Book Reviews

Our book reviews are designed to assist people in deciding what they should read. We aim to review about a dozen books each year.

These comprise a mix of recently published books and books published over the course of the last thirty years or so which we think should not be forgotten. We generally do not review books that may be regarded as “classics” (on the basis that they are already well known) or books that are aimed solely at an academic or other specialist audience (since our aim is to assist the non-specialist who want seriously to think through current issues).

We publish our book reviews on Substack which allows you to receive new reviews directly in your email inbox.

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Andrea Soberg: ‘Rooted Leadership: Seeking God’s Answers to the Eleven Core Questions Every Leader Faces’ by John E. Johnson

There are a myriad of books, academic articles, blogs, consultants’ websites, etc. that focus on leadership and explain how to be a good leader of people and organizations. Many of us who teach in the field of leadership can spout off the names of those who have created concepts, theories, and models of leadership. We […]

Trey Dimsdale: ‘Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand of God’ by Brendan Long

In Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand of God, Brendan Long offers an erudite and balanced understanding of Smith’s work on its own terms – including certain theological and philosophical assumptions – arguing that Smith’s thought provides a framework for making sense of the economic decisions made by moral agents driven by a combination of motives and principles.

Andrew Lilico: ‘Doughnut Economics’ by Kate Raworth

In Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, Kate Raworth seeks to overthrow and replace economics as we have known it, but economics is not in crisis and doesn’t need reinventing.

Andrew Studdert-Kennedy: ‘God’s Good Economy: Doing Economic Justice in Today’s World’ by Andrew Hartropp

God’s Good Economy is an introductory book aimed at helping to equip people to ‘live and speak for Jesus Christ in today’s world’ with the underlying conviction that doing economic justice is indeed part of this living and speaking for Christ.

Neil Jordan: 'Homo Numericus: The Coming 'Civilization'' by Daniel Cohen

Homo Numericus: The Coming ‘Civilization’ offers a critique of the tendency towards digitisation and our trust in algorithmic intelligence, whilst making an argument about the reality of human societies and that which is of fundamental importance in them.

Patrick Riordan: ‘The Political Economy of Distributism: Property, Liberty, and the Common Good’ by Alexander William Salter

Considering distributist thinking as a tradition in political economy and its relevance to twenty-first century concerns, The Political Economy of Distributism outlines the distributist thought of Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton as exemplifying the themes of Catholic social teaching.

Catherine Cowley: ‘Sustainable Investing: What Everyone Needs to Know’ by H. Kent Baker, Hunter M. Holzhauer and John R. Nofsinger

Through detailed examination of the possible forms of investment investment might take, the provision of on-line resources for investigating possibilities and the use of ‘takeaways’ at the end of each chapter, Sustainable Investing aims to demystify sustainable investing for the ‘average’ individual retail investor, who is motivated to achieve the dual goals of profit and purpose.

Clara Piano: ‘Catholic Social Thought, the Market and Public Policy: Twenty-First-Century Challenges’ edited by Philip Booth and André Azevedo Alves

Catholic Social Thought, the Market and Public Policy offers a powerful combination of insights from economics and Catholic social thought to contribute to today’s most challenging policy discussions.

Richard Godden: ‘Capitalism and Christianity: Origins, Spirit and Betrayal of the Market Economy’, by Luigino Bruni

In Capitalism and Christianity, Luigino Bruni provides a sweeping overview of various strands of Christian thinking about economic and, to some extent, social matters over the past 2000 years and seeks to assess their impact.

John Kroencke: ‘Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet’, by Hannah Ritchie

In Not the End of the World, Hannah Ritchie offers empirical data and nuanced argument in the discussion of a range of environmental issues, considering some of the more apocalyptic statements often made about them and the manner in which individual misunderstandings can lead to unintentional environmental harm, whilst also considering what kinds of individual actions can have a positive impact.