Reviews Articles
Environmental Ethics: A very short introduction 
by Robin Attfield
This very readable book is a survey of the wide range of questions that faces anyone who thinks seriously about our environment and the future of the planet.
The House of Islam: A global history 
by Ed Husain
It is hard to imagine a better book than this about the current state of Islam, and what could be done to better its prospects. Its author was in born in London to Muslim immigrants from India. As a teenager, he became a part of international Muslim radicalism, which he...
Steven Crisp and Gertrude: Quaker Travelling Ministers by Rosalind Thomas
The stories we inherit about the genesis of new religious movements tend to focus on the role of one or two dominant characters. These become regarded as founding figures. But for every George Fox and Margaret Fell, there are always many other influential individuals whose faithful ministry and steadfast witness...
The Four Horsemen: The discussion that sparked an atheist revolution
In 2007 Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens – the ‘four horsemen’ of new atheism – sat around a table and recorded a two-hour conversation. This recent book is the transcript of that recording, with brief introductory essays by the three still living (Hitchens has died) and a foreword by...
‘What do Quakers believe?’ by Geoffrey Durham
We British Quakers make things difficult for ourselves when communicating our faith. The reasons why have been obvious from my first days attending. We celebrate not having a creed, but this complicates any quick, coherent attempt to explain our ways; we view all statements of Quaker belief with fault-finding suspicion....
‘Strangers’ by The Young’uns
I love our Quaker phrase ‘that of God’. It’s small and beautiful, and knows its limits. It gestures towards something beyond words. We use it as currency for the inexpressible yet collectively understood. We often think of it in terms of seeing it in another individual, but what does â€...
‘Our Child of the Stars’ by Stephen Cox
What do you do when you have to choose between an alien child and your government? Molly and Gene, the married couple at the heart of this warm and engaging novel, are already suspicious of their government – they’re pacifists in the US during the draft and the cold war –...
‘Corporate Citizenship: The role of companies as citizens of the modern world’ by David Logan
This is a robust personal memoir that was born from a lecture that its Quaker author, David Logan, gave to young people joining Corporate Citizenship, a global consultancy that helps businesses find their place in society. Several of the young people said, ‘You should write a book,’ so he did....
Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
Robert Wright has taught psychology and religion at prestigious universities. His motivation here is to overcome, or at least erode, the psychology of tribalism – the tendency to define ourselves by our opposition to some other group. He writes that now we are on the verge of a global community, we...
‘Telling the Truth About God’ by Rhiannon Grant
Everyone does theology. Each of us has an understanding of what God is or is not, and for Quakers that begins with our experience. We value our meetings and the experiences we have there, which we might call ‘spiritual’. This is a direct experience, without a priest, and traditions may...