BOOK BITES
THE WAY FORWARD? Christian Voices on Homosexuality and the Church. Timothy Bradshaw, Ed. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004. Pp. xiv + 242. (BX5131.3.W39)
Homosexuality is one of the most pressing subjects facing the Church today. On the heals of controversial church appointments, the Anglican Communion is painfully divided.
How can the differing parties communicate? In 1995 a theological work group met in response to the request of the Church of England Evangelical Council and adopted the “St. Andrew’s Day Statement,” which appears in its entirety in THE WAY FORWARD? Timothy Bradshaw, University of Oxford, served as chair. He later edited THE WAY FORWARD? referencing throughout, the St. Andrew’s Day Statement. The Introduction of the Statement says: “ Faced with practical questions which arouse strong and conflicting passions, the church has only one recourse: to find in the Gospel a starting-point of common faith from which those who differ can agree to proceed in their discussions.”
THE WAY FORWARD? is honest, challenging the fundamentalist right and the fundamentalist left. The contributing scholars are from Oxford, Cambridge, Nottingham and other universities. One writer is a psychiatrist. Others are theologians. They address biblical values and affirm a strong Christology, e.g. Chapter 1, “Knowing Myself in Christ,” by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Harvard’s Peter Gomes says of THE WAY FORWARD? “We need light, not more heat, and we have that in this … useful collection of essays.”
…The Library Committee