Books & Arts > Book reviews
Lent books and courses 2026: Lessons from Wicked, belonging, Christian cost of living, and life lessons
VARIETY is the spice of life, so the saying goes, and 2026 brings a nicely diverse set of Lenten volumes to choose from. For group or individual use, extracting something from scripture to reframe how we see the world now, or…
Dancing to the Heartbeat of God and To Hell’s Mouth and Back by Trystan Owain Hughes
THE Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Books have not had much luck lately. Last year’s production was stripped of the former Archbishop’s preface at the last minute and repackaged as a “Big Read”. This year’s book under the…
Through Lent with Gerald Manley Hopkins by Carys Walsh
FOR those who love poetry, this is an ideal Lent book. Carys Walsh takes a poem a day, sets it in its context, and then draws out its meaning in a close reading of particular phrases and words. Each section is just the right…
A companion for Lent, Holy Week and beyond by David F. Ford
THE beauty of this book is how David Ford marries serious scholarship with an infectious passion for a Gospel that enables people to meet God through Jesus, “open to the superabundance of life that he gives”. Ford understands…
Finding God in the created world by Claire Daniel and illustrated by Jamie Poole
Snowdrops, also traditionally called Candlemas bells, are one of the illustrations by Jamie Poole, accompanying reflections by Claire Daniel, grouped according to nature’s four seasons, in Reflected in Nature: Finding God in…
Through Lenten lands with the Inklings by Julia Golding, Malcolm Guite, and Simon Horobin
ENTHUSIASTS for the works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien will recognise in the title of this excellent Lent book the former’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the latter’s The Lord of the Rings. They were the…
The 2026 Lent Book by Liz Dodd
THE 2026 Bloomsbury Lent Book is Easter in Disguise by Liz Dodd. Her first sentence is “I used to hate Lent.” But, in this brilliant and challenging course, the author shows in an imaginative way, the power of Christ’s…
Rediscovering the heart of gratitude by Philip Plyming
THIS reviewer is writing these words quite near to Christmas Day, and the author of this book has inadvertently reawakened a childhood trauma in him: the memory of being forced to sit down at the dining table on Boxing Day…
How your limits reflect God’s design and why that’s good news by Kelly M. Kapic
FINITUDE is a significant theme, but the number of good theological books on the topic is surprisingly limited. I found in Kelly Kapic’s wise new book a good deal to agree with, and much to be grateful for. On this topic, it…
Practising the charism of presence and attention by Julia Mourant
JULIA MOURANT’s focus here is on the spiritual director as a person, not primarily on the “how” of spiritual direction. She is clear that a spiritual director (or accompanier) cannot be present with an explorer (her chosen…
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