Summons to Life by Martin Israel

Summons to Life: The Search for Identity Through the Spiritual

Once I start a book I like to finish it but I have abandoned this one on p117 of 154,

Writing in the early 70s there is a stylistic barrier to get over, especially the gendered language which given the topic is "Humanity" and what it is to be truly "Human" leads to the book being full of "Man" and "his" search for the ideal life even though at one point Israel does himself problematise the use of the male pronoun for God "... thought it is more questionable whether the masculine qualities rather than the feminine should be exalted in the pronoun commonly used."

Overall I found the book tiresome, Israel's argument is almost entirely polemical with little or no evidence or reasoning, his notion that there is a single spiritual existence which unites all human souls might be attractive but seem rather fanciful.  He is a pains to show he is not privileging the soul over the body yet everything about his idea of the ideal human life runs counter to that assertion.
What I think I found most frustrating is that at its core I would agree with his argument, (the spiritual barrenness he sees in society has only increased in the last 40 years, and it is an enriching of the spiritual life that is the only way to address the deep discontentment within our society), however he makes this argument in such an obtuse and contrary way that so having started of agreeing with him for every page I read I became less and less sympathetic.  

The Dwelling of the Light by Rowan Williams

The Dwelling of the Light: Praying with Icons of Christ

This is a little book full of big ideas, written in Rowan Williams' usual thoughtful and insightful way. In his introduction he gently explores the status of Icons which I would hope allows all but the most puritanical to see that Icons can be encountered as a devotional tool free from idolatry.

One of the joys of this book is that it offers an introduction to some icons which are unfamiliar to Western eyes while also allowing you a fresh encounter with others like Rublev's "Trinity" which have become so ubiquitous in recent years that they have been diminished almost to the status of wall paper. 

Each chapter takes an Icon in turn, but is structured in paragraphs which can either be read continuously or dipped in and out of from time to time (which is how I read it).