Book review:
When bad things happen to good people
by Harold Kushner

This book tackles a subject many of us struggle with on a daily basis.
The book is endorsed by Dame Cecily Saunders the founder of the modern Hospice movement who must have heard this question asked so many times in her hospice work. She feels it will bring  "new meaning, strength and hope to so many."

David Kossoff, who had his own share of personal tragedy, said that we can learn from Rabbi Kushner about acceptance, guilt and despair, and the helplessness we feel when bad things happen to our loved ones or ourselves. Gerald Priestland feels that it is as near to an answer as we are going to get.

What are our views on this book? Please put your review in the form below - it may help others.

Alex's review:
It felt to me more of a response to the problem than an answer, but nevertheless I found it an interesting and thoughtful book. The author came across as a very compassionate man.  His assertion that God is not in control will jar with a lot of Christians and certainly raises a lot of further questions.

So folks . . .  what do you think?

Book review:
God lost and found
by John Pritchard

This is a book for all who have lost their faith or for whom faith has become dull. It offers insight and ideas to help you refresh your faith and perhaps surprisingly for a Bishop ,he doesn't always push for churchgoing, but looks to creation, among other things, to renew and refresh.

It is a compassionate book which encourages rather than condemn and leads the reader to a way forward, and it is endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, David Wilkinson the Principal of St Johns College, Durham, and Eliane Storkey director of training for the Church Army and President of Tearfund.

God Lost
and Found by Bishop John Pritchard tackles, firstly the question of lost or failing individual Christian faith.
The author then goes on to identify possible starting points from which Christians can begin to refresh or rekindle their
faith.
The description of the symptoms of  declining individual
Christian faith is thorough and well illustrated, but somewhat slow reading.
Bishop Pritchard becomes more interesting when looking at possible solutions. He advocates that if you are open to the idea of finding God and, in particular, a Christian perspective on what that means, then you have to start from the world you are in and find individual meaning from nature, the marvels of science and technology and the achievements of the arts .
Such an approach requires, from
his perspective, both time for personal reflection and time for working with and for people who are trying to live their own lives as individuals and communities in tune with , at least, the  social ideas as propounded by Christ through his personal example, his speaking and his deeds.  
In essence, start from the world we live in day by day, conduct your life in line with the ideals espoused by Christ and, little by little, step by step, you may come to be more receptive to a divine link between yourself, Christ and God.
Though the  answers are not perfect, and Bishop Pritchard does not claim them to be so, the book is helpful for anyone who has yet to experience a divine link, and for those who are finding that their personal experience of  a  link is in some way tarnished or diminished in their lives.

David Harding

Have you read the book?