|
||
|
Saving Christianity: New Thinking for Old Beliefs
|
||
FROM the Rt Revd Stephen Platten, Bishop of Wakefield. Hilary Wakeman's book performs a unique function: it takes the Christian tradition, reflects upon continuity and change and does so in a way that is accessible to a broad audience. Challenging without being destructive, accessible without being simplistic, the book asks how we might offer the gospel of Christ to our present age. Hilary wakeman does not offer a blueprint, for that is not her way. Instead she looks at the issues that surround some of the great doctrines of the Christian faith and asks how we might approach them again for our opwn generation. As Christians, in all ages, we are called to 'give account of the faith which is in us'. This book does precisely this and it does it in a way that leaves no question unasked. It is the beginning of a discussion and not the end, the Church has always been a forum for vigorous debate - Hilary Wakeman provokes us to enter that debate once again. From: Presbyerian Church Notes, Irish Times, 09.12.06 With even leaders in denominations of the church acknowledging perceptible declines in membership and attendances, except in some local areas and churches, on a principle of receiving light from all qaurters, the publication of Saving Christianity - thinking for old beliefs, Hilary wakeman, Liffey Press, should not go unnoticed. This is a courageous and timely book by an author who is theologically erudite. Where there may be two broad approaches to meet a perceived crisis one perhaps more traditionally vociferous than the other, Wakeman's book deserves lengthy consideration. Ms Wakeman sees a cause for decline in "the unwillingness of all the churches in all countries but perhaps especially now in Ireland, tpo look honestly and openly into what we say we believe. "Disillusioned with standard theology in all the denominations, more and more people are ceasing to attend church, while others are prevented by the same from entering. And yet among the self-exiled people there is a widespread sense of loss and sadness." |
