A Theology of the Christian Life

“Many of the great Christian writers down the centuries have set out their theology using the language of ‘participation.’ Stressing that all things come from God, and that all things find their fulfilment in relation to God, this theology naturally integrates thought, practice, and a common life in the community of the church. Christopher Holmes inhabits this tradition deeply, naturally, and persuasively. His study is particularly notable for the degree to which he is as much at home with the text of the Scriptures as with the writings of the church fathers, Aquinas, or the Reformers.”

Andrew Davison

“This is a magnificently theological reflection on Christian existence. Books about the Christian life often devolve into banal how-to manuals. Here, however, Holmes explores how the life of a Christian opens up to the reality of God himself, in a way that exposes the deepest truths of divine life. In serious but lucid prose, Holmes’s skills as a master systematician are movingly deployed in the service of a mind and spirit suffused with the love and adoration of God. Shaped by the classic wisdom of the fathers and of Thomas Aquinas especially, with Scripture at its root, Holmes carefully opens up for the reader the astonishing promise by which God’s perfections are shared with us. Dogmatic and spiritual theology are wedded here in an incomparable contemporary fashion that calls for the urgent attention of every Christian, whether student or scholar, lay or ordained.”

Ephraim Radner