The Poems of Rowan Williams [Paperback]

Williams (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 111 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (February 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802826857
• ISBN-13: 978-0802826855
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,420,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rowan Douglas Williams was born in Swansea, south Wales on 14 June 1950, into a Welsh-speaking family, and was educated at Dynevor School in Swansea and Christ's College Cambridge where he studied theology. He studied for his doctorate - in the theology of Vladimir Lossky, a leading figure in Russian twentieth-century religious thought - at Wadham College Oxford, taking his DPhil in 1975. After two years as a lecturer at the College of the Resurrection, near Leeds, he was ordained deacon in Ely Cathedral before returning to Cambridge.

From 1977, he spent nine years in academic and parish work in Cambridge: first at Westcott House, being ordained priest in 1978, and from 1980 as curate at St George's, Chesterton. In 1983 he was appointed as a lecturer in Divinity in the university, and the following year became dean and chaplain of Clare College. 1986 saw a return to Oxford now as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church; he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1989, and became a fellow of the British Academy in 1990. He is also an accomplished poet and translator.

In 1991 Professor Williams accepted election and consecration as bishop of Monmouth, a diocese on the Welsh borders, and in 1999 on the retirement of Archbishop Alwyn Rice Jones he was elected Archbishop of Wales, one of the 38 primates of the Anglican Communion. Thus it was that, in July 2002, with eleven years experience as a diocesan bishop and three as a leading primate in the Communion, Archbishop Williams was confirmed on 2 December 2002 as the 104th bishop of the See of Canterbury: the first Welsh successor to St Augustine of Canterbury and the first since the mid-thirteenth century to be appointed from beyond the English Church.

Dr Williams is acknowledged internationally as an outstanding theological writer, scholar and teacher. He has been involved in many theological, ecumenical and educational commissions. He has written extensively across a very wide range of related fields of professional study - philosophy, theology (especially early and patristic Christianity), spirituality and religious aesthetics - as evidenced by his bibliography. He has also written throughout his career on moral, ethical and social topics and, since becoming archbishop, has turned his attention increasingly on contemporary cultural and interfaith issues.

As Archbishop of Canterbury his principal responsibilities are however pastoral - leading the life and witness of the Church of England in general and his own diocese in particular by his teaching and oversight, and promoting and guiding the communion of the world-wide Anglican Church by the globally recognized ministry of unity that attaches to the office of bishop of the see of Canterbury.

His interests include music, fiction and languages.

In 1981 Dr Williams married Jane Paul, a lecturer in theology, whom he met while living and working in Cambridge. They have a daughter and a son.

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incarnate words..., March 13, 2004

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FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Poems of Rowan Williams (Paperback)

Rowan Williams is celebrated as one of the more academically accomplished Archbishops of Canterbury in recent memory; indeed, even those who disagree with his theological points of view rarely fault his scholarship or methodologies. Williams also has a collection of texts dealing with spiritual practices and issues, such as his series on praying with icons, and his recent text dealing with cultural issues in iconographic ways.

With this breadth of creativity, it should come as no surprise that Williams is also a poet. Being an Anglican, used to the Shakespearean-sounding liturgies and poetic, rhythmic cadences of the spoken words of worship services, and being strongly rooted in the Welsh culture where the blend of English and Celtic influences produces wonderfully strong lyrical constructions, Williams has a natural depth in the poetic. Somewhat ironically, Williams was raised in a Presbyterian household (where things done decently and in good order was the rule of the day), becoming an Anglican of his own accord while still at home. Williams had a broad education that included a developing appreciation for poets in the English language - the work of T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden are apparent in some of his work. Williams also translated poetry of writers from other languages (such as Rilke), including his native Welsh (Ann Griffiths, T. Gwynn Jones, and Waldo Williams).

Perhaps the greatest strength of Williams' poetry is its immediacy and descriptive power. Anglo-Catholic liturgies are very tactile experiences - there are things to see, to smell, to hear, and to do. Anglo-Catholic theology is very incarnational - the word made flesh, something Williams takes to heart in his poetry, which seems to have a lot of flesh on the words, with thick descriptive power putting the reader in the heart of the feeling and experience.

This book includes all of the poems from Williams' previous volumes of poems, 'After Silent Centuries' (1994) and 'Remembering Jerusalem' (2001), in addition to new ones. Some relate directly to the icon work Williams did in relation to his meditative texts on praying with icons, 'Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin Mary' and 'The Dwelling of the Light: Praying with Icons of Christ'. There is also a selection of some of his translations from German and Welsh.

There is a tremendous spirit, full of creativity and passion, present in these poems. Some are clever, some are heart-felt; all are glorious expressions of this caring and careful writer. Perhaps Williams says it best when he speaks of not wanting to be a 'religious poet' but rather a poet for whom religious concerns matter strongly. One can sense this strong sense of connection with independence, a distinction without a difference.

Powerful words.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shouting from the housetops, March 27, 2011

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mmbrown - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Poems of Rowan Williams (Kindle Edition)

After two years, I want to say The Poems of Rowan Williams has been undeniably a significant addition to my library. The centerpiece, so to speak, is "Crossings." But first, "Bach for the Cello" would reach any listener to Bach by touching truth. Just as "Jerusalem Limestone" speaks for this core location. "Woodwind:Kanuga in March" with its anguish and powerful ending, What do we know? tells us where this author is taking us--zero to the ace.
"Return Journey" placed as a prelude to "Crossings" brings us to what I consider love poetry that would rank with any at any time. It is given a gloss, a filter of art and kept personal, rightfully, yet put into a mode of truth, damped down but not diluted, that calls out as a lyric in recent memory, "I just happen to be the Jones boy and I happen to be in love" (for all time).

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rowan Williams Book, February 13, 2010

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lagseller "lagseller" (Homewood, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Poems of Rowan Williams (Paperback)

I bought this book and one other for my husband for his birthday and he seemed to love them both. He was excited to get them.