over a period of 50 years by a number of different publishers (three in Spanish). Some of his books have been translated into Portuguese, German, Swedish and Korean. Some have been co-published in the USA. As far as the topic of this book is concerned he has spent the last 40 years seeking to investigate a Missiology of Western culture, i.e. what are the key aspects of Western culture that the Christian Gospel should be engaging with and how should it respond to them. In particular over the last 10 years he has dedicated much time to three highly controversial topics, namely human identity, sexual existence and abortion, all of which ask basic questions of Christian belief. This has led him to think about the main theological reason(s) why Western culture is becoming increasingly confrontational against its own long Christian moral and spiritual heritage. The fruit of this investigation is summarised in this book.
