The Path of the Pilgrim: An introduction to Celtic Spirituality for everyone by Elizabeth Ruth Obbard (New City, £7.50 (£6.75); 978-1-905039-69-2)

“Most of what is contained in this book was written many years after the lives chronicled by the writers had passed into history and myth. Yet that reality lives on and is finding new life in a world that longs for community, simplicity, and a way of life that treats daily life and the environment not as an optional extra but as integral to a genuine life of the spirit.”

American Hope: What Pope Leo XIV means for the church and the world by Christopher Lamb (Headline Press, £25 (£22.50); 978-1-03-544057-3)

“As white smoke signalled a new pope had been chosen on the evening of May 8, 2025, Robert Prevost went from being a relatively unknown cardinal to one of the most famous people on earth, the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. In American Hope CNN’s Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb explores what the election of Pope Leo means not just for the Catholic Church, but for the world.”

Ancient Christianities: The first five hundred years by Paula Fredriksen (Princeton University Press, £16.99 (£15.29); 978-0-691-26641-1). New in paperback

“In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople. It is a story with a sprawling cast of characters: not only theologians, bishops, and emperors, but also gods and demons, angels and magicians, astrologers and ascetics, saints and heretics, aristocratic patrons and millenarian enthusiasts. All played their part in the development of what became and remains an energetically diverse biblical religion.”

Selected by Frank Nugent, of the Church House Bookshop, which operates the Church Times Bookshop.