REVIEWS

THE POWER OF RECONCILIATION

Written by Justin Welby

Published by: Bloomsbury Continuum

Price £17.99 (hardback, also available in audiobook and ebook)

Any book written by the Archbishop of Canterbury has a tendency to be well read, but the focus of this particular work is particularly important with reflection not just on reconciliation but with an emphasis on tangible change in seeking to disagree well.

Published in July to coincide with the 2022 Lambeth Conference, when bishops from around the world assembled in Canterbury, the author recognises that conflict can occur anywhere and seeks to encourage the building of peace and recognising difficulties but equally developing the skill of reconciliation and allowing the flourishing of diversity and disagreement without hatred.

Drawn from Welby’s long and first-hand experience, the book also aims to be a practical guide to support those in conflict in all areas of life and find a path to peace, whilst also acknowledging difference and disagreement.

The book is divided into three parts: the first reflects on conflict and potential issues, whilst the second begins the journey and juggles processes and the third offers practical steps and examples and the ‘habits’ of reconciliation.

At the end of each section is a suggested reflection and discussion and hospitality is suggested for these points in the journey.

Pointing to the power of reconciliation and its importance not just to churches, but wider society, the author writes: ‘A society and a world that renews the idea of peace gives a basis for hope of differences being the seed of growth, and not of automatic rejection of all that we disagreed with and of hostility towards those who disagree.

‘Safety for our future is not found by seeking it, but by engaging with those who challenge us. Identity is not made by defining ourselves against others in hatred and by seeking domination: the habits of reconciliation and peacebuilding liberate our identities, preserve our autonomy, increase our safety and show us the common good.’

The importance of reconciliation is underscored by Welby in a final conclusion: ‘Reconciliation offers the hope of vigorous and free differences of opinion without fear, of trust challenging lies without lies retaliating violently. It is the example of God. Even for the atheist it is the call of wisdom.’

He concludes that his prayer is that many will seek their own route to share in reconciliation and set up groups to advocate and train others in making ‘disagreeing well’ an established part of how we live in all areas of life and our world.

THE COFFIN ROADS

Journeys to the West

Written by: Ian Bradley

Published by: Birlinn

Price £8.99 (also available as an e-book)

Rituals and ceremony have surrounded death for centuries.

In this new book, the author charts one unique ceremony which has disappeared with the passage of time.

In the west Highlands and Hebrides, coffins were carried along specific routes to their final resting place on Holy ground.

With advances in travel, the routes are now used mainly by walkers and cyclists, but the legacy of the final journey can still be found (if you know what to look for).

Bradley has traced eight of the routes, mainly along the north west coast and in the Hebrides and offers valuable insights from his visits to each of them. The routes include perhaps the most famous – the Street of the Dead on Iona, the route to Kilearnadil Graveyard on Jura, the route through the Kilmartin Valley and the Green Isle at Loch Shiel, Ardnamurchan (described as the oldest continuously used burial place in Europe).

Some of the routes have cairns erected along the way, to mark where the burial parties would stop to rest.

As always, Bradley brings each route to life with not just a first-hand account of the accompanying the burial parties, but well-researched insights drawn from historical accounts of journeys.

Rituals differed from area to area, but the thrust of the book is that there is much to learn from these old traditions surrounding death and that some of the practices could be adapted to provide comfort and compassion to the bereaved of the 21st century.

In Covid times in particular, many of the rituals surrounding death and parting have necessarily had to be lost, notes the author and it is this along with a renewed 21st century conversation about the prolonging of life and the need for a new conversation about death which offers the background and context for the book.

In a foreword, Bradley writes: ‘I believe that the approach to dying and death of those living in the Highlands of Scotland, especially the West Highlands, and in the Hebridean islands from pre-Christian times to the early twentieth century may well have much to teach us today and that is why I have written this book.’

Lynne McNeil