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Category: Book Reviews

Home > <a href="https://www.jameswoodward.online/category/blog/">Blog</a> > Archive by category "Category: <span>Book Reviews</span>" (Page 2)

The Lessons of Life ? Inciting Joy by Ross Gay

Posted on 1 June 2023 by James Woodward
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    What do you think holds us together ? What should be our attitude to these moments of living? What are we struggling with? Where is 2023 taking us – these moments of ‘post pandemic weariness’ ? Is the future welcoming ?   Jurgen Moltmann, in Theology and Joy  wrote “We may have fun, […]
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Burkeman on the lessons of Time

Posted on 20 May 2023 by James Woodward
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Four Thousand Weeks: Embrace your limits. Change your life. Make your four thousand weeks count  Vintage 2022 What is your relationship to time ? How long is that To Do list ? And what about those good intentions we start any day with? This Saturday started quite well – an early start and off to […]
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From the Shores of Silence – Learning from feminist voices in Practical Theology

Posted on 17 April 202313 April 2023 by James Woodward
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From the Shores of Silence Conversations in Feminist Practical Theology Edited by Ashley Cocksworth, Rachel Starr and Stephen Burns with Nicola Slee SCM Press £30.00 (ISBN  9780334060963)   Practical theology has had a slow journey into securing some significance in the academy. There have been landmark books, institutions and academics who have contributed to its […]
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Transgressive Devotion : radical, original, unsettling theology at its honest best

Posted on 16 April 2023 by James Woodward
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I remember one of my university teachers sitting in on a seminar that I was leading some 20 years ago. He was attentive and appeared to be making careful notes. On the feedback form his only comment was, ‘clearly expressed and excellent engagement with the group, but I wanted to hear and learn something arresting […]
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Reading David Whyte – Consolations

Posted on 11 April 2023 by James Woodward
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We live in strange times. Listening to this mornings news adds to the complexity and anxiety. The junior doctors strike which informs us to avoid being ill this week. The advance of AI and its implications for our knowing and understanding. The preparations for the visit of President Biden to Ireland as they mark the […]
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‘Bedtime’ Reading : Super- Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne

Posted on 30 March 2023 by James Woodward
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Being confined to quarters while a bout of flu ( or something – I have never been very good at diagnosis ) and amidst cancelling appointments ( sorry ) and searching for paracetemol brings some gifts. Determined to leave the e mails to answer themselves ( wouldn’t that be nice) I decided to have a deep […]
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Listening to your Soul Julia Mourant

Posted on 29 December 20225 January 2023 by James Woodward
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  Canterbury Press 2022 ISBN-13 9781786223364 Pb 144pp   In these strange and unpredictable post lockdown days of uncertainty and weariness who do you turn to for support? Who listens to us ? How do we listen to ourselves ? At any point on our life journey how might we ‘make meaning’?  This book opens up […]
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PRACTICES FOR THE SOUL : FINDING MEANING IN OUR STRANGE NEW WORLD ?

Posted on 3 October 2022 by James Woodward
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The Power of Ritual : Turning Everyday Activities Into Soulful Practices Casper Ter Kuile William Collins 2020 reposted from 6th April 2021 I am indebted to my friend Jane Shaw for pointing me in the direction of this rather stimulating and wonderful book. It came out of a conversation about what learning might look ( […]
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Waking up to God – Exploring faith by asking the right questions?

Posted on 17 September 2022 by James Woodward
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  Waking Up to God: Rediscovering Faith in Post-Pandemic Times by Neil Richardson  Sacristy Press 2022   Neil Richardson has had a long and distinguished ministry as a Methodist theologian. This has included serving as the British Methodist President in 2003 and leading Wesley College, Bristol, as Principal. In eight chapters he tackles head-on with […]
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ON FAILURE – HOW TO SUCCEED AT DEFEAT

Posted on 30 August 202229 August 2022 by James Woodward
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(The School of Life 2022) A hopeful and encouraging book that is gentle on its reader! In 2008, Alain de Botton was one of a team of writers and educators who founded The School of Life. Based in centres across the World, The School of Life , offers an emotional education focusing in particular on […]
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Hearing God in Poetry by Richard Harries

