HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW
Book: Others: A Very Short Book About Beliefs
Author: Martyn Percy
Publisher: Christian Alternative, 2023
ISBN-13: 978-1803410685
ISBN-10: 180341068X
Website(s): http://www.christian-alternative.com (publisher)
Language level: 1
(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)
Recommended reading level: Primarily for adults
Rating: *** 3 stars
(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)
Category: Religion
Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker
Disclosure: Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion. Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated. No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.
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Percy,Martyn. Others: A Very Short Book About Beliefs (Published in 2023 by Christian Alternative Books, an imprint of John Hunt Publishing Ltd., No. 3 East St., Alresfor, Hampshire, UK 5O24 9EE). The blurb on the back of this book begins as thus: “Do we really understand others and their beliefs? Martyn Percy believes that if we better understand the people in our churches, in our communities and in our societies, then we might cultivate more ease in the 21st century, not only in local and national politics but also in international politics.” Based on this statement, I assumed that Others was a book which simply encouraged the reader to understand and respect the beliefs of others, even though we may disagree with them, a concept with which I completely concur. It does deal with that but goes much deeper. The author seems to imply a “multicultural theology” in which all beliefs are held to be equally valid and therefore to be considered acceptable. He may not actually believe this, but that is what came across to me, and I strongly disagree with it.
Percy identifies his religious philosophy “As a Christian priest in a mildly liberal Anglican tradition.” I come from a far more Biblically-oriented conservative position, and he seems to save some of his strongest criticisms for those of us who believe something “because it is in the Bible” and are “inclined to read Genesis as science” (i.e. fact as opposed to viewing it as metaphor or myth). At the same time he appears to endorse or at least speak favorably of a Father Hugh Bishop who resigned his position to set up house in Yorkshire with Bob as his partner, John Robinson who wrote Honest to God and was a rank situation ethics proponent, liberation theology, and even B.L.M. (I certainly agree that black lives matter as all lives do, but I do not agree with the Marxist ideology of the Black Lives Matter organization that has led people to burn, pillage, plunder, and loot).
The author concludes, “This very short book was designed as a modest stimulant for thinking….It will be obvious as you read through it that it raises more questions than it answers. It does not attempt to do anything other than this.” Some of us prefer answers, which is why we turn to the Bible (another subject for another time). Percy quotes far more philosophers and theologians, especially feminist ones, than he does the Bible. I suppose that this is why the book comes across to me as almost religious psycho-babble. Having said that, I have to say also that I do not necessarily disagree with every observation in the book, and that it does have some useful material in it that will indeed stimulate thinking.
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