The Reading Church:

Scriptural Authority in Practice

Fulcrum Lecture: Text available now here

by The Revd Professor Oliver O’Donovan FBA

Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology, University of Edinburgh

at the launch of his book

A Conversation Waiting to Begin: The Churches and the Gay Controversy  

(SCM Press, 2009)

Monday 27 April 2009, 6.00pm

St Mary Islington, Upper Street

London N1 2TX

open to all – admission free

the chapters in the book were first published online in the Fulcrum series: ‘Sermons on the Subjects of the Day’ (July 2006-January 2007)

Quotations at the back of Oliver O’Donovan’s book

A Conversation Waiting to Begin: The Churches and the Gay Controversy (London: SCM Press, 2009)

1. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

Oliver O’Donovan’s reflections on the current troubles of the Anglican Church are quite simply of unique significance. He consistently takes us to the questions others are not asking and refuses the ready-made questions and answers that paralyse our thinking about sexuality debates. Anyone wanting to understand what is most deeply at stake theologically ought to read and meditate on this invaluable book.

2. John Milbank, University of Nottingham

In tones of characteristically elusive profundity, Oliver O’Donovan forces the reader of his new book to realize that contemporary ‘gayness’ represents an enigma which demands a long period of sustained cultural, ethical and theological reflection before the Church can hope to reach any well-grounded consensus on this issue. He hints that the latter might well be at once more conservative and yet more radical than the political moralizing and prudishness of theological liberals might desire. Yet if campaigning for ‘gay rights’ is dismissed as both inappropriate and premature, the schismatic reaction of certain evangelicals is roundly condemned. Indeed, O’Donovan has here achieved nothing less than an indication of just how Anglicanism can in the future reconstruct itself through a recovery of a Hooker-like sense of Episcopalian catholicity, and the Patristic integration of Platonic wisdom with biblical revelation, on the part of more discerning evangelicals like himself.

3. Ephraim Radner, Wycliffe College, Toronto

O’Donovan is one of the pre-eminent Christian theologians of our time. Here he brings to bear his acute mind, deep faith, and broad pastoral sensitivities on one of the most pressing challenges facing our churches today.

4. Sam Wells, Duke University, Durham, NC

Oliver O’Donovan sees the current crisis in the Anglican Communion for precisely what it is – an invitation into the heart of God. Anyone who wearily feels they have heard it all on these issues will come away from this book challenged, deepened and refreshed.

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