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...

What is consciousness? Is the mind a machine? What makes each of us a person? How do our bodies relate to our minds?In this deeply engaging exploration of what it means to be human, Rowan Williams addresses these frequently asked questions with lucid meditations that draw from findings in neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, and literature. Then he presses on to ask, Might faith be necessary to human flourishing? If so, why? And how can a traditional Christian practice—namely, sil...

In this classic treatise on Christian spirituality, Rowan Williams takes us with a new eye along a road marked out by Paul, John, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, and finally to Luther and St. John of the Cross. The Wound of Knowledge is a penetrating psychological and intellectual analysis of Christian spirituality from one of the finest theological minds of our day.

Basic instruction in Christian discipleship from one of the world's greatest living theologians"Discipleship," says Rowan Williams in this companion to his best-selling Being Christian, "is a state of being. Discipleship is about how we live; not just the decisions we make, not just the things we believe, but a state of being."Having covered baptism, Bible, Eucharist, and prayer in Being Christian, Williams turns his attention in this book to what...

Why is it 'good news' to say that 'Jesus is risen'? What has the resurrection to do with our idea of salvation? This book sets out to show how the experience of the resurrection was from the first one of forgiveness and of the healing of memories of injury, guilt or failure. Out of this healing grow new patterns of life together, and a new understanding of God. This classic work by one of the finest theological minds of our day is renowned for its synthesis of theology and spirituality, cr...

Rowan Williams's first collections of poems, After Silent Centuries and Remembering Jerusalem, along with a selection of new ones make up this new collection. It displays a poetry that embodies abstract ideas in vivid sensual images. The subject matter ranges widely: the natural world, works of art, recollections of a visit to the Holy Land at Easter, thoughts arising from fragments of the ancient Celtic world, and reflections on modern Welsh life. A group of poems expresses meditations on...

Gathered together for the first time, these three plays by Rowan Williams-known throughout the world not only as a religious leader and theologian but also as a poet and critic-explore the inner life of words and images.Shakeshafte imagines an encounter between a young sixteenth century Englishman with a faintly familiar surname and an undercover Jesuit missionary. Two visions of how words change the world collide and converge and slip away again.

The old saying about being condemned to repeat the history we don’t know applies to Church history as much as to anything else. But we are often at a loss to know how to approach it. Much of what passed once for Church history was propagandist; and much of the best now written is brilliantly done but apparently detached from the Church’s present needs. We need a theological approach to Church history but not one that is just partisan. In seeking to explore this need, Rowan Williams offers ...

A collection of talks and sermons from Rowan Williams, one of the finest theological minds of our day, covering a range of issues from war, social justice and sexuality to prayer, spirituality and evangelism. Williams shows the connections between contemporary issues, biblical texts and the Christian tradition, each element drawing new and often surprising things out of the others, and challenges us to make our own connections between the gospel, contemporary problems and our personal stru...

Three works of fifth-century monastic leader Neilos of Ancyra, for the first time in English translation, introduced and annotated by a leading scholar of early ChristianityNeilos of Ancyra (sometimes mistakenly called Nilus of Sinai) was a learned and wise rhetorician, who lived in the fourth–fifth century and became a renowned monastic guide and later a bishop in Anatolia (modern Turkey). He wrote a number of works and one thousand letters. In The Teachings o...

How did earliest Christians receive and understand the teaching of Jesus and the apostles? These writings, among the earliest used in training new disciples, show a clear, vibrant, practical faith concerned with all aspects of discipleship in daily life—vocation, morality, family life, social justice, the sacraments, prophesy, citizenship, and leadership.For the most part, these writings have remained buried in academia, analyzed by scholars but se...

Arius is widely considered to be Rowan Williams's magnum opus. Long out of print and never before available in paperback, it has been newly revised. This expanded and updated edition marks a major publishing event.Arianism has been called the "archetypal Christian heresy" because it denies the divinity of Christ. In his masterly examination of Arianism, Rowan Williams argues that Arius himself was actually a dedicated theological conservative whose concern was to defend the...