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Ben Sixsmith: re-enchanting agnosticism

Justin and Belle talk to Ben about what it takes to believe.

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

A podcast guest speaks in front of a mic and raises their hands to gesture.

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Ben Sixsmith is a journalist and contributing editor at The Critic. He writes for many outlets on culture and politics including at his own substack The Zone. Ben has also written about about his own religious upbringing and his search for faith as an agnostic.

In a disenchanted age Justin and Belle talk to Ben about what it takes to believe…

There’s more to life than the world we can see. Re-Enchanting is a podcast from Seen & Unseen recorded at Lambeth Palace Library, the home of the Centre for Cultural Witness. Justin Brierley and Belle Tindall engage faith and spirituality with leading figures in science, history, politics, art and education. Can our culture be re-enchanted by the vision of Christianity?

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Graham Tomlin's summer reading list

Seen & Unseen Editor-In-Chief shares his recommendations for a much-needed moment of pause

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

Niall Williams', John as picked by Graham Tomlin
Take a much-needed moment of pause this summer

I'm so glad that my Summer Reading List caught your eye. Whether you've got time now to dig into a new recommendation or want to bookmark this for an upcoming holiday, I hope at least one of these picks offers you some respite.

📖 Paul Bradbury, Why We Should Mourn The Death of the Semicolon 

Ordained pioneer minister, Paul Bradbury

I studied English at university, so I have always been interested in the way language works. I love how Paul Bradbury takes this tiny thing - a semicolon, and the evidence of its demise in English, and uses it as a sign of our need for pause, space, and reflection in our daily lives.

📖 Graham Tomlin, Blaise Pascal - The Man Who Made the Modern World

Bishop Graham Tomlin

I have been fascinated by Blaise Pascal ever since I read him as a teenager. I always wanted one day to write a biography of him, explaining his extraordinary life and piercing insights into human life and Christian faith. Maybe this might be a good book to take away on holiday; read on the beach, in the campsite or wherever you are!

📖Niall Williams, John

Author and playwright, Niall Willaims

From the author of History of the Rain and This Is Happiness, John is a wonderful novel depicting the elderly apostle as a man steeped in the simple yet extraordinarily revolutionary message that God is Love and that therefore we should not just tolerate, but love one another.

📖Hartmut Rosa, Uncontrollability of the World 

Sociologist and political scientist, Hartmut Rosa

The sequel to Rosa’s path-breaking work on social acceleration and resonance, this short book is a penetrating exposé of our cultural project to control everything and how it kills beauty and even ourselves in the end.

📖 Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church

American Mennonite historian, Alan Kreider

If you're interested in history and what gave birth to the extraordinary Christian movement that transformed the world, then this is a great guide to those early years.

📖Paul Kingsnorth, Against Christian Civilisation

Former deputy editor of The Ecologist and author, Paul Kingsnorth

I read this lecture earlier in the year. It's a fascinating argument about the future of cultural Christianity. You might or might not agree with it, but it will make you think. 

📖Iain McGilchrist, Re-Enchanting Season 4, Ep 10

British psychiatrist, philosopher and neuroscientist Ian McGilchrist

Iain McGilchrist is such an interesting thinker whose work spans such a large area – neuroscientist, philosopher, historian, and much more, all expressed with a humility and sense of wonder. I loved his conversation with Belle and Justin. This would be a great one to listen to on the journey to your summer holiday this year.

📖Benjamin & Jenna Silber Storey, Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment

University of Texas Research Fellows, Benjamin & Jenna Silber Storey

A brilliant, insightful and beautifully written account of modern discontentment through the lens of four crucial French thinkers - Montaigne, Pascal, Rousseau and de Tocqueville.