John Macquarrie's Paths in Spirituality, Pt. 2

Whenever we come into new knowledge, create anew, make new friends or connections—we transcend ourselves, and we experience the Holy Spirit, says Macquarrie. To experience the Spirit is to experience ek-stasis, to stand out of oneself—to grow. The Church is “the growing point where the upbuilding work of the Spirit proceeds most intensely” (51). This…

Read More

John Macquarrie’s Paths in Spirituality, Pt. 1

If the Church finds itself in narrow straits these days it is, in part, because it has not listened deeply to its past masters.  John Macquarrie, sometime Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford, must rank as one of the foremost Anglican theologians of the twentieth century.  His Paths in Spirituality (1972) still offers departure…

Read More

John Macquarrie's Paths in Spirituality, Pt. 1

If the Church finds itself in narrow straits these days it is, in part, because it has not listened deeply to its past masters.  John Macquarrie, sometime Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford, must rank as one of the foremost Anglican theologians of the twentieth century.  His Paths in Spirituality (1972) still offers departure…

Read More

Simoom: Jesus’ testing in the desert, Mt 4:1-11

1. We hear again of Jesus’ temptation in the desert, forty days and forty nights. We too have embarked on forty days of self-examination in the desert: it is Lent.   Lent is an ancient word related to lengthening (old English: lengten) for, in Europe, this is the time when the days lengthen;  it is the…

Read More

Rowan Williams: Tokens of Trust, Pt. 2

I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church To be in the church is not to stand under the arches of an old building, or to become a club member. It is to step into the life of the Trinity, which, as we saw in the last part, is the life of communion—of sharing.…

Read More