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New books at Sarum College Bookshop

Curating Worship

By Jonny Baker (SPCK, £10.99)

‘Curation’ is a term usually used in the art world for the role of imagining and overseeing an exhibition or art experience. However the word is now being adopted by people in alternative worship, as it affords a very different and inventive way of thinking about how to lead a service or praise event. Rather than simply presiding over liturgy or fronting a band, curation involves negotiating between institutions and artists and making do with what is to hand to create something brilliant. The hope is that moments of epiphany will be experienced as God is invited to be and breathe in the space, and people make connections with their own lives and stories.

Curating Worship is in two parts. The first considers the kind of thinking, skills and disciplines involved in good curation. The second consists of in depth interviews, which tease out from people who have curated amazing worship experiences around the world, the ideas and theories behind their approaches and the practical processes involved.

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The Advent of Peace

By Mary Grey (SPCK, £9.99)

Book Launch in College Thursday 14th October

A major theme in the Gospels is ‘peace’; indeed Jesus proclaimed: ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you’. Yet when we look at the world, peace can seem an elusive dream. Mary Grey looks at how the Advent story encourages forgiveness and reconciliation, both essential for peace, and how the Gospels can be key tools to help Christians work towards peace. She ties the Advent story in with current situations in the UK and in the Middle East and the book has both a personal and a global outlook.

The book will make ideal reading for Advent and Christmas, either on your own or in a group. It is sure to challenge you to ask ‘how can I help to make peace a reality for all God’s children?’

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Love Now, Pay Later?: Sex and religion in the 50s & 60s

By Nigel Yates (SPCK, £16.99)

Nigel Yates brings together the religious and social dimensions of the 1950s and 60s and examines the enormous changes in moral attitudes that took place in these two decades.

Much of the popular literature on post-war Britain tends to present the 1950s as a period of continuing repression and respectability in the area of private and public morality, and the 1960s as one in which there was rapid social change.

Using a wide range of contemporary sources – books (including novels), magazines, newspapers, advertising, fashion catalogues, films and television, as well as a number of significant archive collections – Nigel Yates argues that changes in attitudes to religion and morality in the 1960s were only made possible by developments in the 1950s.

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The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed

By Matt Jenson & David Wilhite (T&T Clark, £14.99)

This book is a rigorous comprehensive introduction to the doctrine of the Church by taking the tack of walking readers through the internal logic of ecclesiology. Rather than simply offering a compendium of perspectives on each issue that arises, the authors seek to teach and model thinking theologically, with the grain of scripture and ecclesial reflection, about the Church. The chapters are peppered with two to three excurses per chapter which consider a particularly pertinent issue that arises from the doctrine’s development (e.g. the move from Jesus to the Church, schism and the rise of denominations, sacramental mediation) or contemporary concerns (e.g. the question of other religions, contemporary ecumenical questions, the emerging church). While the overall tone and content of the book articulate and invite discussion on the problematics of ecclesiology, these excurses will provide ample opportunity to examine and (where appropriate) untangle ecclesiological knots.

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Creation Sings your Praise: A Christian Aid Worship Book

By Annabel Shilson-Thomas (Canterbury Press, £16.99)

Worship material produced by Christian Aid together with completely new material, is collected here to offer a resource for creating services that will inform, challenge and inspire change. Part One offers complete service outlines for the Church year, including some on contemporary issues that have come to be associated with particular seasons of the church’s year. Part Two provides a selection of prayers, confessions, intercessions and affirmations of faith for churches to incorporate into their own themed services. Part Three consists of stories from Christian Aid partners around the world together with sermon outlines and reflections. A final section outlines simple and practical ideas for fund raising and taking action.

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Tales of Lights and Shadows: The Mythology of the Afterlife

By Robert Ellwood (Continuum, £14.99)

Robert Ellwood depicts the many rich mythologies of the afterlife from the ancient Mesopotamians, Japanese, Greeks of the Homeric era, to Christian views of heaven or the Buddhist western paradise. He explores views of the concept of reincarnation as well as the arduous preparation for the afterlife that must be taken in some traditions. Ellwood concludes by looking at the way varying views of the afterlife influence religious and even secular culture, and how in turn culture can influence the popular heavens and hells of the time and place.

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