Touched by God: The way to contemplative prayer by Luigi Gioia (Bloomsbury, £10.99 (£9.90); 978-1-4729-5100-7)

“In Touched by God, Luigi Gioia moves on to explore the art of contemplation. He points out that contemplation is not a more advanced way of praying but a silent and loving attentiveness to God which has nothing in common with disembodied, ahistorical and impersonal forms of spirituality.”

Medieval Pilgrimage: With a survey of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Bristol by Nicholas Orme (Impress Books, £14.99 (£13.50); 978-1-911293-35-4)

“Pilgrimage was popular throughout medieval England until it was suppressed at the Reformation. This book explains how it originated, what it involved, and what it meant to those who practised it.”

A Field Guide to the English Clergy: A compendium of diverse eccentrics, pirates, prelates and adventurers; all Anglican, some even practising by Fergus Butler-Gallie (Oneworld, £12.99 (£11.70); 978-1-78607-441-6)

“Judge not, lest ye be judged. This timeless wisdom has guided the Anglican Church for hundreds of years, fostering a certain tolerance of eccentricity among its members. Good thing, too. The ‘Mermaid of Morwenstow’ excommunicated a cat for mousing on a Sunday. When he was late for a service, Bishop Lancelot Fleming commandeered a Navy helicopter. ‘Mad Jack’ swapped his surplice for a leopard skin and insisted on being carried around in a coffin. And then there was the man who, like Noah's evil twin, tried to eat one of each of God's creatures... In spite of all this they saw the church as their true calling. After all, who cares if you're wearing red high heels when there are souls to be saved?”

Archbishop Benson’s Humming Top and Other Reflections by Adrian Leak (The Book Guild, £13.99 (£12.60); 978-1-912575-22-0)

“Following the success of his Leek’s first collection, Nebuchadnezzar’s Marmalade Pot, his new book, Archbishop Benson’s Humming Top comprises sixty brief essays adapted from sermons as well as articles previously published in the Church Times.”

The Beauty of Holiness: Re-reading Isaiah in the light of the psalms by Joseph Blenkinsopp £17.99 (£16.20); 978-0-567-68030-3)

“Joseph Blenkinsopp presents an intertextual reading of Isaiah and the Psalms furthering his previous well-known work on the text of Isaiah. Blenkinsopp argues that, read together, these two biblical books can be shown to form a single religious vision, a way of experiencing and articulating a commitment to the fundamentals of the faith of Israel, with its own distinctive character.”

Selected by Frank Nugent, of the Church House Bookshop, which operates the Church Times Bookshop.