Obedience and Faithfulness in Rowan Williams Ecclesiology
First Statement of Responsibility
Mike Higton
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Leiden
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Brill
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
In his 1989 lecture, 'The Body's Grace', Rowan Williams describes sexual relationships as capable of playing a role in the communication and learning of the gospel. I argue that the lecture gives the church a threefold task in relation to such relationships: to call them to loving mutuality, to faithfulness, and to faith. The same pattern characterises Williams' ecclesiology, and helps make sense of many of his public statements about recent Anglican controversies: as Archbishop of Canterbury he sees himself as tasked with issuing the same threefold call to the participants in ecclesial arguments about obedience. In his 1989 lecture, 'The Body's Grace', Rowan Williams describes sexual relationships as capable of playing a role in the communication and learning of the gospel. I argue that the lecture gives the church a threefold task in relation to such relationships: to call them to loving mutuality, to faithfulness, and to faith. The same pattern characterises Williams' ecclesiology, and helps make sense of many of his public statements about recent Anglican controversies: as Archbishop of Canterbury he sees himself as tasked with issuing the same threefold call to the participants in ecclesial arguments about obedience.