Many in the West now consider the church dead or dying, and Christianity outdated, bigoted and responsible for a good share of society's problems. That leaves believers embarrassed about their faith and outsiders wary of religion.

But what if the Christian message is not the enemy of modern Western values but the very thing that makes sense of them? Glen Scrivener traces freedom, kindness, progress and equality back to the teaching of Jesus, which turned the ancient world upside down and still underpins how we think. Written to be given to a skeptical friend as much as read.