THEOLOGY, HISTORY, and ETHICS
A THEOLOGY OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE Imitating and Participating in God Christopher R. J. Holmes What does Scripture say about the manner of God’s being? And what kind of life resembles the one God? In this book, theologian Christopher Holmes encourages readers to be more deeply captivated by the Bible’s witness to God. He gets at the heart of the Christian life by considering some of the great truths of God’s existence. Holmes engages with the church fathers along with Augustine and Aquinas to offer a rich, accessible account of the triune God and the divine perfections. He unfolds a program of spiritual renewal founded on the essential attributes of God, showing how we share in the life of God through imitation and participation and how the doctrines of the triune God and the divine attributes shape our understanding of the Christian life. Throughout, Holmes demon- strates the importance of theology for Christian faith and practice. A Theology of the Christian Life will appeal to professors and stu- dents of Christian theology as well as pastors and church leaders.
CHRISTOPHER R. J. HOLMES (ThD, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto) is associate professor in systematic theology and head of the theology program at the University of Otago in New Zealand. He is the author of a number of books, including The Holy Spirit and The Lord Is Good .
SEPTEMBER 2021 • 192 pp. • paper • $24.99 • 9781540964694
“It would not have occurred to the theologians of Christian antiquity or even those of the High Middle Ages that metaphysics, doctrine, and the spiritual life were discrete disciplines. Today, alas, we can scarcely imagine them as anything else. The great liberating force of Holmes’s book is its relentless dedication to restoring a unity that believers should never have put asunder.” —DAVID BENTLEY HART, author of Roland in Moonlight and Tradition and Apocalypse “This book undertakes the counterintuitive task of show- ing how those attributes of God that distinguish Creator from creature are at the same time to be imitated by us. In doing so, it brings austere aspects of the doctrine of God alive in their spiritually transformative implications.” —SUSANNAH TICCIATI, King’s College London “A magnificently theological reflection on Christian existence. Dogmatic and spiritual theology are wedded here in an incomparable contemporary fashion that calls
CONTENTS
Introduction
PART 1 1. The Existence of God and the Christian Life 2. The Manner of God’s Existence and the Christian Life 3. Perfection and the Christian Life 4. Infinity and the Christian Life 5. Immutability and the Christian Life PART 2 6. The Hypostatic Union and the Christian Life
7. Virtue and the Christian Life 8. Church and the Christian Life Conclusion Indexes
for the urgent attention of every Christian.” —EPHRAIM RADNER, Wycliffe College
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