REPACKAGING CHRISTIANITY:
Alpha and the building of a global brand
By Andrew Atherstone
Hodder and Stoughton. 307 pages. £22.00
ISBN 978 1 399 801 515
For the past three decades the Alpha Course has become a significant feature of our national life. Its logo can be seen in every city and town, it has attracted extensive media attention, including a reality TV show, and it is estimated 30 million people have attended a course worldwide.
To mark the retirement, this year, of the face of Alpha, Nicky Gumbel, Andrew Atherstone has produced an extensively researched and carefully written history of its beginnings, main characters and global development.
The author says: ‘I tried to make sure that the critical voices have been included and taken seriously on a whole range of themes. I want to bring to it dispassionate, archive-rich, history telling which has not been done before.’
There have been many books published about Alpha over the years that range from those enthusiastically promoting the course to detailed theological and methodological critiques.
‘I have tried to be fair. I am not trying to denigrate or to blow trumpets.’ says Atherstone of his book.
Although this is not an ‘authorised narrative’, the author was granted access to the extensive Alpha archive and some private papers belonging to Nicky Gumbel. In addition, the author read every edition of Nicky Gumbel’s books, some of which have gone through seven or eight editions, helpfully tracking changes of content, tone and emphasis.
Four things particularly struck me about this remarkable story:
Firstly, is the importance of key relationships in the development of the Alpha Course and the various ministries that have sprung from it.
Secondly, the willingness to be self-critical and adaptable in bringing the Christian message to a global audience, while staying focused on the main task.
Atherton says: ‘One key thing that surprised me was Alpha’s evolution, not just in the sense of its technology, this sense that it is not a set product, but a product that is constantly adapting. I try to argue in the book that one of the reasons that after 30 years that Alpha is going strong is that it has got this inbuilt desire and willingness to adapt and repackage.’
Thirdly, the simplicity of the basic concept of Alpha. It is not a complicated model. Straightforward messages, relaxed relational context, and a clear process. It is a compliment to Alpha that a course like Christianity Explored, which has a different theological focus, has essentially used many ingredients of the Alpha Course and adapted it for a different constituency.
Fourthly, the importance of hospitality. Michael Green is quoted as saying that Alpha ‘began not with doctrine but with dinner’. The Alpha Course was getting going at the time that Tony Blair became Prime Minister; Alpha has been described as ‘New Labour at supper’. That is a nod to its informality and its creative use of marketing.
When people used to criticise Billy Graham crusades, they found that they kept bumping into people who were converted at them! I guess that the same could be said about Alpha. Fans or detractors will find much to reflect on in this well-written account.
