Ian Farley reviews 'God and Churchill', by Jonathan Sandys and Wallace Henley (SPCK, 2015, 352 pages, hardback £19.99)

This is an extremely thought-provoking book and one that is easy to read. It claims to be the first biography of Churchill to focus on the Christian motivation behind his style of leadership, speeches and eventual success. But it is important to note the title carefully. The order, God and Churchill, is significant, as is the subtitle – 'How the great leader's sense of divine destiny changed his troubled world and offers hope for ours'. Together, title and sub-title lets the reader know what to expect.

The title is not 'Churchill and God'. Those with some knowledge of the wartime prime minister will be aware that he did not express personal faith in Jesus nor particularly call himself a Christian or indeed claim to be religious. If enthusiasts of him are looking to find that actually he was one or all of these things, then this book will disappoint.

Rather the argument of the joint authors (one of whom, Sandys, is Churchill's great-grandson) is that God is active and sovereign in history. In particular, he appoints saving leaders and uses them to achieve his purposes. Churchill, they argue, was one such instrument in God's hands.

Churchill did not call himself a Christian or express personal faith in Jesus. But this book argues that he was still an instrument in God's sovereign hands for a saving purpose.

Churchill had, they believe, a high sense of Christian civilisation and a deep knowledge of Scripture, imparted to him by his nanny whose photograph was still by his bedside at his death. Of particular interest is the claim that as a boy of 16 he was already envisioned with a sense of purpose from God, one that would involve him saving the nation and its capital from invasion. His perseverance in this belief in his destiny, often against all the odds, is at the heart of this story.

Certainly Churchill was preserved from death on several occasions and equipped through the vicissitudes of his life to stand up to the evil of Hitler and Nazism. There are interesting chapters on the sources of this evil and Churchill's different perspective especially on science, the role of the church in society, the philosophy of Utilitarianism and the importance of history.

At the heart of this story is Churchill's sense of destiny and perseverance in his belief that he had great purpose.

All of this is a good read but there is more. As the subtitle suggests, his sense of destiny offers hope for our world too. The authors very expressly link the state of the world today with the mess of the 1940s. ISIS is the current equivalent of Hitler. The moral mess of the 1920s led to the Second World War and the moral mess of the 1960s has led to today's chaos. Is there a leader-saviour for today? There is a review of the danger of equivalency as an acceptable way of thought and a very good overview of patterns of history from Judges. But be warned, tempers may fray in this part!

Altogether a book to enjoy and be stimulated by, but not one that will assure you of the great man's salvation. However, it is a timely addition to the corpus on Churchill - especially in the year of the 70^th anniversary of Victory in Europe. The book's release is also timed to coincide with Churchill's birthday, 30 November, on which date the author will speak at a national press launch in Westminster.

Altogether a book to enjoy and be stimulated by, though not one that will assure you of the great man's salvation.