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--> Review of Francis Spufford, Unapologetic: Why, despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense (Faber and Faber, 2012). This is the only book on the Michael Ramsey Prize shortlist that I had already read.   In the spirit of the enterprise, I re-read it so that I could review it alongside its fellow nominees.   I enjoyed it as much on the second read as I had on the first. This is, quite simply, an excellent book.   It is very well written, by turns profound, insightful, irreverent and funny.   Spufford’s conceit is to write a book to explain why he is weird enough to go to church.   In order to do that, he offers an account of faith that draws on and speaks to contemporary culture.   There are lots of references to popular culture in here.   Don’t skip the footnotes, they are where some of his best, funniest and most barbed comments are to be found.   Take this one as an example: ‘Everyone...

Review of Anne Richards, Children in the Bible: A Fresh Approach (SPCK, 2013). This is the third of the shortlist for the Michael RamseyPrize , and wants to provide a new approach to working with children in the church.   She starts by reproducing a child’s question about God – ‘Who invented you?’   It’s an excellent question, which begs very deep and complex philosophical and theological issues.   Richards also offer’s the reply given by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.   She commends Williams for his ‘simplicity, generosity and directness’ (p. ix).   That the Archbishop takes the child’s question so seriously, is important.   That he tried to respond in a way that the child could engage with is equally important. Richard’s contention is that ‘children are worth God’s special attention and … are deeply woven into God’s purposes’ (p. xi).   In particular, she finds that God finds children ‘worthy o...

Review of Stephen Cherry, Healing Agony: Re-imagining Forgiveness (Continuum, 2012). The second of the shortlist for the Michael Ramsey Prize is Stephen Cherry’s Healing Agony .   This is a profound and hard won meditation on forgiveness.   The origins of the book are in his accompanying of a mother whose child had been murdered.   From this starting point, Cherry approaches a wide range of material on forgiveness.   Some is theological, some political, some psychological.   There are many stories of those who have faced the challenge of forgiveness.   Quite deliberately, Cherry sets out to bridge the experiential and the theoretical.   There are no simple and easy solutions on offer, as Cherry says ‘the truth about forgiveness is darker, more difficult and infinitely more agonizing than the myths about forgiveness which people, not least Christian people, prefer to promulgate’ (p. 179). Through the hard stories of ...

Review of Benigno P. Beltran, Faith and Struggle on Smokey Mountain: Hope for a Planet in Peril (Orbis, 2012). If all the books on the Michael Ramsey Prize shortlist are as good as this, then I’m in for a treat!   It is good to have an author on the shortlist who is not from the UK or the US.   Beltran is from the Philippines.   A Roman Catholic priest, and a teacher of theology, Beltran has also been the chaplain to the most notorious rubbish dump in the world – Smokey Mountain in Manilla.   Here around 25 000 people lived as scavengers, and became a symbol of both poverty and the ecological degradation of the world. This is a deceptively short book.   It is both moving and challenging.   It also covers several different genres.   Most obviously, it is autobiographical.   Benigno Beltran was a Pilipino priest who was sent to study in Rome.   He returned to the Philippines to train seminarians.   On h...

--> Review of Ian Cowley, The Contemplative Minister: Learning to Lead from the Still Centre (Bible Reading Fellowship, 2015). This excellent little book is for those ‘who are looking for a better way of serving Christ than the relentless busyness and pressure which has become the norm for so many’ (p. 12).   Ian Cowley, who has experience of ministry in South Africa and is now the Vocations and Spirituality Co-ordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury, calls us to rediscover our still centre in prayer and rooting in God. Ministry that does not have stillness and prayer at its heart is in danger of losing its relationship to God, of warping a vocation, and not having the counter-cultural edge that should be the mark of all Christian ministry.   Cowley calls us back to silence and simplicity as being of the essence and the heart of ministry, not just extras and ideals.   He draws widely on the traditions of the church, from the contemplative to th...

The Michael Ramsey Prize is awarded every two years for a work of theology.   Set up by Archbishop Rowan Williams it has been won by some great books, and the shortlists contain some excellent theologians. This year, I saved up my pennies and have bought the whole shortlist.   I plan to read them all before the winner is announced at Greenbelt at the end of August. This year, the shortlist is: Benigno Beltran, Faith & Struggle on Smokey Mountain (Orbis) Stephen Cherry, Healing Agony: Re-imagining Forgiveness (Continuum) Anne Richards, Children in the Bible (SPCK) Francis Spufford, Unapologetic (Faber & Faber) John Swinton, Dementia: Living in the memories of God (SCM) Frances Young, God’s Presence: a contemporary recapitulation of early Christianity (Cambridge University Press) My initial reaction is to note that I have only read one of these prior to the shortlist being announc...

