Book Reviews

‘Superficiality is the curse of our age… The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people’. Andrew Mayes quotes Richard Foster from over 30 years ago in presenting an aspiration for deeper living and praying through engagement with seventh century Isaac the Syrian. ‘Diving for Pearls’ picks up on discovery of God and self drawing on the rediscovery of Isaac’s writings in the Bodleian, Oxford and an antiquarian bookshop in Teheran. With his knowledge of Christian spirituality and experience of the Middle East Andrew Mayes writes with excitement about this recent discovery opening up Isaac as a timely spiritual guide bringing to us the depth and never fading newness of God in Christ as inspiration for the future-oriented journey of faith. It is a refreshing book drawing on Isaac’s maritime, nautical and underwater imagery strongly yoked to Christ’s parable of the ‘the kingdom of heaven as like a merchant in search of fine p

‘’Ow about a lifetime of being asked whether budgies go to Heaven by strangers on buses?’ This is not the most attractive challenge of priestly ministry but it is part of a witty, readable capturing of it by a young priest whose ministry is sadly now on hold. As the young doctor Adam Kay’s ‘This Is Going to Hurt’ shocked us by his expose of the National Health Service Fergus Butler-Gallie gives a less shocking than ambiguous picture of the Church of England as he stands back from the institution. Butler-Gallie is an accomplished writer and speaker, author of the bestselling Times and Mail on Sunday Book of the Year ‘A Field Guide to the English Clergy’ and the Spectator Book of the Year ‘Priests de la Resistance!’. Fr Fergus has ministered in Liverpool and Central London. His image of the Church has pastoral warmth building from the story of St Laurence who, asked at pain of death to present the treasures of the Church, brought forth not silver but the poor. ‘My ministry – for it is th

  Kevin Goodrich OP  The Greatest Desire - Daily Readings with Walter Hilton Darton, Longman & Todd 2023 £8.99 ISBN 978-1-913657-96-3 80pp ‘It is commonly said that a soul shall see our Lord within all things, and within itself’ writes Walter Hilton. ‘It is true that our Lord is within all creatures, but not in the way that a kernel is hidden inside the shell of a nut, or as a little bodily thing is held inside another big one. But God is within all creatures as holding and keeping them in their being, through the power of his own blessed nature’. This passage, resonant of Hilton’s contemporary, Mother Julian’s hazelnut, captures an insight into God from Walter Hilton (1340-1396) from Kevin Goodrich’s daily readings from his work The Scale of Perfection. The compiler aims to serve his readers coming closer to God whilst introducing them to Hilton, who lived and gave counsel during a remarkable 14th century spiritual renaissance witnessed to also in Richard Rolle and the anonymous a

  Pope Francis  A Gift of Joy and Hope Translated from the Italian by Oonagh Stransky Hodder & Stoughton 2022 £9.99 eBook ISBN 978 1 399 80283 3 209pp 'This is Christian hope: the certainty of walking towards something that exists, not something I hope might be there.' So writes Pope Francis who like his patron Saint Francis shares the gospel in succinct phrases when necessary. The presence and joy of God are offensive to many but to Christians this certainty isn’t offensive but definitive. As definitive as the fact Christ is alive and wants us alive, rising from negativity into undefeatable joy. ‘Since Christ has risen and leads us into the afterlife, faith is also a light from the future, illuminating vast horizons before us, taking us beyond our isolated individual selves and towards the expanse of communion. We come to see that faith does not dwell in shadow and gloom; it is a light for our darkness. Dante, in The Divine Comedy, after professing his faith to St Peter, d

  ‘In a satirical political sketch, one of the leading politicians says words to the effect of, ‘If you feel offended by my accusing you of fraud and treason, then I am sorry.’ A genuine apology would be: ‘I accused you of fraud and treason, I was wrong. Please forgive me.’ Yet the ‘non-apology apology’ is the most frequently used. Anything that begins with ‘if’ and puts the blame for being offended on the victim is a non-apology. Anything that leaves the more vulnerable trapped into being manipulated towards forgiveness is not an apology’. This is a timely and clear illustration on asking forgiveness in Archbishop Welby’s magnum opus ‘The Power of Reconciliation’ published in advance of this year’s Lambeth Conference. Another topical feature is the Virgin and Child on its inside page sketched in the frozen terror of Stalingrad, resonant of Russia’s anguish in World War Two. The book went to print just before the invasion of Ukraine so its celebration of a Russian aspect of peacemaking

  A hundred years ago in January 2022 Revd Leslie Mannering of St Matthew’s Brixton circulated his first monthly leaflet of bible readings with commentaries ‘for the purpose of deepening the life of Prayer, Bible-reading and Holy Communion in each one of us’. So began what became the world-wide movement we know as BRF, the Bible Reading Fellowship. The Centenary is being launched with publication of 365 bible reflections written by different contributors including myself geared to energise searching of scripture and submission of lives to the Word of God. As Sally Welch writes, ‘we are not a people of a book… we are children of God… we follow a person, not a page; the Word, not words’. The genius of BRF is its steering away from both biblical literalism and renegotiation of scripture to fit in with contemporary thinking. ‘The BRF book of 365 Bible Reflections’ is a series of windows to be opened daily providing ‘light to our paths’ (Psalm 119:105). The variety of readings and contribut