- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Fount; First Edition edition (1 Sep 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006280412
- ISBN-13: 978-0006280415
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.4 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 566,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
‘There is a struggle going on for the soul of Christianity,’ warns Richard Holloway, right at the start of this uncompromising call to arms on behalf of the Christian faith.
In a rapidly changing society, the Churches have largely responded by digging their heals in and refusing to acknowledge progress.
Bishop Holloway, one of the leading prelates in the Anglican Church, has long been fascinated by doubt and uncertainty. Now, for the first time he tackles the fundamental beliefs of Christianity, ranging from the existence of God and the authority of the Bible to sexuality, suffering and a society growing ever distant from daily church life.
Under three sections – God, Us and the Church – he takes a daring, challenging and sometimes controversial journey through the signs of the times and the relevance of the Christian faith at the end of the century.
From the Back Cover
There are all sorts of people struggling between belief and unbelief today. Some have turned their back on organised religion, others are hanging on to membership of a church by their fingertips. But few are given the opportunity to explore their faltering faith honestly against the background of churches which speak ‘exclusively’ for God. This ground breaking book is just such an opportunity.
In an inspiring epistle for a post Christian age, Richard Holloway gets to grips with the core beliefs of the Christian faith. When science and morality are shifting daily, do we have a shrinking sense of God, a mere ‘God of the Gaps’ as Bonhoeffer described? Or can we make sense of God and each other in a life enhancing way? How do we manage this in the face of suffering in the world, the complexity of relationships and church communities, and the off putting rigidity of fundamentalism?
Such overcritical, even oppressive, forms of religion encourage only fear. But fear, contends Richard Holloway, is the enemy of real faith. The real faith of the Christian is more akin to a rolling jazz session than a march on the barrack square. It is about joy and exhilaration, about dancing on the edge.
By turns compassionate, challenging and controversial, Bishop Holloway traces that dance through the signs of the times and argues the relevance of his faith at the end of the century.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The fight-back starts here!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Dancing on the Edge: Making sense of faith in a post-christian age (Paperback)
With liberalism in the Church now finding itself under threat from a newly-muscular 'one size fits all' evangelicalism, Holloway heads to the barricades in this stirring defence of faith which is credible and intellectually robust.Without ever hectoring or disparaging those who disagree with him, Holloway gently sets out his beliefs and the faith that under pins them. It is a faith which is both logical yet firmly rooted in experience - and ultimately it is compassionate and humane. Casting off the cliche of the 'trendy vicar', Holloway never loses sight of the ultimate object of his faith - God - in amongst his acknowlegement of the often messy reality of human life. Gently building up a compelling argument, the former Bishop of Edinburgh never shirks the difficult questions or uses convenient intellectual 'short-cuts' to make his case stack up. Instaed he confronts the contradictions and confusions of faith head on, which makes his ultimate conclusion - that faith is still possible in a 'post-Christian' age - all the more of a triumph. A book that is huge in its ambition, Holloway never lets your attention wander for a moment. His language is clear and crisp, his arguments concise. This is a compeling read that deserves to become a modern Christian classic and should be read by anyone with even a passing interest in religion of any kind
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Scholarly, timely, wise and humane,
By A Customer
This review is from: Dancing on the Edge: Making sense of faith in a post-christian age (Paperback)
For those who have struggled to remain true to both Christianity and their personal integrity, this book will come as a breath of fresh air. Scholarly yet accessible, the Bishop takes us through the main objections to belief in a loving and personal deity, then takes on the fraught issue of human sexuality, including a thoughtful chapter on same-sex relationships which is particularly timely in view of the recent Lambeth Conference, and finishes by looking at ways of relating to the Church as an evolving, yet divinely inspired ethical and moral system. A liberating book for all would-be Christians put off by the rigidity of fundamentalist theology.
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Faith in a post-Christian Age,
This review is from: Dancing on the Edge: Making sense of faith in a post-christian age (Paperback)
Coming from where he does, Richard Holloway has access to more information than the average reader and he excels at communicating his insight, knowledge and experience, not only but mainly, in the realm of religious ideology and thought. For those immersed in fundamentalism, for which he gives an incisive definition, his book sadly, will have little or no effect. Others, such as myself, who have questioned and delved deeply into the paradoxes of the Christian religion and it's claims in the face of modern reality and contemporary science, will find that his exposition of all that is most confounding to the conscious and informed seeker,has been carried out fearlessly and convincingly. He allows one to feel that the journey toward truth is not only safe it is imperative. In chapter nine, Playing Jazz with God, (a chapter I particularly liked) he says "The Journey is a more appropriate symbol of the Christian life than a building rooted to the spot. People travel at different speeds .. some like a lot of company, some prefer to travel alone." As one who has travelled alone, sometimes painfully so, his book 'Dancing on the Edge' has deepened my appreciation and understanding of where we, steeped in Western Culture and Myth, have come from and illumined a way forward. His writing compels one to re-examine Jesus, his sayings and parables on which foundation the Christian church is built; Holloway's interpretation and insight reveals the nature of a great anarch and revolutionary who deliberately challenged the stifling and soul destroying order of his day. This liberating theme runs through his book, and is both thought provoking, challenging and inspiring.
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