Review of Sarah Coakley, The New Asceticism: Sexuality, Gender and the Quest for God (Bloomsbury, 2015). This is the best and most challenging book I read in the whole of 2015 (at the time of writing there are 16 days left in which I might read something better!).   It is not always easy to read, but that is not a reflection on the excellent writing.   Rather it is because the subject matter is important, and because it makes the reader engage with things within their own lives.   It tackles issues that are dividing the church with a spiritual seriousness and depth that is all too often lacking.   Whilst it will, inevitably, be read as a contribution to the debates that afflict the church, it should be read as a significant work of spiritual theology in its own right.   In her Introduction, Coakley tells us that she wants to retrieve asceticism as a vital part of Christian life and theology.   This has implications for the...

Anne Lamott's Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers (Hodder and Stoughton 2013) was one of my best finds this year. It is a beautifully written book, and does exactly what it says: it introduces praying through three prayers - help, thanks and wow. Perfect for putting into the hands of someone beginning to pray.  Brilliant for helping someone who has been praying for some time. And the fourth essential prayer is really important: "Help me not be such an ass" (p. 67). Highly recommended!

Review of Rupert Shortt, Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack (Rider Books, 2012).  As I write, the persecution of Christians around the world is a cause for real concern. In Iraq and Syria, followers of the so-called Islamic State (IS) have daubed the Arabic letter 'n' (for 'Nazarene', the Muslim name for Christians) on the houses and churches of Christians. This marks them out for fines, harassment and murder. In Nigeria, Boka Haram (which means something like 'western education is sinful') target girls for abduction and are engaged in other campaigns of violence against the Christian community. Rupert Shortt's work predates these headlines, while demonstrating that these recent news stories are not new, even if the media attention they receive is a new departure.  In Christianophobia , Shortt gives an account of the persecution of Christians around the world. This is not a book for the fainthearted. There are descriptions of ...

Review of Tom Wright, Simply Good News: Why the Gospel in News and What Makes it Good (SPCK, 2015). A new Tom Wright book is often a treat, but I confess to being a little under-inspired by the title of this one.   Perhaps it sounded like just another book on the Gospels and their historical basis.   I was wrong, this book has lots to say and is more than another history of Jesus. In fact this is a book about evangelism, about the practice of commending Christian faith to those who are outside the church.   What Wright does really well is to use his knowledge of history to explain what telling the gospel meant in the New Testament and what the implications of that are for today. He starts from the (hardly controversial) observation that the gospel is good news.   That is simply what the Greek work euangelion (gospel) means.   It was used to announce the births, successions and victories of Roman emperors.   Rather b...

Review of Pass It On: Bible Tales Like You've Never Read Them Before (Bible Society, 2015) I picked this up for free outside a branch of the Entertainer toy shop.   It is the retelling of five Bible stories, together with illustrations.   It’s from the Bible Society , and they have brought in some great names to do this. First up is Anthony Horowitz retelling of the Tower of Babel ( Genesis 11.1-9 ).   It is a solid and enjoyable retelling, with all kinds of references to missiles, ancient kings and Bruegel’s painting of Babel.   Martin Coleman’s retelling of Daniel in the Lion’s Den is poetic in the way that books for young children are, and beautifully illustrated by Tim Slater.   It should really be in the larger format of a picture book for bedtime stories!   The comedy of Jonah is captured by Gavin Tyte (who wrote T he Hip-Hop Gospel of Luke ).   This is a bit saggy in places, but worth it for Jonah thinking ‘tha...

Review of Mike Bonem and Roger Patterson, Leading from the Second Chair: Serving your Church, Fulfilling your Role, and Realizing your Dreams (Jossey-Bass, 2005). I had heard much about this book before I read it, and it did not disappoint.   This is a common sense and helpful approach to being a leader when you are not in the position of power and control in an institution.   As an account of leadership, it recognises the leadership of an individual, is responsible in terms of the needs of the organisation and intentional in helping people to own what they are doing.   As a second chair leader in two different roles within the Church, and as a former first chair leader, I found this helpful.   As someone responsible for the development of clergy, I will often turn to this as a resource. Bonem and Patterson organise their reflections around three paradoxes.   Each reflects some of the tension of being a leader but not being i...

Review of Rowan Williams, Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer (SPCK, 2014) There are those who complain about Rowan Williams’ writing and suggest that he can’t write simply. Mostly those people are journalists, lazy, reading the wrong stuff, or some combination of these.   This book decisively gives the lie to the complaint.   It is a model of clarity and something to put in the hand of those beginning to explore what it is to be Christian.   I plan to give it to someone being confirmed this Easter. The four chapters each tackle a basic element of Christian life, just as the subtitle has it.   From their origins in talks at Canterbury Cathedral, these chapters have been edited for the page and retain most of their freshness and clarity.   They are full of enlightenment and practical insight. For me the opening and closing chapters (on baptism and prayer respectively) are the best moments of the book.  ...