What is the truth about the universe and its inhabitants? Helen Oppenheimer has carried out a balanced and rational inquiry into the existence of God to bring us closer to answering this question. Here she uses her findings to construct and argue her case for a responsible Christian faith, rooted firmly in the facts. 'Christian Faith for Handing On' offers readers a progress report on the live possibility of faith in an era of human suffering that can, at times, seem to render it futile. The author deftly tackles difficult questions and deconstructs objections to Christianity to equip and reassure believers, showing how they can learn from the sceptics in order to eschew comfortable complacency in favour of reason. This engaging and thought-provoking work will grip and challenge thinking Christians and atheist enquirers alike with its current and comprehensive apologia of Humanist Christian faith. Oppenheimer's scholarly approach ensures that the book will also prove an invaluable resource for academics and students of theology and philosophy.

Michael Balint is above all known for the "Balint Groups", which came to be a generic term for groups involved with the training of doctors and caregivers in the patient-caregiver relationship. Despite this, the origin and full import of his work has been somewhat overlooked. Helene Oppenheim-Gluckman provides us with a concise account of how reading Balint has enriched psychoanalytic theory and its practice by broadening the indications for the psychoanalytic cure and the debate on psychotherapies and the training to the professional care-giver-patient relation. Reading Michael Balint: A pragmatic clinician shows how Balint must be considered as one of the major figures in the British Independent School of psychoanalysis, along with Winnicott and Fairbairn. Oppenheim-Gluckman argues that his ideas, and the implications of his work with groups of medical practitioners, have remained hugely influential within modern psychoanalysis and training in medical psychology. Reading Michael Balint presents a clear overview of the main tenets of his work. It provides a fresh perspective on Balint's contribution and its importance for modern object relations theory and practice and brief psychotherapy. It will be an invaluable resource for psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic psychotherapists, counsellors and trainee psychoanalysts and doctors. Helene Oppenheim-Gluckman is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and has a doctorate in fundamental psychopathology and practises in Paris. She is a member of the Societe de Psychanalyse Freudienne, the Societe Medicale Balint, and a Balint Group "leader". She has published several books and a number of articles in psychoanalytic, medical, psychiatric and political-cultural journals.

Michael Balint is above all known for the "Balint Groups", which came to be a generic term for groups involved with the training of doctors and caregivers in the patient-caregiver relationship. Despite this, the origin and full import of his work has been somewhat overlooked. Helene Oppenheim-Gluckman provides us with a concise account of how reading Balint has enriched psychoanalytic theory and its practice by broadening the indications for the psychoanalytic cure and the debate on psychotherapies and the training to the professional care-giver-patient relation. Reading Michael Balint: A pragmatic clinician shows how Balint must be considered as one of the major figures in the British Independent School of psychoanalysis, along with Winnicott and Fairbairn. Oppenheim-Gluckman argues that his ideas, and the implications of his work with groups of medical practitioners, have remained hugely influential within modern psychoanalysis and training in medical psychology. Reading Michael Balint presents a clear overview of the main tenets of his work. It provides a fresh perspective on Balint's contribution and its importance for modern object relations theory and practice and brief psychotherapy. It will be an invaluable resource for psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic psychotherapists, counsellors and trainee psychoanalysts and doctors. Helene Oppenheim-Gluckman is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and has a doctorate in fundamental psychopathology and practises in Paris. She is a member of the Societe de Psychanalyse Freudienne, the Societe Medicale Balint, and a Balint Group "leader". She has published several books and a number of articles in psychoanalytic, medical, psychiatric and political-cultural journals.

In "What a Piece of Work: On Being Human," Oppenheimer considered humankind as part of the natural universe which Christians believe God set in motion. In this volume, she leaves aside comparisons with our fellow creatures in order to attend to our own experience.

This is a small book on a large subject: what is special about human beings? Hamlet mused, 'What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how like a god!' but went on to speak of 'this quintessence of dust'. Helen Oppenheimer prefers to start with the dust and move to the glory: we really are animals - and from these animals has come Shakespeare. People are indeed 'miserable sinners' - and also magnificent creatures. The author does not disguise that she is a Christian theologian whose subject is ethics, but she writes equally for non-Christians. Her invitation to the reader is: here is a way of looking at things that I find exciting and convincing - I hope you do too.

Human beings have to ask how faith is possible, in this mixed world of trouble and joy. A safe universe with no scope for adversity would be a mechanical toy, not a creation. A glorious universe will be a place where troubles have eventually been overcome. Christians believe in one God, who is three Persons. God the heavenly Father took the risk of making a real world, full of living people capable of happiness. Jesus Christ, God the Son, came as a human being to take responsibility for creation. He suffered and died; and he rose from death to vindicate the whole enterprise and show that creation can and will be made good. People are not left to work out their own faith but are invited to belong to the church, in order to keep in touch with God the Spirit. They are to behave as God's children, not by rule-bound conformity but by grateful response to the glory of God the Holy Trinity. "Two words which enter my mind whenever I read Helen Oppenheimer are clarity and humanity. Her philosophical care and rich embrace of Christian Humanism are at the heart. Life unfolds with meaning when there is a loving God who creates and redeems. Helen's knowledge and love of both the Christian and the English literary traditions show just how rich is this faith to hand on." -- Rt Revd Stephen Platten, Bishop of Wakefield, Bishop's Lodge "Helen Oppenheimer is unusual in combining a finely honed philosophical mind with a lucid, friendly, informal style. Rigorously honest in facing the difficulties of believing in God today, at the same time she does not sell the Christian faith short. Drawing on a lifetime of experience and reflection, not least from family life, she gives us here a lovely legacy that will help many not only to believe, doubts and all, but to live out the faith with a deepening spiritual conviction." --Lord Harries of Pentregarth, retired Bishop of Oxford Helen Oppenheimer graduated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, in philosophy. She is married with three married daughters, ten grandchildren, and a great-grandson. She has served on several Anglican commissions and taught ethics at Cuddesdon Theological College. She writes on Christian ethics and philosophical theology and holds a Lambeth DD. Her books include The Hope of Heaven (1988) and On Being Someone (2010). She and her husband live in Jersey in the Channel Islands.