AS I read this resolute cry for justice by Stef Benstead, I began imagining myself as a civil servant and churchgoer, perhaps at one of the large Evangelical churches in central London, desperate to bring other members of the congregation around to the idea that our faith really should move us to work for justice.

From this standpoint, Benstead’s book is a godsend: it could easily be used as a springboard for a Bible study or preaching series on justice in the Hebrew Bible. Perhaps, with this book, my civil-servant character might help their fellow congregants to become more engaged citizens, to demand better from their leaders, or become more just leaders themselves.

Benstead’s argument is simple, but detailed: Christians should not be catching up with society on issues of justice. Scripture is more than enough of a mandate for caring for the most vulnerable in society, interrogating our relationship with wealth, and having higher standards for our political, social, and economic landscape.

Social action, Benstead argues, is not the preserve of “works-based salvation”, which she identifies with Catholic thought and practice. It is an essential part of a whole life of worship, and thoroughly Evangelical in its character. The Christian faith, she concludes, is about bringing each and every part of our lives in line with God’s will and character.

I admit that I am not an evangelical, nor a civil servant; as a progressive Anglo-Catholic priest, I come from a very different theological standpoint from Benstead’s, and would have questions about her hermeneutics, and some of her subsequent ethical assumptions about how God’s people ought to order their lives.

She has left me wondering, though: how might I use the language and resources of my tradition to equip the people in my congregations better to do justice as part of their offering to God? I may draw from different methods and sources, but I hope that the author and I might one day work together.

The Revd Molly Boot is an assistant curate in the Leadon Vale Benefice in the diocese of Gloucester.

Just Worship: Worshipping God by living just lives
Stef Benstead
DLT £14.99
978-1-915412-71-3
Church Times Bookshop £13.49