Church in Crisis

"Oliver O'Donovan's reflections on the current troubles of the Anglican Church are quite simply of unique significance. He consistently takes us to the questions others are not asking and refuses the ready-made questions and answers that paralyze our thinking about the sexuality debates. Anyone wanting to understand what is most deeply at stake theologically ought to read and meditate on this invaluable book."

--ROWAN WILLIAMS, Archbishop of Canterbury



"In tones of characteristically elusive profundity, Oliver O'Donovan forces the reader of his new book to realize that contemporary 'gayness' represents an enigma which demands a long period of sustained cultural, ethical, and theological reflection before the Church can hope to reach any well-grounded consensus on this issue. He hints that the latter might well be at once more conservative and yet more radical than the political moralizing and prudishness theological liberals might desire. Yet if campaigning for 'gay rights' is dismissed as both inappropriate and premature, the schismatic reaction of certain evangelicals is roundly condemned. Indeed, O'Donovan has here achieved nothing less than an indication of just how Anglicanism can in the future reconstruct itself through a recovery of a Hooker-like sense of Episcopalian Catholicity, and the Patristic integration of Platonic wisdom with Biblical revelation, on the part of more discerning evangelicals like himself."

--JOHN MILBANK, University of Nottingham



"O'Donovan is one of the preeminent Christian theologians of our time. Here he brings to bear his acute mind, deep faith, and broad pastoral sensitivities on one of the most pressing challenges facing our churches today."

--EPHRAIM RADNER, Professor of Historical Theology

Wycliffe College, Toronto



"Oliver O'Donovan sees the current crisis in the Anglican Communion for precisely what it is--an invitation into the heart of God. Anyone who wearily feels they have heard it all on these issues will come away from this book challenged, deepened, and refreshed."

--SAM WELLS, Dean of the Chapel and

Research Professor of Christian Ethics

Duke University



''When many Christians have lost their manners--and then some--in the debate on homosexuality, Church in Crisis delivers sophisticated etiquette for moral deliberation. O'Donovan gently but firmly disabuses the Christian of two hermeneutic pitfalls: liberals conform Scripture to their own moral enlightenment, which thinly veils the cultural pieties of the day, and conservatives suppress dissent and discussion because of their fossilized interpretations of Scripture, which substitutes an unreflective biblicism for the living authority of God's Word. Both sides are eager to throw in the towel. Liberals want to advance the church while conservatives want to preserve the church. O'Donovan exposes the seduction of schism for what it is and counsels patience--ever more patience.''

--Christopher Benson, as reviewed in Christianity Today