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…
The World of Books by the Books Editor This year we are celebrating Easter in a time of trial. With so many of us being isolated, or rather ‘cocooned’ we have to celebrate much as the very early Christians did, just within the family circle – and indeed as Jews today still celebrate the…
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (William Collins, £12.99/€18.19) This is a famous book of apologetics which is splendid to see back again in the shops. Mere Christianity is a collection of three books: Broadcast Talks (1942), Christian Behaviour (1943) and Beyond Personality (1944). These in turn were printed versions of a series of talks on Christian…
Early Irish Saints by John J. Ó Ríordáin (Columba Books, €12.99) When people talk in general about the saints of early Christian Ireland, that is those three or four centuries after St Patrick, they often emphasise their travels across Europe, adding in as an extra measure some comments on the relevance of this to the…
Mainly About Books by the Books Editor Back in January, Steve Green, the billionaire founder with his family of the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC, issued a book he had co-authored. It is called This Beautiful Book (Zondervan, £18.99), one of a series he is devoting to his main interest in life…
Coping with Coronavirus: How to stay calm and protect your mental health A psychological toolkit Dr Brendan Kelly (Merrion Press, eBook €0.99; audio book in preparation) Dr Kelly, professor of psychiatry at Trinity College, suggested this book to his publisher and within five days he had a text prepared, and a week later they had…
River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey Sister Helen Prejean (Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99) Helen Prejean is the well known author of that massive success as book, film, and even opera, Dead Man Walking (1993). She is one of the most powerful advocates for the abolition of the death penalty, not just in the US, but…
A History of Ireland in International Relations by Owen McGee (Irish Academic Press, €24.95/£21.99 In this book the author takes up the challenge of the late Garret FitzGerald to future historians that “the international economic context behind Irish political history” should be “fully integrated into the narrative of both the Irish state and its international relations”.…
Mainly About Books by the Books Editor In times of crisis it’s natural that people should look to their Faith for reassurance. During the days of the ‘mad cow disease’ (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) the prayer in time of plague associated with St Roch was much sought. Now, with a new kind of plague striking fear into…
A selection of books for Easter by the Books Editor This year, as Eastertide approaches, our society is faced with the uncertain outcome of what would once have been seen as a plague. These days we try in a way to tame it by calling it a “pandemic”: giving it a scientific name is…
Peter Costello