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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Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas Ricks

If there is anyone who still believes that invading Iraq was a good plan then read this book by the senior Washington Post military correspondent. An excellent comprehensive review in the New York Times says:
“Fiasco” is absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how the United States came to go to war in Iraq, how a bungled occupation fed a ballooning insurgency and how these events will affect the future of the American military. Though other books have depicted aspects of the Iraq war in more intimate and harrowing detail, though other books have broken more news about aspects of the war, this volume gives the reader a lucid, tough-minded overview of this tragic enterprise that stands apart from earlier assessments in terms of simple coherence and scope.

It is a shocking book and all the more so because it is written soberly and based on offical documents and the testimonies of serving personnel.For me it shreds any idea that world leaders and military planners have even half a sense of the long-term consequences of their actions, or even care quite frankly.

Read the editorial and hundreds of customer reviews on the amazon.com page.

See a video of a lecture delivered in August 2007 by the author.

Ciao Asmara by Justin Hill

This is a fascinating, gripping account by a volunteer teacher from York, England who worked in a school in the tiny newly-independent African state of Eritrea during the mid-nineties. He tells the stories of the people he meets, especially those who were fighters in the 30 year long war of independence from Ethiopia.There are harrowing accounts of torture, rape and battle in the period of Ehtiopian occupation and the infamous thirteen-year long Battle of Nakfa. Before Ethiopian plunder Eritrea's capital Asmara was one of the most advanced African cities. Now Eritrea remains a desperately poor country. Intensely proud of their success in winning unaided the war of liberation Hill finds many former fighters struggling to sustain hope in the mundane and grindingly hard life of the peace. Hill notes how badly the natural environment has been ravaged because of the war.
I was attracted to this book because of my own experience as a volunteer teacher in Africa, Kenya in the late 1970s. Hill's descriptions of his classroom experiences rang bells with me. But I was staggered by the intenisty of work expected from teachers in Eritrea where there was a critical shortage of school places. Whereas I had 50 in my classes hill has 75.

Thw Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

American writer Joan Didion's husband, also a writer, suffered a massive heart attack as he sat down to dinner with her one evening. He was probably dead before he hit the floor.They had just returned from a visit to hospital where their daughter, their only child, married a few weeks earlier, was unconscious in an intensive care unit. This is a finely written, profoundly moving and perceptive book about grief from first-hand experience. Didion explores the anatomy of bereavement. She recounts how her thinking was altered by her this loss - it became other than rational - hence the title. The desire to have the loved one return again is overpowering. A must read for all bereavement counsellors.

The Threat to Reason: how the Enlightenment was hijacked and how we can reclaim it by Dan Hind

Using a philosophical approach this book shows how urgent it is that informed citizens use their expertise and opportunities to find out what is really going on in the world. Hind wants us to focus attention on the real threats to freedom, from the State and the corporation, which are far more powerfully undermining genuine knowledge than the allegedly irrational religious and mystical or traditional approaches to life which many self-styled modern secularist intellectuals like Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris would have us believe are dangerous. The author's own summary of the theme of the book is here

Chasing Francis: a pilgrim's tale by Ian Morgan Cron

In the form of a contemporary novel this book introduces the value of Saint Francis of Assisi for today's world and church. The story revolves around what happens when the successful pastor of a modern middle-American megachurch realises his faith is empty and takes time out in Italy and discovers the life and teachings of Francis.

The Spiral Staircase: a memoir by Karen Armstrong

This is the autobiography of one of the most acute of contemporary interpreters of religion writing in Britain today.It is well described in the cover notes as an exploration of one woman's painful journey to find herself and claim her place in the world.

