What Is the Point of Being a Christian? [Paperback]

Timothy Radcliffe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 20, 2005

What is the Point of Being a Christian? has been awarded the prestigious Michael Ramsey prize for the best in theological writing. For more information please visit: www.michaelramseyprize.org.uk

What is the Point of being a Christian? One is pointed to God, who is the point of everything. If one thinks of religion as just 'useful' then one has reduced it to another consumer product. But if we are pointed to God, then this should make a difference to how we live. This is not a moral superiority. Christians are usually no better than anyone else. But the lives of Christians should be marked by some form of hope, freedom, happiness and courage. If they are not then why should anyone believe a word they say? In this new book, Timothy Radcliffe is at his best, writing with a prophetic edge. His argument for Christian belief is profoundly Catholic and profoundly human. But what is just as remarkable, Radcliffe's argument for and interpretation of Christian Gospel is couched in a deep understanding of human nature and the problems and anxieties of modern men and women. Radcliffe is far distant from the theologian's ivory tower and yet his understanding of the Gospel is profoundly theological. The frame of reference for this book is wide, and it is based amongst other things on Fr Radcliffe's pastoral experience of dealing with people with problematic marriages, those struggling with celibacy, those trying to understand the nature of religious authority and those trying to remain loyal to the Church which finds their sexual orientation 'irregular'.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Interview with Timothy Radcliffe in Saga, 1st December 2005; mentions book.

'Full of wisdom and insighful apercus... Radcliffe's book leavens its philopsophy with, good jokes (''Tesco ergo sum - I shop therefore I am''), references to contemporary novels and films and the timeless, universal pleasures of wine.' The Times

No. 1 in the Church Times' 'Top Ten Religious Books', 9th December 2005.

'...eloquent and moving' (Douglas Hedley Times Literary Supplement )

"an exploration of what it means to hope" "[a] couragous and hopeful book. He points us beyond the words, beyond the comfort zone - can we risk taking up the challenge?" (The Furrow )

'Shot through with humour, friendship and wisdom, the pages of this book outline a manner of living which is at once faithful to the teachings of Jesus and rooted in the tradition of the church' (The Universe )

"[Radcliffe's] chapters progress through certain characteristics that Christian faith should bring: freedom, happiness, courage, comfortableness in our bodies. Drawing on literature, wide theological knowledge and pastoral experience, he lays out how many people are struggling through the complex issues of today's world and stresses the importance of listening to others with whose opinions we may not agree." -National Catholic Reporter, April 14, 2006

Brief article on Timothy Radcliffe 'Timothy Radcliffe is a charismatic, spiritual leader and a rare bird, his talks and broadcasts always surprise....he shows himself in this new book to be passionately concerned with issues relating to environment, globalisation and the pastoral care of the marginalised and the dispossessed.' (The Universe )

'Spiritual writer is at his captivating best....Timothy Radcliffe is in demand the world over with bishops, priests, lay people and above all the young. This new book is his response.' 'He is a prophet for our times.' (James Hickey )

Title mention in review on religious books market in Publishing News

(Publishing News )

'Timothy Radcliffe has written a wholly admirable statement of what it means to be a thoughtful, receptive, faithful, and generous Christian in the West today....Radcliffe displays the Christian life and tradition as being deeply enriching, and does so in language the world can understand.'

Revd Dr Sam Wells, Church Times, 17/03/2006

(Revd Dr Sam Wells Church Times )

'He is deeply spiritual, extremely cultured, and a clear, compelling writer. He possesses a certain fearlessness and optimism about the world without being insensitive to the terrible burdens of our times....Radcliffe's book reflects the omnivorous reading; his long meditation on Scripture, liturgy, and the Catholic theological tradition; and his wide knowledge of the world' ~ Lawrence S. Cunningham, Commonweal- Religion Booknotes, November 3, 2006 (Commonweal )

Article on Timothy Radcliffe in The Catholic World Report, Oct 2006 (James Hitchcock )

Title mention in article about Radcliffe collecting the Michael Ramsey Prize. (Tablet, The )

Mention of Michael Ramsey Prize (Church Times )

