The Canadian author and academic tells how it took a stage four cancer diagnosis for her to discover a God who promises never to abandon us in our pain

A couple of days after meeting Kate Bowler on Zoom, to chat about her new book, No Cure for Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear), I went to Sunday Mass. The second reading was from the letter of St James: “An answer for the rich. Start crying, weep for the miseries that are coming to you. Your wealth is all rotting, your clothes are all eaten up by moths. All your gold and your silver are corroding away, and the same corrosion will be your own sentence, and eat into your body.”

These words struck me forcibly, because 41-year-old Bowler had been talking to me about the many years she spent among Christians whose beliefs were diametrically opposed to James’ – champions of a “prosperity gospel” which teaches that faith and virtue will be rewarded with health and riches: a “my will be done” creed.