Kenneth Bragan believes Christianity is approaching a time of change, one that is under pressure from changing world views. The religion is changing from a largely belief-based faith to one that is more experience-based.

“I present Thomas Merton as an exemplar of the latter and Laurence Freeman as an advocate of meditative Christianity, which increases in importance as it receives support from developments in neuroscience. These new directions may well bring much needed renewal,” he states.

The retired psychiatrist wrote New Directions Towards Christian Renewal because he feels that Christianity is no longer doing what it has the potential to do.

“This latter mode, that of natural spirituality (standing in contradistinction to supernatural spirituality), is the very future of a Christianity that engages with exegesis and matters of faith without the myopia of literalism, instead allowing for the allegorical and poetic dimensions of scripture to rush forward unfettered by the limitations of historical inexactitudes taken as dogma. Kenneth Bragan brilliantly and persuasively sets forth this new paradigm with rigorous scholarship, biblical analysis, and the passion of the faithful. New Directions Towards Christian Renewal is a remarkable and inspiring work, a piece that is both radically insightful and undoubtedly trailblazing.” – Charles Asher, reviewer

(About the Author)

Born in a small coal mining town near Newcastle, England, Kenneth Bragan now resides in New Zealand, “one of earth’s most beautiful places.”