"One of the best Scottish writers of our time" offers "a fictional re-creation of the life and teachings of the 18th century Zen master Ekaku Hakuin" ( Scotsman).On the side of a mountain in eighteenth-century Japan sits a man in perfect stillness as the summit erupts, spitting fire and molten rock onto the land around him. The man is Hakuin. He will become the world's most famous teacher of Zen—and this is not the first time he has seen hell.In ...

Clear Light contains 150 haiku bursting with Alan Spence's characteristic verve and wit.Mythic and mesmerising, inspiring and hilarious, these poems shed clear light on the delights, hardships, breakthroughs and frustrations of the world of the momentary.Simple in form, these haiku request a fresh look at the familiar and leave us reeling at how much in the world, from the exotic to the everyday, we have yet to observe.

This delightful new collection of short-form poetry from former Edinburgh Makar Alan Spence is a descendant of his bestselling cult classic Glasgow Zen.Haiku and senryu, translations from the Japanese; found poems, sound poems, visual and text poems, puns and one-liners, overheard word-on-the-street poems, everyday zen; timeless poems of the here and now, capturing moments of stillness and surprise; poignant, insightful and touching, shot through with warmth and humour – a...

The year is 1858. Thomas Glover is a gutsy eighteen-year-old who grasps the chance of escape to foreign lands and takes a posting as a trader in Japan. Within ten years he amasses a great fortune, learns the ways of the samurai, and, on the other side of the law, brings about the overthrow of the Shogun. Yet beneath Glover's astonishing success lies a man cut to the heart. His love affair with a courtesan - a woman who, unknown to him, would bear him the son for which he had always longed ...

This is Spence's first book of poetry since Glasgow Zen. He evokes the essence of the seasons with this cycle of haiku.

*Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2024 Longlist*Lovers of Haiku, Zen and Japan will find this novel truly inspiring!An extraordinary man at a crucial time and place."In Mister Timeless Blyth, writer Alan Spence has created a fascinating (auto) biography, convincingly in R.H. Blyth's own voice. In it, he has conveyed the haiku scholar's love of music, eastern and western literature, Zen Buddhism, a...

A classic of short fiction, Alan Spence’s celebrated debut collection, first published in 1977, brings Glasgow to vibrant life and captures the spirit of the city as it teetered on the brink of change. From childhood Christmases in small tenement flats and games played on scrubland, to Orange Walks on bright Saturday afternoons and Thursday nights in dark, pulsing dancehalls, these interlinked stories vividly evoke the city and its inhabitants – young and old, Catholic and Protestant, hope...

A superb new collection of haiku and other short poetic forms on the theme of Glasgow - its people, landscape, culture. As always, Spence is uniquely illuminating, witty and delightful.Incorporating some of the poems which appeared decades ago in the much sought-after collection of the same title, Glasgow Zen includes mostly new material from this highly popular and exquisite poet.

This book offers a fresh outline of the Christian story shaped by the idea of God's love as it is described in the New Testament.Love Hurts is a fresh and compact summary of the central themes of the Christian message. Journeying through the Bible's rich and diverse world of ideas and stories, it leads the reader on a route mapped out by one particular motif - the love of God. The meaning of this idea as it is explained in three key verses in the New Testament determines t...

A study of Paul's letter to the Galatians as a way to understanding the nature of the gospel, justification by faith, the law, the Holy Spirit, Christian freedom, being one with Christ, and the challenges those truths faced in Paul's day, at certain key stages in the history of the Church, and today. This accessible study reveals Paul's argument in Galatians and applies it to today's church.COMMENDATIONS"Written to some of the earliest Christian communities to resolve an urg...

Today Christology is of concern to both New Testament scholars and theologians alike and continues to provoke debate within the Church. Christology: A Guide for the Perplexed examines the key debates and defining moments in the early Church and the Reformation. After a brief introduction providing a basic definition of Christology, this historical background provides an essential foundation on which to outline later developments in Christology. Alan Spence then considers the Quest...

Through engagement with the historical debate Incarnation and Inspiration offers a systematic exposition of the person of Jesus that brings together dissonant aspects of the tradition. It serves as an introduction to the theology to John Owen, the most able of the Puritan theologians and provides a way of understanding the theological dynamic underlying the Christology of the Fathers and the Definition of Chalcedon. Through its emphasis on coherence it seeks to illuminate the inner rationa...