Books for Today – yet to be found

Finding Flourishing: Time and pace for your work-life wellbeing (BRF Abingdon, 2024. 123pp: £8.99) by Naomi Aidoo who although she has two very small children has written a book which will be found useful by other mothers who will undoubtedly at times be stressed with the demands children make upon them – and of course by extension will be useful to others who feel stressed. The key to this book is the statement: “Wellbeing has so much more to do with your source than your circumstances”.  God is the one who can make the difference and lead to a life that is comfortable, healthy or happy, Although the author does not appear to have experienced bereavement, serious illness, redundancy, when one’s faith can be deeply tested, nonetheless I am happy to commend this book.

Just Worship: Worshipping God By Living Just Lives (Darton, Longman and Todd, London 2024. 187pp: £14.99) by Stef Benstead is a researcher in disability and social policy.  In her wide-ranging book which draws upon the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures, she argues that ‘true Christianity’ involves more than saving faith, but also caring for the poor and seeking justice. She applies her argument to the current social setting here in the UK In her conclusion she states that only in this way can we “honour, worship and glorify God”.  This would be a good book for older teenagers, students, and people in their twenties to read.

Wounded I Sing: From Advent to Christmas with George Herbert (SPCK, London 2024. 135pp: £10.99) by Lord Richard Harries, a former Bishop of Oxford, has been described by the President of Virginia Theological Seminary, USA, as “a book of extraordinary beauty – compelling, elegant, spiritual and moving”.  George Herbert lived in the early 17^th century. A country Anglican minister, he was a passionate and ambitious man, who out of his struggle to bring his life under God, produced his poetry. This four-week long course with readings for every day of the seek save Sunday, is divided into the following sections: ‘Winning the heart’; ‘Welcome’; ‘Held by Christ’; and ‘All Praise’. Although this book will not appeal to most people, it will be valued by people who love to read and reflect on Herbert’s poems.

The Eucharist in Four Dimensions: The Meanings of Communion in Contemporary Culture (Canterbury Press, Norwich 2023. 116pp: £14.99) by Jessica Martin, who has been appointed the next Dean of Chelmsford Cathedral, saw life first as the Oxford 2021 Bampton Lectures. Although the author was a Cambridge academic before responding to the call to ministry, this is not a complicated book to read and as the subtitle makes clear looks at the way in which Christians have variously interpreted the Lord’s Supper.  Roman Catholics, for instance, believes in transubstantiation, where the bread and line literally become bread and wine; by contrast, the Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli believed that nothing special happens at all.  The position of Jessica Martin like most Anglicans is somewhere between the two.  Although most Baptists follow Zwingli, I am of the opinion that the Lord’s Supper is not a mere memorial feast, but rather a place where Christ is really present in our midst as we gather together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.   I am sorry that this book is priced as high as it is – for it may well discourage many from reading what is a helpful overview of the Eucharist.

Unapologetic: Why despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense (Faber & Faber, London 2012 hardback; 2013 paperback. 224pp: £10) by Francis Spufford, the husband of Jessica Martin, the next Dean of Chelmsford Cathedral, is a noted writer of many well-acclaimed novels, but in his book Unapologetic provides a lively, compelling and at times amusing defence of the Christian faith. He wrote this book for his daughter who was then six years old. In the very first paragraph he warns her that she will soon discover that her parents are ‘weird’ because they go to church and that most so-called ‘thinking’ atheists find them totally embarrassing. However, as the author rightly says, he and his fellow Christians are the only people who see truth as it really is. In a wonderful apologetic litany, he writes, “It’s belief that involves the most uncompromising attention to the nature of things of which you are capable. It’s belief which demands that you dispense with illusion after allusion….”  As I was reading this book I was reminded of C.S. Lewis, who also provided a simple but thoughtful defence of Christianity. I highly recommend Unapologetic – it is a great read!

