The No-Nonsense Guide to Religion by Symon Hill. New Internationalist. ISBN: 978 190 65232 99. £7.99.

This No-Nonsense Guide series is new to the reviewer and judging by their first list, it is welcome, slipping into a pocket, readable and contemporary. This Guide to Religion also does what is says on the tin, though the author (known to readers of The Friend as our news reporter) has a point of view, which many will love even though others will not be persuaded. Its strength is locating ‘religion’ in modern contexts. Placing his subject firmly in the resurgence of current debates, carefully referencing his work, he reviews what it’s like to talk about religion in today’s newsworthy, secular and western society. In addition to the familiar background of Christianity and church, he takes us, knowledgeably and with fresh insights, to the many cultures and faiths of our globalised society; he uses that background for his analysis and descriptions.

Soon he is questioning what truth means, what its relation to religion might be; how power and oppression have so often been bedfellows of religious societies. Balancing this with a fine chapter on liberation and religion’s fight for underdogs, he writes attractively about the many issues, using many pithy text boxes – on Ninian Smart’s Dimensions, on Cults, on Interfaith dialogue, on Religion and sexuality to name a few.

Topics that puzzle enquirers and those who feel better grounded are given thoughtful treatment – fundamentalism and the new atheists, who both simplify what he sees as the complexity of religion; myths and religious language; and the ways in which culture influences world religion. Symon grasps that evangelical attitudes are not the same as fundamentalists and one box contains interesting quotations about evangelicals and public life.

In such a small book, the author deserves credit for his breadth of cover of the many matters that command our attention about religion. The book’s final chapters are interestingly reflective, about equality and the violence/peace paradigm and the future. He recognises that religion has surprised many commentators who had forecast its imminent demise. Recognising that global communications vastly change how authority works today in favour of participation, he suggests that religion must engage in new ways with conflict and status and power; religion’s priorities and purposes face deep challenges.

His own ideas (and Symon is a Quaker so readers will not be startled at much of this) centre on issues of freedom and what he calls ‘sacred peace’. He goes over the actual ‘just war’ theories, noting how many religions struggle with issues of reprisal or control, facing the dilemmas of so many who see pacifism as unrealistic and naïve, and quoting Gandhi’s convictions as transforming.

I think we have here an accessible and important new book. His sections on liberty significantly challenge his readers towards radical new ways – a peace testimony not just to individual or even denominational consciences but an author who hopes the forces of religion can really adopt a truly engaged global policy. Religion and religions need to radically redefine their purposes, establishing something we as yet only glimpse – world peace through faith.

Equality and liberty undergirds his arguments in interesting ways. Tracing the history of religious freedom from the Spain of pre-Inquisition days, where Moors, Jews and Christians lived at peace, and allying this to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, he shows great wisdom about the effects of the privatisation of religion. Believers have been pushed out of the ‘public sphere’ so that if ‘we’ do not protest about that we are left alone to pray – not to engage.

I recommend this book, not simply as another good book about religion (it is that) but as some fresh thinking about the way forward for religion and to which we Quakers can apply ourselves. It is also a timely book with its challenge to Friends to deepen our spirituality not as a private theology but as a gift to our war-torn world. Above all, Symon seems to comprehend the transformative power of religion.

Robin is clerk of the Quaker Committee for Christian and Interfaith Relations and a member of Southern Marches Area Meeting.

The launch of the book will be held in the Quaker Centre on Tuesday 20 April at 6pm. Booking recommended: 020 7663 1030.