The outstanding British religious leader of this century (1881-1944) became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1942. His career as the last great defender of the welfare-oriented Church of England is all the more significant at a time when the British Welfare State's survival is in jeopardy.

In periods of recession, churches frequently respond to social need in practical ways. These responses are often driven by pastoral concern rather than a theology of church and society. But without theological roots, such social action can be vulnerable and episodic. This volume, commissioned by a group of Bishops in hard-hit dioceses, looks to develop strong theological foundations for local social action initiatives by churches, especially for activists who are not familiar with the Church of England’s tradition of social theology, developed by William Temple and others a century ago. In exploring what a renewed Anglican social theology might look like, this also draws on the impact of Catholic Social Teaching and focuses on the core topics of multiculturalism, economics, family patterns, ecology and other key issues.

Leadership is a growing preoccupation of the contemporary church, but for some of the most inspiring examples of good leadership we need to go back, not forwards. Archbishop William Temple is widely regarded as one of the most influential church leaders of the twentieth century. In this book Stephen Spencer unpacks Archbishop Temple’s life and legacy, and the ways in which his leadership transformed society in remarkable ways. From education to politics, and from spiritual direction to leading the church through national crisis, this book draws on Temple’s biography to offer a unique and profound portrait of the kind of servant leadership the church needs today.

In this volume of The New Church’s Teaching Series, Harold T. Lewis surveys the teachings and witness of Anglicanism and the Episcopal Church concerning the Christian vision of a righteous social order, including the challenges of the new millennium. Beginning with the Bible’s understandings of social justice, Lewis summarizes the Anglican witness of theologians like F. D. Maurice and William Temple and goes on to discuss the Episcopal Church in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Later chapters discuss the challenges of a new social order that face the church today raised by liberation theology, third-world debt and economic justice, and questions of race, gender, and human sexuality. As with each book in The New Church’s Teaching Series, recommended resources for further reading and questions for discussion are included.

Robin Gill's Textbook of Christian Ethics has been a popular course book with students and lecturers for over 20 years. Now in its third edition this classic textbook has been completely revised to bring it up to date with recent developments in the field of Christian Ethics. All the popular features of the previous editions have been retained in this new edition. The book's main strength has always been its layout and structure. Integrating primary texts with explanatory material from the author, the book provides the student with a reader and textbook combined. The new edition focuses more strongly on current debates in all sections and expands on a variety of topics, with contributions on natural law approaches, virtue ethics in a pluralistic/postmodern world, the influential notion of the 'common good', just war theory, genetics and biotechnology, euthanasia and global justice, and sex and gender issues. Important modern contributions to Christian ethics are set out alongside classical texts from Augustine, Aquinas and Luther. The modern writers range from thinkers such as Niebuhr, Barth and Bonhoeffer to recent liberation and Third World theologians. Each series of texts is systematically analysed. The differing ethical positions and arguments are examined together with the social and historical factors which shaped them.