Greg Sheridan. How Christians Can Succeed Today: Reclaiming the Genius of the Early Church. Allen & Unwin, 2025
Greg Sheridan is that extreme rarity in Australian public life, a leading journalist, author and commentator who is an out-there Christian.
The long-time Foreign Editor of The Australian, having written a series of books on world affairs, especially on Asia, has now produced a trilogy on contemporary Christian themes: God is Good For You: A Defence of Christianity in Troubled Times; Christians: The Urgent Case for Jesus in Our World; and now his new work.
This book is in two halves. The first reviews “the revolutionary Christians of the early church”. The second looks at, what he calls “contemporary early Christians,” who range from Dallas Jenkins, the creator of The Chosen, the hugely successful 42-epiode TV series on the life of Jesus, to the Maronite parents of three children killed by a drunk and drugged driver in Sydney who have not only forgiven him but met him (in jail) and his parents, to the towering novelist with searing Christian themes, Marilynne Robinson, a Congregationalist.
A common thread is that Christians in Western countries today live among hostile cultures, which have developed some features of the old pagan ways – that might be compared with the admittedly far greater challenges, proportionately, that were confronted by the first generations of Christians.
Sheridan is catholic as well as Catholic. His interviewees include a pentecostalist big-box-founder-preacher originally from Malaysia, an American Catholic bishop with millions of social media followers, a young Indigenous Anglican minister, and the famous Scottish historian Niall Ferguson who with his equally famous public commentator wife Ayaan Hirsi Ali and their two sons, were baptised together into the Anglican Church two years ago.
That catholicity is also shown in the range of people launching the book in different cities, who have included the media personality – and, yes, Christian public figure – Stan Grant and Melbourne Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli.
In one chapter, he takes us winningly through the lives and thoughts of key figures among the early fathers, especially Augustine, “the first modern in the early church,” whose Confessions he commends as “the story of a soul’s longing for God” – which faith and prayer are – and which he finds “at times frighteningly familiar.”
The bibliography provides a handy list of about 80 titles that ambitious readers may wish to dip into afterwards. And thankfully, there’s an index.
Sheridan uses direct and contemporary language. Readers will not need to google unfamiliar terms. And non-Christians will also find it approachable. The book points to Jesus, not to complex theologies or ecclesiastical terms.
He also uses many superlatives – most well-merited, indicating the level of personal excitement and enthusiasm that seized him about his themes, and that suit especially, the early Christian framing.
Yet we are outsiders in a West which has exiled religion. “There’s a perverse discrimination against elementary Christian knowledge, in a society historically formed by Christianity.”
The widespread global persecution of Christians is ignored, with “bargain basement identity politics finding it so difficult to conceive of Christians as victims.” He cites a powerful, first-century-style letter to his flock from Wang Yi, pastor of the Early Rain church in Chengdu, China, who was arrested in a 2018 crackdown on Christians, whose numbers have soared under communist rule despite its insistence on atheism.
Christianity is frequently mocked and degraded in the West, Sheridan notes, including through anti-Christian arts products that sometimes resemble “a juvenile determination to offend one’s parents.”
He stresses how Paul was “the supreme communicator and teacher of the early church,” while Lydia created the first Christian church in Europe, and overall “the majority of early Christians were women.”
He believes that “the shock value of the Christian message, especially the resurrection, its essential weirdness … was a big part of its appeal.”
Sheridan concludes by asking, “as a wicked man one rightly said” – meaning of course Vladimir Lenin – “what is to be done?”
His answers include that “active Christians have to behave quite differently from their host culture … The temptation for Christians here is cowardice,” including through retreat into earnest “social relevance” or into what Sheridan calls Moralistic Therapeutic Deism – “God exists, probably, but places no demands on you.”
He insists: “The personal experience of God is at the heart of Christianity.” And of course, “a big influence of resurgence in Western Christianity is inward Christian immigration.”
And he concludes optimistically that our world may be tough for us, but not a hundredth as difficult as that faced by the early Christians. “Who would have thought they could change the world? They did it mostly one person at a time. They never compromised on the Jesus-centred genius of their new and revolutionary faith. They met the world with kindness in manner, but uncompromising integrity of belief.”
Sheridan says Christians are always “early” Christians “because the Christian experience inevitably involves a conversion of the heart” – which is “breathtakingly fresh” in every life.
For more faith news, follow The Melbourne Anglican on Facebook, Instagram, or subscribe to our weekly emails.
St Peter’s Murrumbeena has come back from potential closure to doubling in size, thanks to diverse migrant communities.
Inter-faith and multicultural communities are facing growing security threats.
A Melbourne community forum this weekend will explore how Christians can take practical action to address homelessness and break down stigmas in the northern suburbs.
St John’s East Malvern will host a rare performance of Palestrina’s sacred madrigals.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
All rights reserved TMA 2021
Sheridan explores Christians in a world that exiles religion – The Melbourne Anglican
