Archaeology of Jesus’ Nazareth Ken Dark OUP, £25, 168 pages This book reveals what archaeology can add to historical evidence about the Galilean village in which, according to St Luke, the Angel Gabriel foretold the coming of Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Ken Dark focuses on the 19th-century convent of an order of nuns called the Sisters of Nazareth, which stood over what they believed to be earlier ecclesiastical buildings, and possibly the tomb of St Joseph or the house in which Jesus grew up. To bear out this theory, the Mother Superior, Marie Giraud, initiated one of the first archaeo ..read more

Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning  Nigel Biggar William Collins, £25, 480 pages  Nigel Biggar’s Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning must rank as one of the most controversial books published this year. So contentious that its existence was temporarily uncertain after Biggar’s original publisher cancelled his contract, citing unfavourable “public feeling”. The greater controversy should be why a book by an Oxford theologian, which is at once reasonable, balanced and respectful, should have proven so provocative. Biggar’s book is not a chronological history of the British Empire but a moral as ..read more

Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis John T McGreevy  WW Norton & Co, £22.99, 528 pages The global history of Catholicism in the 234 years since the cataclysm of the French Revolution is a big subject and this is a big book, taking in the Catholic Church’s development and influence over a period of more than two centuries. The book traces the journey from 1789 to the present day and explores how it has charted a course through the challenges posed by modernity, colonialism, post-colonialism and issues of social justice. John T McGreevy uses a themat ..read more

Tell Me Good Things:  On Love, Death and Marriage  James Runcie  Bloomsbury, £12.99, 224 pages Marilyn Imrie died in August 2020, five months and 22 days after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease. In this book written by her husband, James Runcie, we are given an intimate, generous glimpse into who Marilyn was, what it was like to know her, fall in love with her, share a 35 year marriage with her, navigate a terminal illness and impending death with her, and ultimately to lose her. In spite of this – no, because of this – the book is packed with lively dialogue, comedy, c ..read more

Æthelgifu: First Saxon Abbess Deborah M Jones Independently published, £7.99, 188 pages Recent years have seen the royal women of Anglo-Saxon England surge to prominence in a series of significant archaeological and codicological discoveries. In December 2022, researchers at the Bodleian Library in Oxford used new photographic scanning technology to reveal the name of St Eadburg, Abbess of Minster-in-Thanet, written 15 times in a manuscript that is now believed to have been written in her own hand.  That same month, archaeologists announced the discovery of an early Christian bed burial a ..read more

Nick Ripatrazone considers the deep, spiritually introspective words of an award-winning poet who worked with grieving children. In Arlington, Massachusetts, the Centre for Grieving Children and Teenagers had an operating principle: “Being with others who have experienced a death reduces isolation and can provide hope.” In 2004, the centre’s programme director noted that one particular facilitator for children aged 7, 8 and 9 was well-liked because he shared “his own compassion, his life experiences”, but in a “gentle, quiet way” – the only way to console young children who live with profound ..read more

Shaun Blanchard reflects on the ‘Very Short Introduction’ to Vatican II. A few years ago, in those halcyon days before the pandemic, I sat down in an Oxfordshire pub with Stephen Bullivant to draft a prop-osal for a volume on Vatican II for OUP’s Very Short Introduction (VSI) series. Much of that day saw pitched battle between the angels and devils perched on our shoulders (the celestial took the form of unlimited esp-ressos; the diabolic, pints and fried chicken burgers). I am not English, though despite my best efforts and the fervent prayers of my Irish grandmother, I have become something ..read more

Mary Magdalene: A Cultural History Philip C Almond Cambridge University Press, £30, 386 pages ‘Will the real Mary Magdalene please stand up?” That question might be said to underlie Philip Almond’s new reception history of one of the New Testament’s most represented, and most contested, figures. At the heart of Mary’s story lies a paradox. We know almost nothing about her for certain – the canonical Gospels say little – yet, as Almond observes, “this very paucity of information made possible and necessary the construction within Christianity of a variety of ‘lives’ of Mary Magdalene”. Of the f ..read more

Enough: Scenes from Childhood Stephen Hough Faber & Faber, £18.99, 272 pages In this cautiously loving book we are drawn deeply into Stephen Hough’s life, both inner and outer, in charming, sad, hilarious and, at one point, eye-watering detail. There is a sense of sharing which invites us into a world which some will remember, while readers younger than the author may sympathise or wonder at some of the memories stirred and offered. We hear of friendships, enmities, loves, frustrations: all those things which help draw the star closer to us, and we can appreciate the nearer warmth and ligh ..read more

A Guide to John Henry Newman: His Life and Thought Juan R Vélez (ed) Catholic University of America Press,$75, 448 pages Just when you thought all the books about John Henry Newman had been written, along comes this enormous offering from Fr Juan Vélez: huge in scope and in the breadth of its contributors, who come from the US, UK, France, Spain, Australia and Macao. Fr Vélez makes a point of noting in his introduction that the purpose of the essays is “to advance scholarship on Newman in keeping with his well-deserved place of honour” – which is to say his relatively new status as a canonised ..read more