Fare Well in Christ, by W H Vanstone, Darton,
Longman & Todd, London, 2005
ISBN 0 232 52601 X, pp 147, rrp $31.95.

Reviewed by Robert Braun

Many will welcome the republication of this classic
of Christian spirituality by Canon WH Vanstone.
The author deals with six themes, reflecting on
our present anxieties and worries, and inviting us
to embrace the mystery of life and to take comfort
from it. His resort to etymologies in the chapter on
grace may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there is something in this book for all of us.
The place and power of ‘the Story’ in human life
is dealt with in a most imaginative and interesting
way; and the chapter on the cross, which begins
with the Dream of the Rood, includes a number of
modern stories about the power of the cross. This
is a deeply moving chapter, and excellent material
for a Good Friday sermon.
The author engages in a sensitive probing of
the nature of forgiveness, informed by a lifetime of
pastoral experience. In a chapter on mystery, and
a Christian approach to death, he reminds us that
the word ‘mystery’ is derived from the Greek word
Muein, which means ‘to keep one’s mouth shut’. He quotes from Donne and Spencer, and gives us the words of an epitaph on the island of Oronsay in the Hebrides: “Sleep after toyle, port after stormy seas, ease after warre, death after life doth greatly please”.
This is a writer who is eminently qualified to
speak to the people of our time on some of the
most sensitive issues of human life. His prose is
a pleasure to read, even if his publisher has let a
number of typographical mistakes slip through. In
the words of the old collect, it will bring pardon,
peace and a quiet mind in an anxious and doubting world.