Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, now divested of Episcopal responsibilities, has demonstrated in a few years an exceptional new lease of intellectual energy, no doubt prompted further by the pressing questions of his students in Cambridge.
In this new book, Williams answers the question Jesus put to his disciples 'Who do you say that I am'. The discussion centres on what Jesus was, what was his nature, his make-up. In a world heavily influenced by Greek philosophical tradition, there were at the start two key words, logos and ousia word and substance. If Jesus was a man with a soul, how did his inner human life relate to his inner divine life'.
All his life, Rowan Williams has been deeply influenced by thinkers of the Orthodox tradition (for example the idea of Godmanhood) and has published books on Orthodox theologians as well as a critically acclaimed book on Dostoevsky.
The present book concerns fundamental issues for Christian belief and Williams tackles them head on he writes with pellucid clarity and shows his real gift for putting across what are inevitably complex ideas to a wide audience.
By:
Rowan Williams (Magdalene College Cambridge UK)
Imprint: Continuum
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 153mm,
Weight: 612g
ISBN: 9781472945549
ISBN 10: 1472945549
Publication Date: 01 November 2018
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgements Preface Introduction: Beginning the Middle (Ages): Aquinas's Christological Vision 1 Jesus Christ: Infinite Act and Finite Embodiment 2 Summarizing a Tradition: The Christology of Thomas Aquinas 3 The Unity of Christ 4 Transforming Humanity: Christ as the Ground of Communion PART ONE 1.1 Formulating the Question: From Paul to Augustine 1 New Testament Origins: History, Faith and Narrative 2 From Paul to Nicaea: The Logos and the Flesh 3 Towards Chalcedon 4 A Latin Voice: Augustine on the Unity of Christ 1.2 Refining the Vocabulary: The Contribution of Early Byzantine Theology 1 Chalcedon and its Aftermath 2 Terminological Developments: Leontius of Byzantium and Leontius of Jerusalem 3 Maximus the Confessor: Christology and the Reconciled Cosmos 4 A Byzantine Synthesis: John of Damascus 5 The Story So Far PART TWO 2.2 Loss and Recovery: Calvin and the Re-formation of Christology 1 Dismantling Aquinas: The Later Medieval Discussion 2 The Catholic Calvin: A Theological Tradition Renewed 3 A New Diversity: The Varieties of Protestant Christology 2.2 Christ, Creation and Community: Christology in the Shadow of Antichrist 1 Barth, Bonhoeffer and the Legacy of Protestant Orthodoxy 2 Bonhoeffer's Christology Lectures 3 Christology, Ethics and Politics: Discourses of Transformation Conclusion: Christ, the Heart of Creation; The Tension in Metaphysics and Theology Appendix: Concluding (Unethological?) Postscript: Wittgenstein, Kierkegaard and Chalcedon Index
Reviews for Christ the Heart of Creation
I have not caught anything like the full complexity or density of William's book ... [It is] a display of daunting wide erudition, of a powerful and well-stocked mind at work making connections and offering insights, judgements and suggestions in many directions across a whole range of scholarly debates ... Readers who tackle it will find much that is rich and illuminating. * Times Literary Supplement * [A] magisterial new survey of Christology. * Church Times * Rewarding ... An intellectually challenging book ... I can think of no more stimulating companion to have in trying to negotiate the thickets of christology. * Augustinianum * A major work of modern theology ... with impressive scholarship. * Theology Journal * Christ the Heart of Creation is an insightful, masterful and thoroughly impressive work. * International Journal of Systematic Theology *