Recently awarded prize - 'The Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing'. (The Bookseller, 8th June 2007)

-Mention. Christian Century/ May 15, 2007 (The Christian Century )

"A personal compendium... comes from Timothy Radcliffe OP. From Continuum/Burns & Oates, the book asls, What is the POint of Being a Christian? On his six-page bibliography, just below Sissela Bok on Lying, Radcliffe lists Joy in Augustine's Ethics (1979) by Vernon J. Bourke, a professor of this university campus who would be a hundred this year were he not experiencing greater joy elsewhere. For me, finding Dr. Bourke as one of many chosen arrows in the Radcliffe quiver brought my awe closer to joy. There is surely much soaring and trenchant truth here for me and a great many more, but less might have seemed more, or been sharper, or flown higher-or felt cozier and less like and overlong homily." -Review for Religious (Review For Religious )

"We are offered something altogether more stimulating... This book opens new horizons... Major subjects are handled with insight" (Edmund Newey Theology )

"This book deserves to be, and indeed must be read ... Radcliffe writes with the essential humility of a man who has lived the Christian life in many different cultures."

Reviewed by James Kelly in Catholic Times, 2007

"an exploration of what it means to hope" "[a] couragous and hopeful book. He points us beyond the words, beyond the comfort zone - can we risk taking up the challenge?" (, )

“[Radcliffe’s] chapters progress through certain characteristics that Christian faith should bring: freedom, happiness, courage, comfortableness in our bodies. Drawing on literature, wide theological knowledge and pastoral experience, he lays out how many people are struggling through the complex issues of today’s world and stresses the importance of listening to others with whose opinions we may not agree.” -National Catholic Reporter, April 14, 2006

'Timothy Radcliffe has written a wholly admirable statement of what it means to be a thoughtful, receptive, faithful, and generous Christian in the West today....Radcliffe displays the Christian life and tradition as being deeply enriching, and does so in language the world can understand.'

Revd Dr Sam Wells, Church Times, 17/03/2006

(, Church Times )

'He is deeply spiritual, extremely cultured, and a clear, compelling writer. He possesses a certain fearlessness and optimism about the world without being insensitive to the terrible burdens of our times....Radcliffe’s book reflects the omnivorous reading; his long meditation on Scripture, liturgy, and the Catholic theological tradition; and his wide knowledge of the world' ~ Lawrence S. Cunningham, Commonweal- Religion Booknotes, November 3, 2006 (Commonweal )

"A personal compendium... comes from Timothy Radcliffe OP. From Continuum/Burns & Oates, the book asls, What is the POint of Being a Christian? On his six-page bibliography, just below Sissela Bok on Lying, Radcliffe lists Joy in Augustine's Ethics (1979) by Vernon J. Bourke, a professor of this university campus who would be a hundred this year were he not experiencing greater joy elsewhere. For me, finding Dr. Bourke as one of many chosen arrows in the Radcliffe quiver brought my awe closer to joy. There is surely much soaring and trenchant truth here for me and a great many more, but less might have seemed more, or been sharper, or flown higher-or felt cozier and less like and overlong homily." -Review for Religious (Review For Religious )

"We are offered something altogether more stimulating... This book opens new horizons... Major subjects are handled with insight" (, Theology )

About the Author

Timothy Radcliffe was Master of The Dominican Order. He is the winner of the 2007 Michael Ramsey prize for theological writing for his book What is the Point of Being a Christian? He was the author of The Archbishop of Canterbury's 2009 Lent Book Why Go to Church? He lives in Oxford but spends much of his year giving retreats, lectures and conference key-note addresses in the UK and overseas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Burns & Oates (December 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0860123693
• ISBN-13: 978-0860123699
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #140,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Refreshing Call to Christian Unity, June 9, 2006

By 

Frank J. Wassermann (Cincinnati, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Is the Point of Being a Christian? (Paperback)

This book addresses how we should be marked as Christians today. What is the difference made in us as individual Christians and as community? The author offers a vision of openness and confidence created by our life in the Spirit which would reveal itself in a characteristic joy and courage. This comes from a lived conviction about who we are and where we belong in the community of faith both here and now and as part of a cosmic story that extends from the mystery of Creation to mystery of the final "Kingdom" proclaimed by Jesus. From this fresh and lively account of Christian life and self-understanding, the author is perhaps most helpful in chapters nine and ten where he addresses head on the polarization within the Catholic Church, which is shared to a great extent in the rest of Christian community.

