In a preliminary note to the Contemplation to Attain Love, the prayer that draws together and concludes his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius of Loyola remarks that ‘Love ought to manifest itself more by deeds than by words’ (Exx 230). This was not an original thought. One of his mentors, Thomas à Kempis, had written a century earlier in Of the Imitation of Christ, ‘I had rather feel contrition, than know the definition thereof’. And Jesus himself is recorded in the synoptic Gospels as saying that only those who do the will of his Father, and not simply those who call him Lord, will enter the Kingdom of God. A broad current of Christian thinking is suspicious of words alone, and expects any fervent professions of faith to be matched by actions that demonstrate that faith in practice.
Stephen Platten, ‘In Newness of Life: Eucharistic Living’, 7–22
Celebration of the eucharist has often been an act that divides the different parts of the Christian church. That this need not always be the case is illustrated here by the Anglican Bishop of Wakefield, Stephen Platten. He writes of finding ‘a world framed by an attitude of thanksgiving’; to recognise this, and celebrate it, is what is truly meant by eucharistic living.
Nicholas King, ‘Translation and the King James Version’, 24–36
In 2011 the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible is being celebrated throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. Here Nicholas King, tutor in biblical studies in the University of Oxford, reflects upon ways in which the problems faced by those who made this translation still face their successors who would produce vernacular versions of the scriptures today.
Angela Tilby, ‘The Glass Cathedral: Language, Imagery and Leadership’, 37–48
The third of our reprinted articles ‘From the Archive’, marking the golden jubilee of The Way, comes from the 1980s. Angela Tilby, an Anglican priest and broadcaster, looks at the relationship between the words and the images that are used to express Christian convictions. She traces some of the problems of leadership within the Churches to this root, concluding that ‘Christianity is essentially a lay faith’.
Robert E. Doud, ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian Spirituality’, 49–65
The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls sixty years ago had a profound impact on Christian understandings of the scriptures. Here Robert Doud investigates the Qumran community which produced these writings, and asks what their beliefs and outlook might have to say to contemporary faith. In summary, he says, ‘we see in them an intensity of devotion and commitment that we ourselves can in most cases only aspire to’.
Philippe d’Iribarne, ‘Conversion and the Resistance of Culture’, 67–77
It may puzzle people of faith that atheists frequently lead more moral lives than they do themselves. In recent centuries it has sometimes been inhabitants of those countries where Christianity seems to be most deep-rooted who have been responsible for many of the greatest atrocities. Philippe d’Iribarne asks why this should be so, and attributes the situation to the difficulty Christian faith has in overcoming deeply ingrained human cultural responses.
Kenneth Overberg, ‘The Mystery of God and Suffering’, 79–89
Theodicy is the technical term for the branch of theology that seeks to justify the goodness and omnipotence of God in the face of the human experience of suffering in the world. Kenneth Overberg holds that there is a common three-fold response to this experience that runs from lament, through action, to trust. Focusing on how the suffering of Christ exemplifies this, he boldly asserts that ‘God becoming human is not an afterthought’.
Toufic Makhoul, ‘On Trinitarian Relationships’, 91–96
Toufic Makhoul’s starting-point here is the question of whether the doctrine of the Trinity makes any practical difference to the lives of most Christians. He argues that it should, in that contemplation of the nature of relationships within the Trinity should affect the quality of our own human relationships. This is turn presents a challenge, that of being ready to empty ourselves as Christ did in the incarnation.
Nicholas Hance, ‘Cosmic Connections’, 97–107
C. S. Lewis, in his book The Four Loves, drew distinctions between erotic love, affection, friendship and charity as the four basic kinds of bond drawing people together. As a scientist, Nicholas Hance is familiar with four kinds of force in physics (gravitation, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces) that draw objects together. Here he provocatively draws parallels between these two sets of four, and finds ways in which they surprisingly illuminate each other.