Generosity and the Christian Future (Traces of Liberality: The George Newlands Reprint)

Based on the 1995 Henson Lectures delivered in the University of Oxford this study takes as its theme the Christian future and the development of a theology of generosity in response to the challenges likely to face Christian faith in the twenty-first century. In particular Professor Newlands wishes to explore the suggestion that Christ represents the ultimate generosity of God for humankind. This leads him to concentrate on the contribution made by Christian doctrine to public issues and especially the relationship between Christology and human rights. The author is centrally concerned that faith should remain in the public square and that the circle of faith should always be outward facing. The result is a liberal pluralistic theology which regards the generous love of God in incarnation and reconciliation as a powerful stimulus to imaginative Christian thought and action. In its robust portrayal of what Christianity ought properly to look like this book--which emerges from the pen of the leading Scottish liberal theologian of his generation--will be sure to stimulate and engage a wide variety of readers. As in his other published works George Newlands shows here an astonishing command of the theological and other related literature and sustained good judgment in applying his key criterion of the self-giving costly love of God revealed in Christ and his cross. Newlands is the best sort of liberal--radical and positive yet balanced and open to dialogue on all sides with conservatives as well as with humanists and people of other faiths. Pluralism is embraced without surrender of the mainstream tradition. I read this stimulating and wide-ranging book with interest and admiration and recommend it strongly. - Brian Hebblethwaite University of Cambridge This is a powerful book characterized by humor subtlety and moral passion. While very learned it wears its erudition lightly. There are passages of great theological insight and one chapter of sustained fantasy and humor where an American Baptist minister becomes Pope--except that she is also a woman called Flora and the setting is a space-age Vatican X in Oxford one thousand years after the Reformation. -- Peter Sedgwick Board for Social Responsibility General Synod of the Church of England George M. Newlands PhD DLitt FRSE FRSA is Professor Emeritus of Divinity at the University of Glasgow and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow.