Böcker av Arthur Middleton

The loss of the Anglican mind, behind which is the loss of the Christian mind, has led to the dysfunctionalism and loss of identity which we see in modern Anglicanism throughout the Anglican Communion. In his Crockford's Preface (1987-88), Gareth Bennett drew attention to a theology in retreat, pinpointing the crisis within Anglicanism as being fundamentally theological, and called for a return to our roots, our prescriptive sources, as the way out of the malaise of modern Anglicanism. Canon Middleton takes us back to these prescriptive sources, and shows us that Anglicanism has its own peculiar character, and one that still speaks to us today. Tracing that character in the Reformers, the Carolines, the Oxford Fathers and the Formularies, he shows that despite the discontinuities of their time these divines are aware of the continuity and wholeness of the Christian tradition in all its fullness, organic wholeness and unbroken unity. Continuity is for them a dynamic and living transmission of certain living qualities of faith and order, the Tradition the Church hands on. These prescriptive sources speak to us of an issue facing us that is far bigger than the saving of the Church of England; it is the saving of the Apostolic Faith and Order of the Church, for which Ignatius died. They point us in the way of the re-integration of the universal Church in east and west, to a western orthodoxy, that is free from the relativism of the present: such orthodox Christian faith comes in all its saving power to identify with the world, but refuses to be accommodated to it, because its authority lies in its bringing to bear on the world an insight more adequate than the world's own. Arthur Middleton spent ten years as Vicar of Pennywell in Sunderland and was Rector of Boldon from1979-2003. He is Emeritus Canon of Durham, was a Tutor at St. Chad's College Durham, has served on the College Council and was Acting Principal in 1996-97. He is an Honorary Fellow of St Chad's College, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Patron of the Society of King Charles the Martyr. He is a member of the Church Union Council, the Standing Committee, and the Publications Committee of Tufton Books. He was an editor of the Tufton Review, on the Editorial Board of On-Line for Lambeth and writes for the Church of England Newspaper. He is an experienced lecturer, retreat conductor and a prolific writer. His other books publisherd by Gracewing are Towards a Renewed Priesthood, Fathers and Anglicans: The Limits of Orthodoxy, and Prayer in the Workaday World. Married to Jennifer, they have two grown-up sons.

Real prayer consists of three essential constituents - oral or bodily prayer, prayer of the mind and prayer of the heart or 'of the mind in the heart', and if one or other constituent is absent it is not prayer at all. This book is not just about theory it is also about the practicalities of prayer. The author's concern is to help people discover their rule of prayer in a way of living where contemplation and action can harmonize so that they can 'pray without ceasing' in a world where coal is mined and candy floss is made. To pray is to share in God's life, to participate in the life the Father lives with the Son in the Holy Spirit. That living experience and knowledge of God lies not in some far- off country, but in our own backyard, the real and living circumstances of life in the workaday world as we respond to the spiritual fullness of life as it is, and not as we imagine it to be or as we would like it to be. It is not a flight of the alone to the Alone. We journey with fellow members of the Body of Christ as we join 'in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers'(Acts 2:42). The weekly Liturgy is our School of Prayer where we are nourished in Word and Sacrament in the way of salvation so that the other six days are lived in the power of the Risen Christ and according to his will.As an experienced retreat conductor and spiritual guide over many years, Arthur Middleton brings out of his treasury things old and new, and it is a welcome relief to read a book on Christian praying so rooted in the Christian tradition - the Fathers, the great spiritual writers of the Middle Ages, the Anglican seventeenth-century divines and the Tractarians and their successors - and which is yet so properly practical as to how to go about the business of praying, both personally and corporately. Arthur Middleton's gift of writing with exemplary lucidity and theological profundity has served him well in what he has offered to us in this book. BISHOP GEOFFREY ROWELL Arthur Middleton spent ten years in Sunderland and was Rector of Boldon from 1979-2003. Emeritus Canon of Durham Cathedral and Tutor at St Chad's College, he served on the College Council and was Acting Principal in 1997. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Patron of the Society of King Charles the Martyr. On the Editorial Board of New Directions, he is a member of the Church Union Council. His books include Towards a Renewed Priesthood and Fathers and Anglicans: the Limits of Orthodoxy, both published by Gracewing. He has also lectured in Canada and Australia. Married to Jennifer, they have two sons.

Following the enormous social changes of the second half of the 20th century, the Church - in common with other institutions- began increasingly to question its own historic role and the role of its ordained clergy.In the wake of the growth of management consultancy in this period, and its application to all apects of social endeavour, many of the Church's leaders began to call for a new understanding of the role of the priest or minister, in which 'function' rather than theology would be given centre stage.In this groundbreaking study the author offers a devastating analysis of the growth of functionalism in the Church - a phenomenon which he attributes to a 'loss of nerve' on the part of a disproportionately powerful liberal establishment - and offers instead a programme for renewal based upon a return to theological and sacramental roots.In a Church that is confused by the increasingly alien culture that surrounds and is inimical to it, the priest must concentrate on a Kingdom-centred rather than World-centred theology, and seek for a sense of that which is perennially valid, rather than temporarily fashionable. Only by a return to the theology of the Church Fathers can a path be found away from anthropocentrism and towards theocentrism.Arthur Middleton has written that rare book, a short study that is at one and the same time a powerful critique and a positive statement of values. His work will be of immense value to all those involved in the ministry, as well as to laity who wish to gain an understanding of why things are the way they are, and how they could be improved in the future.Arthur Middleton is an Anglican priest in the diocese of Durham in England.