The Widening Circle

Autorentext

The Rt Revd Dr Graham Tomlin is Bishop of Kensington and President of St Mellitus College. He served as Chaplain of Jesus College Oxford and Vice Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, where he taught within the Theology Faculty of the University on Historical Theology. He was the first Dean of St Mellitus College and is the author of many books and articles, including The Power of the Cross: Theology and the Death of Christ in Paul Luther and Pascal, Looking through the Cross (the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book for 2014), The Widening Circle - Priesthood as God's Way of Blessing the World and Luther's Gospel: Reimagining the World.

Klappentext

In The Widening Circle, Graham Tomlin explores an exhilarating new approach to priesthood. The author suggests that 'Priest' is much more than a term to describe certain Christian ministers - it is a vital category for understanding God's way of blessing his world. This world was made for joy: the joy of God and the joy of Creation. But to know that joy, the world needs the divine blessing that is focused in Jesus Christ, the only true High Priest. His priestly ministry consists of mediating between God and the world, perfecting that very creation, and then offering this perfected creation back to the God from whom it came. Yet this very ministry is enacted through others. As we explore how this priesthood of Christ has an impact on everyday life, we discover that the human race is chosen to play a priestly role between God and Creation. The Church is then called out to be a kingdom of priests, enabling humanity to fulfil its divine calling. And, finally, the minister himself or herself - experiencing as Christ did, both strands of priestly reality, the mundane and the heavenly, the routine and the remarkable, the normal and the numinous - is called to enable the rest of the Church to play its distinct part. In each case, the part is the means by which the whole becomes all that it is intended to be, in an ever widening circle of divine blessing, so that the world might know the joy for which it was created.

Zusammenfassung
Outlines a new approach to priesthood, suggesting that we only begin to understand what a 'priest' is once we have understood what priesthood is theologically and biblically - God's way of blessing the world.