Overview

From wealth creation to wealth distribution and social ethics, from urban mission to religious studies and psychology the work of John Atherton was breathtaking in scope and variety. Unifying all of his work, however, was a concern with engaging the work of theology with wider society. With contributions from some of the leading lights in public theology today, this book offers not only an appreciation of John Atherton’s work within a prodigiously large array of disciplines, but also an attempt to ask ‘what next’, taking his work forward and considering where the future of public theology might lie. John Atherton's last published article is also reproduced.

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Reviews

John Atherton's work has served as beacon to many in the church, academy and wider world. Prescient, pastoral and probing - and whether writing economics, politics or business - Atherton's work has stood out as one the very best exemplars of public theology in recent times. His writing represents a natural theological successor to William Temple's legacy, and as such, will continue to serve the cause and hope of public theology for the foreseeable future. Christopher Baker and Elaine Graham have assembled a rich, wise and searching body of contributors, whose essays continue to grapple with Atherton's agenda. Namely, making sense of theology as a public discourse for the re-shaping of society - and not merely some internal language to be spoken by Christians alone. This book has urgency and poise, coupled to wisdom and application. It is one the very best contributions to public theology to have emerged in recent years. -- Martyn Percy This collection is far more than a personal tribute to a much-loved and widely-admired individual. It is, first, a fitting tribute to one of the most eminent Anglican public theologians of our time. Through a series of fascinating personal portraits and creative theological engagements, it portrays John Atherton as an astute, knowledgeable, rooted yet broad-minded reader of the signs of the times and a passionate, provocative and imaginative communicator of Christian public wisdom for those times. It is, second an illuminating case study of the distinctive stream of post-war Anglican social theology - the `Manchester School' - to which Atherton was a formidable and sometimes dissenting contributor, especially on economic questions. But third, it is also an original piece of public theology in its own right. Its distinguished ensemble of contributors practise with flair just the form of public theology Atherton himself so effectively championed. Even those who stand at a distance from the theological stream exemplified by Atherton will inevitably find themselves running into the very same questions he himself confronted for over forty years and, I hope, learning much from the hard-won insights produced by that creative confrontation. -- Jonathan Chaplin 'This all-star collection of essays strikes sparks off the valuable legacy of the late John Atherton's social theology. It will hugely enrich our understanding of the impressive trajectory of Anglican social thought that runs from William Temple to the present. It will spur us to a more incarnational engagement with the empirical, material world and stimulate a deeper wrestling with the the unresolved theological problem of the meaning of 'the secular' in our contemporary pluralistic society.' -- Paul Avis

John Atherton's work has served as beacon to many in the church, academy and wider world. Prescient, pastoral and probing - and whether writing economics, politics or business - Atherton's work has stood out as one the very best exemplars of public theology in recent times. His writing represents a natural theological successor to William Temple's legacy, and as such, will continue to serve the cause and hope of public theology for the foreseeable future. Christopher Baker and Elaine Graham have assembled a rich, wise and searching body of contributors, whose essays continue to grapple with Atherton's agenda. Namely, making sense of theology as a public discourse for the re-shaping of society - and not merely some internal language to be spoken by Christians alone. This book has urgency and poise, coupled to wisdom and application. It is one the very best contributions to public theology to have emerged in recent years. -- Martyn Percy

Author Information

Christopher R. Baker is William Temple Professor of Religion and Public Life at Goldsmiths University London and Director of the William Temple Foundation. Elaine Graham is Grosvenor Research Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Chester.

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