A Heavy Yoke: Theology, power and abuse in the Church by Selina Stone (SCM Press, £16.99 (Church Times SPECIAL OFFER PRICE £13.59); 978-0-334-06669-9).
“In A Heavy Yoke, Selina Stone lifts the lid on the ways Christian theology can, often unwittingly, uphold existing power structures to the detriment of the flourishing of the whole church. Engaging and timely, the book calls for a more rigorous and critical understanding of Christian theology and how it is shaping Christian leaders, churches and organisations.”
The Light of Tabor: Toward a monistic Christology by David Bentley Hart (University of Notre Dame Press, £21.99 (£19.79); 978-0-268-21041-0).
“The Light of Tabor proposes an approach to Christology that is thoroughly monistic, both as regards Being and as regards nature. Hart argues that the only coherent reading of the figure of Christ is one that fully embraces the essential unity of all things divine and natural through him, proposing an approach to Christology that affirms classical doctrine without retaining the dualistic presuppositions that have haunted theology since the age of the great councils.”
Twelve Churches: An unlikely history of the buildings that made Christianity by Fergus Butler-Gallie (Hodder & Stoughton, £30 (Church Times SPECIAL OFFER PRICE £24); 978-1-399-73130-0).
“Twelve Churches is a quest for a new people’s history of Christianity, told through the stories of twelve churches scattered across the globe. Through a patchwork of interlinking and varied human stories, Butler-Gallie takes us on a physical and historical journey, exploring the role of hope, faith and beauty in Christianity, but also its fraught relationships with sex, violence and power. The story of Christianity is, he shows, the story of our modern world: it’s a story of who we should be, as well who we sometimes are.”
Selected by Frank Nugent, of the Church House Bookshop, which operates the Church Times Bookshop.
