IN THIS follow-up to his 2021 Advent companion, Gregory Cameron offers 25 reflections on characters from the Passiontide and Easter story, rounding up not only the usual suspects, but bit-players like Claudia Procula (Pilate’s wife), Longinus the soldier, and the donkey’s foal.

Once again, the author’s distinctive approach is to look at each character “through the lens of the Bible, history, tradition and faith”, and each chapter is headed by one of his own attractive illustrations, adapted from examples of Christian art across the centuries, and a reminder that the Bishop of St Asaph is also a notable heraldic artist and coin designer.

He concisely sets his characters in their biblical context, brings in some historical sidelights, then reminds us, more unusually, of the afterlife of his subjects in the Church’s tradition, and not least in pious legend. As he coyly assures us, “That’s the lovely thing about Christian tradition — we can never be quite sure that its core is false.”

© gregory k. cameron 2022Mary and Martha, in one of the illustrations from the book

When it comes to the lens of faith, Cameron draws out lines for devotional thought, without straining to be original or startlingly contemporary, and distils his theme into each chapter’s concluding prayer.

This nicely designed little volume is not one of those Lent books that set out to land a spiritual punch, but to provide us with a well-informed, wise, and gentle seasonal companion. The Church Times, which serialised the Advent volume, receives a credit for soundly refocusing his third lens from “legend” to “tradition.”

The Revd Philip Welsh is a retired priest in the diocese of London.

An Easter Book of Days: Meeting the characters of the cross and resurrection
Gregory K. Cameron
Canterbury Press £10.99
(978-1-78622-460-6)
Church Times Bookshop £8.99