Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams offers fascinating insight into The Chronicles of Narnia, the popular series of novels by one of the most influential Christian authors of the modern era, C. S. Lewis. Lewis once referred to certain kinds of book as a "mouthwash for the imagination." This is what he attempted to provide in the Narnia stories, argues Williams: an unfamiliar world in which we could rinse out what is stale in our thinking about Christianity--"which is almost everything," says Williams--and rediscover what it might mean to meet the holy. Indeed, Lewis's great achievement in the Narnia books is just that-he enables readers to encounter the Christian story "as if for the first time." How does Lewis makes fresh and strange the familiar themes of Christian doctrine? Williams points out that, for one, Narnia itself is a strange place: a parallel universe, if you like. There is no "church" in Narnia, no religion even. The interaction between Aslan as a "divine" figure and the inhabitants of this world is something that is worked out in the routines of life itself. Moreover, we are made to see humanity in a fresh perspective, the pride or arrogance of the human spirit is chastened by the revelation that, in Narnia, you may be on precisely the same spiritual level as a badger or a mouse. It is through these imaginative dislocations that Lewis is able to communicate--to a world that thinks it knows what faith is--the character, the feel, of a real experience of surrender in the face of absolute incarnate love. This lucid, learned, humane, and beautifully written book opens a new window onto Lewis's beloved stories, revealing the moral wisdom and passionate faith beneath their perennial appeal.

The Lion's World: A Journey into the Heart of Narnia

Williams, Rowan

Religion & Spirituality

Oxford University Press

Scholar, ecclesiastic, teacher and poet of the eighth century, Alcuin can be seen as a true hidden saint of the Church, of the same stature and significance as his predecessor Bede. His love of God and his grasp of Christian theology were rendered original in their creative impact by his gifts as a teacher and poet. In his hands, the very traditional theology that he inherited, and to which he felt bound, took new wings. In that respect, he must rank as one of the most notable and influential of Anglo-Saxon Christians, uniting English and continental Christianity in a unique manner, which left a lasting legacy within the Catholic Church of Western Europe. This book is intended for the general reader as well as for those studying, teaching or researching this period of early medieval history and theology in schools and universities. Introduction by Dr Rowan Williams. Table of Contents Part One : Alcuin’s formation &amp; reputation 1. The legacy of Bede 2. Formation at York 3. Scholars at Charlemagne’s court 4. Controversy over Images Part Two : Adoptionism 5. Spanish Adoptionism 6. The Frankish Reaction 7. Felix &amp; Alcuin 8. Alcuin’s De Fide Part Three : Mission, Episcopacy &amp; Monarchy 9. Mission 10. Hagiography 11. Alcuin &amp; the Bishops 12. King Dei Gratia Part Four : The Bible 13. The Tours scriptorium 14. Alcuin &amp; the Old Testament 15. Alcuin &amp; the New Testament Part Five : Prayer 16. Cultivating prayer 17. Penitence 18. Liturgy Part Six : Education 19. The Teacher 20. Cultivating the Mind 21. Theology for the laity Part Seven : Poetry 22. The poet &amp; his friends 23. The poet at work 24. Theology of friendship

Alcuin: Theology and Thought

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

James Clarke & Co.

The Wound of Knowledge: Christian Spirituality from the New Testament to St. John of the Cross

Darton,Longman & Todd Ltd.

Arianism has been called the "archetypal Christian heresy" - a denial of the divine status of Christ. In his examination, now augmented by new material, Rowan Williams argues that Arius himself was a dedicated theological conservative whose concern was to defend the free and personal character of the Christian God. His "heresy" grew out of the attempt to unite traditional biblical language with radical philosophical ideas and techiniques, and was, from the start, involved with issues of authority in the church. Thus, the crisis of the early 4th century was not only about the doctrine of God, but also about the relations between emperors, bishops and ascetical "charismatic" teachers in the church's decision-making. Williams raises the wider questions of how heresy is defined and how certain kinds of traditionalism transform themselves into heresy. With a fresh conclusion, in which the author reflects on how his views have changed or remained the same, and a new introduction, this book is suitable reading for students of patristics, doctrine and church history.

Arius: Heresy and tradition

Darton, Longman, and Todd

In this classic treatise on Christian spirituality, Rowan Williams takes us with a new eye along a road marked out by Paul, John, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, and finally to Luther and St. John of the Cross. The Wound of Knowledge is a penetrating psychological and intellectual analysis of Christian spirituality from one of the finest theological minds of our day.

The Wound of Knowledge (new edition): Christian Spirituality from the New Testament to St. John of the Cross

Christian Books & Bibles

A collection of talks and sermons from Rowan Williams, one of the finest theological minds of our day, covering a range of issues from war, social justice and sexuality to prayer, spirituality and evangelism. Williams shows the connections between contemporary issues, biblical texts and the Christian tradition, each element drawing new and often surprising things out of the others, and challenges us to make our own connections between the gospel, contemporary problems and our personal struggles.

Open to Judgement

The old saying about being condemned to repeat the history we don't know applies to Church history as much as to anything else. But we are often at a loss to know how to approach it. Much of what passed once for Church history was propagandist; and much of the best now written is brilliantly done but apparently detached from the Church's present needs. We need a theological approach to Church history but not one that is just partisan.  In seeking to explore this need, Rowan Williams offers some reflection on how we think about the past in general - a complex issue in today's culture. Emerging from this is a sense of the importance of Church history as something that deepens our present thinking and obliges us to think with more varied and resourceful analogies about our present problems.

Why Study the Past? (new edition): The Quest for the Historical Church

GARDNERS VI BOOKS AMS006

Tennyson portrayed him, and wrote at least one poem under his name. Robert Graves was fascinated by what he saw as his work's connection to a lost world of deeply buried folkloric memory. He is a shapeshifter; a seer; a chronicler of battles fought, by sword and with magic, between the ancient kingdoms of the British Isles; a bridge between old Welsh mythologies and the new Christian theology; a 6th-century Brythonic bard; and a legendary collective project spanning the centuries up to The Book of Taliesin's compilation in 14th-century North Wales. He is, above all, no single 'he'.
The figure of Taliesin is a mystery. But of the variety and quality of the poems written under his sign, of their power as exemplars of the force of ecstatic poetic imagination, and of the fascinating window they offer us onto a strange and visionary world, there can be no question. In the first volume to gather all of the poems from The Book of Taliesin since 1915, Gwyneth Lewis and Rowan Williams's accessible translation makes these outrageous, arrogant, stumbling and joyful poems available to a new generation of readers.

The Book of Taliesin: Poems of Heroism and Magic in Another Britain

Literature & Fiction

Lewis, Gwyneth

History & Criticism

Penguin Classics

TheLion's World A Journey into the Heart of Narnia by Williams, Rowan ( Author ) ON Aug-16-2012, Paperback

SPCK Publishing

Christian Essentials

SPCK.

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