'Michael Ramsay's profound simplicity leaps off the page . . . The Christian Priest Today can be read with great and lasting benefit by anyone interested in this strange and magnificent vocation.' John Pritchard, author of The Life and Work of a Priest Of all Michael Ramsey's many books, The Christian Priest Today is perhaps the best loved and most enduring. The main part of the volume is composed of charges to ordination candidates, with an emphasis on the intellectual and devotional life of the minister in an increasingly self-sufficient world. Later chapters reflect on the ministry of the laity, the theology of priesthood and the roles of bishop and presbyter in the context of the practical meaning of divine vocation.

This book is an account of the cirumstances and the cultural context in which Ignatius constructed what became the historic church order of Christendom. Allen Brent defends the authenticity of the Ignatian letters by showing how the circumstances of Ignatius' condemnation at Antioch and departure for Rome, fits well with what we can reconstruct of the internal situation in the Church of Antioch in Syria at the end of the first century.

Starting from a discussion of the constitutional and theological basis of the establishment of the Church of England, Peter Doll relates how in response to the events of this period a colonial Anglican church establishment changed from a merely theoretical ideal to a cornerstone of post-Revolutionary colonial policy in British North America."--BOOK JACKET.

Fathers, Pastors and Kings is a first-class research monograph on an important issue in the history of the Catholic Church, exploring the conceptions of episcopacy that shaped the identity of the bishops of France in the wake of the reforming Council of T.

The unexpectedly entertaining story of how the Church of England lost its place at the centre of English public life - now updated with new material by the authors including comments on the book's controversial first publication. The Church of England still seemed an essential part of Englishness, and even of the British state, when Mrs Thatcher was elected in 1979. The decades which followed saw a seismic shift in the foundations of the C of E, leading to the loss of more than half its members and much of its influence. In England today 'religion' has become a toxic brand, and Anglicanism something done by other people. How did this happen? Is there any way back? This 'relentlessly honest' and surprisingly entertaining book tells the dramatic and contentious story of the disappearance of the Church of England from the centre of public life. The authors – religious correspondent Andrew Brown and academic Linda Woodhead – watched this closely, one from the inside and one from the outside. That Was the Church, That Was shows what happened and explains why.

Our Inheritance of Faith begins by providing a clear and comprehensive introduction to the development of the 39 Articles and their subsequent history within Anglicanism. It then goes on to look at each of the Articles individually, explaining in detail how each Article reached its present form, what its original purpose was and what it teaches.

Today, the statement that Anglicans are fond of the Fathers and keen on patristic studies looks like a platitude. Like many platitudes, it is much less obvious than one might think. Indeed, it has a long and complex history. Jean-Louis Quantin shows how, between the Reformation and the last years of the Restoration, the rationale behind the Church of England's reliance on the Fathers as authorities on doctrinal controversies, changed significantly. Elizabethan divines, exactly like their Reformed counterparts on the Continent, used the Church Fathers to vindicate the Reformation from Roman Catholic charges of novelty, but firmly rejected the authority of tradition. They stressed that, on all questions controverted, there was simply no consensus of the Fathers. Beginning with the 'avant-garde conformists' of early Stuart England, the reference to antiquity became more and more prominent in the construction of a new confessional identity, in contradistinction both to Rome and to Continental Protestants, which, by 1680, may fairly be called 'Anglican'. English divines now gave to patristics the very highest of missions. In that late age of Christianity - so the idea ran - now that charisms had been withdrawn and miracles had ceased, the exploration of ancient texts was the only reliable route to truth. As the identity of the Church of England was thus redefined, its past was reinvented. This appeal to the Fathers boosted the self-confidence of the English clergy and helped them to surmount the crises of the 1650s and 1680s. But it also undermined the orthodoxy that it was supposed to support.

This reissue of Archbishop Ramsey s classic theological study of Anglican views of the church is important for students of ecumenism, and for those concerned with the relationship between Christ and the church in the New Testament. Although some of the book is dated, its conviction that the church s meaning lies in its fulfillment of the sufferings of Christ and that every part of its history is intelligible in terms of the Passion remains perceptive and challenging. Examining Scripture, doctrine, and history, Ramsey paints an intricate portrait of the church as an example of Christ s death and resurrection. He explores Eastern orthodox doctrine; explains the purposes and preconditions of the Reformation; and calls for a renewal of liturgical worship and reconciliation within the communion of the saints. Originally published in 1936 while he was serving as sub-warden of Lincoln Theological College, this was Ramsey s first book. After more than seventy years, its wisdom concerning the relationship between Catholic and Evangelical, and the underlying complementarities and tensions which characterize the Anglican tradition, remains theologically sound and biblically astute. "

The Church-Idea: An Essay Toward Unity by William Reed Huntington, first published in 1870, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it.