Books

Recent serious scandals and suspicion prevalent in our culture have made people more cautious about close intergenerational friendships. The church, therefore, needs to lead the way in seeing friendship transformed into something safe, life-giving and Christlike. This book offers lessons on friendship from biblical characters as well as my own relationship with John Stott, to make the case for the value of Paul-Timothy friendships in the church today.

Life’s a marathon with many highs and lows along the way. As we approach retirement we transition into a new stage of our race, presenting us with a range of possibilities and pitfalls to navigate. In this short book I try to invite Christians to think through how we can approach the next stages of life well: moving from work to retirement, then independence to dependency, and finally from life to death.

I have written a chapter for an excellent book called Protestant Social Teaching on death and dying. The book attempts to mine the neglected Protestant tradition to draw out a consistent ethic on social issues, on everything from just war and taxation to marriage and the environment. My chapter considers theological approaches to death from the medieval and Reformation era church and how we might apply this today.

The last decade has seen dramatic advances in artificial intelligence and robotics technology, raising tough questions that need to be addressed. Co-edited by me, The Robot Will See You Now considers how Christians can respond to these issues – and flourish – in the years ahead. We’ve gathered a excellent array of writers, theologians and experts who explore a wide range of social and ethical concerns raised by the coming AI revolution.

During the first lockdown I contributed a chapter to a book, Healthy Faith and the Coronavirus Crisis, which considers the sad reality that the pandemic will result in many more people seeing a loved one die. Entitled ‘On Dying Well; Reflections of a Christian Medic’, the chapter seeks to offer some guidance for those navigating this terrible time.

This is a companion volume to Right To Die?, written for a person who is facing the diagnosis of a terminal illness and for relatives and carers. It provides practical resources from both a medical and a Christian pastoral perspective on how to approach the last months, weeks and days of one’s life. My conviction is that dying can be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for fulfilling dreams, healing relationships, leaving a personal legacy and encouraging others.

In this short book I try to navigate the arguments around euthanasia engaging both hearts and heads, and above all the Biblical narrative. There are practical and compassionate alternatives to assisted suicide and, as many who have gone before us have found, the end of our lives on this earth may turn out to be a strange and wonderful opportunity for growth and healing.

My first book explores a range of ethical dilemmas from the beginning and end of life: abortion, genetics, foetal screening, reproductive technology, physician-assisted suicide and many more. Writing out of a deep conviction that the Bible’s view of our humanness points a way forward, I try to suggest how healthcare professionals, churches and individuals can respond to some of the most difficult challenges in medicine.

I have also uploaded my own short reviews of influential and significant books by other writers who are grappling with medical ethics, advances in technology and the interplay between science and faith.