Overview

This book is a follow-up to a previous volume by the same three authors, Baptists and the Communion of Saints: A Theology of Covenanted Disciples, though it does not require familiarity with the first study. The present book offers new perspectives on belief in the ""communion of saints"" by interpreting it through the idea of ""covenant,"" with its two dimensions of relations with God and with each other. Giving attention to the creative arts of painting, music, poetry, and story writing, the authors explore ""indications"" of a hidden ""communion of saints"" through embodiment, memory, and connectivity. Included are studies of the work of visual artists Paul Nash and Mark Rothko; musicians John Tavener, Elgar, and Brahms; and writers Thomas Hardy, T. S. Eliot, and James Joyce. Theological reflection on these hints of communion offers a vision of an ongoing communion of prayer with the saints, alive and dead, which does not depend on a dualistic idea of a disembodied soul existing after death but which affirms the Christian tradition of the resurrection of the body. Communion, covenant, and creativity are thus linked to develop a Christian aesthetics based on a mutual indwelling between the triune God and the world.

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9781532668647

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Reviews

The best way to revel in the glory of the doctrine of the communion of the saints is by having it modeled by co-authors working in harmony. Paul S. Fiddes, Brian Haymes, and Richard L. Kidd are a three-fold cord of profound theological strength. They combine Baptist covenant ecclesiology with the capacity of the arts to explore mystery in a way that becomes a sumptuous gift for the whole church. --Timothy Larsen, Wheaton College, author of George MacDonald in the Age of Miracles Fiddes, Haymes, and Kidd not only make a compelling case for the enrichment of the doctrine of the communion of saints by a Baptist theology of covenant. By locating engagement with these theological concepts in our encounter with the material things of the visual, literary, and musical arts, Communion, Covenant, and Creativity delightfully succeeds in rendering this article of faith as something not merely to be believed, but also to be experienced and practiced. --Steven R. Harmon, Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity

Author Information

Paul S. Fiddes is Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Oxford and Principal Emeritus of Regent's Park College, Oxford. Brian Haymes was formerly Principal of Bristol Baptist College. Richard L. Kidd was formerly Principal of Northern Baptist College, Manchester.

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