Nicholas Searle grew up in Cornwall and studied languages at the Universities of Bath and Göttingen. After teaching for four years, he moved to London to join the Civil Service, holding a variety of positions dealing with security matters before going to work in a similar capacity for the New Zealand government.

Spiritual seekers should not be infantile, fuzzy-brained, naive observers merely standing on the sidelines with nothing to contribute but loving hashtags while the world community faces an unprecedented crisis. Quite the opposite, we should be major factors in healing the crisis.

In the recent period I've seen a number of films about the history and legacy of Nazism, most of them German and current, and I read about a new book on two legends of German cinema. The juxtaposition of these events in time seemed coincidental. Or was it?

I am increasingly convinced that the church will not be able to survive the challenges of the coming century unless we get a lot more Jesus-centered.