Tim Chesterton, a Canadian Anglican priest on sabbatical in England, has written the thought-provoking (especially in the last third) first part of a review of the book Post-Christendom
UPDATE 27th April: part two is now here, concluding the book and still well worth reading.
UPDATE 1st May: Tim has now posted his own reflections on this book.
I don’t very often write about politics on this blog, especially about American politics. But I do sometimes comment on posts on other blogs which have a political slant, especially where they relate this to the Christian faith. Here for once I am posting on a political issue, on the situation in Iraq. But I am making this a post only because my attempt to write this in a comment was frustrated.
My blogging friend Tim Chesterton is planning a sabbatical from his ministry as an Anglican priest in Canada. He will be returning to his home country, here in England, to study the Anabaptist movement. And he has started a new blog “An Anabaptist Anglican” just to record his thoughts about this. He has already given a summary of Anabaptist teaching which I find very attractive, as I mentioned in a previous post.
I will follow Tim’s experiences with interest – although perhaps not for the next few weeks, for Tim seems to be giving up blogging for Lent. I admire him for doing this, but don’t intend to copy him.
Tim Chesterton has just posted on the Anabaptist spiritual path. This path is not so well known here in England, where we have few Anabaptists. Our Baptists can in fact partly trace their heritage to the Anabaptists, but whereas they have retained believers’ baptism and separation from the state, they do not teach other Anabaptist distinctives, especially non-violence. But I have really appreciated the few Anabaptists I have met, and have been struck especially by their Christlike gentleness. So it is good to be reminded of their distinctive tradition, with its emphasis on worship and practical discipleship. I am sure that there is a lot here for other Christians to learn from.