James Woodward

Book Review: Recognising Spiritual Needs in People Who Are DyingRecognising Spiritual Needs in People Who Are Dying, StanworthRachel (OUP2004), xvi + 255 pp, £24.95 pbk

dynamics make such analysis dated in its simplicity. Nevertheless, Grainger provides a helpful psycho-social analysis of how the gap between church and wider society has come about, and he does this through his ability to enter into the mind and motivation of those who believe but don’t belong. Ultimately, Grainger resorts to exhorting the church to ‘loosen-up’ in order to engage on the terms of those who struggle to embrace Christian orthodoxy. And here is the rub: in joining the growing band of commentators who urge the church to be different but fail to suggest how, Grainger risks promoting the very psychopathology that he diagnoses as already infecting the church.

Book Review: Dying and Grieving: A Guide to Pastoral MinistryDying and Grieving: A Guide to Pastoral Ministry, BillingsAlan (SPCK2002), 166 pp, £12.99 pbk

Billings is both a clear and incisive thinker and an experienced priest and pastor. Both of these qualities are evident in the text of this excellent book. Aimed at those engaged in or training for funeral ministry, the book outlines a sense of how the place of religion, the nature of the funeral service and patterns of dying mourning and grieving have changed in Britain over the past fifty years. It also offers some pointers to good practice for today. The text is well organized into three parts. Part one explores the place of religion in contemporary society and offers some thoughts about what Christianity can say about death. Part two reflects on the recent past and asks what has changed in respect of the way we die: the way we understand death and conduct funerals and the way we mourn and grieve. Billings draws out trends in this overview. Finally, in the light of parts one and two, part three looks at the nature of pastoral care and how we should both conduct a funeral and offer pastoral care to the bereaved. There are helpful pointers to further thought and discussion at the end of each chapter.

Practical Theology In ActionPractical Theology In Action:, Christian Thinking in the Service of Church and Society, BallardPaul and PritchardJohn (SPCK1996), 186 pp, £11.99 pbk: Christian Thinking in the Service of Church and Society

This widely-used student text has been extremely successful in the past 8 years. It offers a basic introduction to all those who need to apply Christian thinking to the service of Church and society. The alterations in the new edition are minor, but academically significant - a new chapter has been added on inner city issues, which covers a wide range of more recent issues: post-modernism, pluralism, the new spirituality, emergence of congregational studies, stress on mission, Black theology and charismatic theology.