Luminaries: Twenty Lives that Illuminate the Christian Way

by Rowan Williams

Publisher:

SPCK

, 2019

Overview

Starting in the first century with St Paul and ending in the twentieth with St Oscar Romero, Rowan Williams invites you to reflect with him on the lives and legacies of twenty great Christians—saints, martyrs, poets, theologians and social reformers. Their stories and writings have profoundly influenced his own life and thought, and this sequence of short reflections is sure to sharpen your theological vision and cast a fresh light on what it means to live and breathe the gospel.

Included among these ‘luminaries’ are Augustine of Hippo, William Tyndale, Teresa of Avila, Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Simone Weil.

Let these brilliant meditations light your way as you follow the footsteps of the faithful who have gone before.

Key Features

• Provides a series of reflections on people’s stories and writings
• Helps readers make sense of the world and make sense of God
• Examines the sometimes desperate and unusual situations the people lived in

Contents

• St Paul
• St Alban
• St Augustine of Hippo
• St Augustine of Canterbury
• St Anselm of Canterbury
• Meister Eckhart
• Thomas Cranmer
• William Tyndale
• St Teresa of Avila
• John Milton
• William Wilberforce
• Charles Dickens
• Florence Nightingale
• Sergei Bulgakov
• Edith Stein
• Michael Ramsey
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Simone Weil
• Etty Hillesum
• St Óscar Romero

Praise for the Print Edition

One of today’s most brilliant and profound thinkers.

—Jonathan Sacks

Rowan Williams is one of the great theologians of our time. He is also an inspiring teacher whose godly wisdom helps us understand profound truths.

—Nicky Gumbel

Rowan Williams writes with a gentle strength that witnesses to the joy to be found in being disciples of Jesus.

—Kate Bottley

Product Details

• Title: Luminaries: Twenty Lives that Illuminate the Christian Way
• Author: Rowan Williams
• Publisher: SPCK
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 160
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Topic: Church History

About Rowan Williams

Born in 1950, Rowan Williams was educated in Swansea (Wales) and Cambridge. He studied for his theology doctorate in Oxford, after which he taught theology in a seminary near Leeds. From 1977 until 1986, he was engaged in academic and parish work in Cambridge, before returning to Oxford as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity. In 1990, he became a fellow of the British Academy.

In 1992, Professor Williams became Bishop of Monmouth, and in 1999 he was elected as Archbishop of Wales. He became Archbishop of Canterbury in late 2002 with 10 years’ experience as a diocesan bishop and three as a primate in the Anglican Communion. As archbishop, his main responsibilities were pastoral—whether leading his own diocese of Canterbury and the Church of England, or guiding the Anglican Communion worldwide. At the end of 2012, after 10 years as archbishop, he stepped down and moved to a new role as Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Professor Williams is acknowledged internationally as an outstanding theological writer and teacher as well as an accomplished poet and translator. His interests include music, fiction, and languages.