Books for Today – January

To Inclusion and Beyond: Evangelical and affirming LGBTQ+ relationships and equal marriage (Staten House, New York 2024. 200pp: £4.99 on Amazon) by Baptist minister, Danny Brierley, is a book which all Evangelical Christians need to read, whether or not they approve of gay marriage. Although the author calls himself a ‘progressive Evangelical’, he respects those with whom he disagrees, and does not condemn them for their views. He has clearly done some serious reading, yet his book is very readable to the average man and woman.  For the most part I agree with him.  However, I confess that even though I call myself an ‘open Evangelical’, I find it difficult to accept gay marriage. As far as I am concerned, marriage is always the union of one man and one woman.  In that regard my position is something like that of Steve Finamore.  However, where I differ from Steve Finamore is that in recent years I have accepted gay partnerships and, although I have never done so, I would therefore be willing to bless a gay partnership if I were called upon to conduct such a service.  I strongly believe that churches should not just open their doors to LGBT+ people, but should allow them to take a full part in church life.  If churches are not inclusive, then in a country like the UK where 83% of people outside the church will never darken our doors and will never discover the Good News of Jesus crucified and risen, nor of the difference that Jesus makes to lives.

The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith and Trust (Hodder & Stoughton, London 2024. 2377pp: £25 hardback) by Francis S. Collins, a geneticist who has served three US Presidents as the director of the National Institutes of Health, draws upon his work from the Human Genome Project and upon his knowledge gained in his studies in ethics, philosophy and Christian theology. He reminds his readers that the four core sources of judgment and clear thinking are truth, science, faith and trust. This is a very readable book by a person who has been a New York Times bestselling author.

Praying by Heart: The Lord’s Prayer for Everyone (Hodder & Stoughton (London 2024. 167pp: £10.99 hardback) by Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York and one of the most effective communicators in the Church of England, is a simple but challenging exposition of the Lord’s Prayer, both for committed Christians and those who are on the fringe of the church.  The author maintains that when Jesus taught his disciples this prayer, he gave not just a pattern for prayer but also for life. This is a great resource not just for lay people, but also for ministers who are wanting to do a series on the Lord’s Prayer.

Living in Wonder: Finding mystery and meaning in a secular age (Hodder & Stoughton, London 2024. 272pp: £20 hardback) by the American writer Rod Dreher, who converted to Orthodox Christianity, begins by noting that a materialistic and rationalistic worldview has seeped into the church, whereas the reality is that if we but open our eyes God is all around us and that “we live and move and have our being in the presence of God”.  Precisely how we experience God will vary from one person to another.  Some will have dramatic experiences of God’s power at work in their lives, but others may be just quietly aware of how God permeates the universe.  Dreher speaks of our living in an “enchanted world”. He writes that “true enchantment is simply living within the confident belief that there is deep meaning in life, meaning that exists in the world independent of ourselves”.  Alas, for too many Christians their faith is little more than obeying a moral code. They need to “open their eyes to the reality of the world of the spirit”, and thereby regain a sense of wonder of God’s presence with them.

The Benedict Option: Strategies for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation (first published in the USA in 2017, and now revised and published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton, 2024. 278pp: £10.99) by Rod Dreher addresses first and foremost Christians in the USA, where most of the churches appear to be in terminal decline and have been largely ineffective in combatting the forces of cultural decline as a result of their being “content to be the chaplaincy to a consumerist culture that was fast losing a sense of what it meant to be a Christian”.  According to recent research, one in three of 18-to-29-year-olds have put religion aside. What’s more, the support of right-wing Evangelicals for Donald Trump has put into question the credibility of the Christian faith.  It is in this context that Dreher offers what he terms ‘the Benedict option’, advocating that Christians should follow the ‘rule’ (i.e. the way of life) which St Benedict offered around 530 AD as a way of developing a truly spiritual church where faith was rooted in prayer and reading the Scriptures. This way of living involves sharing life in community, exercising hospitality, and developing a balanced life of work and prayer.  Whether or not we develop the Benedictine way of living, what is necessary if the church in the West is to survive is for Christians to root their lives in prayer and in reading the Scriptures not in an individualistic way, but with in community with other like-minded Christians.

