The Gospel is not only Good News from God-it is Good News of God, of his nature and his character. In a sense anterior to all particular doctrines, he is the Gospel. The author argues this simple theme with economy and scholarship, but in a way which is not beyond the scope of the ordinary reader of spiritual works. He also relates it to life.

He speaks of a transcendent optimism, 'an ecstatic sense of the goodness of the universe... The good news is essentially God himself, and contact with him is eternal joy. It is also healing and this is why the healing movement is based on an optimistic view of God's character. The good news involves new life and hope. It opens up levels of our being of which we are normally unaware and the realm of the miraculous'. These things are steadily argued from the Gospel text, under the headings of eschatology. works and signs, and fatherhood. Objections are dealt with, also the concept of Judgement and the 'Shadow'.

This is a book of genuine spiritual wisdom, the fruit of a lifetime of pastoral work and scholarly meditation on the Gospel and human life.

E.M. Sidebottom is a priest of the Anglican Church. He is the author of the classic New Testament work The Christ of the Fourth Gospel in the Light of First-Century Thought (SPCK 1961) and of James, Jude and 2 Peter in the New Century Bible Commen-taries (Marshall, Morgan and Scott 1967).