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This classic introduction to theology from an Anglican perspective
has been completely revised and updated for this third edition.
Organized around the topics of systematic theology, Introduction to
Theology begins with an exploration of Scripture, then moves
through history and tradition to contemporary debates and
reconstructions. As a textbook for introductory courses in
seminaries of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, this
book also includes references to The Book of Common Prayer, which
Anglicans consider a primary source for theology.
This new edition pays detailed attention to the many
developments in theology since its last revision twenty years ago:
the emergence of new perspectives such as womanist, mujerista,
narrative, and post-modern theology; the shift in theological
methods to incorporate the human sciences, recent critical
philosophies, and recent developments in the physical sciences; the
ongoing revisions of The Book of Common Prayer and resultant shifts
in Anglican identity; and the globalization of theological
education, specifically the focus on the Episcopal Church as part
of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Description: This book is a study of the Christian life and the
practice of Christians and the church from an Anglican perspective.
It begins with an analysis and explication of the structure and
process of the Christian life before God in the church and the
world involving a five-fold rule of life and the relation of this
to spiritual direction. This is followed by an analysis and
critique of the current spirituality movement, which arose in the
1970s and which has come to dominate and mislead the churches. A
sequel to the latter explains the origin of the spirituality
movement in the current Romantic movement that arose in the 1960s
and has influenced all aspects of our culture with ambiguous
results. Next there is a critique of contemporary parish ministry
as practiced in residential parishes that at best ministers only to
the private lives of its members, followed by a fictional story of
such a residential parish that suggests a new departure in parish
ministry. Then there is a critique of preaching in the Episcopal
Church that is generally considered to be poor, and a proposal of a
way to overcome this. The concluding three chapters treat a
fundamental problem in our approach to private prayer and a way to
resolve this, a proposal for a way to overcome the current impasse
in the Anglican Communion concerning homosexuality, and a
meditation on the responsibility of Christians in public life.
Endorsements: ""Owen Thomas is a prophet, in the biblical sense of
the word, calling a community to examine its way of life and look
to the rock from which it was quarried. His book is progressive, at
times radical, precisely because it is rooted in the best of a
tradition he knows as well as anyone. The scope of these essays is
remarkable-from philosophical theology to parish
administration-with a solid center in the life of the Spirit, lived
amid the perplexities of history."" -Charles Hefling, Professor of
Systematic Theology, Boston College ""What Owen Thomas has to say
about Christian life and practice will delight many, confound
others, and challenge all of us to think more critically about
things that matter. This is a distinctively Anglican voice crying
out on behalf of embodied spirituality, political engagement, and
prophetic ministry."" -Arthur Holder, John Dillenberger Professor
of Christian Spirituality, Graduate Theological Union ""In this
legacy of his years as theological reflector on Christian life,
Owen Thomas, in his own creative way, articulates the persistent
insistence of the Bible and Anglican tradition that faith and
practice, truth and action have been so joined together by God that
they must never be put asunder. Well worth reading and pondering.""
-Harvey H. Guthrie, Former Dean and Professor of Old Testament,
Episcopal Divinity School About the Contributor(s): Owen C. Thomas
is Emeritus Professor of Theology of the Episcopal Divinity School,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the author of eight previous books in
theology and the philosophy of religion. A former physicist, he has
been a visiting professor at the Gregorian University and the North
American College in Rome, an adjunct professor at the Graduate
Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and past president of
the American Theological Society.
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