Dr. Andy Bannister is the Director of Solas, an evangelism and training organisation based in Scotland (but covering the whole of the UK). A highly in demand speaker, Andy speaks and teaches throughout the UK, Europe, Canada, the USA, and the wider world. From universities to churches, business forums to TV and radio, he regularly addresses audiences of both Christians and those of all faiths and none on issues relating to faith, culture, politics and society.
Andy holds a PhD in Islamic studies and has taught extensively at universities across Canada, the USA, the UK and further afield on both Islam and philosophy. He is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology and is also Adjunct Faculty at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto.
Among Andy’s various books and publications are:
- Have You Ever Wondered? Finding the Everyday Clues to Meaning, Purpose and Spirituality — a wonderfully engaging and accessible book designed to help people discover why the things they care the most about (meaning, beauty, stories, music, justice etc.) are clues that point to Jesus.
- How To Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like an Idiot: A Panic-Free Guide to Having Natural Conversations About Your Faith — an incredibly practical, highly accessible, and very funny guide to having conversations about Jesus with friends and colleagues.
- Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God? — a popular, witty, and engaging look at this vital question.
- The Atheist Who Didn’t Exist (or: The Dreadful Consequences of Really Bad Arguments) — a very funny (but also quite serious) engagement with the New Atheism.
- Healthy Faith and the Coronavirus Crisis — Andy wrote a chapter in this multi-author volume looking at how we can engage in evangelism even in an age of lockdown.
- Heroes: Five Leaders From Whose Lives We Can Learn — an exciting and fast-moving looking at the lives of five incredible giants of the Christian faith.
- An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur’an — a groundbreaking and innovative study that reveals many of the ways the Qur’an was first composed.
- Burning Questions — a Canadian TV documentary exploring six big questions about God, faith, and Christianity.
When not travelling, speaking, or writing, Andy is a keen hiker, mountain climber and photographer. He is married to Astrid and they have two children, Caitriona and Christopher. They attend Pattern Church in Swindon.
