Christian ministry & pastoral activity

The Widening Circle

Priesthood as God’s way of blessing the world

by Graham Tomlin

Description

In The Widening Circle, Graham Tomlin suggests that ‘Priest’ is much more than a term to describe certain Christian ministers – it is a vital category for understanding God’s way of blessing his world. Jesus Christ is the only and true ‘High Priest’. His priestly ministry consists of mediating between God and the world, perfecting that very creation, and then offering this perfected creation back to the God from whom it came. Yet this very ministry is enacted through others. As we explore how this priesthood of Christ has an impact on everyday life, we discover the human race is chosen to play a priestly role between God and Creation. The Church is then called out to be a kingdom of priests, enabling humanity to fulfil its divine calling. And, finally, the minister himself or herself – experiencing as Christ did, both strands of priestly reality, the mundane and the heavenly, the routine and the remarkable, the normal and the numinous – is called to enable the rest of the Church to play its distinct part. In each case, the part is the means by which the whole becomes all that it is intended to be, in an ever widening circle of divine blessing.
The Widening Circle

More Information

Rights Information

World ex USA/Can

Author Biography

The Revd Dr Graham Tomlin is Dean of St Mellitus College and Principal of St Paul’s Theological Centre, London. He served in a parish in Exeter, was Chaplain of Jesus College, Oxford, Vice-Principal of Wycliffe Hall, and taught theology in Oxford University. Among his publications are Looking through the Cross: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2014 (Bloomsbury Continuum), The Prodigal Spirit (SPTC/Alpha, 2011), Spiritual Fitness (Continuum, 2006) and The Provocative Church (SPCK, fourth edition, 2014).

Bibliographic Information

  • Publisher SPCK
  • Publication Date November 2014
  • Orginal LanguageEnglish
  • ISBN/Identifier 9780281069026
  • Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
  • FormatPaperback
  • Primary Price 10.99 GBP
  • Pages192
  • ReadershipGeneral
  • Publish StatusPublished
  • EditionFirst
  • Dimensions216 x 138 mm
  • IllustrationNo

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