Five Events That Made Christianity

Jesus was a pest to the Romans and a threat to the religious leadership, so they hung him out like so much refuse. Little did they realize that it was like trying to put out a fire with petrol. The whole world exploded.With characteristic style, John Pritchard takes us on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, as he unpacks the five great events that made Christianity – Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. We explore: `What happened?’`What did it mean?’`What does it mean for us?’ Absorbing, immediate and full of stories, this volume offers deeply considered theology, brilliantly communicated to connect with life as we actually experience it.

Vividly elucidates the familiar but often not-quite-understood beliefs at the centre of the Christian faith., Some books are worth their weight in gold: this is one such. John Pritchard has a great gift of finding words that go deep, that affect the spirit, that touch with freshness., [On Living Faithfully] This is a very good book by an exceptional leader. John Pritchard puts himself into what he writes, and the result is accessible, encouraging and fun, with a steel core that not only makes one think but takes one back to the face of Christ and the realities of Christian discipleship. John is never cheaply comfortable but always reassuringly real. I am very glad to have read Living Faithfully., Wise, honest and realistic, Living Faithfully joins the dots in a lively and compelling way between the core of Christian teaching and contemporary human experience., [On God Lost and Found] This is an unusually honest book. Its analysis is plain-spoken and compassionate, and what Bishop John has to say about finding ways to live constructively with times of emptiness is superbly well focused. You'll emerge from reading this with – probably – relief that a widespread set of challenges has been so sensitively identified and – certainly – with gratitude for sensible, durable advice on how to go on making friends with the mystery we can never digest or contain.

THE RT REVD JOHN PRITCHARD is a retired Bishop of Oxford. He was Bishop of Jarrow and, before that, Archdeacon of Canterbury. He has written many books for SPCK.