Mercy Matters by Mathew N Schmalz (Our Sunday Visitor, £11). Professor Schmalz uses his own life story as the backdrop for his reflections on mercy: how we show it to others and how we receive it. Tackling subjects such as adoption, sobriety, bullying, the Boston bombing and a leper colony in India, the author includes discussion and reflection questions at the end of each chapter, in order to encourage readers to ponder the meaning of mercy in their own lives. This is an excellent resource for individual reading or group study during this Year of Mercy.
A Dutiful Son by Pascal Bruckner (Dedalus, £9.99). Pascal Bruckner, a leading French philosopher, has written a short, affecting memoir of his pious Catholic childhood, dominated by a violent father who was a virulent anti-Semite during the war. Reflecting on his emotionally difficult past, he writes in his conclusion: “My father helped me to think better by thinking against him. I am his defeat.” Influenced, among others, by Sartre and Barthes in his later intellectual development, Bruckner has written a sad, honest and spirited book that attempts to grapple with a baleful paternal legacy.
Christ, God’s Companionship with Man by Luigi Giussani (McGill-Queen’s University, £10.99). This short work is a selection from the many books and writings of the late Mgr Luigi Giussani (1922-2005), founder of the Italian Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation. Selected by his successor, Fr Julián Carrón, the book contains many profound meditations on the themes of the Church, Christ, the meaning of charity and what it is to become a Christian. It is an excellent introduction to Giussani’s thought.
Classical Philosophy by Peter Adamson (Oxford University Press, £10.99). This book is one of a series whose subtitle threatens to set the author up for a fall: namely A History of Philosophy Without any Gaps. This ambitious goal is impossible to achieve, but Adamson covers far more ground than the average survey. The big names are all here, but we encounter their lesser works, and many philosophical also-rans and unduly neglected figures have their entrances. It is also pleasant to be reminded of a time when philosophy was not a cloistered academic discipline but vitally connected to literature, the study of history and the general cultural to and fro.
Women and the Vote by Jad Adams (Oxford University Press, £16.99). Adams’s book certainly lives up to the global promise of its title, travelling all the way from 1860s Wyoming to present-day Afghanistan. There are tales of courage aplenty and some rather bold musings on the part of the author. Just how important were the individual campaigners for suffrage compared to broader currents of reform and nationalism unrelated to feminism? What impact has the arrival of the female vote had on the general tenor and purpose of political life?
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