AP

Review of Catherine Halsall, Epistles from Perpetua: Praying Through a Pandemic, Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2025.

            As one of the martyrs in the period of the early Church, Perpetua was aged about 22 when she was executed along with Felicitas, in the city of Carthage about the year AD 203. It was a cruel death – something in which the Romans specialised. A mad heifer was let loose on the women, but it failed to finish the job, so a gladiator was called in. Although severely injured, Perpetua had to direct his shaky hand to her throat.

This provides the platform for Catherine to write 130 epistles or short meditations. The result is a mixture of many thoughts and allusions to many authors – Richard Pratt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hudson Taylor, and others, including some surprises such as Roald Dahl, and numerous poets such as Blake and Shelley. Not only was Catherine an organised librarian, but she is a wide reader as well. It seems a long way from the theatre of Carthage to Robert Menzies’ refusal of a knighthood in 1954, but it is all here. There are quite a few assertions to investigate – one such being Kenneth Bailey’s view that the Magi came from Arabia, not Persia.

Throughout the epistles, the dominant emphasis is on prayer. Virtually every epistle is saturated with Scripture, and helpful applications. At the end of it all, the connections with Perpetua are much more obvious than at the beginning. And the journey is worth it. Meditation leads to prayer, and rest in God, and Catherine has helped us to see that more clearly.

– Peter Barnes