Welcome to the Areopagus Christianity site

This page is a 'standalone' version of the Christianity section on our Areopagus homepage (which includes our other interests). As committed Christians we believe we should always be ready to enter into constructive debate with those who are interested to find out more. So we named the site Areopagus after the stony hilltop SW of the Acropolis where, in ancient times, philosophers, civic elders and religious leaders met to discuss the issues of the day.

By way of introduction, it's interesting to note that when the apostle Paul arrived in Athens, he met with the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers in the Areopagus to debate with them and tell them what he knew about God through Jesus Christ. Some of this is described in the bible in the book of Acts. In the account of this, Paul says that God made all things and that:

"God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him,

though he is not far from each one of us."

He went on to quote their own poetry:

"For in him we live and move and have our being ... we are his offspring."

Paul's view is that we can't just wait for God to find us, but need to search for him. In order to do so, we may need to ask searching questions and undertake study and investigation. Whilst we would strongly recommend to anyone who's curious that the best place to start is reading, open-mindedly, what we believe is God's Word recorded in the bible (if you haven't got one, it's all available online at the Bible gateway), wider study can be very helpful. This page lists useful Christian resources for anyone who wants to question or think about the Christian faith, including Christian thought and apologetics (not apologies, but reasoned arguments in support of Christianity). A whole load of other links are provided, as well as some original material (marked with the "pog" icon ).

Christianity links

There's masses of stuff out there! If you would like to see a brief Christian response to some of the classic tough questions (like "What about suffering?"), try the Thumbnails near the top of the Thinktank. If you'd like a more interactive presentation, check out WuzupGod? - watch out for those graphics! For more weighty apologetics, try the apologetics section further down in the Thinktank or the comprehensive list under Crosssearch/Apologetics. The latter includes responses to some other religions, including Islam.

Good general resource lists can be found under Christian Resources, the Stained glass web guide, Crosssearch (which includes a search engine) and an excellent UK site is UK Christian web. fish.co.uk is a UK Christian ISP with an interesting site. Classic Christian literature is found in the Ethereal library. Christians in Science produce a quality journal Science and Christian Belief.

Of course, there are many who reject the Christian worldview. Jeff Lowder has produced a comprehensive rebuttal to a popular Christian apologetic, Josh McDowell's "Evidence that demands a verdict". Also, the literature of Thomas Paine is often quoted. However, even a cursory look at these writings reveals assumptions and statements that to a Christian are quite unreasonable, and others are producing new material to demonstrate this.

Some background about Stephen's own Christian story and other thoughts is linked here. Other links are for couple of friends ( Patrick and Phil ), New Wine church in London, an exciting growing church where our college-mate is pastor, Crusaders, where other friends work, our local church, Christina's church, an organisation we support (Iris ministries).

Finally, I strongly believe that Christians need to take a stand on moral and ethical issues. The fish.co.uk website has a section on ethical shopping. Of more serious concern to many is the stance taken by the United States on war with Iraq. Some courageous individuals are leading the campaign against this, e.g. the Moveon organisation, and I've recently developed a linked page with information for the UK.