I enjoy a good relaxing book, not least those written by Anglicans. Susan Hill is one, as is PD James. I haven't read any Susan Howatch but I get good reports. My favourite is Barbara Pym, a good Anglo-Catholic. She went out of fashion in the sixties but is now back in vogue and being hailed as a twentieth century Jane Austin. Someone who wasn't an author as such but whom I find very inspiring is John Betjeman, another high churchman. I somehow feel that his faith was not that deep, but he had a lot of hope and the CofE meant a lot to him.
There was an article in the Church Times a few weeks ago about Barbara Pym. I'd never heard of her before so I bought a copy of 'A glass of blessings' which the CT said was her 'churchiest' novel. I've read about half of it but the church involvement seems incidental. To me, the novel comes across as a rather dull series of middle-class meanderings. I'll probably consign it to the next Church jumble sale! Does Pym get any better?
As a child, I loved Madeleine L'engle. As a parent, I read one of her later books to my daughter and saw hwr Anglicanism was more pronounced in it..
I've put a "Like" by your post because it's very interesting. "A Glass of Blessings" has been reviewed at two book clubs I've been in. It's one of my favourite books, but in neither case did it go down well with the others, for the reasons you give. Yet John Betjeman, Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin like Ms Pym's work, with the latter two describing her as "one of the most underrated novelists of the 20th Century". The church I go to has a rather Barbara Pymmy flavour to it, and at coffee after eucharist one day three of us agreed how much we liked another of her books, "Excellent Women". Yes, you could do a lot worse than give A Glass of Blessings to a church jumble sale: a very apt choice! Ms Pym, God rest her soul, might well approve!
I'd never heard of her but A Wrinkle in Time gets 4.5 stars on Amazon and I gather from Wikipedia that she was a devout Episcopalian, so I've probably missed out!
I might give her another try. I'm more of an Agatha Christie 'Murder at the Vicarage' type person and I enjoy churchy medieval whodunnits particularly the 'Brother Cadfael' series by Edith Pargeter writing as Ellis Peters.
Does anyone know if Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) has any treatsies and ecclesiastical writings? Preferably a collection of his writings.
I'm not sure exactly which ones you are seeking. But you can Google 'Thomas Cranmer Books' and a whole list of different books come up. Someone may come along and be able to recommend a specific book. But yeah, there's quite a few of them out there.
Favorites: -Thomas Cranmer (duh) -John Jewel -Joseph Hall (specifically on the episcopacy) -Richard Hooker (duh) -Charles Leslie (non-juror) -JC Ryle -JI Packer -Pusey -Thomas McKenzie