DEVOUT SCEPTICS
Conversations on faith and doubt
With Bel Mooney
Hodder & Stoughton/BBC
192 pages. £10.99
ISBN 0 340 86202 5
Radio 4's series Devout Sceptics presented by Bel Mooney had distinguished guests discussing the spiritual territory in their lives. This book brings some of those radio conversations to the printed page.
The conversations took place between 1993 and 2002. Twenty famous people are included, ten male and ten female. They tend to be authors, politicians and broadcasters. It does not make an encouraging read for the evangelical Christian. If there is one theme that persists throughout it is the contemporary suspicion of organised religion. Although the New Age approach is frequently derided in these pages, nevertheless every guest pursues their own form of 'pick and mix' spirituality.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …