Sarah Irving-Stonebraker: re-enchanting the ahistorical age

In our age of self-invention, we are profoundly disconnected from the history that once gave us identity.

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

A woman sitting in an empty church talks to the camera and gestures with one hand.

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Sarah Irving-Stonebraker is an Australian historian whose new book Priests of History: stewarding the past in an ahistoric age, says that, in our age of self-invention, modern people are profoundly disconnected from the stories, practises and history that once gave them their identity.

Justin and Belle talk to Sarah about re-enchanting an ahistorical age and about her own journey from atheism to Christianity as a young academic at Cambridge and Oxford in the early 2000s.

Visit Sarah Irving-Stonebraker's web site. https://www.stonebraker.com.au/

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Podcast

Podcasts

Re-enchanting

9 July 2025

1 min read

Re-enchanting... belief - Ross Douthat

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat joins Belle and Justin to talk about why religion is good for us

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

A video title card shows a guest and the quote; 'I am not surprised byre-enchantment

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About this episode

Ross Douthat is a columnist for the New York Times and the author of Believe: why everyone should be religious. He joins Belle and Justin to talk about why religion is good for us, and to give some pointers for how the average agnostic may be able to find their way to faith.

Find out more about Ross

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