Philosophy, Spirituality and Chai Tea

To follow on from DC's encouragement i would also like to reccommend the writings of Francis Schaeffer to those who want to look deeper into apologetics and modern culture. Im not sure if his books are still in print as he is fairly old school (died in 1984, year after i was born!!) but they are widely available as second hand editions if nothing else. He and his wife founded L'abri, a retreat in Switzerland which is now found across the world with the vision to share and defend biblical Christianity (www.labri.org). His writing is pretty profound and certainly gives plenty of food for thought. I am currently working my way through his complete works (like a snail swimming across the atlantic) and have found them incredibly relevant and challenging.
"The God who is there" (any philosophy types) and "True spirituality" (being a christian in the real world) are two of his best books and are, in my opinion, absolutely necessary reading for all christians. I am sure that the books reccommended by Eric John would overlap and probably build on this stuff but still thought it would be good to mention these. If you want to borrow them then do come and chat and i can possibly pass them on to you, scribbled notes and all!

The second half of this spraff is an encouragement to get stuck in with street evangelism. In my first year i got dragged along to Edinburgh uni's street evangelism on a Friday night (10pm in Buccleugh free church) and was massively impressed by the way the christians there could give real, sensitive, rational arguments to the various passers by and share something of the gospel through the conversations. I went a few more times but it was only really a year later that i started to feel confident enough in my knowledge of the gospel to start conversations. Going along and listening is probably just as much of a challenge as speaking. To hear all the things that people believe [and say they believe], and to listen, discuss, petition, ask, and witness is an incredibly informing and, at times, difficult experience but it is a fantastic way to grow in your knowledge and trust in Christ! October 20th is the carrubbers effort [i think]...so definately get stuck in! (dont know about carrubbers but Edinburgh uni give out free hot chocolate and chai tea)