Main Image: Simon Edwards is a speaker and writer with The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (supplied OCCA).
Growing up in a household that didn’t discuss matters of faith, Simon’s journey to discovering the significance of belief was a personal quest fuelled by curiosity and contemplation.
It all began with a knee injury that sidelined him from a myriad of sports in his hometown of Brisbane, leading to a profound reflection on the brevity of life and the search for meaning beyond the surface.
“After my injury I remember standing in the school playground in my mid-teens and just thinking to myself, that life is just living for 80 or 90 years if we’re lucky,” Simon told 96five’s Ken Green on the Mind Made Matter podcast.
“And then we die and that’s it – it’s just game over and everything that we’ve loved, everything that we’ve achieved, everything that we are just turns into dust. Well, I thought that kind of renders life a bit meaningless.”
As he delved into books on philosophy, religion, and science, Simon’s heart found resonance in the Christian narrative that spoke of purpose and love behind the existence of humanity.
“And so I thought with all this time on my hands, I’m going to investigate. I started reading books from all manner of backgrounds, just trying to work out what makes sense of life.”
“And to cut a long story short, over a number of months, I came to the conclusion that Christian faith makes far and away the best sense of the world around me, with its overwhelming impression of order and design and beauty, as well as the world within me.”
Today Simon is a writer and speaker with The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA), as well as the co-pastor (with wife Tash) of Venture Church in Buckinghamshire, England.
His work focusses on addressing the deep questions of our culture with meaningful answers found in the Christian faith. Previously a lawyer, Simon holds qualifications in Law, Economics, Education and Theology, and moved to the UK to study apologetics at OCCA and theology at Oxford University.
Simon & Tash Edwards are pastors in Beaconsfield, England (supplied Venture Church).
The idea that life wasn’t a mere chance occurrence, but a deliberate creation filled him with a sense of awe and wonder. The more he immersed himself in the Christian faith, the more he discovered how it beautifully intertwined reason and emotion, logic and love.
“If you imagine the universe is this complex mechanism, like a lock. It was like Christianity was the only key which exactly fitted this lock, and in doing so, unlocked the meaning behind it all.”
It’s this key that Simon says unlocks the complexities of the universe, revealing a deeper layer of beauty and purpose woven into the fabric of existence.
Engaging with others on matters of faith, Simon encounters a spectrum of questions and objections. Yet, at the core of his responses lies a conviction grounded in personal exploration and intellectual rigor.
He doesn’t just believe in God; he believes in the coherence and resonance of faith with every facet of human existence.
“I could really resonate with C.S. Lewis who said, ‘I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sun, not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else’.
“And it was once I was able to look at life through the lens of Christianity, I saw why the things that really matter to us like meaning, significance, goodness, truth, beauty, hope and love, how Christian faith makes best sense of why these things are deep desires of the human heart and how Jesus himself is the ultimate fulfilment of these desires.”
His book, ‘The Sanity of Belief: Why Faith Makes Sense,’ serves as a roadmap for those seeking to navigate the intersection of reason and faith, and to answer questions posed to Christians.
“Remember with all these conversations with people that answering questions is important; that’s why I wrote the book to engage with a lot of the questions that people are asking, but even more important than that is our heart attitude.”
Through his experiences and encounters, Simon invites others to embrace the enigma of faith, recognising that it’s not just a matter of intellect but a journey of the heart.
For Simon, faith isn’t a static concept but a dynamic force that propels him forward in his quest for truth and understanding.
It’s an ever-evolving narrative that weaves together the threads of history, philosophy, science, and personal conviction into a tapestry of belief that resonates deeply with his essence.
Listen to Ken Green’s discussion with Simon on the Mind Made Matter podcast in the audio player at the top of the page.