Journeys of Faith: Stories of Pilgrimage from Medieval Ireland by Louise Nugent (Columba Books, €26.99) This book is an epitome of a thousand years of Irish history, roughly 500 AD to 1500 AD. It is a reminder, if one is really needed, of just how important the context of history is to understanding present attitudes…
Raphael’s World by Michael Collins (Messenger Publications, €19.95 / £17.95) The Renaissance painter Raphael (1483-1520) is an artist whose work is widely familiar to many people without them being aware of it. His images affect their imagination because of their content, not because of whom they are by. This is because (rather like Murillo) he was…
Strong in the Face of Tribulation: The Church in Communion, A Sure Support in Time of Trial, compiled and edited by the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, gratis, by download from the website of the publishing house, in pdf format; currently available in English, Italian, Spanish and French) The scene…
Passion Play: Oberammergau 2020 by Christian Tüeckl and others (Theatre der Zeit, £30.00; ISBN-13: 978-3957492845) The village of Oberammergau lies some 45 miles south of Munich in the Tyrol. In many ways it is a remote place, but in time of war and plague, no place is truly remote, in the sense of being totally…
A History of Silence: From the Renaissance to the Present Day by Alain Corbin (Polity Press, £14.99) When Silence Speaks: The Life and Spirituality of Elisabeth Leseur by Jennifer Moorcroft (Gracewing, €20.00) Silence, they say, is golden. But all too often we read about strenuous objections being made to the ringing of church bells in rural parts,…
Mainly About Books by the Books Editor The lockdown came when many were planning summer excursions. Plans for travel have been postponed. So, being well supplied with books of all kinds, I have been rereading with pleasure some older travel books. One is European Detours (1981), subtitled ‘A travel guide to unusual sights’ –…
Creation Walk: The Amazing Story of a Small Blue Planet by Brian Grogan SJ (Messenger Publications, €9.99) Brian Grogan is a well-known writer and teacher, author of many books. But this new book may well be one of the most effective that he has written some may feel. I have often wondered, reading or listening to…
The cover of Prof. Fr Thomas O’Loughlin’s new book Eating Together, Becoming One (reviewed in our issue of April 2) carries an image that very powerfully evoked themes that the author has explored as an historian and theologian. As a cover image it lost some of its impact as a work of art. In this…
Eating Together, Becoming One: Taking up Pope Francis’s Call to Theologians by Thomas O’Loughlin (Liturgical Press Academic, $US29.95/£19.99; available in several formats, search www.litpress.org.uk; orders@norwichbooksandmusic.co.uk) This is the latest book by well known historian Thomas O’Loughlin, the prominent Irish theologian and liturgist, who was elected president of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain in 2016.…
Food, Feast and Fast: The Christian Era from Ancient World to Environmental Crisis by P. Fintan Lyons OSB (Columba Books, €19.99) Reading Fr Lyons’ title, one’s mind turns back at once to Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream of seven fat and seven lean cows, and seven ears of corn ripely full, and seven ears thin and…