In twelve chapters, Alison Jacobs provides a thought provoking series of reflections on the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites. From them, she draws contemporary lessons both for those who find themselves in a spiritual desert and for those who yearn for a closer relationship with God.

Alongside helpful meditation on the biblical story, the author brings her own personal circumstances to the reader's attention. Her own wilderness experience comes largely from being a sufferer of chronic fatigue syndrome, better known as ME.

While generally helpful, Ms Jacobs does occasionally allow her own needs and feelings to intrude a little too much. For instance, it is clear she has a chip on her shoulder for being refused ordination as a Methodist minister At times she rightly draws attention to the failings of the Church; elsewhere she seems to be taking a side-swipe that reflects her own hurt.

Nevertheless, this would be a helpful read for anyone wrestling with a sense of loss or disability or struggling with their faith.

This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times

I have often used Alistair Campbell's 1987 A Dictionary ofPastoral Care in the course of reflecting upon pastoral practice and pastoral care, usually as the first port of call.

I suspect I will use this new offering from the SPCK stable just as often, although in one respect not as helpfully.

The older 1987 dictionary gave a short section at the close of each entry with suggested further reading, and although this is now out of date, the lack of an equivalent section in this New Dictionary, with references embedded in the text and a bibliography, makes it more cumbersome.

The editors say this is because book lists date.

They certainly do, but so do references and bibliographies.

With that small gripe, then, I want to commend this as a useful addition to the library of anyone involved in pastoral care.

Opened at random, there are entries on cognitive therapy, co habitation and the collective unconscious; love, lust and magic, penance, perfectionism and prenatal death.

In every case I found helpful insights, but wanted to know more than the space allowed.

Thus, this New Dictionary, with its 700 entries, will be used much as its predecessor was, as the first place to turn to, but rarely for the last word on the subject.

In other words, the mark of a good dictionary.

This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times

This is a fascinating book written by an evidently gifted teacher on matters of great importance to every thinking person in and outside the churches.

The subject is the relation between the work of scientists, with particular reference to genetic engineering and environmental issues and Christian theology. These particular subjects are set in a broader picture of an historical account of the different ways people have thought of nature and different understandings of scientific methods.

There is a brief but excellent comparison between the scientist in of Richard Dawkins and his argument that science should replace religion and the way Barbara McClintock thought about her work on transposable elements in the genome of maize. She spoke of a receptiveness to the material being studied and a kind of tacit assurance so 'you work with so-called scientific methods to put it into their frame after you know.

The chapter on genetic engineering is rather technical, but like each chapter, it is summed up in a helpful conclusion.

When she comes to Christian evaluations of genetic engineering she draws upon reports of the World Council of Churches, the Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Church of Scotland and Methodists before arguing that the Wisdom tradition in the Bible and theologians of East and West provide insights to take these responses further.

She includes a chapter on ethical debates provoked by genetic engineering before turning to James Lovelock and Gaia as an alternative science, and the theological and ethical issues generated by that philosophy then arguing that feminist contributions to science and critiques of science and theology should be taken more seriously than they have been in the past. A dialogue with feminist issues may make science a more fully human undertaking.

In her concluding chapter, she returns to the ways in which nature is seen and suggests that feminist theories and the perspective of Wisdom may shape the future of science in less reductionist ways. This could bring science and theology together in fruitful partnership. Her teaching skills are evident in the overview provided in the introduction and the lucid summaries, which conclude each chapter.

Though written for undergraduates, the general arguments deserve to be more widely known.

This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times

I am grateful for the way in which I was taught church history Because of the shape of the timetable; I had a church history class each morning. Thus, starting from Pentecost, we covered the entire history of the church until the early 20th century in the year.

Admittedly, much of it was very superficial. When I undertook more detailed study of particular periods, I realised how much had been left out to allow such a scheme to be workable. Nonetheless, the syllabus provided me with an invaluable framework within which to make sense of the events characters and periods in which I was especially interested. They were effectively anchored in the whole story, and there has been less danger than there might have been of my believing that certain people or events come isolated and orphaned into history

In all his work, Kenneth HylsonSmith sets out to provide a similar, comprehensive framework. Having already provided us with accounts of the history of the church in England from the time of Elizabeth I to Elizabeth H, and a very helpful guide to the history of Anglican evangelicalism, along with other works, in these three volumes he has filled in much more of the story.

Volume III, which has just been published, fits into this overall scheme, but can be read on its own, as an interesting and helpful account of a particularly turbulent time in the church's story.

The Reformation is one of the periods as Baptists, we find ourselves drawn to. In its upheavals, we recognise much that is important in our own development, both nationally, and in our Baptist identity. Hylson-Smith reminds us that the Reformation did not start with Henry VIII's desire for a divorce, nor even with the influence of Luther on the Cambridge scholars.

Starting us off as the country recovers from the plague, and taking us through the instabilities of the throne, he traces the story of the church, both official and unofficial, ending with the death of Mary.

The chapters are the dates of the various monarchs during this period, although he makes the point several times that this, as most divisions, is at best arbitrary, and sometimes misleading. By pointing this out, he at least warns us of the dangers such a pattern can encounter, but there are times nonetheless when he falls into the predictability, which he is keen to avoid.

There are themes which run through the various chapters most notably the contrast between the 'official' and state-sanctioned and supported church and the continuing presence of 'Lollardy' as an underground and surprisingly persistent stream, merging eventually with other 'unorthodox' teachings as the Reformation comes to a head.

The weakness in the earlier part of the book is perhaps the lack of information about the experience of being in the church in these years - at various points he tells us that he is going to discuss the ordinary people, but these sections are less satisfying then the rest. When he comes to deal with the Reformation itself, however, the book is immensely satisfying.

The historiography of the English Reformation is complex and confusing, and he steers us through the issues, the contemporary arguments and the conflicting evidence with a masterly skill - and he gives us his understanding of the various debated points effectively and convincingly.

This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times