"Christianity is an idealistic insanity, quite unworkable in a sane, practical world...."

"As a young man, I was having a crisis of faith. I was very fond of Jesus, but I thought that God was rough, harsh, capricious and vindictive."

"I hear sermons in which the diagnosis of the world's ills is excellent. I wait anxiously for the cure. But from being factual and detailed and down to earth, the preachers become vague and general, and tell me what I already know.... 'Christ is the answer.' Sure he is, but how?"

"Let us stop peddling simplistic solutions to complex problems. Let us accept the fact that in a complex world, there are no easy Christian answers."

So writes Gordon Stirling in this collection of fragments on human life and Christian faith. Stirling addresses themes including ethical relationality, religious language, biblical hermeneutics, political engagement, and Restoration Movement heritage and ethos. This engagement is fuelled by his conviction that the good news of Christian faith can and must speak deeply into the most pressing issues and concerns of human life.

This audiobook is arranged as a collection of fragments, selected and edited by Sarah Bacaller, and organised by year. These fragments are taken from Stirling's original series of articles, provocatively titled Page 13. Page 13 was published fortnightly on page 13 of the Australian Churches of Christ's national publication, the Australian Christian, between 1979 and 1987. The issues in focus remain strikingly contemporary to the challenges of our time.