This is a fairly scholarly study of the transfiguration of Jesus using an Icon of the event painted in 1403 - helpfully featured on the front cover of the book and writings from the Desert Fathers and early Christian writings. What was really useful was that in the introduction the author had printed, side by side, the three accounts from the gospels therefore showing up both their similarities and differences – surprising in some instances – as well as breaking the narratives down into shorter sections for each chapter and exploring/comparing these in more detail. Within this somewhat scholarly framework, Kenneth Stevenson also manages to relate to the reader by tackling questions such as - how do we experience God?, how do we hear the voice of God? and, how do we continually move on in our faith? This book was written when the author was undergoing some lengthy chemotherapy and it is illuminating to read about his own experience of transfiguration during this difficult time.

One of the strangest episodes in the gospels is when Jesus went up a mountain with Peter, James and John and was suddenly transfigured – “his face shone like the sun” says St. Luke and, as St. Mark has it “his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them” – and Moses and Elijah appeared by his side. The disciples, not surprisingly, fell to the ground. In the East the Transfiguration has always been a major festival – in the West its significance has been under valued and this book is one of the very few ever to be devoted to the subject. The author, Bishop Kenneth Stevenson, makes a careful study of the biblical accounts, of the studies and interpretations over the centuries and of the iconography – this is another book for which the cover is important, because it reproduces the famous icon by Theophanes the Greek. He looks also at the church calendar – the feast of the Transfiguration falls in August, for which there is no overwhelming reason, but an older tradition is for the description of the Transfiguration to be read the week before Lent, the transfiguring of Christ thus foreshadowing his divine resurrection at Easter. The author also looks at the way in which transfiguration can occur in our lives too – in his own case he was transformed from a busy diocesan bishop to a hospital patient by the onset of leukaemia – and the way in which when we are confronted with the majesty of God our reaction is very like that of the disciples – flat down on our faces, not really understanding what’s going on.