Temple Garden is Jock Stein's tenth book of poetry, but the first collection of its type. It has five sections: Nature, Scotland, In Response to Bible Texts, Questions, and Poems of Time and Season. Faber poet Harry Smart, in his introduction, writes: "The title poem of Jock Stein's collection is a natural doorway into the whole. 'Temple Garden' points to faith, but not a single faith. We find ourselves in synagogue, mosque, and Christian church in these poems." Just as the good life invol...

Does the Christian Bible seem somehow remote, inaccessible, or difficult to penetrate? This unusual book offers a way in to the Bible which has probably never been attempted before...It introduces the first six books of the Bible through a combination of poetry, conversation and commentary. The poems are written in a variety of styles, from sonnet to Haiku, reflecting the variety of writing in the Bible, and simply to enjoy the art of poetry as one of God’s gifts to humankind....