Triksta: life and death and New Orleans rap by Nik Cohn

What happens when a middle-aged white male music journalist who's obsessed
with New Orleans sets out to make a rap album. This book takes you deep
into the poverty and struggle of the real pre-Katrina New Orleans behind
the tourist facade. Even if you don't care about or for rap this is still a
gripping read about personal journey across cultures. If you do want to
know more about rap Cohn's stories of the rappers he works with help to
explain what gangsta is all about. There is a final chapter added to the
paperback edition after Hurricane Katrina with personal inside stories of
what happened and his own return after the flood. Rap lives on but the New
Orleans he both hated and loved - the old quarters with their rich street
culture and family networks is gone forever. Yet sadly the gangs with the
drugs and the guns are returning because where else will have them.

Fateless by Imre Kertesz trans from Hungarian by Tim Wilkinson

An astonishing book. The story of a fourteen year old Hungarian Jew
imprisoned in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Narrated as seen through the eyes
of this teenager it brings a deeply realistic perspective of one who
genuinely lived through the experience, made all the more chilling by the
innocence of the childl's way of thinking.

Authenticity by Deidre Madden

This is a very accomplished novel abour artists, about relationships, about
life generally, but perhaps most of all an examination of the dynamics of
both loss and redemption, what may be redeemed and what may not be.
Roderic, a middle-aged abstract painter successful in his work but at the
cost of his family life and his personal equilibrium meets Julia a
struggling young artist twenty years his junior, who also becomes
strangely attached to a wealthhy businessman in need of her help. The
story ranges across the lives of these three intermeshed characters for all
of whom art and the artistic passion is central and family relationships
are complex.

The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton

I have come to this bestseller rather later than most people. I picked it
up for a few pence at a school fete a few weeks ago and decided it might be
a good read for the plane on the way to Greece this summer. I read finished
it a couple of days into the holiday. What I hadn't realised from earlier
reviews was that this is a book about the arts as well as about travel.
Botton looks at how a variety of artists and writers have treated travel
and the sense of place in their works. He covers amongst others Baudelaire,
Edward Hopper, Flaubert, Wordsworth, the Book of Job, Vinccent van Gogh,
and John Ruskin. It is a meditation on the lure of travel, what we hope for
from it, and the nature of paying attention which links the artistic
endeavour and travel. I found it a very thought- provoking and satisfying
read.

Mission-Shaped Spirituality:the transforming power of mission

Sue Hope writes out of her experiences and those of others about moving church life and ministry from the "come" to the "go" mode. The Church of England has been used to being a settled church but now it needs to go out in mission to its own community. This sounds daunting but in fact has the potential to transform the lives of churches, communities, and Christians. She uses stories from her own ministry and other stories too to testify to this.

A History of Modern Britain

Andrew Marr's A History of Modern Britain ( Macmillan 2007) has a memorable opening chapter - Prologue - which I believe will in itself become one of the key quoted texts of future historians writing about how early 21st Britons understood the momentous transition the country had undergone at the end of its Empire. It is a wonderfully written essay. I look forward to the rest of the book.

Al-Qaeda: The true story of radical Islam

Al-Qaeda: The true story of radical Islam by Jason Burke (revised edition Penguin Books 2004)
An extremely detailed account of the rise of modern Islamic jihadism and analysis of the role of Osama bin Laden and a whole host of other militant activists.Burke describes the changes and developments in Islamic militancy over the last 25 years including the build-up to 9/11 and its aftermath. He puts bin Laden in context showing both his influence and the limits of his influence. The book is not an easy read because of the sheer volume of detail. I find Arabic names difficult to hold in memory during reading. Also the narrative is not linear but moves backwards and forwards over the period. Nonetheless it is a tour de force by a superior journalist who was there when many of these events happened and who has interviewed some of the key characters. This book shows that simplistic analysis of Islamic jihadism is not enough; that there is an increasingly widespead global hostility towards "the West" amongst alienated Muslims in many parts of the world which cannot be ignored; but that the way for the West to counter this threat ultimately is not to further alienate the Islamic world through the use of the military option but rather to tackle the social and economic poverty of the Middle East in particular and to build common cause with the vast majority of Muslims who eschew violence.