Most books on the topic of spiritual healing focus on practical aspects of services and liturgies and on testimonies of miraculous cures. Starting from an acceptance of the reality of healing in personal experience the author attempts to unpack the theological implications of what he has seen and done. He comes to the conclusion that the usual focus of the church on healing as a charismatic gift from an interventionist God is a distraction from the...

Five centuries ago, a mural was created in a country church in the north of England, and then hidden under layers of white paint. Looking at it again will be a distraction, the Reverend Mr. Keach tells World War I veteran Tom Birken, who will spend a month in the country restoring the mural. Another veteran, James Moon, is looking for the grave of an ancestor of the patroness of the church who fought in the Crusades. The rector's wife, Alice, comes...