Peter Holmes has written here ‘a book of several strands’ (p. 7), focused on the ministry of Christ Church, Deal (CCD). Written first as a PhD dissertation, the strands Holmes draws together here are four that he calls: his personal narrative; his confessional narrative (drawn mostly from his lay clinical pastoral experience); his interaction with the MPhil research of Susan Williams (another member of CCD) which also focused on CCD; and his academic reflection on these first three strands in multidisciplinary ways. He says, ‘I do not seek to separate out these four distinct features in the writing of this book, preferring instead to move between them in an intuitive, or naturalistic way, as better reflecting my own narrative experience’ (p. 8). Herein lies the contribution and the problem of the book.

To do what Holmes intends seems a worthy but nearly impossible goal. Understanding this, he asks in advance for ‘grace’, especially from his theological readers (p. 9). This can be readily granted in relation to his purpose. However, the most difficult part of the book is the way Holmes intertwines references and observations, on so many levels and from so many angles it makes following his argument difficult and unsatisfying. Further, he does this with language that can be awkward, and sometimes opaque. I wanted to understand but was frequently unable to follow or evaluate his argument because the layers of fact, opinion, experience and argument seemed to be heaped up rather than laid out for the reader. The image he uses several times is that he is trying to offer a ‘landscape’ of issues. Fair enough, but when the reader is expected to hold multiple perspectives on that landscape all at one time, in ways which seem sometimes randomly offered, the landscape falls out of focus.

The primary concerns of the book are of enormous importance: how is the contemporary church to understand theologically the nature of our humanity, the depth of our need, the means and process of our healing and the wholeness towards which God seeks to take us? These are matters of extreme importance and there are places of insight in this book that are very useful, especially about community. In the commendable desire for synthesis, some interesting issues and disciplines converge. However, Holmes has not offered enough clear analysis to show how various ideas and arguments actually relate to one another to sustain this reader's confidence. Holmes' approach might make for a very interesting conversation, but it makes for a frustrating book. He might say this just reflects the integrative challenge that human beings, not least disciples of Jesus Christ, face in our real lives. If so, I wish the book had sorted the problem more clearly, so that the elements of its hope could be understood more constructively.