Life & Work Magazine
Life & Work Magazine


4 mins

REVIEWS

LIVING FAITHFULLY IN THE TIME OF CREATION

Written by: Kathy Galloway and Katharine M Preston Published by: Wild Goose Publications Price: £11.99

This book was published in time for the season of Creationtime (from September to October) and specifically to guide readers from the twelve weeks from the start of Creation time through and beyond the United Nations’ COP26 in Glasgow in November.

This resource from the Iona Community’s Common Concern Network on the Environment, features reflections, essays, hymns, songs and liturgical resources from 20 writers from around the globe.

Produced by two well-known figures in the Iona Community and beyond, this hugely topical volume will be a helpful addition during this significant season when the world we live in is the focus of global debate and discussion, but equally offers a timeless collection of resources for every future season of Creation Time or time of reflection when the stewardship of our world is at the fore in world events.

It will be particularly helpful for anyone charged with leading worship during this important time and season not just in the life of the Church of Scotland, but in the world, as the climate crisis becomes the political focus of world leaders and not just churches and activists.

The book also includes links to faith-based community websites focussing on climate crisis.

PAUL DISTILLED

Written by: Gary W Burnett Price: £12 (paperback and e-book) Published by: Wipf & Stock Publishers

Gary Burnett’s “Paul Distilled” is a superb guide to the great themes in the writing of the Apostle Paul. Many of us think that we know Paul – either as a slightly straight-laced shaper of Christianity who pointed the Church in a different direction from the gospels, the silencer of women, or a writer of long difficult paragraphs whose understanding of the cross gave rise to a privatised and dour religion.

In this guide to Paul, based on a lifetime of study and teaching, Dr Burnett shows how all of these caricatures of Paul are just plain wrong. Building on the most recent research, and writing in a style which is wholly accessibly, he takes us through the great themes of Paul’s thought – the love at the root of all things, the Gospel that fires our imagination, radical peacefulness, counter-cultural community and the wide variety of female leaders in Paul’s Churches.

Whilst we have too often misrepresented or tamed Paul, this book gives us Paul unleashed, Paul with his explosive rhetoric and his subtle thinking. And all the time, the book is responding to the questions “so what?” and “what does this mean for me?”. All the time connections are being made with contemporary culture (Gary Burnett is also a Blues guitarist), poverty in India, or peace in Northern Ireland. Paul Distilled also deals with the great challenges of being human: the section on “antidotes to worry” is full of encouraging wisdom.

There are study notes at the end of each chapter. These lend themselves to use by individuals or small groups. In our Church, where we are so often looking for ways of developing discipleship in ways which are accessible and biblically rooted, this excellent book is hugely recommended.

FOR CHILDREN

WHISTLESTOP TALES Around the World in 10 Bible Stories

Written by: Krish Kandiah and Miraim Kandiah Published by: Hodder Faith Young Explorers Price: £10.99

The aim of this book is to show that the Bible is made up of people of every colour and hue, adding to the richness of its message.

Authors Krish and Miriam Kandiah are seeking to show the diversity of God’s people to young minds.

In a moving introduction (and note to young readers), Krish Kandiah describes being the only boy in his class who wasn’t white and being bullied and subjected to name calling.

He explains how he constantly looked in books for characters who were not too different from him, but did not find any, but did not realise until he was much older that the answers had lain in the Bible gifted to him at the age of seven. Explaining why he and his wife were inspired to write the book, he adds: ‘We wanted children everywhere to know that inspiring people can come from anywhere. So we worked out where some of our favourite Bible characters would have lived on today’s map, and we let them capture our imagination.’

From Ruth ‘the giant-haired Jordanian who went the extra mile’, to Barnabas ‘the Cypriot sleuth who unlocked a mystery’, the book seeks to share some of the best-known stories of for a new generation, exploring the diverse and many people who make up the Bible.

Kandiah concedes that the stories may not quite be how the Bible tells them, but emphasises that the point is that wherever you are from and ‘whatever your colour of skin is’, all can be part of ‘God’s global adventure’.

This article appears in the October 2021 Issue of Life and Work

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  COPIED
This article appears in the October 2021 Issue of Life and Work