‘The limits of radicalism are those which end not in chaos but in the breaking of fresh ground.’Howard E. RootPreviously unpublished––and only recently rediscovered by Dr Christopher R. Brewer in an uncatalogued box in the archives of Lambeth Palace Library––Canon Howard E. Root’s 1972 Bampton Lectures, ‘The Limits of Radicalism’, have to do with nothing less than ‘what theology is’, a topic no less relevant today than it was in 1972. Against the radical reductionism of his...

Explore the history of original sin—and how it shapes our view of human nature—in “one of the best books on the history of the evolution of Christianity and its ideology” (Washington Book Review).Original sin is the Western world’s creation story.According to the Christian doctrine of original sin, humans are born inherently bad, and only through God’s grace can they achieve salvation. In this captivating and controversial book, acclaimed ...

"A sensitive, brave and inspiring book" exploring the state of modern Christianity from the international bestselling author of Leaving Alexandria (Karen Armstrong).A prize-winning author and former Bishop for the Scottish Episcopal Church, Richard Holloway has written extensively on the role of religion in modern society. Now, in this passionate and heartfelt book, Holloway interrogates the traditional ways of understanding the Bible. I...

God, Sexuality and the Self is a new venture in systematic theology. Sarah Coakley invites the reader to re-conceive the relation of sexual desire and the desire for God and - through the lens of prayer practice - to chart the intrinsic connection of this relation to a theology of the Trinity. The goal is to integrate the demanding ascetical undertaking of prayer with the recovery of lost and neglected materials from the tradition and thus to reanimate doctrinal reflection both imaginative...

Rethinking Effective Apologetics for the Present Age.Christians have always had to defend their faith against all kinds of criticism and misunderstandings, but these attacks change overtime, and the strongest arguments of the famous classical apologists who preceded us are not necessarily the strongest today.Intellectuals Don't Need God is written to today's faithful apologists who are trying to commend Christianity in terms of its relevance to eve...

A prehistory of today's humanities, from ancient Greece to the early twentieth centuryMany today do not recognize the word, but "philology" was for centuries nearly synonymous with humanistic intellectual life, encompassing not only the study of Greek and Roman literature and the Bible but also all other studies of language and literature, as well as history, culture, art, and more. In short, philology was the queen of the human sciences. How did it become little m...

How do we know the stories told by historians are true? To what extent can we rely on their interpretations of the past?Histories and Fallacies is a primer on the conceptual and methodological problems in the discipline of history. Historian Carl Trueman presents a series of classic historical problems as a way to examine what history is, what it means, and how it can be told and understood. Each chapter in Histories and Fallacies gives an account of a particular ...

In fifty brilliant short essays one of the UK's liveliest young writers on religion introduces the key themes, movements and thinkers in theology.

Why do the innocent suffer in a world created by a loving God? Does this mean that God cannot prevent this suffering, despite His supposed omnipotence? Or is God not loving after all? This in brief is 'the problem of evil'. The Devil provides one solution to this problem: his rebellion against God and hatred of His works is responsible for evil.The Christian Devil has fascinated writers and theologians since the time of the New Testament, and inspired many dramatic and haunting works of ar...

Is there an ‘Anglican identity’? Or is living with the tension between different temperaments and histories itself at the heart of the genius of Anglicanism? Anglican Identities draws together studies and profiles by Rowan Williams that sympathetically explore approaches to scripture, tradition, and authority that are very different – yet at the same time distinctively Anglican. William Tyndale, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, B. F. Westcott, Michael Ramsey, and John A. T. Robinson are amo...

This really is a readable, accessible introduction that takes account of some of the most recent Barth scholarship."It is highly recommended for those coming to Barth's work for the first time." Oliver D. Crisp, Reader in Theology, University of BristolD. Densil Morgan makes Barth's often complex, rich and provocative thinking accessible to a wide audience. He provides an introduction to the daunting, multi volume The Church Dogmatics, sketches the central ...

Sarah Coakley draws both liberal and conservative camps into a new and serious reflection on ascetical theology.Each chapter of The New Asceticism concentrates on a contentious issue in contemporary theology - the role of women in the churches, homosexuality and the priesthood, celibacy and the future of Christian asceticism - in an original thesis about the nature of desire which may start to heal many contemporary wounds.Professor Coakley is as f...