All Book review articles – Page 4
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Reviews
Enough - Dr Kathrine McAleese
Dr Kathrine McAleese’s book is a word in season for those of us who are suspicious of the latest self-help guru, but nonetheless want to hit the pause button and take stock of where we’re at in life, with a view to making some big changes. While ...
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Why do I do what I don’t want to do? - JP Pokluda
Jonathan Pokluda is a seasoned author and church leader from Texas, USA. His third book takes its name from Romans 7 and is split into two parts. The first examines standard sins such as lust and pride, while part two looks at the modern vices that particularly ...
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Heartbreak, hope and holy moments - Kate Canty
This overview of prison chaplaincy offers a wide variety of stories. While the scope is impressive, it sometimes feels like a collection of anecdotes, upended onto the page. As a former prison chaplain, Canty’s experiences are familiar. But it is not clear who this book is ...
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The Church who hears God’s voice - Tanya Harris
It is a rare to find an academic and prophet with a down-to-earth approach. It is even rarer to have them write an in-depth, yet accessible book about hearing God’s voice today. Tania Harris weaves a fascinating narrative, highlighting key points in history where the pendulum ...
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The Word - John Barton
John Barton’s understanding of the nuances of Bible translation flow from a lifetime of study. In The Word he shows how it has been key at critical junctures in history. There are many issues that arise in translating, particularly the balance between preserving the authority of the ...
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Reviews
The falling of Dusk - Paul Dominiak
This book is a detailed theological study of the last seven words spoken by Christ on the cross. Cambridge academic Dr Paul Dominiak has invited a cacophony of voices – believers and atheists alike – into a conversation about how faith and doubt coexist, and how we ...
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'Magisteria' expertly demolishes lazy myths about science and religion
Many, but perhaps not all of us, will be familiar with the 1957 big-screen portrayal of Reginald Rose’s legendary drama Twelve Angry Men. For the uninitiated, and with a spoiler alert duly declared, the post-trial drama unfolds in an American courtroom, where the jurors are finalising the ...
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Reviews
Gifts of grace - Jared C Wilson
When people used to ask me: “Are you ready for Christmas, Patrick?”, the answer was usually: “No!” This was especially true when I had Christmas services to organise across two rural parishes, programmes to broadcast on local radio and a family Christmas to plan. Perhaps Jared Wilson’s ...
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A pocketful of hope - Pat Allerton
While the dark days of Covid-19 lockdowns are becoming an increasingly distant memory, the image of a lone vicar cycling the empty streets of his London patch, stopping to pray and play a hymn to his unsuspecting parishioners is an event that many of us still recall ...
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Something you once knew - Joshua Luke Smith
“The culture today tells us we can be whoever we want to be. So why do so many of us feel stuck?” asks musician, pastor and poet-turned-author, Joshua Luke Smith. Described as an invitation to rediscover “the magic, the mystery and the miracle” of everyday life, create ...
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Reviews
The unhiding of Elijah Campbell - Kelly Flanagan
When a book is described as anything “…meets The Shack”, the bar is immediately set high. In Kelly Flanagan’s debut novel, Elijah Campbell is a successful author who is happily married to Rebecca. But when his wife leaves him, and with unmet deadlines and debts looming, the ...
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Reviews
Distracted by your smartphone? This is the book you’re looking for
Andy Crouch doesn’t advocate ditching your electronic gadgets. We just need to use them differently, he says
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Reviews
Elizabeth Finch: Julian Barnes’ novel fails to grasp the rudiments of Christianity
The Booker Prize winning author Julian Barnes has supposedly written a “loving tribute to philosophy”. But our reviewer says his latest novel misunderstands what Christianity is all about
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Reviews
A Day In the Death of Charlie Vaughan - Jonathan Ford
Have you ever wondered what heaven is like? Can you fly in the afterlife? Will you be married? Will you be able to re-visit earth? Are there animals in heaven? These are some of the questions considered in this fictional tale of Charlie Vaughan, an older gentleman ...
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The Da Vinci Fraud: Did Dan Brown guilty of theft?
Dan Brown’s popular novel The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction which sets the hero, Robert Langdon, on a knight’s quest to find the holy grail – a supposed last descendant of the “marriage” between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. You might expect The Da ...
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Reviews
Need to give your pain to God? Sheila Walsh's encouraging book will help
To be human is to want to give up when life gets too much; to be a Christian is to cling to the promises and the hand of God when life feels overwhelming. This is the encouragement of Scottish songwriter Sheila Walsh in her latest book. It ...
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2021: My Year In Books
Sarah Yardley, author, speaker and mission and ministry lead at Christian festival, Creation Fest, shares the books that have been shaping her soul in 2021
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Reviews
Jesus wept. But his followers don’t
There are eleven different types of tears in the Bible. But today’s Christians often minimise the importance of lament. Do we need to think again?
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The Family Business: A modern parable about identity, evangelism and the Trinity
Do you ever wonder why God put you on earth? This is the question that readers of The Family Business are prompted to ask of themselves as they encounter characters who wrestle with finding their true identity, having been invited to embrace their role within their family’s ...
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Avoid this banal re-write of the Bible's greatest stories. It contains as much truth as Buffy the Vampire Slayer
In one way, the writings of Robin Bennett and Eugene Peterson are similar: both have rewritten the Bible into everyday speech. But there the similarity ends. Bennett has taken twelve texts of the Bible – including creation, the Fall, the Flood, the Nativity, Gethsemane and the crucifixion ...