Quietly, but with great commitment, Ferguson has become a religious believer. With his wife, @Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and their sons, he has become a churchgoing Anglican Christian. He is, in his own words, a "lapsed atheist". Much more important, he’s a believing Christian.

Though Ferguson sees profoundly the crisis of our times, and the contribution to that crisis brought about by the abandonment of Christianity, this is not primarily a political conversion. It's a deeply personal and deliberate turn to faith by a man who was formerly a lifelong

"I have embraced Christianity," he tells me. "We were all baptised, Ayaan and our two sons, together in September ... It was the culmination of a quite protracted process. My journey was from atheism. My parents had left the Church of Scotland, I think even before I was born. I

"The first phase was that as a historian I realised no society had been successfully organised on the basis of atheism. All attempts to do that have been catastrophic. That was an insight that came from studying 18th, 19th and 20th-century history." 5/17

"But then the next stage was realising that no individual can in fact be fully formed or ethically secure without religious faith. That insight has come more recently and has been born of our experience as a family." 6/17

"I got my older children baptised because I had a sort of (Alexis de) Tocqueville view that religion was good for society. It was part of Western [civilization] and I felt I should embrace it. But I would attend church (occasionally) in a spirit of scepticism and detachment."

"I felt that if I was a conservative, and believed in the institutions of tradition, living in England it was kind of preposterous not to go to one's local church. It was a kind of Tory impulse. I was in that state of mind where if the left was against religion, we should be for

"What Jesus taught us was that there were things we couldn't know. We couldn't know God's intent. When I read the Bible I don't say: show me the miracle. My attitude is that this extraordinary document is describing the life of a unique individual whose power to transform the

But does he think it’s true that Jesus rose from the dead, and the rest? "I just don’t think that one can know that with certainty. But I think the teaching about how one should live, and the relationships one should have with one's fellow human beings, is so powerful that I

"Faith is fundamentally different from reason. One can't reason one's way to God, at least I don't think one can. The nature of faith is that one accepts that these apparently farfetched claims are true." 11/17

Does Ferguson pray? "Yeah, I pray." Do you feel you’re praying to someone real? "Absolutely, just as there are no atheists in a foxhole, there aren't many atheists when your child goes missing, when the life of somebody you love is threatened. Is it a kind of delusion to pray to

"These are powerful human impulses it seems utterly cruel to deny. To say, as I would have done as an atheist, this is all utterly pointless, the fate of your child is a matter of statistical probability, prayer is the equivalent of voodoo or the witchdoctor, don't pray, it's

"I think there are a bunch of militant cults and religions, some derived from Christianity, that compete now in a deeply disorienting pseudosecular civilisation. I say pseudosecular because I agree with Tom Holland (author of Dominion) that a lot of Christianity is still there in

Ferguson can live with that. What really upsets him is this: "We've given up on religious observance. This is a mistake – the empty churches on Sundays, people not saying grace at dinner. We've lost observance and in doing that we've lost something very powerful and very healing.

"What strikes me, as a regular churchgoer now, not having been one before, is how much one learns every Sunday morning. Every hymn contains some new clue as to the relationship between us and God. I think the educational benefit of going to church almost equals the moral benefit,

"All of this matters hugely and as a society we've turned away from it. That explains, much more than the rise of social media, the mental health problems that characterise our societies today. We're all sort of running this experiment, without God and without religious

@nfergus @australian I've admired you since I first interviewed you about your initial Rothschilds book but began to pray for you around the time of the cancel culture dust-up about a comment you made about Keynes. I'm delighted, but not surprised, to read this. From one lapsed atheist to another,

@nfergus @australian Excellent read. Mirrors my own journey.

@nfergus @australian God bless you and your family. When next you read a play by Shakespeare, you may find it is -- different now. Many such wonders may you meet on your path.

@nfergus @australian Ha, I'm literally sitting here reading the pre-pub manuscript for Greg's new book, and it's interview with you in the last chapter.

@nfergus @australian Happy Christmas, Niall x

@nfergus @australian Whilst I am an atheist, A jewish one at that. I beleive all religions are good, and become a way to live a wholesome and healthy life. (Its the poeple, politics and their culture, Often wrapped in the clothing of religion which is most problematic), rather than religion, which

@nfergus @australian This is very touching. Now we need a book! Happy Christmas

@nfergus @australian Welcome home, brother.

@nfergus @australian Nicely done , sir, even if the copyright cops are on your tail. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

@nfergus @australian Ditto. I was baptised but became an atheist. Now I am convinced that Christianity is a founding and cohesive force in our society. My teens are getting baptised in Easter. My (unpublished) novels’ theme is the search for meaning and return to traditional values.

@nfergus @australian Great stuff. I'm sure you'll get a bit nicked in the comments over the "can't really know but live as if" part of your account but I think I know where you're coming from on this. It is heartening and a blessing to hear of you and your wife's embrace of the Christian faith.

@nfergus @australian Jesus Christ absolutely did conquer death so we may have peace with God. As we get ready to celebrate His incarnation this week, your post gives me joy. God bless you, sir!

@nfergus @australian This thread was a really uplifting read!

@nfergus @australian Thank you for sharing your path to faith. I’m struck by how often you mention the terror of losing one’s child and that pulling one toward God. I am a Christian who lost a child to suicide. That requires somewhat a different attitude toward faith

@nfergus @australian Poetically and prophetically told. You reasoned yourself to believe you needed to believe, but true belief carried you across. May God continue to bless you and your family Niall Ferguson. Never stop.

@nfergus @australian “If it were not for Christ’s Church, indeed there would be no restraint on the criminal in his evildoing… If anything protects society even in our time, and even reforms the criminal himself and transforms him into a different person, again it is Christ’s law alone, which

@nfergus @australian It’s faith drawn from the Word. The questioning is part of it, to reach discernment, the quiet inkling. Ponder Isaiah 30:15, In repentance and rest is your salvation; in quietness and trust is your strength.

@nfergus @AndrewCMcCarthy @australian Welcome My Brother in Christ!!!

@nfergus @australian I was raised the same way, and I too lost my faith in Atheism.

@nfergus @australian Welcome. Me too - I went back to church in the aftermath of 9/11 when I realised we were in a civilisational struggle and atheism/agnosticism were a betrayal of my cultural heritage. All my children were also raised in faith as a result.