WHAT was generally agreed to be the first papal autobiography appeared in 2025: the late Pope Francis’s Hope. On the election of his successor, the clock started ticking for biographers such as Christopher White. His account, Pope Leo XIV, was one of the first to appear.
Other autobiographies and memoirs included The Girl from Montego Bay by Rose Hudson-Wilkin; A Life and a Half by Chris Bryant; Last Words by Richard Holloway; Year of the Lord’s Favour by Pete Wilcox; Not Half Bad by Harry Bramma; and Time to Declare by Martin Neary.
As the new pope is an Augustinian, there was a timeliness about the appearance of Augustine the African by Catherine Conybeare. Other biographies included Graham Tomlin’s Blaise Pascal; Douglas Wertheimer’s Philip Henry Gosse; Michael Braddick’s Christopher Hill (about the historian of the Puritans); Michael Wheeler’s William Ewart Gladstone; Frances Wilson’s Electric Spark (Muriel Spark); and Richard Holmes’s The Boundless Deep (Tennyson).
History titles included God is an Englishman: Christianity and the creation of England by Bijan Omran; Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The extraordinary lives of medieval women by Hetta Howes; The Legal History of the Church of England, edited by Norman Doe and Stephen Coleman; Silence of the Gods: The untold history of Europe’s last pagan peoples by Francis Young; The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It by Alec Ryrie; The Cambridge Companion to Christian Heresy, edited by Richard Flower; The Monastic World by Andrew Jotischky.
Titles on Orthodox Christianity included Theosis and Religion by Norman Russell; Freedom and the Captive Mind: Fr Gleb Yakunin and Orthodox Christianity in Soviet Russia by Wallace L. Daniel; Living the Christian Creed by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom; and Orthodoxy and the Imperial Idea by Norman Russell.
Books on apologetics which topped the Nielsen bestsellers chart included Discovering Christianity by Rowan Williams; Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever by Lamorna Ash; and Why We Believe by Alister McGrath.
Priesthood and ministry were considered in Waiting on the Lord by Simon Cuff; Real Life Rev by Martin Poole; First in Line by Judith Rose; Reverence by Magdalen Smith; and Perfectly Ordinary by Marcus Throup.
Mission and church-planting were covered in New Churches: A theology, edited by Joshua Cockayne and Will Foulger; the third edition of 100 Ways to Get Your Church Noticed by Neil Pugmire; The Seeking Heart by Ian Mobsby; Ignite by Debbie Ellisdon and Patrick Ellisdon; and Discipleship by Guy Donegan-Cross.
Titles on spirituality and prayer included Praying by Heart: The Lord’s Prayer for everyone by Stephen Cottrell; In the Stillness, Waiting by Nicholas Alan Worssam SSF; Tasting Wisdom by Laurence Freeman; Sanctuary by Marina Warner; Bewilderment by Robert Atwell; So Longeth My Soul by Joanna Collicutt; and The Tears of Things by Richard Rohr. Lent titles reviewed included Healing Wounds by Erik Varden; Wild Bright Hope by various authors; and A Prayer Book of Days by Gregory Cameron. Advent books included Listening to the Music of the Soul by Guli Francis-Dehqani; O Come Emmanuel by David Hoyle, Jane Williams, Philip North, and others; and Donkey Roads and Camel Treks by Gemma Simmonds.
Christian mystics were celebrated in Dazzling Darkness by James Harpur; All Shall be Well by Emma Pennington; Medieval Women, edited by Eleanor Jackson and Julian Harrison; and The Cloud, the Night, the Fire and the Song by Charlie Cleverly.
Books on the Bible and central figures of the faith included The Challenge of Acts by Tom Wright; Noah and the Flood in Western Thought by Philip C. Almond; Playing in the Dust by David Runcorn; The People of the Parables by R. Alan Culpepper; Boy Jesus by Joan E. Taylor; Unmaking Mary by Chine McDonald; and The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Theology included All Things Are Full of Gods by David Bentley Hart; Karl Barth on Religion by Keith Ward; God as Nothing by Gilbert Markus; Behold the Men: An introduction to critical theologies of masculinities, edited by Robert Beckford and Rachel Starr; Theology and Human Flourishing, edited by Helen Leathard; The Theological Imagination by Judith Wolfe; Introducing Analytic Theology by Phil Weston; Giver of Life by Jane Williams; Touching God: Dementia and the bodies of Christ by Peter Kevern;
Politics and social justice issues were addressed in Haunting Questions of Liberation Theology, edited by Jione Havea; Celebrating Forty Years of “Faith in the City”, edited by Terry Drummond and Joseph Forde; Talent for Giving by John Studzinski; Just Worship by Stef Benstead; and Faithful, Creative, Hopeful by Jesse A. Zink. Books pertaining to race and the history of slavery were discussed in Decolonising Development and Religion, edited by Joerg Rieger and Sanjana Das; Reparations by Nigel Biggar; Captives and Companions by Justin Marozzi; The Crisis of Colonial Anglicanism by Martyn Percy; and The White Bonhoeffer by Tim Judson.
Novels reviewed included A Death on Location by Richard Coles; Till Death Us Do Part by Penny Stephens; Ordinary Time by Cathy Rentzenbrink; Juice by Tim Winton Rapture by Emily Maguire; Love Divine by Ysenda Maxtone Graham; and Intermezzo by Sally Rooney.
Poetry collections included Quartet for the End of Time by Michael Symmons Roberts; 44 Poems on Being with Each Other by Pádraig Ó Tuama; Eleanor Among the Saints by Rachel Mann; and Be Still, Be Silent: Reflections on the poetry of David Scott by John Mann.
Books on architecture and art included The Lost Chapel of Westminster by John Cooper; Terror and Magnificence (on Hawksmoor’s London churches) by David Meara; Turner and Constable by Nicola Moorby; Holbein by Elizabeth Goldring; and Awake! by Mark Vernon (on Blake).
Other books of interest reviewed in the Church Times included a contribution to the sexuality debate, Created for Love, edited by Theo Hobson and John Inge; Forgotten: Searching for Palestine’s hidden places and lost memorials by Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson; and Language in the Liturgy by Barry Spurr.
