The millennium should have been a celebration of 2,000 years of Christianity. But while fireworks and new forests made the headlines, there was also a new hymn book for the Church of Ireland from Oxford University Press, a new prayer book for the Church of England (Common Worship), Dr Kenneth Milne's Christ Church Cathedral Dublin: A History (Four Courts, £40), and the exhibition of early Biblical manuscripts, which continues at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.
The very reason for the millennium celebrations might have been expected to draw wider attention to new books on theology and church history. Instead, the greatest controversy was generated by the Vatican's publication of Dominus Iesus, which dealt a severe blow to ecumenical endeavours. And the year closes with the publication of two books likely to stir long-running controversies: one announcing the death of Christian Britain, the other a gripping account by a widely-respected theologian of how she tried to keep her integrity in the Catholic Church but left her order after five years of Vatican bullying and intimidation.
In The Death of Christian Britain (Routledge, £40 hdb/ £12.99 pbk in UK), Callum Brown argues that within a generation Christianity will merely be a minority cult. Organised religion is on the decline in Britain, many denominations are short of recruits to the ministry, and while many people continue to believe without belonging, "the content of belief is drifting further and further away from the Christian norm". The Church of Scotland has even put a date on its own demise through membership loss - the year 2033.
Brown, who is Reader in History at the University of Strathclyde, argues that Britain's core religious culture has been destroyed. But he challenges the view that secularisation has been a long and gradual process, proposing there has been a catastrophic and abrupt cultural revolution. Personal Christian identity broke down suddenly in the "swinging Sixties" when new media, new gender roles and the moral revolution dramatically ended people's conception that they lived Christian lives. He predicts the same fate faces the whole of western Christianity. He excludes Ireland - north and south - from his study, but the implications are obvious, and Irish Church leaders should not ignore this book.
How Church leaders treat theologians can be a sorry tale, given the experience of Lavinia Byrne, Cambridge theologian, regular BBC broadcaster, and former Loreto sister. As her critique of the Catholic Church's opposition to the ordination of women, Woman at the Altar, was going to press in 1994, Pope John Paul II issued his letter, Ordinatio Sacredotalis, "On reserving priestly ordination to men alone". Despite the demands of publishers' deadlines, she included the letter as a late appendix. But the Vatican was not happy: her General Superior was grilled in Rome and the book's American co-publishers were instructed to destroy any remaining copies.
Eventually, Cardinal Ratzinger's colleague in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Bertone, insisted that the "errors" in the book had to be corrected and demanded her public assent to Humanae Vitae and Ordinatio Sacredotalis.
In her autobiographical book, The Journey is My Home (Hodder and Stoughton, £14.99 in UK), she describes how her conscience took a hammering and her sense of being "censored, sacked, bullied and humiliated" made her physically and mentally sick. Although the late Cardinal Hume and Archbishop Derek Worlock provided encouragement, she felt compelled to leave her order at the beginning of this year.
Last month, Dr Byrne - the granddaughter of an Irish doctor who moved to Birmingham - was in Co Meath, leading a retreat for the bishops of the Church of Ireland. She remains a loyal Catholic, but would not like others to suffer from the grasp of the long arms of Cardinal Ratzinger's department. The Catholic Church has lost the ministry of yet another articulate and generous theologian.
Honest ecumenism continues, though, with Dominican Publications publishing the latest book by the Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath, Dr Richard Clarke, entitled And Is It True? (£7.99). He talks about a search for faith that needs ruthless honesty and suggests that it is essential for believers to take the risk of standing in "no-man's-land", paying heed to all those who give voice to a passion and a restlessness for truth.
In another ground-breaking ecumenical gesture, the leaders of five major Irish churches have all recommended a new book of prayer. In Psalming the New Testament (Veritas, £8.99), Desmond O'Donnell, an Oblate priest and psychotherapist, and Maureen Mohan, an Australian Sister of Mercy, attempt to celebrate 100 major themes of the New Testament in psalm form, drawing on 1,000 texts.
Celtic spirituality has been a popular topic in recent years, but scholars have been sceptical of much that has been written. Now a Benedictine monk from Glenstal, Sean O Duinn, has tried to determine what we can really say about the subject. In Where Three Streams Meet (Columba, £12.99), he returns to the original texts, and examines the sources in traditional folk prayers, Irish monasticism, and the spirituality of Gaelic Scotland.
General books on religion and theology continue to have popular appeal too. OUP has produced a new edition of the Oxford Concise Dictionary of the Christian Church (£8.99 in UK) with many new entries, including feminist theology, liberation theology and the ordination of women. In its "Very Short Introduction" series - which included Dublin-born David Ford of Cambridge on Theology last year - OUP has produced an attractive, slim volume by John Riches of Glasgow on The Bible (£5.99 in UK). And Icon Books, publishers of the witty, cartoon "Introducing" series, has produced a critical but delightful volume this year by Anthony O'Hear and Judy Groves, Introducing Christianity (£8.99 in UK).
Callum Brown may be predicting the death of Christian Britain. But Christian publishing is not yet in its death throes.
Rev Patrick Comerford is a writer on theology and church history and an Irish Times journalist. Contact: theology@ireland.com