THE DIVINE PROMISE “I will be with you always” (Matthew 28:20) recurs in various forms throughout Scripture. But just occasionally, it is revoked. God is patient. God is love. Sometimes, however, his people become so insufferable that like an exasperated lover he walks out.
In Ezekiel’s vision he leaves his “house”, the temple in Jerusalem, before it is destroyed. The symbolism is powerful. It says to the Judeans that God is leaving them to their own devices. His holiness cannot co-exist with their sinfulness.
It wasn’t the first time he had walked out like that. When the ark of the covenant was captured by the Philistines in Samuel’s day, it was said that the glory of the Lord had departed (1 Samuel 4:21,22).
It won’t be the last time, either. Churches, like ancient castles, can become empty shells from which the Spirit of life has departed. Those that survive the invasion of property developers may echo with liturgy but do not vibrate with life. There were some like that even in New Testament times (Revelation 3:1,2).
And people once zealous for God became shipwrecked on the reefs of materialism; no longer able to catch the wind of the Spirit they drift on the tide (1 Timothy 1:19; 2 Timothy 4:10) while God sails on without them. He will stay as long as you want him to, but he never outstays his welcome.
SCATHINGLY, Oliver Bullough compares the UK to Wodehouse’s inscrutable butler, Jeeves.
Just as Jeeves tirelessly helped the “quarter-witted Bertie Wooster evade the consequences of [his] misbehaviour, Britain helps the world’s financial criminals and tax dodgers . . . enjoy the fruits of their crimes free of scrutiny”.
In January 2022, Lord Agnew of Oulton, the minister in charge of combating fraud, resigned, citing “arrogance, indolence and ignorance” within government.
Just a few weeks later, Russia’s invasion meant that political promises to deal with oligarchs were hastily remembered.
Yet, underfunded and demoralised law enforcement agencies face an unequal battle. Bullough’s highly readable account of the UK’s role in facilitating global financial wrongdoing is a call to action.
– Butler To The World by Oliver Bullough is published by Profile, 304pp
Isabella Whitney,
the pioneering poet
Isabella Whitney is not a name that is well known, yet she many have been the UK’s first female professional poet. She published two books of poetry (in 1567 and 1573) and, from the way she described herself, it seems that she was single, poor and suffering from ill health. Some of this may have represented an attempt to inspire sympathy in her readers. However, judging by her writing, it appears that she knew what it was to be living on the margins, plagued by anxiety and insecurity.
Whitney wrote of London’s beauties and riches, but also of its “stynking streetes”, its “lothsome Lanes” and its many prisons, including those that incarcerated debtors. Her depiction of the capital showed a city humming with mercantile activity and crammed with expensive goods for sale. Yet her verses also sketched out the damage that the pursuit of wealth had done to society as a whole.
As a poet and writer, she took inspiration from her male counterparts – but she wrote as a woman, painfully aware of the difficulties that women in London might encounter. She warned readers against flattery and deceit, and against those who shed “crocodile tears”; in particular, she advised young women never to trust a man at first sight. On this subject she made it clear that she was writing from her own personal experience of duplicity, describing herself as one “who was deceived”.
Whitney may not have been a poet to rank among the greatest names of the Elizabethan age but her voice was distinctive, eloquent, ironic and powerfully evocative of a woman’s experience.
Intro: A fascinating primer explores the crucial role of inflammation in our bodies and how it can go awry. What you need to know about inflammation in the body
INFLAMMATION is a crucial tool of the body’s immune system. As the first line of defence against injury or invaders, it traps bacteria and viruses, heals wounds and signals to other cells for help. It results in symptoms such as pain and swelling. Once a threat is remedied, inflammation, along with its ensuing discomfort, disappears – or at least it should.
In her debut book A Silent Fire: The story of inflammation, diet and disease, gastroenterologist Shilpa Ravella explains how inflammatory responses can turn against us. Crucially, she shows how chronic inflammation plays a role in many common conditions such as heart disease and cancer, and why Western diets are at least partially to blame.
This primer sees Ravella start with some fascinating history, travelling all the way back to the 1st century, when Aulus Cornelius Celsus first described four of the five main signs of inflammation: pain, heat, redness and swelling. The fifth, a loss of function, was identified in the mid-1800s.
Ravella spends a lot of time examining the work of Victorian scientists, such as Élie Metchnikoff, who won a Nobel Prize in 1908 for discovering immune cells called phagocytes that engulf pathogens and particles. Eventually, she moves on to modern-day researchers like Charles Serhan, who helped identify molecules known as resolvins that turn off inflammation.
This lays a proper foundation for the book’s second section, which connects these discoveries to inflammation’s possible role in disease. Low levels of inflammation have been found in people with conditions such as cancer. While inflammation is a normal response to injury and disease, persistent inflammation is now being viewed as a potential cause of illness.
Ravella further speculates that inflammation can contribute to conditions like depression and Alzheimer’s disease, though as a responsible medical professional, she provides important caveats and stresses the need for more research.
The most damning evidence links inflammation to autoimmune conditions – which occur when the body damages its own cells – such as rheumatoid arthritis. Characterised by long-lasting, low levels of inflammation, these conditions increase susceptibility to other problems like bone loss, heart disease and kidney disease.
The book wraps up by detailing how factors like diet and exercise can contribute to inflammation as well as help dampen it. For many, this won’t be new, but what may be illuminating is Ravella’s explanation of lifestyle significance.
For instance, she devotes a whole chapter to the gut microbiome, describing how processed foods and animal products, like red meat and dairy, disrupt microbial composition, setting off a chain of events that leads to increased inflammation. She then explains why fruits, vegetables and whole grains can help undo these effects.
A Silent Fire is no quick read: it is packed with information, combining medical history, innovative research and first-hand clinical experiences. At times, it feels over-ambitious, as Ravella crams in as much as possible rather than clearly connecting the various topics. It can also be difficult to keep track of all the different microbes, scientists and immune cells involved, especially if you lack a scientific or medical background.
But Ravella’s writing style keeps even the most dense page engaging. She breathes life into biological function, at one point describing types of white blood cells as “sophisticated warriors” that “voraciously gobble up” particles. Ultimately, the book is perfect for those looking to delve deeper into the history and intricate workings of immunology, diet and disease.
– A Silent Fire is published by Bodley Head
– Rheumatoid arthritis, as shown in this X-ray, is a chronic inflammatory condition
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