Untimely Christianity

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Alister McGrath

“Michael Edwards is a distinguished literary critic and himself a fine poet. In Untimely Christianity, he offers an acutely discerning reflection on the conscience-searing language of Jesus and the startling otherness of the words of biblical poetry from the psalms, prophets, and sayings of Christ. I know of no comparable introduction to authentic reading of the Bible—indeed, this little book, small in size but enormous in consequence, is a must-read for anyone who seeks to understand the Bible as the distinctive word of God.”

David Lyle Jeffrey

“Michael Edwards reminds us that it is dangerous to read the Bible. His piercingly beautiful essay restores the surprising strangeness of the text. I was moved and disturbed and felt often I was experiencing the full reality of Scripture for the first time. We desperately need people with Professor Edwards’s poetic and philosophical skill to awaken us from rationalist readings to experience the Person who haunts the text. The meditation on the nature of translation as a spiritual practice was particularly insightful, and the work itself owes some of its power to the fact that it is the work of an Englishman, writing in French, and then ably translated by John Marson Dunaway. I learned so much: about the Lord’s Prayer as poetry, the relation of faith to reality, and the potency of church architecture and ancient stones alike to prompt us to believe in the existence of a world ‘that responds to this aspiration and this reserve.’ Christians will find their faith made startlingly strange, while nonbelievers will be beguiled by this elegant, nonpietistic presentation of the compelling nature of faith.” —the Rev’d Canon Alison Grant Milbank, author of God and the Gothic and professor of theology and literature, University of Nottingham “Eureka! Michael Edwards’s pungent, wise, and simple book on how Christianity interrupts and reorders our lives is now available for English readers. If you want to know what the Bible says about knowing God, about faith, hope, and joy; if you want to read some of the best pages ever written on the Lord’s Prayer; if, in short, you want to know how to hear the Bible, read this book.”

Kevin Hart

“Echoes of Pascal and Claudel sound through this fresh and profound meditation on the meaning of the gospel. Edwards’s book challenges us to embark upon a more authentic search for the truth about our humanity and our plight in this world through a fresh encounter with the Bible. He takes us through the Bible as a disciple with a poet’s eye so as to discern and unpack its all-too-familiar passages through attentiveness to the poetry of its words, images, and sentence patterns. Not just the parables and psalms but most major teachings and stories show themselves to have a depth that demands a greater awareness of the art of the expression and the mystery contained therein. The chapter on the Our Father is a tour de force that shows the reader how a more careful look at the pattern and meaning of words opens up the teaching of Christ as a surprising and compelling account of human existence in relation to God. While many now speak of the ‘evangelization of culture,’ as if faith and culture were always at odds, Edwards shows that the Bible, the good news, is already an active source of human culture and a wellspring of poetry and art. Of course, numerous poets, artists, and composers have testified to this fact. Edwards’s Untimely Christianity is a reminder and a stimulus for a true cultural renewal of Christian inspiration in our day.”

John P. Hittinger