Even our secular mainstream media can see where the actual hope for this nation lies

“The Bible might just save Britain’s self-obsessed youth” is just not a headline I’d have expected to search out over an article by a secular lifestyle columnist in a national newspaper once I became a minister within the Church of England in 1996.

But that’s the thrust of Celia Walden’s article in The Telegraph on March 10. I recall worthy but dull editorials in that conservative newspaper at Christmas and Easter back within the Nineteen Nineties concerning the importance of Britain’s Christian heritage. But I don’t recall reading such a powerful plug for the Bible and Christian faith in a column covering lifestyle and entertainment.

Walden declared: “I noticed firstly of the 12 months that Bible sales in Britain had greater than doubled in comparison with pre-pandemic levels – driven, apparently, by a surge in interest from Gen Z. And when Nielsen IQ BookData confirmed yesterday that, after a 19 per cent rise in 2025, sales are actually at their highest levels because the Nineteen Nineties, my first thought was this: Just how lost are young people feeling?”

She continued: “The short answer is unquestionably ‘very’.”

She goes on to reason that in “an increasingly turbulent world, where every part from global politics and the economy to your Instagram and X is continuously shifting – a world through which world leaders not display serenity but a daunting human volatility every day”, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that young persons are turning to something loftier to regular them “within the storm”. 

She concluded: “Quite a lot of quick fixes have been touted and tried by many – from mindfulness, yoga and meditation to barefooting, sound baths, flotation tanks and celery juice. The list goes on. But what if it seems that they were just an extension of the self-pampering ‘me-mind’ virus? … I believe [Gen Z] are way more open to exploring their spirituality than previous generations. I believe they’re more open-minded, full stop. And I do know that a lot of them are bored with the superficiality and the self-obsession. So in the event that they can just stick to this recent interest long enough, it could pay dividends.”

Walden caused controversy with a special column on March 3 through which she commented  on the news that former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has been seeing a psychotherapist since his resignation in November 2024. He has been weighed down by a sense of failure after the C of E’s Makin Review into the John Smyth abuse scandal criticised him for his handling of disclosures.

Welby told broadcaster Gyles Brandreth on the Rosebud Podcast: “I’ve been seeing a psychotherapist for a substantial time frame. And a psychiatrist. Very helpful. It’s not about saying, ‘oh, it didn’t matter’, or anything like that, quite the reverse – how does one live with such a failure?”

In her column headlined “What’s the purpose of God if even Justin Welby is seeing a therapist?”, Walden argued: “I realise that therapy and religion are very various things … But in my experience, people either consider in a single or the opposite. If the previous Archbishop didn’t have a satisfactory experience with the Lord, where does that leave the remainder of us?”

Among those outraged by Walden’s piece was Church Times author Madeleine Davies. She quoted the above on X tailing it with “NO NO NO”.

Ironically, knowledge of the Bible’s doctrine of ‘common grace’ would have helped Celia Walden to see that trusting within the Lord and getting skilled help with mental health issues is just not a binary alternative. God because the gracious Creator of men and girls in his image has given some people, no matter whether or not they are Christian believers, specialist skills on this area that may bring help and a level of healing to individuals affected by mental health problems.  

A Christian person seeing a secular psychotherapist needs to judge the therapy they’re receiving in the sunshine of the special revelation that God has given his believing people within the Holy Scriptures. They must make sure that they should not being led into error or disobedience by elements of the worldview that underlie the therapy. But ‘common grace’ insights from a talented psychotherapist could be the gift of God through his creation that a suffering person needs.

Nonetheless, she is perceptive in terms of what could also be occurring with Gen Z. Perhaps I’m being over-optimistic, but Walden’s positive piece on the Bible makes me think that an Anglican evangelical starting ordained ministry in 2026 as an alternative of 1996 might find the cultural soil more receptive to the Christian message than I discovered it. As as to if “The Bible might just save Britain’s self-obsessed youth”, that may require the Lord’s Holy Spirit to use his Word to individual hearts and minds, for which British Christians should definitely pray.

Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.