The Christian outlook in its many aspects

Rainbows and Windmills

by Peter Tarleton Stewart

(Columba Books, €14.99/£13.99)

Peter Tarleton Stewart retired two years ago after 46 years as an active Anglican pastor and parish priest. From those long years of widely spread and varied experience not only among his parishioners, but also with students, the sick and imprisoned, he has seen many aspects of life, and attempted as best he could to present the Christian outlook as he understood it from his life to those who must often have felt alienated from it.

In this book he talks about a person-centred Church, one less dependent or not dependent on doctrinal matters – after all these are mainly of interest to theologians and not much to the parents with a sick child.

As well as his own life experiences to which he has given much thought, he also draws on a range of writers not often thought of as “Christian” but who are deeply engaged with the interpenetration of the spiritual and the material. Readers following up his sources will be led into many curious places.

One aspect which many will feel needs to be emphasised is the outdated view of the real nature of the world. We cannot approach the problems facing us today when those running the Church shy away from engagement through ever evolving scientific understanding of it.

This is the real world, and modern spirituality should live in the light of its insights. One of those facts that always gives me pause for thought is how blithely so many Christians never give a thought to the sobering estimated age of the universe, but continue to think in the “Mosaic” model (as it was once called) outlined in Genesis.

This book is filled with insights clearly, if vigorously expressed. It is the kind of book to which readers will have to bring their own experiences. It will repay rereading, in the way only a few books do these days.

You can purchase Peter Tarleton Stewart’s Rainbows & Windmills published by Columba Books here.