There is nothing new about divisions in the Church, and all of us could tell stories of Christians faced with interdenominational tensions. The fact remains that the Church has, especially today, an absolute duty to proclaim the gospel; but we always need to check that it is indeed the gospel that we are trying to preach. For we are fallible and sinful and we can get it wrong.

The first chapter of Nicholas King’s book considers the scandal of Christian disunion, and in particular the mystery whereby perfectly good people seem content to live with the scandal. Then he looks at each of the 27 documents that constitute the New Testament and demonstrates that the writers were well aware of the possibility of divisions in the Church and that they had a way of coping with the divisions, by keeping their eyes on God and on Jesus.

The final part of the book considers one particular issue that divides Christians of the Roman Catholic Church from other Christians, namely the role given to Mary the mother of Jesus, and in particular to the two teachings about her Immaculate Conception and her Assumption, and whether the Catholic position represents an unbridgeable gap for Christians from other traditions.