This is an excellent book which seeks to serve as a reader or introduction to rural church issues. The editors are experts in rural thinking and strategy. Professor Leslie Francis has been involved with the Rural Theology Association (RTA) for many years and has served as its President. He has researched numerous aspects of rural church life either by himself or in association with others. Mandy Robbins is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Glyndŵr University and has also served as an officer with the RTA. She likewise has extensively researched rural theology. So these editors are especially knowledgeable about the subject matter of this volume.

In 2002 the RTA was invited to start a peer-reviewed journal called Rural Theology, which has been successful and now has over 600 subscribers. In 2012, when the journal was ten years old, Leslie and Mandy selected the best of the articles which had been published in the journal and put them together in order to provide a broad overview of rural theology. This is the book of these selections.

The editors have broken down the broad subject of rural theology into nine areas:

• • Perspectives from the Bible

• • Perspectives from ordinary theology

• • Theological and sociological perspectives

• • Historical perspectives

• • Listening to visitors

• • Listening to the community

• • Listening to churchgoers

• • Listening to church leaders

• • Satisfaction and stress in ministry

For each of these areas there are three papers (except for history which has four) and these, plus a general overview by Professor Francis, comprise the twenty-nine chapters of the book. Thirty-one different contributors have written these various chapters, some involved in more than one. There is also a fascinating Foreword by the Bishop of Shrewsbury, the Rt Revd Mark Rylands. This is thus a comprehensive picture of an immensely important subject which is worth both reading and keeping.

In the first section, Professor Gareth Lloyd Jones gives a robust defence of Proverbs as part of the Old Testament's Wisdom Literature; Ven Dr Strange an overview of New Testament rural life; Canon Dr Richard France a study on shepherds in the scriptures.

In the second section, Professor Astley looks at what he calls ‘ordinary theology’ (the basis of God-talk by churchgoers and non-churchgoers) and rural theology and concludes with a strong defence of rural ministry. The second chapter looks at the number of visitors in one particular rural church and the comments that they made (by just over half, 54 per cent), largely saying how they felt the church gave feelings of peace, awe and wonder. Dr ap Siôn concludes with an analysis of over 1,000 prayer cards left in a chapel over sixteen months, the prime request (34 per cent) featuring illness.

In the third section, Professor John Drane looks at New Age spirituality and its challenges, Professor Kay reflects on creation via Jurgen Moltmann, and the Bishop of Dudley on what it means to belong to a rural community, demonstrating that geographical belonging still matters.

The fourth section begins with a chapter by Dr Burton giving a case study about the village of Blackshawhead, a community of 845 people in the Pennines with a Methodist chapel at its heart. Dr Lankshear then asks what is different about rural churches with respect to confirmation candidates whose decline is marginally less than in urban areas. Dr Roberts looks in detail at seven rural Anglican dioceses, and concludes that rural Anglicanism has many faces. Finally, Professor Kerry explores the perceptions about rural affairs in the writings of Jean Blathwayt.

The fifth section looks at visitors to country churches in the first chapter, at the place of pilgrims visiting shrines in the second, and the different worlds of pilgrims and secular tourists when visiting a cathedral.

The sixth section focuses on rural communities and what social capital means in different rural churches. It also includes an interesting chapter on festivals in two Pennine villages and how the local Methodists handled this, drawing five conclusions. Professor Mills concludes this section with a chapter on ‘extended communion’ about which the congregation studied had no problems, recognising the isolation of the priest.

The seventh section focuses on rural churchgoers – an analysis of their psychological type (a topic which Leslie Francis has analysed on many occasions) – those attending harvest festivals and volunteer workers in a rural Christian charity shop.

The final two sections focus on leadership, the penultimate section being a study on deployment, an overview of baptism and confirmation views, and the issue of children and communion.

The last section, on satisfaction and stress, includes an analysis by Dr Rutledge on clergy burnout, an exploration by Dr Brewster of the happiness of rural clergy and a final description by Dr and Mrs Rolph on the perceptions of stress of those in rural ministry.

I hope this brief overview gives a flavour of the comprehensiveness, thoroughness and research-based evaluations that this book contains, with many lines of thought, challenges for action and issues to ponder. This is a first-rate collection of papers, for which the editors are to be warmly thanked, and which give an extended and valuable introduction to rural life, rural churches and rural theology.