In this short book I offer an alternative reading of the impact of modernity on Christian faith to that advanced by my friend and colleague, Don Cupitt, in the television series, The Sea of Faith, in the book of the same title, and in the five articles in ‘The Listener’ which accompanied the series and which are now reprinted as an appendix to Cupitt's more recent book, Only Human. Only Human is the third book of a trilogy in which Cupitt has been putting forward, over the last eight years, his radically interiorised and expressivist conception of religion. The other two books are Taking Leave of God and The World to Come.

Cupitt's position is unusual, to say the least, in a priest of the Church of England. But there is no doubt that he speaks for many people on the fringe of the Churches, perhaps for many who would wish to think of themselves as Christians, who are still attracted by the figure of Jesus and by the Christian way, but who cannot bring themselves to assent to the traditional doctrines of the Church. To such people, an anti-metaphysical, non-dogmatic, expressivist version of Christian faith will seem attractive, even liberating. But there are questions of truth at stake here, and it is on the question of truth that I want to focus attention in my contribution to the debate.