This polarization directly contradicts the nature of the Church, which is to draw the People of God into unity so as to be a sign of the Kingdom. First, he analyzes the nature of the polarization which he traces to an unnecessary and misguided opposition between two tendencies with the post conciliar Church, which have been mislabeled as liberal and conservative.

The polarity of left and right is rooted in the Enlightenment when its leading thinkers saw themselves as liberated from the constraints of tradition, above all those of the Church. The light of reason left dogma behind. The Church then overreacted by indiscriminately opposing all that the "liberals" espoused - democracy, freedom of conscience, individualism. In effect, the Church accepted the debate as defined by its opponents, in categories alien to its own tradition. In Christian history, its leading thinkers had always synthesized or creatively incorporated the best of the fruits of human reason into its tradition - from Paul to Augustine to Thomas Aquinas. Now the Church was saying whatever our opponents advocate we must oppose. Only with Vatican II was this trend firmly set aside. But in the Church, renewal occurs both through engagement with the modern "signs of the times" and re-engagement with the extraordinary diversity of traditions in its own history. This was the case with the Second Vatical Council.

The key division today in the Church is between "Kingdom Catholics" and "Communion Catholics." The former group is focused outwardly on engagement with the world in a pilgrimage of all God's people toward the Kingdom. Ecumenism and social justice are the principal emphases. The latter are more concerned with cultivating the communion of the believers and safeguarding the unique identity of the Church as a light to the world. The author argues that both identities are necessary and that the tension between them is fruitful and dynamic. The "liberal" Kingdom party is associated with the theological periodical Concilium and the names of Rahner, Kung, and Schillebeeckx. Its central doctrine is the Incarnation through which Christ embraces all humanity by overthrowing all boundaries and divisions, gathering all persons into the People of God. Its test of theological authenticity is to be rooted in experience and to be liberating.

The Communion party was associated with the Communio journal started in 1974 when worries were coming to a head over some of the postconciliar trends in the Church. Its leading lights were Urs von Balthsar, de Lubac, and Ratzinger. The essence of its concern is the inner life of the Church, the need to stand firm in the proclamation of the faith and the Church's unique identity in the face of the pressures of modernity. Its central doctrine was the cross and the heart of the Church's life its adoration and doxology. These tendencies are not liberal or conservative but entirely valid and necessary elements of what the Church means. But either without the other would be a distortion. And the rhetoric of some of those with each tendency suggests that the other is outside the pale of the Church. Some of the Kingdom party feel that the Communion party is so intent on maintaining identity that they want to roll back the results of the Council while conversely the Communion party fears a surrender to modernity in which the Church loses its identity.

The author believes the Catholic community as a whole is suffering from "root shock," or a sense that it has lost its home which then causes people to "circle the wagons" to ensure a sense of belonging. The temptation is to try to strengthen identity through purification and exclusion in the shelter of uniformity. Communion Catholics experienced the double shock of many changes in the traditional life of the Church at the very time (in the Sixties and Seventies) when social upheaval caused by secular trends such as the sexual revolution, divorce, abortion etc. were roiling the body politic. Kingdom Catholics were suffering a similar double shock from their perspective in that the anticipated reforms in the Church itself and accommodation with modernity (as with Humanae Vitae) thwarted and progress in the dreams of international solidarity and justice also were slow to materialize.

