FAITH IN A TIME OF CRISIS
Standing for the truth in a changing world
By Vaughan Roberts with Peter Jensen
Matthias Media. 143 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 1 922 206 268
This is a book written by Anglicans, primarily for Anglicans, about how to think theologically and respond practically to the issues of human sexuality, especially homosexual expression.
But that doesn’t make it helpful only for Anglican insiders. The issues raised are relevant to all Christians and church streams, even if the applications and certainly the politics may be different.
With his usual clarity and accessibility, Vaughan Roberts, puts the big issue of homosexuality into the wider cultural landscape of sex, love, marriage, the gospel and the unity of the Church.
Implications for Anglicanism
Peter Jensen adds a final chapter to draw out the implications of the journey which the Anglican Communion as a whole is currently taking. Although even that has changed significantly with the most recent judgments of the Episcopal Church of Scotland.
The book is readable because it runs the biblical principles of truth, alongside their practice in relation to the call to be a Christloving and gospel-centred church and Christian. In others words, this is not so much an academic treatment, it’s more an appeal to keep and defend the apostolic faith personally and corporately. As such there is a devotional undertow which I think is beneficial.
It has helped not just to refresh my own thinking in these complex matters, but to move me to pray for those in the Anglican Church who are key influencers in the accommodation which has been expected up to this point.
As an outsider, one wonders how much longer such a balancing act can be maintained before a fundamental new Anglican order emerges.
