Holiness

A Christian theology of holiness is an exercise of holy reason; it has its context and its content in the revelatory presence of the Holy Trinity which is set forth in Holy Scripture; it is a venture undertaken in prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit; it is an exercise in the fellowship of the saints, serving the confession of the holy people of God; it is a work in which holiness is perfected in the fear of God; and its end is the sanctifying of God's holy name.' So begins John Webster's masterful account of holiness. Webster is already well-known as one of Britain's finest systematic theologians and teachers of dogmatics, and his many admirers will be delighted by this uncompromising and thoroughgoing trinitarian theology of holiness, which is accessible to a wide range of audiences, including ordinands, students of theology, and interested laypeople. The book - which is based on the prestigious Day-Higginbotham lectures delivered in the University of Toronto in 2002 - offers a succinct account of a central and neglected theme in Christian teaching and practice. Webster's 'theological essay on holiness" (p.1) is a concentrated recollection of the reformers' fundamental theological insights of in the contemporary horizon of a challenged church. His plea for holiness is well based in that fundament of the church which cannot be disturbed by its current failures or decreasing acceptance. And this makes the essay a strong and strenghtening theological plea." Michael Weinrich, Freie Universitat Berlin, Scottish Journal of Theology, Volume 58/3, 2005.