11th July 2025
Books Spotlight Religion & Spirituality
Titles in this Spotlight are to be published between August 2025 and July 2026 Previews
From Socrates to Shamanism, and from magic to manifesting
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Our expert, their picks
Sue Baker
The former Books Editor of Publishing News, Sue Baker, says: “I can’t remember learning to read, I just did – and have never stopped. I loved the additional layers of selling, presentation and converting customers into readers that bookselling involved, and I have enjoyed my later foray into reviewing, unable to lose touch with books and reading, even in my dotage.”
Randall Sullivan The Devil’s Best Trick: A History of Evil
Grove Press, October, £12.99, PB, 9781804710784
The devil and the concept of temptation and evil exist across the fields of religion, mythology, witchcraft and criminology. Sullivan brings a cultural and historical view of the devil and all his cloven-footed works, attempting to uncover how humans have confronted the many facets of evil. In a book that aims to appeal to both sceptics and true believers alike, the investigation ranges from Biblical times to the modern era where the devil is evoked by serial killers, exorcisms still take place and Satanic worship remains a subject that can cause widespread paranoia.
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Jake Morris-Campbell Between the Salt and the Ash: A Journey into the Soul of Northumbria Manchester University Press, May, £12.99, PB, 9781526175373 Described as a journey into the soul of Northumbria, long overlooked and written off as a region of failing industry – there is far more to this area than shuttered coal mines. An important centre of early Christian Britain, the region is rich in religious history; it has a wild beauty and an important industrial heritage. Morris- Campbell’s journey celebrates his homeland, looking both to the past and forward to what the future could hold for this often neglected region.
Kate Sidley How to Be a Saint: An Extremely Weird and Mildly Sacrilegious History of the Catholic Church’s Biggest Names
Sourcebooks, September, £14.99, HB, 9781728277417
Intended as a humorous look at the Catholic phenomenon of sainthood and how the dear reader, could, might, just possibly, become a saint by following the author’s five easy steps. Find out the hows and whys and learn about the mind-boggling achievements and lives of the Saints who have made it through the Gates of Heaven. Sidley is a writer and digital content producer for American TV’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the show’s presenter providing the introduction.
Melanie McDonagh Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century Yale University Press, November, £25, HB, 9780300266078 The author asks why there were so many high-profile converts to Catholicism in the 20th century, examining the lives of some prominent individuals who embraced the Catholic Church, such as GK Chesterton, Gwen John and Muriel Spark, and their reasons for converting. A rich history that shows it was not all “bells and smells”proves that the tipping point for these new converts was an intellectual and spiritual need that for them could not be addressed by the Anglican Church.
Thomas A Tweed Religion in the Lands That Became America: A New History
Yale University Press, July, £18, HB, 9780300221480
A major new history covering no less than 13,000 years and one that considers all the peoples and all the religions of America. The story starts with the first evidence of religious practice and follows the many instances of crisis and change, such as displacement and slavery, in American history. It covers the growth of industry, population movement, new religions and the stresses that arrived with each wave of immigration and new religious practice. Tweed brings ambition and clarity to this complicated history.
am looking forward to the coming books harking back to Classical texts, especially to read the rare account of Perpetua, a Roman woman who died a Christian martyr. Sarah Ruden provides a new
translation and commentary on Perpetua’s life and work (Yale University Press). Plato makes two appearances, as part of an
east-west bridge in Buddha, Socrates, and Us from Stephen Batchelor (Yale) and as an aspi- rational figurehead in How to Think like Socrates by Donald J Robertson (Pan Macmillan). Then on to gods and goddesses; an overview
of The Greek Gods and Their Worlds by Susan Deacy and André Ducci (Ivy Press) is coming in September and, for goddesses everywhere, there
is Goddesses: A Graphic History from Monica Foggia and Lisa Salsi (Leaping Hare Press). Time to heal and reconnect with nature in
The Healing Power of Trees by Olga Terebenina and Gary Evans (Leaping Hare Press). A similar theme overlaid with the search for Celtic wisdom runs through Reconnect, Grow, Restore by Rebecca Robinson (Neem Tree Press). There are witchery books aplenty in
2025 but coming up on the outside is Shamanism. There are two books here for would-be Shamans: from Thames and Hudson, Shamans by Max Carocci, and Cico Books will publish Plant Spirit Wisdom, a guide to herbalism and healing by shamanic practi- tioner Karine Gordineer.
Books
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