Chosen

Absorbing memoir-cum-history … Fraser’s personal story is fascinating and the thesis arising from it an arresting one … What Fraser can teach all of us, whatever our beliefs or lack of them, is how enriching it can be to look at the world through the eyes of others. – Richard Harries * The Observer *Intensely moving, luminous and rather magnificent. * The Times *There is much that is intriguing here … There are beautiful moments, as when Fraser’s youngest son is baptised in the River Jordan. – Rosamund Urwin * Sunday Times *This is a rare and extraordinary book - part autobiography, part religious reflection, part ghost story. With excoriating self-revelation, it explores the fault-lines and liminal areas between two great faiths, between the chosen and the excluded. As a voyage of self-understanding, it is compellingly written. It is that most improbable of books - a theological page-turner. – Paul Vallely, Canon of Manchester Cathedral and author of Bad Samaritans: First World Ethics and Third World DebtI spent all day reading this book, unable to stop. So joyously eclectic, so bitingly honest, such a startling mingling of the vulnerable with the intellectual, the search with the homecoming. I cried, I laughed, and most of all I thought. This is such an incredibly important and necessary book. – Michael Coren, author of Epiphany: A Christian’s Change of Heart and Mind over Same-Sex Marriage

A fascinating hybrid of past, present and future, Chosen reflects Giles Fraser’s astounding capacity for honesty, turbocharged articulation and spiritual insight. He explains beautifully the interweaving of Christianity and Judaism that will resonate with many, and not just those from mixed religious backgrounds. His scholarly explanations and personal explorations brought me much wisdom. A tour de force.

Giles Fraser is Vicar of St Anne’s, Kew. He has been a Lecturer in Philosophy and chaplain at Wadham College, Oxford, and Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral. He is the author of Redeeming Nietzsche- On the Piety of Unbelief, How to Believe- Investigating Wittgenstein and Christianity with Attitude. For some years he wrote the ‘Loose Canon’ column in the Guardian and is a regular broadcaster on The Moral Maze and Thought for the Day on Radio 4.