Peter Webster
Ashgate
Hardback
256
Developments both in scholarship on the period and in British culture more generally have now brought the period of Archbishop Ramsey's tenure at Canterbury into very sharp focus. The intellectual and cultural legacy of the 'long Sixties' has become a prime focus of study amongst historians of religion in Britain. It has been suggested that these years may even come to be regarded as 'marking a rupture as profound as that brought about by the Reformation.' A great deal of contemporary political social and moral criticism enlists one or more narratives of the Sixties in its support.This study of Ramsey is timely. His archiepiscopate from 1961 to 1974 saw profound renegotiations of the relationship of the Church of England with its own flock with the nation more widely with the Anglican church worldwide and with the other Christian churches. This volume as with others in this high profile series draws from unique source material in the Lambeth Palace Library archives and reproduces many original writings of Ramsey for the first time. Webster's study explores a number of key questions. How did Ramsey react to the rapid hollowing-out of the regular constituency of the church whilst at the same time seeing sweeping changes in the manner in which the church tried to minister to those members? What was Ramsey's role in the weakening of the legislative traction of the church in public life? What was his role in the widening of the church's global vision and the growing porousness of its borders with other denominations? What was his public profile and how did the nature of the role of archbishop as figurehead change in this period?
Ashgate
Hardback
256
Developments both in scholarship on the period and in British culture more generally have now brought the period of Archbishop Ramsey's tenure at Canterbury into very sharp focus. The intellectual and cultural legacy of the 'long Sixties' has become a prime focus of study amongst historians of religion in Britain. It has been suggested that these years may even come to be regarded as 'marking a rupture as profound as that brought about by the Reformation.' A great deal of contemporary political social and moral criticism enlists one or more narratives of the Sixties in its support.This study of Ramsey is timely. His archiepiscopate from 1961 to 1974 saw profound renegotiations of the relationship of the Church of England with its own flock with the nation more widely with the Anglican church worldwide and with the other Christian churches. This volume as with others in this high profile series draws from unique source material in the Lambeth Palace Library archives and reproduces many original writings of Ramsey for the first time. Webster's study explores a number of key questions. How did Ramsey react to the rapid hollowing-out of the regular constituency of the church whilst at the same time seeing sweeping changes in the manner in which the church tried to minister to those members? What was Ramsey's role in the weakening of the legislative traction of the church in public life? What was his role in the widening of the church's global vision and the growing porousness of its borders with other denominations? What was his public profile and how did the nature of the role of archbishop as figurehead change in this period?