Paul S. Fiddes

Giles Questing, an undergraduate student at the University of Oxford, finds his life taking an unexpected turn after the suspicious death of a PhD student, a death the police believe to be suicide. He determines to solve the mystery by following a trail of artworks that depict a unicorn. Travelling to museums and galleries, he gradually discovers the truth about whether the student has taken his own life or been murdered, and who – if anyone – is guilty. His quest immerses him in the world of the unicorn in medieval and Renaissance art, and introduces him to the present-day obsession with the unicorn in the media, advertising, and social networks. All this enables him to crack the code of the unicorn that has been buried in the tradition of the Christian church for many years, and to answer the questions he has about a death that deeply affects him personally and that finally threatens his own life.

A Novel of Mystery and Ideas

A Unicorn Dies

In this collection of essays, which considers the relationship between the novel and spirituality in the cultural setting of the present day, eight novelists draw upon their own experience of authorship.

Eight Novelists Write about Their Craft and Their Context

The Novel, Spirituality and Modern Culture

This study of the literary relationship between Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis during the years 1936-1945 focuses on the theme of 'co-inherence' at the centre of their friendship. The idea of 'co-inherence' has long been recognized as an important contribution of Williams to theology, and had significant influence on the thought of Lewis. This account of the two writers' conviction that human persons 'inhere' or 'dwell' both in each other and in the triune God reveals many inter-relationships between their writings that would otherwise be missed. It also shows up profound differences between their world-views, and a gradual, though incomplete, convergence onto common ground. Exploring the idea of co-inherence throws light on the fictional worlds they created, as well as on their treatment (whether together or separately) of a wide range of theological and literary subjects: the Arthurian tradition, the poetry of William Blake and Thomas Traherne, the theology of Karl Barth, the nature of human and divine love, and the doctrine of the Trinity. This study draws for the first time on transcriptions of Williams' lectures from 1932 to 1939, tracing more clearly the development and use of the idea of co-inherence in his thought than has been possible before. Finally, an account of the use of the word 'co-inherence' in English-speaking theology suggests that the differences that existed between Lewis and Williams, especially on the place of analogy and participation in human experience of God, might be resolved by a theology of co-inherence in the Trinity.

Friends in Co-inherence

Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis

This book explores the way in which the study and practice of love creates a common ground for different faiths and different traditions within the same faith. For the contributors, “common ground” in this context is not a minimal core of belief or a lowest common denominator of faith, but a space or area in which to live together, consider together the meaning of the love to which various faiths witness, and work together to enable human flourishing. Such a space, the contributors believe, is possible because it is the place of encounter with the divine. This book is the fruit of a Project for the Study of Love in Religion which aims to create this space in which different traditions of love converge, from Islam, Judaism, and the Christianity of both East and West. Tools employed by the contributors in exploring this space of love include exegesis of ancient texts, theology, accounts of mystical experience, philosophy, and evolutionary science of the human. Insights about human and divine love that emerge include its nature as a form of knowing, its sacrificial and erotic dimensions, its inclination towards beauty, its making of community and its importance for a just political and economic life.

Essays on Love in Religion

Love as Common Ground

This creates a Christian theology of wisdom for the present day, in discussion with two sets of conversation-partners: The writers of the 'wisdom literature' in ancient Israel and the Jewish community in Alexandria; and the philosophers and thinkers of the late-modern age, among them Derrida, Levinas, Kristeva, Ricoeur, and Arendt.

Hebrew Wisdom and Christian Doctrine in a Late-Modern Context

Seeing the World and Knowing God

A Dialogue Between Literature and Christian Doctrine

Freedom and Limit

How can an event that has taken place in the past have an effect upon the human experience of salvation in the present? In examining one of the essential questions of the Christian faith, Paul S. Fiddes explores the limits as well as the gains to be made in speaking about crucifixion as a historical event, and considers the relationship of the crucifixion to the continuing process of God's saving activity. He considers the relevance of a past act of atonement to such areas of practical experience as forgiveness, liberation, and suffering.

The Christian Idea of Atonement

Past Event and Present Salvation

This is a comprehensive, yet unusual, book on the faith and life of Baptist Christians. It explores a Baptist understanding of the church, ministry, sacraments, and mission from a thoroughly theological perspective. In a series of interlinked essays, the author relates Baptist identity to a theology of covenant, and to participation in the communion of the triune God. The book thus surveys the tracks of heritage, giving a solid historical background to each of the major themes, while at the same time offering traces of possible paths for the future, based on a tracing out of a vision of God.

Baptist Identity in Church and Theology

Tracks and Traces

The 'others' examined by Fiddes are mainly those with whom Murdoch entered into explicit dialogue in her novels and philosophical writing - including Immanuel Kant, Simone Weil, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Rudolph Bultmann, Paul Tillich, Don Cupitt, Donald Mackinnon and Jacques Derrida. This 'historic' dialogue is, however, placed within a wider dialogue between literature and theology being conducted by the author, and 'others' are brought into relation with Murdoch in order to illuminate this more extensive conversation - notably the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins and the feminist philosopher Julia Kristeva. The book demonstrates that characteristic themes in Murdoch's novels and philosophy - the love of the Good, the death of the ego, illusory consolations, the death of God, the modifying of the will by 'waiting', the sublime and the beautiful, and attention to other things and persons - all take on a greater meaning when placed in the context of her life-long conversation with theology. The exploration of this context is deepened in this volume by reference to annotations and notes that Murdoch made in a number of theological books in her personal library.

A Writer in Dialogue with Theology

Iris Murdoch and the Others

This book explores the way that the study of love creates a "common ground" in religion. For the contributors, common ground is not to be understood as a minimal core of belief, but as a space which scholars from Islam, Judaism, and Christianity occupy in order to consider together the meaning and practice of love.

Günter Bader

Paul's statement that 'letter kills but the spirit gives life' [2 Corinthians 3.6] has had an extraordinary impact on Christian thought through the ages. It has been read both as affirming the saving power of the new covenant in comparison to the old, and as a key to hidden, spiritual meanings in the text of scripture. It is, however, an ambiguous phrase, followed by a tangled story. This book explores the Pauline distinction both in its original context and in its aftermath in the early church, the Reformation and modern Biblical Studies. It then considers a postmodern reversal, where ideas of 'Spirit' are often seen as 'deadly' and the openness of the 'letter' or text as life-affirming, and draws conclusions for Spirit in the world.

Paul S. Fiddes

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