Not long ago I was planning the book reviews for my section for an upcoming issue of the ATR, and on the radio in the background I heard an interview with a spokesperson for Google, the internet search engine. It struck me how much a search engine is like a map; without it we would not know where we are or how to navigate. Yet this hypothetical "unmapped territory" of the internet would not be simply an undeveloped wilderness, it would be much more like a densely settled, long inhabited, finely developed unmapped metropolis. To make our way in such a place reliably would be a task of bewildering complexity: we would need the full measure of our wits. More than that, we would need a company of trusted explorers, both seasoned and new, to guide us on our way.

 It then occurred to me how much book reviews are like this: they are reports back from trusted explorers, who are both describing and assessing the territory before us. A scholarly discipline, while not terra incognita, is nevertheless nowhere near as easily mapped as a defined piece of geography, and rather like the internet, with the ever-increasing pace of publishing, it is steadily increasing in size. Put simply, there is always more to read.

 At the Anglican Theological Review, we aim to be that trusted explorer for our readers. We work to provide clear, brief reviews of a wide variety of recently published works. Our reviews describe and assess a book, and do so with an eye towards making it accessible to a broad audience, including scholars, clergy, and educated laypeople. In this way, our book reviews can serve to guide and enrich one's reading--and, very occasionally, to warn. The very best reviews will extend the conversation that the book itself initiates, stimulating further thought and discussion, becoming an indispensable part of that book's ongoing reception.

Dear Jackie,

Thanks for your very prompt reply. Please pass on our sincere thanks to Bro. Ronald Fox, BSG, for sponsoring our subscription to the Anglican Theological Review.  Post in Ghana can be a little slow but I will let you know when the first copy arrives.

We are a Catholic Benedictine monastery founded by Prinknash Abbey in England.  The Community began in the Church of England in the nineteenth century and became Catholic in 1913 (it was then on Caldey Island in Wales, founded by Abbot Aelred Carlyle).  Part of the community remained Anglican and founded a new monastery at Pershore in England and from there made a foundation here in Ghana in the 1920s and 30s, running the Anglican Training College in Kumasi, which is only about 70 miles from our own monastery.  I'm researching this with the intention of writing up the history as an article and came across some copies of the Anglican Theological Review while using the library of the Anglican Seminary in Cape Coast.  It looked really good.  We are I suppose "first cousins" of the Pershore / Nashdom / Elmore Anglican Benedictine community which has now finally settled in Salisbury.

The communities that derived from Caldey have all remained very much involved in ecumenism.  I myself was baptised into the Church of England and attended an Anglican school and still feel "at home" with the Anglican outlook, even though I became a Catholic 35 years ago.

There is more information on the community on our website: www.kristobuasemonastery.org, with links to our mother house at Prinknash and my own community at Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland.  I've been here at Kristo Buase since 1997 (apart from a few years working at our headquarters in Rome). I signed as Librarian but am also the Superior of the community and Novice Master in charge of formation of the young African monks.

Fr Ambrose Flavell, OSB

Kristo Buase Monastery, Ghana