Every year, at about this time, the BBC discovers Christianity. It jemmies open a strongbox marked Faith, has a root around inside, then firmly clamps it shut. Then it leaves it alone, usually for another year, although if it’s feeling brave it might take a peek inside at Christmas.

This year, the man entrusted with the crowbar was Robert Beckford, professor of theology at Canterbury Christ Church University and a regular broadcaster, though usually on Channel 4. What he found inside the box became The Battle for Christianity (22 March). It was as lively and as challenging a survey of the contemporary British Christian scene as you could wish for. It was also packed with ideas and observations, some of which gave pause.

Beckford is from a West Indian Pentecostal background, and if this programme displayed a bias it was towards the more demonstrative forms of Christianity, white as well as black. It started with a Hillsong service in the Dominion Theatre in London’s West End. This Australian movement holds four events every Sunday, catering for 8,000 young people, who enjoy something akin to an X Factor performance, all laser beams and choreography. “I’m too old for it,” said Beckford, and he was not alone.