Reviews

In this issue we have reviews from two members of the RE Today team who have clearly made good use of lockdown time for some significant reading. Lat Blaylock’s review of James W. Sire’s book on philosophical...

Who said, ‘One swallow does not make a summer’? Answer: Aristotle in 340 BCE. Everyone loves a good quote, and as I read Deep Thought by Gary Cox, reviewed below, I thought about my much-missed friend and...

As the Keane song goes: ‘Everybody’s changing ...’ Everything changes. At school in the 1960s I studied Scripture. The sign on the door of the room in Goldsmith’s College where I learned about Contemporary...

(Sandstone 2013), 371pp, paperback, £8.99, ISBN 978-1-908737-43-4. Reading this first novel by Eve Harris took me back to the time when, as a youngish teacher, I began to be interested in the world of Hassidic Jewry and...

(Jessica Kingsley 2014), 176pp, paperback, £14.99, ISBN 978-1-84905-413-3.

Janet Dyson, Reviews Editor The two reviews in this edition will be of particular interest to those involved in teaching and research, and to teachers and students of philosophy. In the first review, Geoff Teece commends...

Janet Dyson, Reviews Editor Of the three books reviewed here two will certainly challenge those interested in theological, social, cultural and spiritual inquiry. First, Ed Pawson’s review of Danish writer and teacher...

Three significant books are reviewed in this edition. Julia Diamond-Conway has explored the elusive nature of religious literacy in her review of Religious Literacy in Policy and Practice, edited by Dinham and Francis,...

Both of the reviewers in this issue have urged us, as professionals involved in RE, to make time for our own reading, going beyond texts we are obliged to read to explore those that provoke us to think more widely and...

Julian Stern, Loneliness and Solitude in Education: How to Value Individuality and Create an Enstatic School (Peter Lang 2014), 214pp, paperback, £42, ISBN 9783034317337. In an age where we seem obsessed with students...

Mona Siddiqui, My Way: A Muslim Woman’s Journey (I B Taurus 2015), 222pp, hardback, £20.00, ISBN 9781780769349.  This fine book, one of a large number written by this well-known British Muslim scholar and...

Research project on English secondary RE teachers’ views on and experiences of the teaching of non-religious worldviews

Janet Dyson, Reviews Editor As so often happens, I found both of these reviews made me want to know more about the books and their authors. Bill Gent’s wide-ranging reading frequently introduces us to books we might...

On these pages I regularly invite readers and colleagues to share their views about books they have enjoyed. Julie Grove has responded with a review of a book by Mark Oakley – theologian, poet, broadcaster, Dean of...

The two publications reviewed here are of particular value to teachers of RE and those involved in teacher education. Julia Diamond-Conway explores and critiques an exciting approach to developing a pedagogy for teaching...

Janet Dyson, Reviews Editor The two books reviewed below deal with very different subject matter but both are highly relevant for teachers and school leaders. Mark Plater reviews the findings of an important research...

There are occasions when a book warrants the attention and space for a deeper review. Here, Bill Gent provides a critical overview of a book that brings together the writings of a significant scholar in the fields of...

Is it possible to do justice to a subject as diverse as the history of religion in fewer than 250 pages? Can it really be more than the ‘Cook’s Tour’ of religions that good religious educators aim to avoid? Who...

As I read the reviews below I was reminded of the writings of philosopher Maria Lugones¹ and her use of the metaphor of ‘worldtravelling’. She describes how by travelling to the ‘worlds’ of others we can...

It’s important to give time and space for books that are controversial and thought-provoking. Both the reviews below concern writers who have challenged some well-established theological assumptions, offering...