To Trust and to Love

I have reviewed a number of books by Michael Mayne over the years and he is one of the most authentic modern Christian voices, a man of wide sympathies, great erudition and clarity of thought. This book is a collection of sermons and addresses given mainly in the last 15 years of his life. Most of the 40 pieces address themes from within the Christian calendar and are therefore expositions of seasonal reflections. They mix vivid depictions of personal experience with comments on current affairs woven into scriptural references. They are beautifully crafted and can be read gradually. If God revels in diversity, Mayne defines the essence of sin as the heresy of individualism, when we act as self-contained units, forgetting that the very essence of being a person is in relating to others.