Rowan Williams on the Power and the Weakness

From his Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to the Christian Faith, an accessible, theologically grounded, and […]

Will McDavid / 2.12.13

From his Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to the Christian Faith, an accessible, theologically grounded, and refreshing take on the ‘basics’ of Christianity:

totYes, Jesus is a human being in whom God’s action is at work without interruption or impediment. But wait a moment: the Jesus we meet in the Gospels is someone who prays, who speaks of putting his will and his decisions at the service of his Father. He is someone who is in a relationship of dependence on the one he prays to as Father. In him there is divine purpose, power, and action; but there is also humility, responsiveness, receptivity. Somehow, the divine presence of Jesus, if it’s really a divine presence in all he does and says, is working itself out in this humility and responsiveness, not just in power as we understand it….

This means we are no less in God’s image when we acknowledge our dependence or when we offer thanks than when we are taking decisions or showing God’s love to another. That isn’t actually an easy message for a world very much in love with the ideal of absolute self-sufficiency…

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