Reviews Articles
Spiritual activism: leadership as service
‘Activism is all about putting our highest values into practice in the world. Spirituality involves an awareness of where those values come from… our motives, passions and drives.’ This is the crux of the message of Spiritual Activism: Leadership as Service by Alastair McIntosh and Matt Carmichael. It is a...
A life in science
The second volume of Richard Dawkins’ autobiography is entitled Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science and is more interesting than the first. As Dawkins has engaged in a herculean contest with religion, now, near the end of his life, one would expect his view of it to...
How good can we be
This book is a rant. But what a rant! It is unputdownable. This is extraordinary for a piece of non-fiction, much as was Will Hutton’s The State We’re In, written twenty years ago. How Good We Can Be: Ending the Mercenary Society and Building a Great Country reads...
James and the Jerusalem Church
If you enjoy ‘whodunnits?’ and jigsaw puzzles, the chances are you will enjoy this radical exploration of Christian origins. Alan Saxby, in James, Brother of Jesus, and the Jerusalem Church, has examined in detail the situation in Judaism during the lifetime of Jesus, and the following seventy years. He follows...
Courting rendition
Respect the laws of the state but let your first loyalty be to God’s purposes. If you feel impelled by strong conviction to break the law, search your conscience deeply. Ask your Meeting for the prayerful support which will give you strength as a right way becomes clear. Advices ...
God in a nutshell
At the heart of God in a nutshell is a deep concern with the discord and divisions that have been produced in the name of religion. The atrocities of today have been happening, in one form and another, for several thousand years. Why? Author Rex Andrews, who is a Quaker,...
Good reads
Marcus Tullius Cicero said: ‘A room without books is like a body without a soul.’ Friends may or may not agree with this opinion. However, they certainly enjoy reading them and 2015 has been a productive year for many Quakers involved, in different ways, in the written and printed word. ...
The Joy of Tax
Richard Murphy’s new book, The Joy of Tax, is subtitled ‘How a fair tax system can create a better society’. The author’s intriguing title conceals a carefully crafted discussion of the central importance of tax within a nation’s economy and social policy. Tax is little discussed or...
World in chains
It has always intrigued me that we Quakers manage so seamlessly to bridge the split between the nurture of our worshipping community and our concern to confront the ills of the wider world (specific ‘concerns’, of course, are tested by the worshipping community in Meetings for Church Affairs).
A little book of Unknowing
‘Cogito, ergo sum.’ I think, therefore I am. René Descartes came to this memorable conclusion after subjecting his ‘world’ to the most rigorous, uncompromising doubt. Even his senses, he believed, could deceive him. What could he be certain of?