It is tempting for publishers to see AAS-level RE as insufficiently viable in student numbers and therefore sales to risk publishing texts for. This can leave RE teachers in a no-man’s land between GCSE texts on the one hand and undergraduate texts on the other. Stanley Thornes is to be congratulated for publishing a book which is AAS specific, aided and abetted by the buoyant numbers in this particular exam option, the philosophy of religion.

Patrick Clarke is an experienced tacher of AAS philosophy of religion. His text is a primer, clearly written, divided into user-friendly sections, with names of key thinkers in bold to help referencing. Black and white photographs and line drawings help to illustrate issues raised in the text.

Clarke addresses the existence and nature of God; God and science; God and experience; and God and language. It is good to see the famous Paley’s Watch passage quoted properly and not merely referred to. This book provides a good starting point from which to induct students into the debate.

Terence Copley