Hope in Dark Places
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Sabbath
Sabbath
Author Nicola Slee
Publisher DLT £9.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780232533996
‘Sabbath’ looks like a book by a poet about another poet’s poem, but it is far more than that. Slee offers us reflections on the main strands in Wendell Berry’s Sabbath poem ‘I go among the trees and sit still…’ It is not a systematic theological treatise on Sabbath, but an invitation and exploration, following thoughts, feelings, the gifts and threats of setting time aside. Slee explores the necessity and difficulty of fitting Sabbath into our pressured and success-oriented lives, and she offers the painstaking examination of the inner life that you might expect from a poet. Her chapters are complemented by excerpts from her journal, her own poems, questions for reflection and prayers (some very searching), and blank pages for our own notes. In a few places there was more personal information about the author than I wanted, but this does not detract from the vital importance of the message of the book. ‘Sabbath’ won’t help you preach a better sermon but, taken seriously, may help you lead a more integrated, more human and more godly life.
GERTRUD SOLLARS
Poetry, Spirituality
Searching for a Silent God
Searching for
a Silent God
Author Sarah Parkinson
Publisher Sacristy Press £8.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781789590388
This is Sarah Parkinson’s honest, detailed spiritual journey, punctuated by self-revealing poems. We follow her through conversion; education and career moves; marriage and childbirth; the stresses of becoming a clergy-wife and a significant bereavement. Through all the changes, she is conscious of God’s loving presence. The second half of the book describes how Sarah emerges from the ‘grey-fog’ of mourning only to realize that God has apparently deserted her. Faith says he is still around but, paradoxically, experience screams his absence. She can offer no explanations or solutions, hoping that her experiences and questions may be of help to others who are also finding it difficult to connect with God. This is a creative and well-written short book, touching on important issues of spiritual growth and times of darkness, and may be a great comfort to some. A more objective exploration of the God beyond the silence could have enriched the book further.
APRIL McINTYRE
Poetry, Spirituality
Parable and Paradox
Parable and Paradox
Author Malcolm Guite
Publisher Canterbury Press £10.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781848258594
Malcolm Guite, chaplain, poet and theologian, has produced an absorbing and rewarding series of poems, characterised by simple but beautifully precise vocabulary. He is a careful and adept wordsmith and, while using biblical language, is not afraid to make it more effective by adding modern idiom where appropriate. All the poems are competent and well-wrought and many have memorable lines and cadences. Like the poems of Rowan Williams (whose influence may perhaps be detected), Guite’s work evokes emotion and careful reflection. For example in the highly topical sonnet, Christ Among the Refugees, we join ‘that fearful road of weariness and want/Through unforgiving heat and hate…’ knowing at the end that Christ has ‘pitched his tent’ among us – an allusion to John 1.14. At the heart of the book are fifty sonnets based on the words of Jesus and, in particular, his most challenging sayings: the ones that make us all uncomfortable. In this respect some of the poems are as effective as a hard-hitting sermon. This is an excellent book and is highly recommended for Christian teaching. It could be used by ministers and Christian leaders to supplement private prayer and devotion, for quotations in sermons, or for small group teaching and discussion.
PETER CLOUGH
Poetry
Our last awakening
Our last awakening
Author Janet Morley
Publisher SPCK £9.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780281073542
Yet again Morley has edited a superb anthology to inform and sustain, this time ‘for living in the face of death’. These fifty poems can be read in any order, at any time, by dipping in, or focusing on one poem. Her commentary enlarges our perception of each. They enhance my awareness of dying and its stages and are feeding into my funeral ministry, preaching, and pastoral care. Each poem is an adventure, an experience lived through or imagined. One that inspired me is U.A.Fanthorpe’s ‘The Unprofessionals’, an absorbing unassuming paean to those who ‘come, unorganised, inarticulate’ to ‘sit with you’, ‘answering the phone’ and ‘talking sometimes’ and doing other things ‘until the blunting of time’ – when the bereaved are beginning to cope. Pastoral care and wisdom at their unobtrusive best.
JEREMY HARVEY
| Poetry, Pastoral |
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