A NEW book by Dr Mark Vernon, a psychotherapist and former parish priest, suggests that “something is going wrong with Christianity”. A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling, and the evolution of consciousness argues that “standard mystical theology” — the idea “that your life springs from God’s life and that this truth is yours to be discovered” — has been lost in the past 500 years.

The following is a conversation between Dr Vernon and Jules Evans, policy director at the Centre for the History of Emotions at Queen Mary University University of London and the author of The Art of Losing Control: A philosopher’s search for ecstatic experience.

A Secret History of Christianity is published by Christian Alternative at £14.99 (CT Bookshop £13.50).

The Art of Losing Control: A philosopher’s search for ecstatic experience is published by Canongate at £9.99 (CT Bookshop £9).

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