On the podcast this week, Tom Holland interviews Sam Wells about his latest book, Humbler Faith, Bigger God: Finding a story to live by.

Their conversation was recorded at an online book launch this week. Watch the full event, including Q&A, here.

In a review of the book published in The Church Times (Books, 29 April), John Saxbee writes: “While recent books have made a cogent case for Christianity today, Samuel Wells here succeeds in making that case in the light of, rather than in spite of, its cultural despisers. His approach is original, accessible, and compelling. . .

“Each of ten topics has a separate chapter following a set pattern: the traditional Christian story; what’s wrong with it; the secular humanist rival to it; the rival’s flaws; Wells’s ‘story to live by’, and how this differs from the traditional and rival alternatives. It’s a methodology as old as Aquinas, but in Wells’s hands it feels as fresh as new paint.”

Read an extract from the book here.

Humbler Faith, Bigger God is published by Canterbury Press and is available from the Church Times Bookshop for £14.99; 978-1-78622-418-7.

The Revd Dr Sam Wells is the Vicar of St Martin-in-the Fields, in central London, and is the author of more than 30 books. Other recent books, also published by Canterbury Press, include Finding Abundance in Scarcity (Books, 6 August 2021), A Cross in the Heart of God (Books 22 January 2021), and Love Mercy (Books, 12 February 2021).

Tom Holland is a historian, author, and broadcaster. His books include Dominion: The making of the Western mind (Little, Brown) (Features, Podcast, 27 September 2019), which Sam Wells talks about at the start of the podcast.  Tom Holland co-hosts the hugely popular podcast The Rest is History.

Click the play button above to listen to this podcast. You can also listen to the Church Times Podcast on the Church Times app for iPhone and iPad, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast platforms. Music for the podcast is by Twisterium.