Help! We are already into the second half of April. In January I wanted to get straight into the doctrine book, provisionally entitled The Apprenticeship, but the other books have got in the way. The first and second books, The Eschatological Economy and the collection on Zizioulas, have demanded so much time, that I have scarcely given ‘The Apprenticeship’ a week since January.
The Eschatological Economy, out at the end of April, has now got some great endorsements. I am particularly grateful to John Webster and Rusty Reno, who have produced wonderful blurbs for the back of the book, though they really didn’t owe me any favours. And Antony Solomon, who has a real knack for extracting what is most crucial, is patiently and insightfully reviewing the book section by section over at Solly Gratia.
Meanwhile I am still sorting out the second book, the collection of essays on John Zizioulas, Personhood and the Church. This is now in the Ashgate catalogue, with an October publication date. I will shortly have to email Ashgate again to explain why they still haven’t received the manuscript. The reason is that I have only just received the twelfth and last contribution, from Alan Brown. From a long labour a wonderful paper has emerged in which Alan sets out the context of Zizioulas’ theology and explains the hostility it has met. The reason for the hostility is really simple – John Zizioulas is an evangelical theologian: he gives reasons for the faith. Alan’s paper amounts to a comprehensive refutation of that, Anglican-influenced, Patristics scholarship which is determined not to allow the thought of the Fathers of the Church to teach and refresh the contemporary Church. Alan is familiar not only with contemporary Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox theology but with the hermeneutics they operate with, and he picks apart the presuppositions of Zizioulas’ critics to show that they amount to a privatisation of religion that holds the gospel captive. This massive paper, at 22,000 words three times longer than any other contribution, will make a fair splash. I will post a couple of paragraphs from it to whet your appetite. The whole volume is very much better than it was this time last year and I am really very chuffed about it.
Anyway, this means that I still haven’t really started on this year’s work, the doctrine book – let alone on the more general work of encouragement that this blog is intended for. Here for example is an email:
I am desperate for my theological thought to be challenged and stretched. Please could you contact me with advice on how to proceed and I welcome contact with any other serious Christian thinkers.
Me too. Any ideas anyone?
