Christian Faith and Life (Library of Anglican Spirituality) [Paperback]

William Temple (Author)

Book Description

Series: Library of Anglican Spirituality | Publication Date: January 1995

First published in 1931, this book provides a picture of Temple's theology in an accessible form. The addresses, delivered at Oxford, reveal Temple not as the clerical superstar who would later become the Archbishop of Canterbury, but as a down-to-earth evangelist offering a very passionate, dynamic, personal testimony.

Product Details

• Paperback: 139 pages
• Publisher: Morehouse Pub Co (January 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819216313
• ISBN-13: 978-0819216311
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,466,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A call to faithfulness, June 13, 2003

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FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christian Faith and Life (Treasures from the Spiritual Classics Series) (Paperback)

William Temple's 'Christian Faith and Life' is a collection of lectures that Temple, who made a career of being a bishop (and ultimately Archbishop of Canterbury, like his father before him) in the Church of England, delivered at Oxford in 1931. These lectures comprise an easily accessible, down-to-earth exposition of Temple's theology, which has had an enduring impact both on Anglican theology generally, and practical ecumenical theology more generally.

'The mind grows always by intercourse with a mind more mature than itself.'

Temple's writing has been instrumental in giving shape to Anglican theology, which, as the 'official church' of Britain and many parts of the British Empire, also influences the theological directions of many other denominations.

'The whole case of religion, through all ages, is that it is a venture, a quest of faith.' Temple argues that to have direct, concrete and verifiable certainty of the reality of God negates the spiritual merit of faith. Faith in an Ultimate Being, of ultimate good and compassion and mercy, is central to the Christian faith, and has parallels in most other religious constructs, even those officially or notionally polytheistic.

'Faith consists so far in the determination to live and to think as if this thing were true, and to find how far we can solve life's problems by the use of that hypothesis.' This becomes the essential question in practical theology. If there is a God (if we have faith that there is a God) what then must we do? The Christian answer to this is a surprising one, given the nature of God in the Christian concept.

'The Christian conception of God begins with an exaltation of the Divine Majesty, the greatest the mind can conceive, but when the greatness and the far-reaching power, might and authority of God exhibit themselves in man, it is by washing the disciples' feet.'

The fundamental call of God, for Temple's theological construct, is the call of service to our fellows. Temple was living and writing in the post-Victorian world, in which the comfortable stability of culture, society and morals had been shaken by the first World War and the quickening pace of technological advance, urbanisation, the beginnings of post-industrialism, and a reassertion of an accepted skepticism and diversity in most human endeavours. 'Nothing comes under this new criticism more fully than everything which might be regarded as a moral convention.'

Temple espouses a strong moral code that is rooted in eternal truths, one that is nonetheless flexible enough not to be dismissed and ignored by current culture.

Temple explores the role of the church, the role of sacraments and prayer, the relevance of common Christian symbols and the activity of the Holy Spirit in this short book of lectures. Clear and concise, practical and spiritual, this brief book outlines a compassionate and full theology that is as fresh and vital today as it was when first formulated in the inter-war period. High on practical application and usefulness, the scholar may find some rigour missing here. Temple, however, took his charge, as a cleric to be an educator, seriously, in this and other writings.