Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life

Richard Chartres has a distinctive and original voice - in person and on the printed page. The Bishop of one of the richest dioceses in the world, Chartres is passionately concerned with preaching the Christian Gospel - not through watered down sociology or psychobabble but by conveying the truth of the wisdom of the Gospel. Wisdom for the author is a way of being in the world, aware of the deep structure of life, respectful of other human beings, taking life, not for granted, but with thanksgiving to its Author.

Having set out his basic theme in the first chapter, Bishop Chartres then invites the reader to join him through the year from Ash Wednesday to Epiphany. At every turn he addresses the human condition of modern men and women. 'Today there is a cocktail of fear, fear of economic decline, fear of war, fear of the consequences of arming terrorists with the lethal knowledge of poison now so easily and ironically accessible through one of our greatest technical achievements, the Internet'. Fear at root is disconnection with the source of life, a sense of being profoundly at risk. Thus the business of Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit, no less.

The book ends with a small collection of addresses for particular audiences - one delivered in Buckingham Palace Private Chapel, one delivered on the life of St John Fisher in the Tower of London and his moving tribute to his former employer Archbishop Robert Runcie.