Happy acquisitions from Christian Aid Book Sale 2006 - special interest

Albert Schweitzer (1954) My Life and Thought: an autobiography (2nd ed). London: British Publishers Guild.

• 50p
  
• As a teenager I only heard of Albert Schweitzer as a medical missionary to Africa. It was only in seminary that I realised that he was also a prominent biblical scholar in the earlier part of the 20th century who started the first wave of 'the Quest for the Historical Jesus'.
  

Eberhard Bethge, Renate Bethge, Christian Gemmels (1986) Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Life in Pictures. London: SCM.

• £1.50.
  
• Published 20 years ago to commemorate the 80th birthday of the late German theologian who has inspired so many over the decades. It is good to get it at the year which marks his 100th birthday.
  
• 'Dedicated to Sabine Liebholz, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's twin sister, on the occasion of her eightieth birthday, 4 February 1986.' (from copyright page) -- How about that! I never knew he had a twin sister!

Adrian Hastings (ed.) (1999) A World History of Christianity. London: Cassell.

• £5
• I am attracted by the breadth of geograpical coverage - as the book's own backcover says: 'This is the first major study to escape the bounds of Eurocentricity and ecclesiocentricity. It shows Christianity as related organically to the diversity of the world's cultures and regions ... '
  
• Also attracted by the chapter on 'China and its Neighbours' by R.G. Tiedemann of SOAS.