Christ the Heart of Creation

In this wide-ranging book, Rowan Williams argues that what we say about Jesus Christ is key to understanding what Christian belief says about creator and creation overall. Through detailed discussion of texts from the earliest centuries to the present day, we are shown some of the various and subtle ways in which Christians have discovered in their reflections on Christ the possibility of a deeply affirmative approach to creation, and a set of radical insights in ethics and politics as well.

Throughout his life, Rowan Williams has been deeply influenced by thinkers of the Eastern Christian tradition as well as Catholic and Anglican writers. This book draws on insights from Eastern Christianity, from the Western Middle Ages and from Reformed thinkers, from Calvin to Bonhoeffer – as well as considering theological insights sparked by philosophers like Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein. Christ the Heart of Creation concerns fundamental issues for Christian belief and Williams tackles them head-on: he writes with pellucid clarity and shows his gift for putting across what are inevitably complex ideas to a wide audience.

"[A] magisterial new survey of Christology" - Church Times

"[A] strange and brilliant book about longing and remembrance. It is, in sum, an assemblage of hope for a shipwrecked race. It creeps up in one’s mind at the strangest of times and in the strangest of places ... The book effects something like a walk with God at the breezy time of day; like the memory of a meaningful conversation long after you’ve forgotten what was said. It is unforgettable." - Catholic World Report

"[A] strange and brilliant book about longing and remembrance. It is, in sum, an assemblage of hope for a shipwrecked race. It creeps up in one’s mind at the strangest of times and in the strangest of places ... The book effects something like a walk with God at the breezy time of day; like the memory of a meaningful conversation long after you’ve forgotten what was said. It is unforgettable." - Catholic World Report

"For anyone who already hears music in the classic language of theology, this book will be a treat, a symphonic reminder that Christ is not a special subject but the theme by which all creation holds together." - Christian Century