A Panorama of the Holy Land

A PANORAMA OF THE HOLY LAND
By Jon Arnold and Stephen Sizer
Eagle Publishing. 80 pages. £17.99
ISBN 0 86347 171 4

This is a large panoramic-shaped book printed on glossy paper, with full colour illustrations. Jon Arnold, a freelance travel and landscape photographer, has provided the illustrations, while Stephen Sizer, vicar of Virginia Water in Surrey and director of Highway journeys has provided the text.
The aim of the book is to introduce Christians to the Holy Land via armchair travel, with a view to embarking on a pilgrimage at some stage in their lives. Our journey begins in Samarid and proceeds to Beersheba, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Hermon, Joppa, En Gedi, the dead sea, Galilee, the sea of Galilee, Caesarea, Jericho, the river Jordan, the Judean Wilderness, Mount Sinai, Golgotha, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Walls of Jerusalem.
The format used by Stephen Sizer is to select a venue, provide a main text to introduce that venue, then to supply supporting texts and comments followed by a spiritual conclusion at the end. Each venue is lavishly illustrated with full colour photographs.
The book ends with recommended further reading about the history and archaeology of the Holy Land, the best guidebooks, the contemporary political situation and the local Christian community. Also the names of useful Christian contacts for the Holy Land are given.
I found this book to be interesting, informative and provocative, it brings out the beauty of the land. The study was presented logically so that a picture of the events that happened in that land could be put into context and easily understood. The spiritual conclusions were brief but part of the structure of the book. The love for the land by the author and photographer was evident throughout the book.
I would suggest that any Christian studying this book would need a good atlas to locate the venues, would need to study the present political situation within its historical context, and to be sensitive to the people who live in that land.

Derek Rose

© Evangelicals Now - March 1999
Please consider supporting this ministry by subscribing.

• Request Free Sample

Main Articles

• Mother to the Prison
  How God is using one woman among Canada's convicts
• It's not over till it's over
  The surprising results of a visit to their MP about the age of homosexual consent
• The Good Shepherd in Transylvania
  God is reaching out to the socially-marginalised through the church in Transylvania
• You can't beat a good book
  The work of the Evangelical Library - now more than 50 years old
• Notes on dealing with depressive illness
  Information and advice about depression among Christians
• Nehemiah's renewal
  The message of Nehemiah with lessons for true spiritual renewal
• Doing the impossible
  Reflections of David Fletcher on a lifetime of Anglican ministry
• The narrow way
  A sermon extract on The Sermon On The Mount

Other articles

• Star Trek - Insurrection
• All In The Mind
• What Dreams May Come
• Making Sense of Living as a Christian - The story of Chris after changing churches - an extract from the book Making Sense of Living as a Christian
• Living Water - Finding Real Life In Jesus
• Peter - Eyewitness of His Majesty
• Griffith John - Apostle to Central China
• A Question of Love - Homosexuality - A Biblical Perspective
• The Best of Ladysmith Black Mambazo - The Star and Wiseman
• Hans Kung - Breaking Through
• Islam and The West - Conflict, Co-existence or Conversion?
• The Scroll - The Tabloid Bible
• To God's Glory - Romans 11
• Revealing Jesus as Messiah - Identifying Isaiah's Servant of the Lord
• When Love Prevails - A Sikh Woman Finds Christ
• Van Til's Apologetic, Readings and Analysis
• I Believe in Mission
• A Panorama of the Holy Land
• An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture
• The Essence of The Reformation