Loving Your Neighbour in an Age of Religious Conflict: A new agenda for interfaith relations by James Walters (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, £16.99 (£15.30); 978-1-78592-563-4).
“Grounded in the author's experience of developing interfaith programmes at one of the world's leading universities, this book carves a fresh perspective on the challenges of religious difference by placing them within the broader currents of belief and scepticism in today's society.”
Face to Face: Meeting Christ in friend and stranger by Samuel Wells (Canterbury Press, £12.99 (£11.70); 978-1-78622-129-2).
“Priests and pastoral caregivers often accompany people who are struggling to negotiate experiences of sickness, bereavement or anxiety. There are no easy answers in such situations, no formulaic remedies, no slick theological explanations. The process of being present, listening and responding is demanding and requires skills and wisdom beyond ministers' own experience. Often, caregivers feel they receive more than they give in such encounters.”
Can Science Explain Everything? by John Lennox (The Good Book Company, £7.99 (£7.20); 978-1-78498-411-3).
“Oxford Maths Professor and Christian believer John Lennox offers a fresh way of thinking about science and Christianity that dispels the common misconceptions about both. He reveals that not only are they not opposed, but they can and must mix to give us a fuller understanding of the universe and the meaning of our existence.”
Angels: A visible and invisible history by Peter Stanford (Hodder & Stoughton, £20 (Church Times SPECIAL OFFER PRICE £16); 978-1-473-62208-1).
“In a 2016 poll, one in 10 Britons claimed to have experienced the presence of an angel, while one in three remain convinced that they have a guardian angel. These are huge numbers and mean that, on some counts, angels are doing better than God.' In the secular, sceptical, post-Christian world of the West, continuing faith in angels is both anomaly and comfort. But what exactly are angels, and why have so many in different times and contexts around the globe believed in them? What is their history and role in the great faiths and beyond their walls? Are angels something real, a manifestation of divine concern? Or part of the poetry of religion? And can they continue to illuminate a deeper truth about human existence and the cosmos?”
Love in Action: Catholic social teaching for every church by Simon Cuff (SCM Press, £15.99 (£14.40); 978-0-334-05793-2).
“Resolutely aimed at those who come from traditions beyond the movement's traditional catholic heartlands but who seek to view their ministry through the lens of generous orthodoxy, "Love in Action" offers a deeply scriptural but accessible introduction to this vital approach to the church's ministry in the world.”
Selected by Frank Nugent, of the Church House Bookshop, which operates the Church Times Bookshop.