Fishing in Utopia:Sweden and the Future that Disappeared by Andrew Brown

I've thought about moving to Sweden several times since Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, but since I can't speak the language and learning it wasn't going to happen for me, the idea has remained a wistful fantasy.
There was a Swedish librarian working in Nyeri , Kenya as part of an aid programme, when I was teaching at a rural school nearby in the fateful year of 1979.That was the beginning of the long arc of the ascendancy of neo-liberalism in politics and economics which for a brief moment of naivety I thought might have ended in 1997 with the return of a Labour government but only finally crashed to the ground last year with the near-collapse of the global financial system. The Swedish librarian in Nyeri was fully-funded by her government on a Swedish salary and pension whilst my colleagues and other European and American aid workers we knew in the area were either church-sponsored or in volunteer schemes like Peace Corps, where the rewards were more of an intrinsic nature. Our Swedish friend was in a different league of serious and professional development aid, and for me her presence confirmed the superiority of Sweden's altruistic commitment to world development by comparison with the lacklustre and ultimately self-interested efforts of the British government.

I've never managed to visit Sweden. An Anglican vicar with three children has other spending priorities, and the high prices were a serious deterrent. In 1990 I was drawn sufficiently strongly by the attraction of Scandinavia in general however to acquiesce willing to family clamour to holiday in Denmark which was quite local as were living in Essex at the time. Legoland was the lure for the children's sake -this was before it appeared in Windsor - and cruising on Scandinavian Seaways overnight was the highlight for us the parents. It offered a far better experience than a cross-channel ferry in terms of the facilities for children and not least important the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet of fish, cheeses, egg and cold meats and fresh bread in several varieties of grain. Our first visit was for four nights only, two of them afloat, staying on a Danish farm, eating with the other guests and our hosts around the family table. For all it's brevity it was a truly refreshing holiday and when we returned home we felt like we'd been away for some weeks rather than an extended weekend. On our second visit to Scandinavia - though Denmark again - a year or two later, driving a Swedish Volvo by this time, we hired bicycles and rode up one of the long flat Danish versions of a fjord to see the remains of a Viking burial mound. Scandinavian street furniture with its quality and safety conscious design;and the welcome given to children in cafes and restaurants children re-confirmed our appreciation of the superiority of the social and political culture in Scandinavia. It exposed for us the poverty of the public squalor/private wealth culture that had grown up in Thatcher's Britain and blighted our years of having and raising young children on a limited income, as with each succeeding Thatcher-led government another mainstay of welfare security was removed.
So it was with immediate interest that I landed on Andrew Brown's new book when I spotted it on display in Blackwell at Oxford. Here is an Englishman who actually did move to Sweden, learned the language and lived there as if that was to be his life's future, marrying a Swedish woman and having a child there. But disillusioned both with his family life and with the country as its flaws became more evident and it too began to succumb to the over-whelming force of neo-liberal dogma, Brown left for home, divorced his wife, and developed a career as a journalist and writer. The book recounts also his return journeys to Sweden in more recent years and his rediscovery of a country he never really stopped loving.

It is also a book about fishing. Brown is passionate about this. This is the main drawback of the book for me. If you are interested in fishing there's probably too much about Swedish politics in it for you, and vice versa. It is steeped in melancholy. Feelings of loss are strongly conveyed, from the subtitle onwards. But it is a compelling and lyrical book, well worth reading.

Holding Together: Gospel, Church and Spirit

Holding Together: Gospel,Church and Spirit-the essentials of Christian indentity: Gospel, Church and Spirit - The Essentials of Christian Identity by Christopher J. Cocksworth

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book has an admirable intention. It tries to show that the Scripture, the Church and the Spirit are essential elements of being Christian which all churches must hold together if they are to be true to the core of Christianity. It is aimed especially at the evangelical wing of the church, but it also has challenging things to say to the Catholic wing especially about the place of Scripture.



There are very compelling arguments made , based on biblical and early church evidence. The works of the Protestant Reformers, such as Luther and Calvin are quoted too; and the principal source of evidence for an evangelical appreciation of the Eucharist is the work of John and Charles Wesley.



There is a very good chapter on the role of Mary in Christian spirituality. Whilst it may not persuade convinced believers in the Bodily Assumption or the Immaculate Conception to moderate their adherence to these dogmas; it may persuade evangelicals that they need to give fresh attention to Mary.



The large gap in the book is its failure to bridge the bigger yawning gulf in the Church, which is between the liberals or progressives and the conservatives, be they catholic , evangelical or charismatic. Liberal Christians will definitely be disappointed in this book if they had looked for fresh thinking on how to hold together with conservatives. Barack Obama might have more to offer them on this topic than this book.



