The Case for Jesus by Brant Pitre (Image Books, £16). The author, professor of Sacred Scripture at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, provides here all the biblical and historical evidence for Christ’s life on earth. As Bishop Robert Barron emphasises in his afterword, Pitre’s book will be “an effective weapon” for Christian evangelists who are struggling against “the debunking and sceptical attitudes towards the Gospels so prevalent in academe”. Teachers and catechists who want to deepen their knowledge of Jesus should also read it. The Gospels, as Pitre shows, were accurate accounts by eyewitnesses or those in close association with them.