With more people staying at home there has been a renewed focus on activities people can enjoy in the comfort of their house such as cooking, watching movies, playing video games, gardening and jigsaw puzzles. But although we certainly live in the Netflix age, there’s nothing quite like sitting down with a good book and so Nick Mattiske has some ...

While most reading this review might be reasonably confident in stating they understand Jesus based on the New Testament writings, James Dunn’s recent book Jesus according to the New Testament attempts to enrich that understanding with scholarly focus on the heart of the gospel, the Lord Jesus. Nick Mattiske reviews. James Dunn’s recent small book sets out what the New ...

This year’s Lent book from publisher Bloomsbury explores the Book of Psalms as Christian monk Mark Barrett takes us on a tour of the dust, the mountain, the well, the light and the tomb to help readers enhance their understanding and experience of scripture. Nick Mattiske reviews. In Lent the tradition of giving up chocolate or alcohol (something I usually ...

We are all supposedly familiar with the Bible, in the church anyway, but John Barton’s hefty and excellent history emphasises just how unwieldy it is. Nick Mattiske reviews. A History of the Bible looks at both how the Bible was compiled and how it has been read. Already with the former, this can be tricky, as the original authors are ...

Is faith fervour? Or a holding on in the company of doubt? Two rather different novels explore what it means to live out faith in the world. Nick Mattiske reviews. Little Faith is set in what has been called “flyover country”, that neglected part of America, midwest small towns where there is a different pace, where there is more contact ...

World-renowned religious author Karen Armstrong explores the value of scripture in an increasingly secularised world and ponders whether we’ve lost our ability to engage with faith texts as spiritual tools rather than binding rules. Nick Mattiske reviews. Karen Armstrong’s epic study of the way scripture developed in the religious traditions of Europe, the Middle East and Asia begins back in ...

Angels are ingrained in western culture from the cherubic depictions seen in many classic paintings to the modern conception of protective guardians hovering around us that crop up in contemporary literature and movies. Nick Mattiske reviews Peter Stanford’s book on the topic, Angels: A Visible and Invisible History, and considers their origins in religion and their development over time. French ...

More thoughts on marriage from Pittsworth Some thoughts from a regular church attender. I read with interest Barbara Lanham’s comment on marriage in the Summer 2018 edition of Journey. This is her personal view as Pittsworth congregation have not voted on the use of church buildings for marriage. Judging from the number of church people I have spoken to most ...

Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun’s latest book may challenge readers in the church to think deeply about what is theology in today’s Christian context and what role it plays in shaping future Christians but, as Nick Mattiske writes, their work is timely and urgent. For those outside the church, if they even know what theology is, theology is as redundant ...

Nick Mattiske reviews two books (by Richard Harries and Alan Jacobs) featuring acclaimed writers W.H. Auden and T.S. Eliot, primarily for their work in thinking about the role of writers and artists in speaking into modernity about the deeper questions. Harries writes from within Christianity, as it were, but the various writers he discusses in the chapters of Haunted by ...