A Pilgrimage of the Heart: Walter Hilton and the English Mystical Tradition (DLT, London 2024. 164pp: £16.99 hardback) by Kevin Goodrich, an American Episcopal priest and retreat leader, is a fascinating introduction to Walter Hinton, of whom I confess I had never heard, but discovered that C.S. Lewis rated him highly and commented that “If only someone had read me old Walter Hinton’s warning that we must never in prayer strive to extort by mastery what God does not give”.  Walter Hinton was a 14^th century mystic who was vicar of the parish church of Thurgarton, which is just four miles south of Thurgarton.  Over the years Walter Hinton wrote a number of books on the spiritual life. This is the context in which Kevin Good rich invites his readers to go on a pilgrimage. In addition to Walter Hinton there  is a chapter on Richard Rolle and The Cloud author,  and a chapter on Julian of Norwich and Margaret Kempe. All the chapters in the book have suggestions as to how readers might develop their spiritual life, with prayers, and exercise, and questions upon which to reflect.

Deck the Hall: The Stories of our Favourite Christmas Carols (Hodder Faith, London. 333pp: £12.99) by Andrew Grant, who teaches music at St Peter’s College, Oxford, looks at  the musical and social history behind 27 of our favourite Christmas carols, such as The Cherry Tree Carol, once in Royal David’s City, O Holy Night, Infant Holy, The Coventry Carol, As with Gladness Men of Old, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. This fascinating book will appeal not just to those who lead carol services and to also to those who simply come along to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Let’s Walk: 52 stories and devotions for families (Amazon, 2024. 172pp: £15.95) by James Hamilton, the Kids’ Pastor at Bayside Church, Granite Church, California, and who is also the son of Jim Hamilton, a retired Baptist minister who lives in Essex. It is a helpful book for ministers and all engaged in youth and children’s ministry, as well as parents and grandparents. It is a comprehensive toolkit to help families unlock “incredible moments, sincere prayers, joyful learning, inspiring conversations and memorable experiences”. It consists of 52 reflections on the theme of life as a journey for each week of the year.  Each reflection includes scripture readings, stories, prayers, fun facts, jokes, discussion questions, activities and opportunities for parents and grandparents to pass on their faith for the next generation. I thoroughly recommend this guide to help children on life’s long walk from childhood into adulthood and beyond.

Tim Parsons, a former teacher, who for a few years was a Baptist minister, and now is chaplain to the South East Coast Ambulance Service, has published a series of short books, of which one is Paramedic Chris and the Runaway Chicken (Publish.U 2022, 23pp: £7.99 and is available on Amazon, which) is a simple story for young children with attractive illustrations.  Another is Tim Parson’s Sermons (Publish.U, undated. 45pp: £8.99) a collection of ten of his sermons. I confess that I find the latter is over-priced, but it will no doubt appeal to his friends.

The Eclipse of Christianity… and why it matters (Hodder & Stoughton, London 2024. 356pp: £20 hardback; £10.99 paperback) by Rupert Shortt, a Roman Catholic author of many books on Christian apologetics, and who is a research associate at Cambridge University’s Von Hṻgel Institute, is a masterly defence of the Christian faith over against today’s secularists.  The book abounds with quotable quotes: for instance, “The correct definition of a Christian is not a good person, but someone who acknowledges their failure to be good”. Interestingly for an apologist, he points out that in industrial and post-industrial societies “people tend to come into contact with the love of God through the love of the godly, rather than first and foremost through theological argument”. Although now less than half of the people in the UK regard themselves as Christians, this does not mean that they no longer believe in God, for research has shown that when life is tough and perhaps a loved one dies, they cry out to God for help. Although I highly recommend this book, I think there would be a place for a much shorter book which we could give to people considering the Christian faith.

Living His Story: Revealing the extraordinary love of God in ordinary ways (SPCK, London 2020. 164pp: £10.99) by Hannah Steele, the Director of St Mellitus College, London, was the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book in 2021.  However, I only became aware of this fascinating book toward the end of 2024.  For the author evangelism is not a matter of just words, but rather we are called to live out the story of Jesus Crucified and Risen.  There are seven chapters dealing with such issues as ‘How personal stories can authenticate the gospel for other’; ‘How the Spirit guides as we speak’; ‘Building a bridge to the good news through books and films’; and ‘Understanding the different ways people come to faith’. Every chapter ends with three questions for discussion and so is a great resource for fellowship groups and Bible study groups.

