Stephen Cherry

A serious and in-depth consideration of The Lord's Prayer, challenging us to think more deeply about words we (Christians, that is) know so well - perhaps too well. The blurb calls it "this most accessible book", but that's misleading; most readers will come across people and ideas from recent and ancient history that are unfamiliar. For example I had to look up Gregory of Nyssa to see who he (fourth century) was and what he was about, particularly as the author's conclusions (based on show more quotes from Nyssa) didn't quite gell with me. It seems to me that Stephen Cherry had rather cherry-picked a few sentences from Nyssa and quoted them out of context.
There are several passages where the author seems to have put up some straw men only in order to knock them down. For example, we get reminded that for a few years in the 1970s the CofE tried changing "temptation" to "the time of trial" or "the test", cited as part of an argument that in teaching his followers this prayer, Jesus wasn't really suggesting that unless we pray, God will give us a hard time. I remember the fuss about this, but for most people - even for many Christians - it's unknown history.
An aspect I wanted to debate with the author is his apparent dislike of the word "sin". My own - perhaps too facile - interpretation of "lead us not into temptation" is "help me to resist the temptation of sinful thoughts and sinful actions". Untill reading the book it hadn't occurred to me that God might go out of His way to tempt me by deliberately providing opportunities for sin. Cherry has a whole section titled "The trouble with sin", which turns out to mean Stephen's perception that 'sin' is no longer a useful word - perhaps no longer a valid word. I could give other examples of what seemed to me "straw man" evidence and conclusions - suggesting that Cherry has an opinion and has sought relevant evidence to support it.
All that aside, it's a good read, especially if you like to have your thinking challenged. Glad I bought it. show less

One of the most profound challenges a human being can ever face is how to forgive in the aftermath of injury, hurt or violation. Healing Agony explores the theology of forgiveness alongside a number of contemporary forgiveness stories in order to glean insights for those facing just this challenge. While God's forgiveness is revealed to be a simpler matter than is sometimes imagined, forgiveness between human beings is shown to be far more difficult, enigmatic and open-ended. This book show more offers a map of the rugged terrain that victims of serious harm, or those who seek to accompany them, will need to navigate if they embark on the venture of trust we call forgiveness. show less