Lost Icons: Reflections on Cultural Bereavement
"The latest installment from perhaps the greatest living Christian theologian; everything he has written is worth reading, twice."David S. Cunningham, Professor of Theology and Ethics, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (David S. Cunningham)"A remarkable addition to his very diverse writings."—Fergus Kerr, The Tablet (Fergus KerrThe American Spectator)"Rowan Williams has written a fascinating book, one that itself shows 'iconic' qualities in helping us to see the enterprise culture of our times and the attitudes it stimulates in a new light."—Bishop Paul Richardson, The Church of England Newspaper (Bishop Paul RichardsonChurch Of England Newspaper)"It is an important book, full of insights, by a shrewd and independent thinker, making contact with the thinking of our secular culture which is criticized in devastating fashion."—Rt. Revd. Hugh Montefiore, Church Times (Rt. Revd. Hugh MontefioreChurch Times)"A thoughtful and passionate book."—Scientific and Medical Network (Scientific and Medical Network)"This remarkable book is a sustained meditation on the confusions and alienations of modern selfhood, the subject of free choice, whose autonomy we most want to protect, and whose control by others we most want to unmask. With deft insight and economy of expression, Williams makes us aware of what it means to be a bodily creature, whose identity is remade in time, and is essentially interwoven with those of others. The self is a perpetual question, whose answer cannot lie simply within; to lose sight of this is to lose touch with the essential anchor points of the human condition, the grounds of spontaneous sociality, the possibility of remorse. The philosophy of the subject, political theory, and the understanding of our secular age, are all subtly shifted onto a new axis by this penetrating and original essay."—Professor Charles Taylor, McGill University (Professor Charles Taylor)"There is nothing remotely sentimental in these clear-sighted, closely argued pages, in which Archbishop Williams pleads, with wisdom, compassion and cool articulate anger, for the recovery of habits of self-understanding in grave danger of becoming unavailable: for childhood, friendship and remorse, as aspects of identity fashioned and discovered over time"—Professor Nicholas Lash, University of Cambridge (Professor Nicholas Lash)"Those who are already familiar with the writings of Rowan Williams will know of his gift of taking the ordinary stuff of human experience and opening it up to show how it can carry us into the mystery of God incarnate. They will not be surprised to discover that in this new book he once again enlightens us."—The Most Revd. Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, USA (The Most Revd. Frank T. Griswold)"Lost Icons is a reading of our culture which will help us to negotiate a way forward that is more deeply appreciative of those iconic resources which are intrinsic to human welfare and sense. It is especially thought provoking for those who are aware that the vicissitudes of culture are related to and must be understood in terms of presuppositions, beliefs, and losses of belief which lie, often unrecognized, deep below the surface."—Murray Rae, author of The Gospel and Our Culture (Murray Rae)"In this profound book, Rowan Williams offers one of the finest and most penetrating critiques of contemporary culture I have read. Doing justice to a work of this magnitude is impossible- it is a book that needs to be digested at length."—Mark D. Chapman, author of Modern Believing (Mark D. Chapman)"This gifted master of contemporary Christian thought has succeeded in drawing his wide audience into a deeper understanding of the society in which it lives."—Linsi Simmons, Bible Society, Transmission (Linsi Simmons)"Anthony Giddens, for one, has argued that in the technocratic and managerial societies of the North Atlantic, intimate relations are increasingly mediated by “talk”. Couples can live apart, at either end of the country, on either side of the ocean, but they meet in the ether , in the digital communication of their mobile phones. Yet at the same time as talk increases, the ability to speak and listen, to reciprocate the venture of vulnerability, recedes. The more we talk, the less we have to say. The paradox is neatly caught in British Telecom’s promotional lessons in conversation; primers for Babel. But, alarmingly, this failure in conversation concerns not only the personal, but the public life of the Western democracies, and is especially evident in the baying of the British House of commons. It is the loss and possibility of responsible conversation, in public and personal life, that is the concern of Rowan William’s Lost Icons: Reflection on Cultural Bereavement"—Times Literary Supplement (Times Literary Supplement)"It is impossible to do justice to the complexity and richness of this discussion within the limited space available here...Williams’ discussion of the ramifications of all this, including his perceptive comments on the modern concept of ‘choice’ in education, strikes me as extraordinarily important and should be read by Christian teachers and educationalists- not to mention parents. Subsequent explorations of the loss of sense of ‘charity’, of the difficulties of expressing remorse and finally of what theology intends by talking of the human ‘soul’ are stimulating and filled with fresh and thought-provoking insights."—David Smith, Themilios 26.2 (Spring 2001) (David SmithThemelios)"This timely book by a master of Christian thought sketches out a renewed language for the soul."—New Life: The Prison Service Chaplaincy Review 2001 (New Life :Prison Service Chaplaincy Review)"How rare it is to find someone who, simultaneously, is thoughtfully and constructively involved both with the main teachings of Christian theology and also with contemporary culture, politics, education, and spirituality. This is a rich book, densely woven around themes that constantly provoke questioning of oneself and one’s culture. By the end one has been led through a series of profound engagements that shed light on fundamental aspects of oneself and one’s culture."—David F. Ford, Theology Today, January 2002 (David F. FordTheology Today)"If there is any particular merit to the arguments about a lost (or missing) sense of self and of collective purpose in the culture, they could find no better spokesperson than Rowan Williams. Archbishop Williams's enlargements on themes of childhood and choice, charity, remorse, and the loss of soul are brilliantly articulated and show a more than passing familiarity with cultural, political, literary (including fantasy), and philosophical trends, as well as being awake to the tradition that questions the world's easy complicity with these losses. The book's chief merit, however, lies in the excavation of the self that is lost or missing.""This is a gem of a book but by no means an easy read.""But these essays are the musings of a mind that is none of the most theologically erudite occupants of the throne of Canterbury since Anselm. Their reward lies not just in stretching the intellect but also in their invitation to enlargement of soul, recognizing that which, as Williams says in another context, 'is given to us to become givers'."—James Goodmann for Sewanee Theological Review, Christmas 2004"Lost Icons is a sobering inquiry into the structures that support (or fail to support) the development of authentic selfhood and the mainenance of a just society..Lost Icons is a probing cultural analysis, with hints that one of the deep impulses of the essay is to fundamental theology, drawing as it does upon the methods and resources of sociology, antroplogy, history, media studies, psychology, political science, philosophy, literary theory, and theology. This book ought to be read by anyone interested in the breadth and depth of the intellectual life of the Archbishop of Canterbury; it deserves the srious attention of anyone who thinks critically about the construction of (post) modern selfhood; and it holds intriguing possibilities for those who study the church's mission in contemporary North Atlantic societies, since Williams contends that the church's tradition contains resources capable of addressing many of the problems he identifies in these societies."—Derek N. Anderson, Loyola University Chicago, Illinois, for Anglican Theological Review (Derek N. Anderson)“If there is any particular merit to the arguments about a lost (or missing) sense of self and of collective purpose in the culture, they could find no better spokesperson than Rowan Williams. Archbishop Williams’s enlargements on themes of childhood and choice, charity, remorse, and the loss of soul are brilliantly articulated and show more than passing familiarity with cultural, political, literary (including fantasy), and philosophical trends, as well as being awake to the tradition that questions the world’s easy complicity with these losses. The book’s chief merit, however, lies in the excavation of the self that is lost or missing.” —Sewanee Theological Review