When Courage Calls: Josephine Butler and the radical pursuit of justice for women (Hodder & Stoughton, London 2024. 312pp: £25 hardback; £10.99 paperback) by Sarah Williams, a British academic who now teaches at Regent College in Vancouver, is about Josephine Butler, who has been described by Millicent Fawcett as “the most distinguished woman of the 19^th century” and who as a result of her Christian faith became one of the first modern feminists and a herald for suffragettes and suffragists alike. This well-researched and well-written biography is a fascinating account of a woman of whom I would otherwise would have just known her name and little more.

The Challenge of Acts (SPCK, London 2024. 364pp: £10.99) by Tom Wright rightly claims to be “a crash course on the book of Acts and its relevance for Christianity and culture today”.  For instance, his exposition of Paul’s speech to the Areopagus in Athens is absolutely splendid. He rightly points out that the secularists who say they do not believe in God, worship other gods such as Mammon, in whose service millions slave away to make money; Aphrodite, the goodness of erotic love, in whose service marriages are sacrificed; Mars, the god of war in whose service men and women use brute force and violence to get their way. This is an excellent book for preachers, but also for anyone who wants an overview of the message of the Book of Acts.

Joshua (Hodder & Stoughton, 2024. 315pp: £19.99 hardback) by Graham Beynon; Psalms 42-89  (Hodder & Stoughton, 2024. 413pp: £19.99 hardback) by Tim Chester; and Matthew (Hodder & Stoughton, 2024. 402pp:£19.99 hardback) by Ben Cooper, are the latest volumes in the excellent Hodder Bible Commentary which aim to be doctrinally sensitive and globally aware, are a great resource for ministers and preachers.

Talking About Spiritual Experience (The Churches Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies, Mansfield 2024.  142pp: £12) is a collection of essays primarily intended for ministers, Christian counsellors and spiritual advisors who might be entrusted with accounts of unusual spiritual experiences. The stories which are related here cover a wide range of experiences, including encounters with a loved one who has recently died. At this point it seems to me that we go beyond what the Bible teaches about life after death and are on verge of ‘spiritualism’.  However, I do agree that ministers should listen to what people say, and even if they disagree with their stories, we must be careful not to belittle people who come to us for help.

The following Grove Booklets are all 28pp long and cost £3.95 and rightly claim that although they are “not the last word” but they are “often the first word” as they address the issues of the moment. Holy Week in Luke’s Gospel: A Credible Jesus for the Real World (Spirituality 171, 2024) by John Proctor of the United Reformed Church, was prepared for personal ready or for group study, but in fact is a helpful resource for ministers preaching sermons either in Lent or in Holy Week itself. The Ethics of Environmental Management: Does Stewardship Lead Us Down a Blind Alley? (Ethics 2015, 2024) by Martin and Margot Hodson, both of whom are involved in theological education, begins by reminding readers that land management features in the Old Testament references to the sabbath, sabbatical year, jubilee and gleaning, and from there goes  in an interesting way on to explore current trends in environmental management and their ethical foundations. The Nicene Creed and the Bible: A Workbook for Disciples (Discipleship 15, 2024) by Richard Steel, who is currently a diocesan communication officer, is highly relevant since we celebrate the 1700^th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, and in the process explores the relevance of the Nicene Creed in its affirmations about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. A Forgotten People: Mission, Evangelism and the Working Class (Mission & Evangelism 148) by Gary Jenkins, Dean of Estates Ministry in the Diocese of Southwark, looks at ways in which the largely middle-class Church of England can reach the largely forgotten working class and gives all kinds of ideas in how this can be done. Death and ‘Hell’: What the New Testament does and does not teach (Biblical 114, 2024) by Paul Marston, a former university academic, refutes the idea that hell is a place of conscious torment, but instead those who deliberately turn their backs on God will cease to exist.  How to plan Services in a Multi-church Setting (Worship 261, 2024) by John Waller, an Anglican minister, offers a wide variety of ways in which ministers involved in planning and revising patterns of services for groups of churches,  Trauma-informed Youth Work (Youth 77, 2024) by Joy Wright, who leads a Christian youth work charity, demonstrates how trauma-informed care can give youth workers better understanding of relationships between young people and those who seek to help them grow in faith.