The book is just five chapters based on lectures given to celebrate 250 years of Methodism in the west end of London. The first four contain reflections from the New Testament and the early church and the final chapter is some reflections on the lessons from the early church for today. The first chapter by Hooker is focused on holiness, what does it mean to be ‘set apart for God’, essentially who we are and what we do matters and it matters to mission. The second chapter also by Hooker examines the idea of the city in the Bible. It tackles the simplistic idea of ‘the Bible begins in a garden but ends in a city’ which sounds nice but means little. I’ve heard much of the fact that all of Paul’s missionary efforts were conducted in cities but Hooker makes an interesting point about what Paul would have done on the way to the cities. In chapter three Frances Young looks at the spread of Christianity and how Christians lived in the pagan Roman Empire, perhaps a situation with more similarity for us today than our recent past. She thinks it was down to the following reasons; public preaching, the power of miracles and networks (or communities). In the fourth chapter, Young reflects on the church in the Constantine era. In the last chapter Hooker and Young attempt to draw some conclusions for the contemporary church in the city and this is the weakest chapter of them all although with some penetrating insights. But for me the concessions or compromises to pluralism; Young essentially says all faith routes go up the same mountain of God; just frustrate me because it seems detached from the confidence in the Gospel that they so clearly demonstrated that Paul and the early church had in spades. However, notwithstanding that, this is an excellent book that I will refer to many times as I seek to understand God’s heart for cities.