So both groups suffered root shock, a sense of alienation and exile. Each considered itself to be counter-cultural - one resisting the destructiveness of libertarianism, secularism, and relativism, the other resisting fundamentalism, intolerance, and the structures of social injustice. As the polarization developed, each party tended more and more to define itself by opposition to perceived positions of the other.
Against this artificial dichotomy, the author cites Jesus' words at the Last Supper in which the bread is given to the intimate group of disciples ("for you") but the cup of blood is "poured out for many" (or `all' in the liturgical translation). In this contrast, he finds that in the very celebration of the new covenant there is a tension between the gathering into communion of the immediate disciples and the reaching out to all, for the fullness of the Kingdom. This tension exists in the gospel itself when Jesus reaches out to the outcasts from Judaism of his time as well as Gentiles, and then again in the early Church in the tension between the Jerusalem community and Paul. The last words of the Latin Mass, Ite missa est ) "Go, it is sent," indicates that the community is gathered only to be sent forth. There is a necessary equilibrium between the centrifugal and centripetal forces - the gathering in and going out. Today, this tension is also experienced in the expansion of the Church into a truly and profoundly global institution where most Catholics are outside the Western world. We are particularly Roman Catholic, being led by the see of Rome, but we are also Catholic, which means open to the unimaginable diversity of human cultures and wisdom. The challenge is to keep this tension dynamic, not divisive. The Church has often found new life in crisis - from the division in the early Christian over the mission to the Gentiles to persecution of the Romans and to the challenges of the Reformation and the Enlightenment.

The Church can be a credible sign of the Kingdom only if there is an identifiable "we" that is faithful to its essential message, yet it must never retreat inwards but always risk being challenged by outreach to the "all.". This the breathing of the Church, the gathering in of breath and the expulsion. This is a natural, necessary "organic" process vital to the functioning of Christ's body.

In order to overcome this division, people must again learn to speak to one another as brothers and sisters in community, and not resort to the kinds of silence that came through the dogmatism imposed by the defensive retrenchments of the Counter-Reformation and the aftermath of the Thirty Years's War. The Second Vatican Council attempted to break this silence. John XXIII wished it to be a pastoral Council and not a dogmatic Council. We must learn again to listen to one another, to avoid the language which is polemical and adversarial, which distorts or even caricatures the positions of the other person. No fruitful encounter can take place without the practice of caritas in the dialogue. We cannot start from the premise that our interests are fundamentally opposed and therefore it is a question of negotiating a compromise. Instead we must try to understand why we truly disagree in the first place, which means entering into the experiences which drive one another's understanding. What is the deeper meaning behind the words? It takes time and attention to discover this which cannot happen in a climate of fear and self-censorship.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Edifying and Challenging - All in One! An Excellent Read!, August 4, 2006

By 

D. Horan "Franciscan Friar" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Is the Point of Being a Christian? (Paperback)

Timothy Radcliffe has written a wonderfully inspiring book that chronicles much of what it means to be Christian. Using relevant examples of both popular and lesser-known resources, Radcliffe shares his perspective of what is means to be a Christian in the twenty-first century along with the responsibilities, privileges and challenges that are inevitably faced.

While my only complaint is that Radcliffe perhaps cites just a few too many secondary sources that at times can appear to break the natural rhythm that his writing develops, I admit that this is only a matter of personal opinion and does not, in any way, detract from that which is truly an inspired work.

To give just one example of how Radcliffe summarizes particular topics of Christian living, I cite a lengthy snippet from his second chapter related to Christian morality:

"Christians in their moral lives are faced with tough choices for which the Church's teaching may not have clear and easy answers. If someone is divorced and they meet someone they love, then should they marry again or not? If someone is gay, then must their lives always be lived alone? Because it is frightening to have to think our way through these issues, pray about them, study them in the light of the teaching of the Gospels and the Church, then the temptation is to do what one likes, or for the Church to snatch at a quick answer. The Vatican is always being begged to resolve moral dilemmas and then being blamed if it tries to do so. Choosing is a hard but necessary part of becoming free." (Radcliffe, 38)

Without lengthening this review further, I would only suggest that you read this pick and survey for yourself the wonderful nuggets of insight about being Christian in this post-modern, Twenty-First Century. You will not regret reading this book.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth it!, August 22, 2006

By 

William Bischoff "Bill Bischoff" (Oceanside California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Is the Point of Being a Christian? (Paperback)

I found this book to a very strong challenge for those of us in church ministry. This text is well written and very clear in it's premise and the necessary steps to follow it to it's natural conclusion. This book is a permanent fixture in my library