The Ecclesial Body's Grace: Obedience and Faithfulness in Rowan Williams' Ecclesiology

Abstract

AbstractIn his 1989 lecture, 'The Body's Grace', Rowan Williams describes sexual relationships as capable of playing a role in the communication and learning of the gospel. I argue that the lecture gives the church a threefold task in relation to such relationships: to call them to loving mutuality, to faithfulness, and to faith. The same pattern characterises Williams' ecclesiology, and helps make sense of many of his public statements about recent Anglican controversies: as Archbishop of Canterbury he sees himself as tasked with issuing the same threefold call to the participants in ecclesial arguments about obedience.