Grace & Necessity Towards a New Theology for the 21st Centur

In his first major new work of original theology for some years, Rowan Williams explores the borderlands between theology, art and literature in order to pioneer a new theological expression of grace and human creativity. Profoundly influenced by some of the most original and creative minds in the recent Catholic tradition (Jacques Maritain, the artist Eric Gill and the poet and painter David Jones), he explores a new aesthetic and the concept of an artwork as a structure in itself and not as a 'reproduction'. The sign or symbol, whether verbal or material, is a necessary vehicle of meaning and not an illustration of it, calling not for reduction or explanation but response. In Dr Williams' development of his theme he discusses modern philosophy (Wittgenstein's aesthetics) but also examines modern art, the work of the American writer Flannery O'Connor and the writings of the poet and artist David Jones on art and sacrament and the underlying theology of artistic production. To find such influences on an Archbishop of Canterbury is unusual to say the least. But Rowan Williams is unusual. A Welshman, published poet who almost became a Roman Catholic monk. A man who did his doctoral research on Vladimir Losky, a Russian orthodox theologian, and yet who finds time to write original theology. This is an Archbishop who is also pioneering intellectual renewal in the Christian Churches. Though the material is often complex, this book is written with pellucid clarity.