The Ecclesial Canopy

'In this third book of his trilogy on ecclesiology Martyn Percy unfolds a vision for the church. Percy's well known gifts as theologian and writer shine through the lively and insightful theological sketches in this volume. The author speaks of a living, breathing church with remarkable capacities for renewing social life. The result is an imaginative, attractive and engaging spirituality of the church in contemporary culture. Faith, hope and charity emerge as key marks of an ecclesial canopy. The book is an engaging, wise and stimulating commentary on the persistence of religion in western society.' The Rt. Rev'd Dr Stephen Pickard, Director Oxford Centre for Ecclesiology and Practical Theology, Ripon Theological College Cuddesdon, Oxford ’The ebb-tide of secularization has left many stranded with a sense of something, including some visible church practices and presences, missing. Canon Martyn Percy sets forth an original, pastorally-inflected theological reflection inspired by Daniel Wayne Hardy and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Percy surveys the utilities, benefits, and socially constitutive meanings of Christianity in light of social science yet within a larger focus on God above all things and accessible in all things. Christians in all traditions will appreciate an Anglican cultural analysis not cast in iron-clad categories of culture war polemics. In proposing ecclesial spirituality and ecclesial intelligence, Percy steers readers away from the conventional ease of spirituality without religion and believing without belonging and in line with the Incarnation he underlines the importance of concreteness not only in the humanity of Jesus but in visible presences of Jesus’ very human churches. Percy spices clear, readable theology with wry humour even when dealing with the plague of consumerism, with sin and society, with the challenge of public truth in pluralist societies, and with hope for ecclesial praxis animated by charity.’ R