Books

The World Council of Churches, in collaboration with the Volos Academy for Theological Studies, has released a translation of Hellenism and Christianity: The Meeting of Two Worlds, by John D Zizioulas, the late Metropolitan of Pergamon (Ecumenical Patriarchate). The publication was translated by Fr Gregory Edwards and edited with an introduction by Dr Nikolaos Asproulis. As a delegation from the H... Read More

Author Caris Grimes is a Consultant Surgeon, so she is clearly not someone who underestimates the importance of physical intervention in the healing of illness. But this is a book about praying for the sick. Written for the hesitant doubter, At the Foot of the Cross invites the reader to embrace the courage to pray for others' healing and wholeness while trusting in a God who works through our pra... Read More

This is a historic novel telling the story of Redemptorist priest Francis Xavier Murphy's involvement with the Second Vatican Council. Murphy was at the Council as an assistant to one of the American bishops present, but unbeknown to the bishop - or to almost anyone else - Murphy was writing articles for the New Yorker magazine about the confidential sessions of the Council and the attempts of pow... Read More

Anyone attending a church in the UK knows that in almost every community, the clergy and volunteers are confronted by the enormous unmet needs of homeless people. Some churches keep their doors open all winter, offering a safe, heated space for people to sleep during the day. Others provide food or vouchers, referring "the unhoused" to the relevant council services or charities. A few provide prac... Read More

Author Tim O'Brien trained for the Catholic priesthood before becoming a primary school teacher, then a residential social worker and finally a police officer before retiring. In 2024 he published this short 87-page work in celebration of his favourite saint, Francis of Assisi. Franciscan spirituality has attracted him since his youth, but with characteristic honesty and humility Tim notes the dif... Read More

Naomi Alderman's book has surely one of the most arresting names to appear in bookshops in the last year. However, the full title indicates why it is not just eye-catching but also has important things to teach us a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century: Don't Burn Anyone At The Stake Today (And Other Lessons From History About Living Through An Information Crisis). Her basic thesis ... Read More

Archbishop John Wilson begins this beautiful devotional book wondering whether people have picked it up because they love the holy Rosary or because they love St Oscar Romero or because, like Archbishop Wilson, they love both. I picked it up because I love St Oscar Romero. He played a major role in my decision to join the Roman Catholic Church in 1982, when I was 22. I had learnt about Oscar Romer... Read More

What forms a Pope? Who is Robert Francis Prevost, the until-recently relatively unknown Augustinian who now leads nearly 1.5 billion Catholics as Pope Leo XIV? A new concise biography: Leo XIV - An Augustinian Life in Context, by Brian Heffernan, an expert on Augustinian history, looks at the successive contexts in which Prevost lived and worked before his election as pope: Chicago, Peru, Rome, an... Read More

Too often in Britain might we encounter conversations where Abbots and Abbesses are assumed to be artefacts of the past - or Abbeys a form of institution consigned to noble ruin , in countryside outposts only cared for by English Heritage. As we move towards the New Year though a fresh biography of the founding Abbot of Worth Abbey in Sussex knocks such assumptions for six and points the way to... Read More

You know when a book finds you? That is exactly what happened to me this Advent when Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ beautiful spiritual Advent accompaniment book popped up on my Facebook feed, via her book launch at the Margaret Beaufort Institute in Cambridge where she is a Senior Fellow and Director of Religious Life Institute. Our beloved mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer in October and I thought... Read More

Loving Yourself by Richard Frost, published by SLG Press. St Paul in Corinthians 13:13, teaches us that faith, hope and love abide, and the greatest of these is love. While most people know that looking after ourselves is an important concept how many people really love themselves as they should? Many of us do our best to love others which is not always an easy task and while loving ourselves migh... Read More

My grandson recently had a shock when a sparrowhawk flew down into the garden and just failed to grab his budgerigar who was enjoying the afternoon sun. This incident underlined for me how comprehensive and yet how individual is God's love for all his creatures. Not even a pet budgie falls to the ground, or escapes from certain death, without His knowledge. Then along comes Anthony deStefano's ta... Read More

A much-loved Catholic priest has marked his retirement after 52 years of service to the Diocese of Middlesbrough by publishing his first book. Father Tom O'Neill has served parishes in Hull and Middlesbrough, where he was most recently parish priest of the Holy Name of Mary in Linthorpe for 15 years. Parishioners packed the parish hall for a special celebration evening after Father Tom's retiremen... Read More

Jonathon Porrit's latest book, Love, Anger & Betrayal (Anthony Eyre, Mount House Press, 2025) is a game of two halves. On the one hand it is the author's own testimony to the depth of the climate crisis which is already upon us, outlining the multiplicity of issues now coming to a head - taking us into the land of tipping-points, feedback loops and human chicanery (including the'political capt... Read More