The title of this book captures Ray Simpson’s theme succinctly, the need for Christians in an overtly upwardly mobile society to adopt a counter-cultural style of life which, he argues, reaffirms Christianity’s first principals. His introduction is inspiring, drawing an interesting parallel between the Darwinian ‘survival of the fittest’ and the concept of ‘upward mobility’. He proceeds to explore scripture to reveal those first principals, introducing the telling phrase ‘downwardly mobile glory’. Simpson develops his theme further using examples of holy lives through the centuries, from the 4th century Desert Fathers to Sundar Singh and L’Arche in the last. Having made his point, he examines our own doorstep, pointing to our gap between rich and poor, absent from contented Nordic societies, as the root of our own nation’s social malaise and dissatisfaction. This densely argued thesis concludes that downward mobility can be encouraged, and the Christian Church may be a vehicle. It has been a long journey but Simpson has enumerated the possibilities for his Cowshed Revolution, ending with a reiteration of Jesus’ prophesy that ‘the meek shall inherit the earth’, surely the ultimate expression of God’s downward glory.