Posted on 17 February 2022 by James Woodward
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Hearing God in Poetry Fifty Poems for Lent and Easter Richard Harries SPCK 2022   This is the time of the year when some turn to the possibility of taking something up for the season of Lent as part of a pilgrimage of disciplined and intentional spiritual learning. Some will join a Lent course. Others […]
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Chosen : Lost and Found between Christianity and Judaism Giles Fraser Allen Lane 2021

Posted on 2 June 202131 May 2021 by James Woodward
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Some of you might be be familiar with the BBC series Who do you think you are? In the programme a number of celebrities uncover, one assumes with the BBC researchers assistance, a number of lost connections and unfamiliar parts of their histories. The thread running through the programme is the persons history revealed in […]
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‘Its not about me’ : Reading Cottrell On Priesthood over a lockdown weekend

Posted on 19 April 202020 April 2020 by James Woodward
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I wonder what you are finding absorbs your time and attention during these strange hours and days? My table at home is gathering some small (and neatly organised) piles of books. Some associated with work and lectures to prepare. Some for pleasure and others  (I hope) for self-improvement !  Stephen Cottrell’s book (On Priesthood : Hodder […]
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Take this Journey with Rohr

Posted on 2 May 20192 May 2019 by James Woodward
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Richard Rohr The Universal Christ SPCK 2019 ( £9.99) It is an often stated conviction expressed by a wide variety of individuals and groups that the Church, Organised Religion and (important for us here at Sarum College) Theology are in decline. The statistics certainly bears this assertion out. However this should not be our final […]
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Back to my Roots? The legacy of Brooke Foss Westcott

Posted on 28 December 201827 December 2018 by James Woodward
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I finished reading Isabel Hardman on turned to thoroughly researched life of Westcott. There were many resonances and connections. As the son of a miner the title was arresting. Ordained in Durham after theological studies at Westcott House Cambridge there were further connections. I have a copy of his commentaries on Hebrews and St Johns Gospel and […]
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Christmas Reading – what kind of politicians do we have or need?

Posted on 27 December 201824 December 2018 by James Woodward
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I wonder what you will dip into over this holiday season by way of escape or relaxation? I took a risk with this book. The title was arresting and the author the recognisable voice of BBC Radio 4s Westminster  Hour. Of course we live in a complex and contested world and one where the quality […]
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A Shaking Reality – a new book for Advent from Peter Price

Posted on 5 November 2018 by James Woodward
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A Shaking Reality : Daily Reflections for Advent Peter B Price DLT 2018      Sometimes even the the most faithful of hearts might wonder how our religious words, images and  metaphors make a difference. How do they shape our understanding of the world, God and the practice of believing ? If we desire God to shake and change us […]
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Spirituality in Hospice Care

Posted on 17 September 201815 September 2018 by James Woodward
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Spirituality in Hospice Care How Staff and Volunteers Can Support the Dying and Their Families Edited by Andrew Goodhead and Nigel Hartley Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2017, 240pp (pbk) ISBN: 9781785921025 £19.99   The concepts of spirituality and spiritual care are complex. This book makes a distinctive and important contribution to the growing literature in this […]
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In a Glass Darkly: The Bible, Refection and Everyday Life

Posted on 15 August 2018 by James Woodward
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In a Glass Darkly: The Bible, Reflection and Everyday Life Zoe Bennett, Christopher Rowland   SCM Press £25 (978-0-334-05422-1)   Moments of honesty and candour can be both refreshing and threatening in equal measure. I recently heard an intelligent and energetic parish priest make a passionate plea for Christians to be more honest about change and […]
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Still Growing : The Creative Self in Older Age

Posted on 15 August 2018 by James Woodward
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Still Growing The Creative Self in Older Adulthood Donald Capps The Lutterworth press 2015, PB 208pp, 9780718893910, £16.50.   This is the most delightful of books in its thoroughness, scholarship and creativity. It has all the potential to transform the readers understanding of the nature of age. In our functional and reductionist world that over […]
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