Christian Priest Today Book

Of all the late Michael Ramsey's many books, The Christian Priest Today is perhaps the best loved and most enduring. In this new edition, the central part remains unaltered and is composed of charges to ordination candidates, with an emphasis on the intellectual and devotional life of the minister in an increasingly self-sufficient world. The first chapter has been rewritten and two new chapters added to incorporate recent alterations in the life of the Church: the ministry of the laity, the theology of priesthood, and the roles of bishop and presbyter in the context of the practical meaning of divine vocation.

The Right Reverend and Right Honorable Arthur Michael Ramsey (1904-1988) was the 100th archbishop of Canterbury. Educated at Repton School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, he trained at Cuddesdon College Oxford and was ordained Deacon in 1928 and Priest a year later in 1929. He also served as Archbishop of York and Bishop of Durham and was a leading ecumenical churchman and a president of the World Council of Churches. Ramsey was Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University and an influential Anglican theologian. Among his many published books are The Glory of God and the Transfiguration of Christ (1949); F. D. Maurice and the Conflicts of Modern Theology (1951); with Cardinal Suenans, The Future of the Christian Church (1971); and Be Still and Know (1982).

Ramsey offers pastors--both the seasoned and the newly ordained in any Christian tradition--advice on how to lead and serve a Christian community of faith today, including how to guide the congregation's prayer life, how to strike a balanced relationship between politics and social justice, and how to perform the role of spiritual leader with the proper humility of a servant minister.