Description
Book SynopsisIn this wide-ranging book, Rowan Williams argues that what we say about Jesus Christ is key to understanding what Christian belief says about creator and creation overall. Through detailed discussion of texts from the earliest centuries to the present day, we are shown some of the various and subtle ways in which Christians have discovered in their reflections on Christ the possibility of a deeply affirmative approach to creation, and a set of radical insights in ethics and politics as well.
Throughout his life, Rowan Williams has been deeply influenced by thinkers of the Eastern Christian tradition as well as Catholic and Anglican writers. This book draws on insights from Eastern Christianity, from the Western Middle Ages and from Reformed thinkers, from Calvin to Bonhoeffer as well as considering theological insights sparked by philosophers like Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein. Christ the Heart of Creation concerns fundamental issues for Christian belief and Williams
Trade Review
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 *
Table of Contents
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