Evangelicals and Catholics who are both in their own ways traditional in orientation have lived together in the same house in the Church of England like an old married couple whose love for each other has declined, but have decided its too expensive to get divorced. There are occasional , and sometimes fierce spats over territory, but on the whole they rub along without talking to each other more than they need to. Cocksworth's commendable hope is that they might learn to love one another again, and bring the house back to life.



The fierce arguments however are in the wider Anglican Communion, and especially within the United States, over how binding on the future church are traditional conceptions of Christian identity, personal and communal. So there are conflicts over homosexuality and gender issues.

I don't recall a single reference to homosexuality or women bishops in this book.



Finally the biggest difficulty with the book is its style. It is a very tough read. It can no more be digested in one sitting than a whole Christmas pudding!There is little to lighten the dense concentration of facts and arguments. It might be said that there are ten books in one here. Too much of the prose exposes its origins in theological college lecture or sermon. There is little likelihood that the book will be persevered with by those who might need to hear its message. It could be a useful source for Anglican ordinands in training; though the lack of a subject index limits this.


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The New Atheists by Tina Beattie

The New Atheists by Tina Beattie

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Even though I agree with almost all the substantial points this author makes,I'm still left feeling irritated by it! According to the presuppositions of the book this is probably because I am a white male European! This book is more polemic than debate and some great points are scored. I'm suspicious however of an argument which criticises most responses to new atheism for being too singularly masculine in the rationality of their approach whilst adopting aggressively one-sided denunciations of opponents views in support. This is an author who uses 'all' when she means 'many' and 'many' when she means 'some', and I feel would defend that style as appropriate as indicating the passion involved.

There is a very good book inside this book but for me it loses its ability to influence the readers it needs and presumably seeks to because of its failure to recognise the value of elegance as a form of beauty.


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God's Undertaker: has science buried God by John Lennox

God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? by John Lennox

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is an impressive attempt to show that there is enough scientific evidence to support the belief that the universe has been designed by an intelligent mind. It goes further than some similar books by seeking to demonstrate not only that theism and science are compatible but also that the atheism of many contemporary evolutionary biologists notably represented by Dawkins is not warranted by the arguments they present in support of purely materialistic explanations of the origin of life.


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The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Francis Collins was the head of the Human Genome Project. He is also a practicing Christian.This book is part biographical and part philosophy. It describes how he came to faith from an atheist background and how he does not see this in any way contrary to his work as a scientist.He defends evolutionary biology as compatible with Christian belief and critiques both special creationism and Intelligent Design approaches. He makes a plea for theistic evolution as the way to end the war between science and religion. There is also a helpful appendix on bioethics.


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Why There Almost Certainly is a God by Keith Ward

Why There Almost Certainly Is a God: Doubting Dawkins by Keith Ward

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Keith Ward is one of my all-time favourite theologians. He is entertaining to listen to - full of wit- and his books generally (with the exception of Pascal's Fire) are pacey and a delight to read.



This book is a direct response to Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion. It is one of several books that have emerged from theologians and other Christian thinkers in what has come to be called the "Oxford God Debate".



The book is structured in chapters directly tackling specific chapters in Dawkin's book. It is a short book(155pp)and not overly technical.



Ward's main approach is to tackle Dawkins on metaphysical grounds. He shows how exceptional Dawkins' materialism is in historical terms; and how contestable it is today; both as a metaphysical position and even in terms of science, especially in light of the most recent thinking in physics and cosmology.



Ward's main focus is the question of the reality of consciousness, value and purpose.



The book shows clearly that belief in God is rationally viable.


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Everything Must Change by Brian D. McClaren

Everything Must Change : Jesus, Global Crises, And A Revolution Of Hope by Brian D. McLaren

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
There is a genre of books - often American - written by Christians who have reacted against the conservative version of Christianity with which they grew up. McClaren's book is of that type. What I find fascinating about this genre is that these books frequently express the authors' new convictions with far greater clarity and power than those who have always seen Christianity in that way. It's a case of converts being more zealous than those who are born into the "faith". This book is uncompromising and unequivocal about the total difference between the dominant culture of "Western" capitalism and the values of God's kingdom as expressed in the teaching of Jesus as the author reads them. And so it lays bare the fuzziness and the weakness that has characterised the message and action of so many churches in consumerist society; even churches and Christians who have always eschewed the individualistic piety of conservative Protestants.



This book, if applied in the right places, could be a powerful antidote for churches and Christians which have been rendered ineffective by the dope of religiosity; who are barely awake to the crying needs of the world and obsessed with internal churchy matters.


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