God Curious: Exploring Eternal Questions
Stephen Cherry
JKP 2017
Over 30 years ago I trained for Ministry alongside Stephen at Westcott House in Cambridge. There were three particular things that I remember about Stephen. The first was his reflective intelligence. The second was his readiness always to look beyond the immediate into a broader and wider horizon. The third was his ability as a wordsmith and poet.
Now the Dean of King’s College Cambridge he brings these gifts to bear upon theology and offers us an exploration of the history, shape and relevance of this discipline for our understanding of the world, God and human flourishing. I promise you that these pages will stimulate, irritate and enlarge your thinking. Stephen asks us to go beyond the surface of the soundbite, the sentimental and even trivial world of religious narrative into a compelling and adventurous exploration of religious truth. He shows us in these 10 short chapters what imagination, religious literacy and enthusiasm for God might look like.
Theology is a subject for study in higher education continues to diminish and change much as classics did over the last couple of decades. What we need to do is to recapture commitment and energy for a subject that might equip us to move beyond reductionism and fundamentalism into a way of knowing that enables us to understand and interpret the world. To do this Stephen demonstrates how the Christian tradition can be put to work in a way which is both serious and enjoyable.
Congratulations to Jessica Kingsley for publishing this book and at a reasonable price. I already have a list of people who will receive a copy in due course.
James Woodward
Sarum College