On Rowan Williams

Theologian, poet, public intellectual, and clergyman, Rowan Williams is one of the leading lights of contemporary British theology. He has published over twenty books and one hundred scholarly essays in a distinguished career as an academic theologian that culminated in his appointment as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford University. Williams left this post to serve in the Anglican Church, first as Bishop of Monmouth, then Archbishop of Wales, before finally being enthroned in 2003 as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury.In this collection of essays, a talented younger generation of Australian theologians critically analyzes the themes that bind together Williams's theology. These sympathetic yet probing essays traverse the full breadth of Williams's work, from his studies on Arius, the Desert Fathers, Hegel, and Trinitarian theology to his more pastoral writings on spirituality, sexuality, politics, and the Anglican Church.I read these essays with surprise and delight. This excellent collection of constructive critical essays are a tribute both to the richness of Rowan Williams's theology and the intellectual commitment, discernment, and fairness of their authors. Highly recommended.--Alister E. McGrath Professor of Theology, Ministry, and EducationKing's College, London.I welcome this book very warmly. It offers a thoughtful, engaging, and respectful--albeit critical--account of Rowan Williams's theology that does him justice. Even when disagreeing on crucial areas such as sexuality or war, the contributors to this fresh and well-informed book show much affection and respect for Rowan Williams himself at this difficult time for Anglicanism. Would that all debates among Christians were conducted in a similar manner.--Robin GillMichael Ramsey Professor of Modern TheologyUniversity of Kent, CanterburyNeither setting Rowan Williams's work on an implausible pedestal nor dismissing it in caricature, the essays that Matheson Russell has gathered engage the Archbishop in thoughtful and critical conversation. I found myself by turns intrigued, delighted, puzzled, convicted, and annoyed--but also repeatedly driven to think again about Williams's work and, more importantly, about the issues that his work explores. --Mike HigtonSenior Lecturer in TheologyUniversity of ExeterMatheson Russell is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Auckland. He is the author of Husserl: A Guide for the Perplexed (2006), as well as essays on Heidegger, phenomenology of religion, and political theology.