SPIRITUAL BOOKS FRANCIS PHILLIPS

Sacred Texts of the World, edited by Ninian Smart and Richard D Hecht, Quercus £25 This volume, subtitled "A universal anthology", was first published in 1982 when the study of comparative religion was a respectable academic pursuit. Today it encounters a very different world, where Islamic fundamentalism exerts a powerful influence and Christians are persecuted or disdained.
Perhaps the editors of this "handbook of spiritual messages" thought republication would pour balm on the turbulent waters of multiculturalism. "It is not for us to judge whether the stories in this volume are true or not; it is their power to move that counts," state the editors.
Why not include bits of Das Kapital, then? I think truculently — only to discover that, after respect has been paid to the world religions as well as the Moonies and the Mormons, at the end there is a chapter called "Secular worldviews", which quotes parts of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, The Communist Manifesto, Bertrand Russell and pearls from the lips of Chairman Mao.
Whether Lincoln, who actually brings God into his address, would have been comfortable with his bedfellows is a moot point.
Marx and Engels's attack on "the bourgeoisie" sounds very antiquated today and instead of Russell's pomposities — "Brief and powerless is Man's life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark" — I would rather read Edgar Allan Poe.
In keeping with their universal tolerance, the editors use the timeline BCE and CE instead of the traditional BC and AD. Rather than give vent to my own intemperate views on such a decision I will quote from an admirable little book, The History of Time, by Leofranc Holford-Strevens, which puts the case with magisterial precision: "If [this timeline] does not commemorate the birth of Christ, it has no business to exist at all, for no other event of world-historical significance took place in either 1 BC or AD 1... Although, as a date for the birth of Jesus Christ, the epoch is almost certainly wrong, it remains a commemoration of that event...Attractive, especially in a globalised age. as a purely secular era may appear, the Christian era cannot be made secular by denying its origin."
Meet the Angels by Stratford and Leonie Caldecott, ResSource £3.95 (Available by calling 01798 343718) After struggling through Polynesian creation myths, it was a delight to soar through space alongside the angelic beings described in this slim book. Written for children aged six tb 10, with line drawings by David Clay ton for colouring, the book sums up everything we know about angels, as adorers of God, warriors, messengers and guardians.
A Lourdes Prayer Rook, Family Publications £4.50 Everyone has their favourite shrine.
Lourdes is mine; I was there on December 8, the start of the Jubilee Year commemorating the apparitions of 1858. This booklet includes all the well-known Marian prayers and devotions; each page also has a colour photo of some familiar aspect of this grace-filled place. Take it with you when you go on pilgrimage during this auspicious year.