New Edition: Defenders of the Faith - Catherine Pepinster
/REVIEWER: Peter Crumpler
Defenders of the faith: fully revised & updated
BOOK: Defenders of the Faith: The British Monarchy, Religion and the Coronation.
AUTHOR: Catherine Pepinster
Timing in life is everything, they say.
No more so in the world of publishing – and anyone who will be preaching in the time before and after King Charles’s Coronation on Saturday May 6th will be grateful for this book.
Catherine Pepinster, a renowned author and broadcaster – and for many years the editor of the Catholic weekly, The Tablet – published the hardback version of this book just months before the Queen’s death last September. In it, she set out an authoritative and timely exploration of the British monarchy, its relationship with faith and religion over the last 500 years, and what the future might look like for the next monarch and the Church of England.
Extensively Revised
Now, Catherine Pepinster has written an extensively revised paperback version of Defenders of the Faith that will – among other features – help preachers to understand the deep religious significance of the Coronation service, and to communicate this to their congregations.
In this new edition, Pepinster includes a new introduction and conclusion, a new chapter on the Queen’s death and the events that followed, an expanded chapter on King Charles’s faith, a chapter on Charles’s accession and a more detailed look at the Coronation.
The Queen’s funeral may have been the most-watched Christian service of all time, with many millions of TV and online viewers across the world. The Coronation is also expected to attract a massive global audience for an Anglican service.
A New Age
The Coronation, Pepinster explains, ‘is a moment when the country will consider values and meaning.’ She sets out what she describes as ‘the toughest challenge of all,’ and asks, ‘Can the Coronation, full of religious meaning, speak to a secular, cynical majority, weary of our nation’s leaders and suspicious of extravagance – or at least a majority that is not so much cynical but sceptical.’
She responds that the Coronation and the Monarchy could be more relatable to modern Britain, if it were ‘patterned less on power and more on justice, wisdom, sacrifice and humility – in other words, a biblical notion of kingship.’
Few TV viewers will be studying in detail the liturgy used at the Coronation, but they will be watching the spectacle, including the crowning, the anointing of the new monarch, and much of the symbolism being used. How much they will understand is debatable.
Enter preachers in pulpits across the land, explaining what kingship and service really means in a Christian context. This book will help them meet that challenge.
Reviewer: Peter Crumpler
Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England priest in St Albans, Herts, and a former communications director with the CofE.
