In Such Times

Book excerpt: What are the fears that govern our lives? Why do we seldom share them with others? How do they inform the way we think of the politics of the day and the life of the church? These are some of the questions addressed by Lorraine Cavanagh in this short and readable book. Her reflections take us through the kind of private fears that originate in early childhood and remain deeply embedded in the adult psyche, so that they later shape the person's thinking and often define that person's life. They also emerge as fear worked out through the need for power and control over others and how that can lead to collective dependency on the kind of leaders we most fear. Fear is also rooted in loneliness, the loneliness of the individual and the endemic loneliness of Western society, both of which we try to evade with the help of social media and the private screen worlds we inhabit. Through imaginative imagery drawn from the Christian tradition, In Such Times speaks of the need to re-learn trust in the corporate contexts of both church and world. As its title suggests, it is a book whose time has come.