Personal experience can provide powerful evidence of God's existence and engagement with people, which is usually more compelling than the other arguments for God. This book explores some important dimensions of this personal experience, including why God might want to make himself known personally to individual people, and why he doesn't do that to all people at all times. Christians believe that God reveals himself to us in 3 ways - through creation, through the Bible, and through particular events in history. Revelation to individual people is a more contested theme, but it is commonly experienced and widely documented. The most common forms of religious experience include dreams, visions and near-death experiences, and mystical experiences. Recent scientific studies of religious experience have promoted the field of neurotheology, but the jury is out on whether such experiences are the result of natural or divine causes.

I am a retired academic with more than 30 years experience in university teaching, research and senior management in the UK. These days I enjoy spending time reading, writing, walking and travelling, but not all at the same time!