It’s something of a coincidence that I discovered today that the guest director for this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival is none other than former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway. His most latest published work of non-fiction – Between the Monster and the Saint (Canongate Books), is the next book on my reading pile, and it’s one that I should be coming to in the next few days.
Having never read Between the Monster and the Saint it’s a difficult one for me to explain, so I’ll leave it up to the book’s publisher to do it for me:
Being human isn’t easy. We might think that consciousness and free will give us control over our lives but our minds are unpredictable places. We are susceptible to forces we don’t understand. We are capable of inflicting immense cruelty on one another and yet we also have the capacity to be tender, to empathise, to feel.
In this thought-provoking new book Richard Holloway holds a mirror up to the human condition. By drawing on a colourful and eclectic selection of writings from history, philosophy, science, poetry, theology and literature, Holloway shows us how we can stand up to the seductive power of the monster and draw closer to the fierce challenge of the saint.
Between the Monster and the Saint does indeed sound thought-provoking. Expect to hear me talking more about it later in the week.
Canongate Books | 06 August 2009 | £7.99 | PAPERBACK | 240 PP | ISBN: 9781847672544
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