The Great Return

Nominal Christianity is not enough. We can’t sustain the ethics and norms we take for granted in societies that have been formed through a Christian worldview, for the long term, without Christianity itself - this book calls for a full-blooded, believing ’return’ to Christianity on that basis.

Fear not, however, this is not an evangelical screed about ’revival’ -- it is a solid case, methodically set out in order to argue from a philosophical and historical perspective why a return to Christian belief is the only way in which we can build a moral framework that will help to guide our future ethical decisions, because all of our assumptions - on which our decisions rest - are based in the theology and understanding of humanity handed down to us by the Church.

Working his way, in successive chapters, through History, Science, Aesthetics, Politics, Ethics and then, finally, the Church, Franklin argues that the West is in decline because it has unmoored itself from its foundational Christian basis. As our metaphysical commitment to Christianity declines, so does our commitment to the benefits that came to us from Christianity. Franklin demonstrates how this plays out in the scientific realm, which has abandoned objectivity for dogmatism; in the ethical realm, which is eliminating humanity from its own formulations; and in the political scene, which is moving away from the democratic principle towards a neo-marxist influenced, nihilistic technocracy that threatens to eliminate human culture, distinctiveness and agency in the pursuit of a globalist utopia.

In so doing, he touches on contemporary political conversations that are exercising the public imagination and occupying much of our discourse. His podcast, of course, is geared towards analysing the news stories of the day through a Christian lens.

Franklin shows that a return to Christianity would have the potential to reverse the damaging trends he observes whether that is transhumanism/the rise of AI or other ethical decisions about contemporary morality. He insists, first and foremost, the Church must take seriously its own commitment to belief in order for us to have a chance of seeing progress. But in doing so, he seeks to argue that a great return would have a positive impact intellectually, societally, politically and ethically - his hope for the book is that readers may at least see this great return as something desirable for the reasons he sets out.

Jamie Franklin is the priest in charge at Holy Trinity Church in Winchester, England, and the host of the Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs podcast, as well as being a husband and father of four. His first book, Charles Taylor and Anglican Theology: Aesthetic Ecclesiology was published in 2021 following his DPhil thesis from the University of Oxford. He has degrees in Theology, Philosophy and English Literature.