About the book
Scrape away the barnacles, re-examine the origins of Christian faith, take full account of modern knowledge and experience, open your mind to new possibilities, rethink what faith can mean in this new millennium – that’s the plea Ian Harris makes in this challenge to reset faith within today’s secular frame.
New World, New God showed how this reset can bring to light new interpretations for God, Jesus, the Bible and the great Christian festivals. Hand in Hand goes back a step to show why such a reset is necessary. Harris sees the secular not as hostile to faith, but as the neutral setting for religion in the modern world. He debunks the view that science is its polar opposite, and urges the churches to embrace the new reality as a positive for Christian understanding and for life.
About the author
Ian Harris’s career straddles the worlds of journalism and the church. Born in Christchurch, he grew up in a Methodist parsonage, and gained an honours degree in English at Auckland University.
Since then he has headed the English Department at Satya Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia, edited the New Zealand Methodist, been assistant editor of the Auckland Star, served as Director of Communication for the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand, and was for twelve years editorial writer on the Dominion.
In 1990 Ian was instrumental in founding the Ephesus Group in Wellington, whose purpose is to explore new ways of understanding and expressing Christian faith in this new millennium. In 1993 he became the first chairperson of the New Zealand Sea of Faith Network’s steering committee.
Ian’s prime interest in is reimagining the Christian way in a secular society, as reflected in his newspaper columns, his books Creating God, Re-creating Christ and New World New God, and in The Ephesus Liturgies series written with his late wife, Jill. He lives in Days Bay, Wellington.
