it capable of becoming a society, even a Big Society, where people can flourish. We believe that this will only happen if the Church of England has the confidence in its own vocation to continue to play the role of proclaiming the Jesus imperatives from within the mesh of the nation's institutions. We hope that in turn we will regain confidence in our national identity, a confidence without jingoism but with a realistic assessment of our place with the global community and a strong desire to see people thrive within their local community. That community will be where learning, morality, art, politics and economics come together to be the harmonious symphony, marked by joy and peace, the signs of the coming Kingdom of God. How are we to get there from here? Well the authors are under no illusion that the road is anything other than uphill, to the very end. They begin by analysing the current influences and stresses on our `turbulent' church, which is `deeply embedded in the psyche and culture of the English people'. They offer an analytical history of the Church, clearing up on the way the odd popular misconception, such as that Christianity did not arrive on these shores until 597 with Augustine (it did) and that the presence of bishops in the House of Lords was part of the Elizabethan Settlement (it wasn't). There are useful explanations of Hooker and Anglo-Catholicism, for example. It is a cleverly constructed book. The essential message is that