Celebrating the Christian Centuries Book

Celebrating the Christian Centuries is "an invitation to make a journey through time" with great Christian thinkers and leaders from the past. The book takes the reader from the first century to the 20th, with each writer--and their corresponding century--having a chapter to themselves. The 20 chapters are organised into four sections or "terms", for group or individual use, e.g. section two is "Towards a Christian Society: the Growth of Christendom" and includes St Benedict, Maximus the Confessor and St Patrick. Each chapter begins with a neat introduction to the century in question, outlining how the chosen writer fitted into or advanced Christian thought in his/her times. Then there is a text from that particular writer and questions on it, followed by prayer exercises and suggestions for further reading.The book has many delights, not least of which is the very real sense of seeing time unfolding before you. Added to this is the pleasure of discovering writers one has not come across before. For example, while Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo III in the ninth century, we learn that Oengus the Culdee was busy retelling the story of the Bible in 150 psalm-like poems, which expand the Celtic celebration of creation. The chapter given to Teresa of Avila is likewise a revelation, her quiet metaphorical exploration of the soul as, of all things, a silkworm, in sharp contrast to the upheaval of 16th century Reformation Europe.Unconventional and full of the unexpected, Celebrating the Christian Centuriesis a very welcome anthology. --Anthony WilsonRead More