Celebration: A Story of Suffering and Joy (Mowbray, London 1989: 133pp, now available on Amazon for £17.99) by the late Margaret Spufford is one of the most moving books which I have ever read.  My reason for getting hold of this remarkable book is that I had been told that the mother-in-law of Jessica Martin, who as I have noted in an earlier review of one of Jessica’s book is the next Dean of Chelmsford, had written her autobiography in which she wrestled with the problem of pain. Most people before they grow old tend to experience relatively pain-free lives. By contrast the author ‘s life has been full of pain, pain as a child when her mother needed care and when her father died when she was till in her teens;  pain as a married woman when she had complications from serious falls, and then pain as she developed osteoporosis, when she was often having to wear a plaster cast; and pain as a mother after giving birth to a daughter who was disabled and died in middle age.  Margaret Spufford, who was not brought up in a religious home, but eventually found faith within the Roman Catholic Church, for many years wrestled with why God allowed such pain and suffering. In her book she stated that there is no theological answer to the problem of pain. However, what she did discover is that there is no situation in which the Almighty cannot bring out of it good.  Furthermore, she came to realise that God himself in his Son had endured the agony of the Cross when he had felt abandoned by his Father and there had cried out “My God, my God, why  have you forsaken me”.  As a result when she eats bread and drinks wine in the Eucharist remembering how Christ offered himself she realises that he comprehends “all the realities of acute pain and death”, and in the process gains the spiritual strength to face all the challenges life may throw at us. This is a book from which every minister could profit, and would be helpful to some who themselves have to experience a constantly painful life.

The Narrow Path: How the Salvation Way of Jesus Satisfies our Souls (Hodder, London 2024.224pp: £16.99 hardback) by Richard Villobas, the lead pastor of a New York huge multi-ethnic, multi-generational church in New York, shows how Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is the key to what he terms “a spacious life”.  As he says in his introduction, “The narrow way of Jesus gets to the core of what it means to be human, what it means to love well”.  He points out that the sermon is not how we achieve salvation, it’s how we demonstrate it.  I commend this book to young people and those in their twenties in particular.

Hodder are to be congratulated on commissioning a fifty-volume set of commentaries on the Bible.  The intention behind this new initiative is “to provide the contemporary church with fresh and readable expositions of Scripture which are doctrinally sensitive and globally aware”.  So far four volumes have appeared: Ecclesiastes (Hodder, London 2024. 189pp: £19.99 hardback) by Eric Ortlund,  who teaches Old Testament at Oak Hill, an Evangelical Anglican theological college in London; Mark (Hodder, London 2024. 303pp: £19.99 hardback) by Chris Moore, an Anglican minister who is Director of Wider Church Engagement for Church Society; Luke (Hodder, London 2024. 447pp: £19.99 hardback) by David Peterson, a former Oak Hill Principal who teaches at the Evangelical Anglican Moore College in Sydney, Australia; and Acts (Hodder, London 2024. 395pp., £19.99 hardback) by Martin Salter, the Lead Pastor of Grace Community Church and a Trustee of the Keswick Convention.  If people were to purchase the complete set, then with each volume costing £19.99 there would be little change out of £1,000.  Although £1,000 is a lot for a minister to find, it is in fact a bargain for these beautifully produced hardbacks packed with so much good stuff. Hopefully most churches would want to buy these books for their ministers, for not only would the ministers benefit but also the churches would benefit by the good sermons which would be preached as a result of the preachers having access to these good commentaries!

The latest Grove booklets, all 28pp in length and priced at £3.95 include the following: Supporting Young People to Flourish: Seeking Shalom (Youth 75, 2024) by Bertie Finch, who has had 10 years’ experience of working with adolescents, explores the biblical notion of shalom and then offers practical help to youth workers to share these insights with their young people.  Can We Use the Prayers of Love and Faith? (Worship 259, 2024) by Mark Earey and Philip Tovey, both experienced Anglican liturgists, looks at the prayers and offer liturgical resources which are offered by the Church of England for two situations: the first is for prayers for a committed but non-sexual relationship, and the second is some creative prayers for the blessing of a home. The Church’s Mission in the Book of Acts: Called and Equipped for Action (Biblical 112, 2024) by Daniel McGinnis, a former church planter, presents fi e key characteristics of the missional church in Acts – my one sadness that there I little application to the churches of today.