The book explores those aspects of Donald MacKinnon's theological writings which challenge the claim of the liberal Catholic tradition in the Church of England to have forged an ecclesiological consensus, namely that the Church is the extension of the incarnation. MacKinnon destabilized this claim by exposing the wide gulf between theory and practice in that church, especially in his own Anglo-Catholic tradition within it. For him the collapse of Christendom is the occasion for a dialectical reconstruction of the relation of the Church to Jesus Christ and to the world on the basis of the gospel. His basic claim is that authentic ecclesial existence must correspond with what was revealed and effected by Jesus along his way from Galilee to Jerusalem to Galilee. Reflection on the Church thus takes the form of a lived response shaped by a Christocentric grammar of faith: the submission of the church to Jesus' contemporaneous interrogation, a sustained attentiveness to him and the willing embrace of his 'hour'.

Timothy Connor shows how Donald MacKinnon's extension concept of kenosis to the doctrine of the Church offers a critical corrective to ecclesiological triumphalism.

About the Author
Timothy Connor is an Archdeacon in the Diocese of Huron and Rector of St. George's Anglican Church, London ON, Canada. He is also adjunct Lecturer of Systematic Theology at Wycliffe College, Ontario.

Reviews
Donald Mackinnon's theology defies easy stereotyping. He was an Anglo-Catholic who summoned the church to humility, a student of Barth and yet no "Barthian," a philosopher's philosopher marked by penetrating insight into the Christian gospel. In this remarkable study, Timothy Connor shows how all these lines converge in Mackinnon's reflections on the self-emptying of the Crucified. A beautiful and engaging work of scholarship. -- Joseph Mangina, Professor of Theology, Wycliffe College, Canada
Donald MacKinnon was a unique and uniquely unsettling gift of modern Anglicanism to the church catholic. Connor's timely study of his complex theological achievement is both comprehensive and lucid. Setting MacKinnon firmly in the context of the travails of 20th-century Anglican ecclesiology, Connor insightfully discerns and displays the central theme-namely, that genuine understanding the church's identity and realising its vocation in the world can only come through a converting confrontation with the self-emptying God of the gospel amidst the ambiguities of our existence. We are most serious about the church, MacKinnon reminds us, when we have ears and eyes only for that 'irruptive and disruptive activity' that was God's coming in Christ and follow it, in both life and thought, where it leads. Contemporary Christian theology has much still to learn from Mackinnon, and we can hope that Connor's masterful exposition of his work wins the wide readership it deserves. -- Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen, UK
Donald MacKinnon - brilliant, eccentric and hugely influential in the lives of his best students (including the present Archbishop of Canterbury) - is one of the unsung heroes of twentieth century Anglican theology. Tim Connor's fine study of MacKinnon's ecclesiology is therefore a welcome new resource. Rising above what George Steiner once called the "flatlands of current Anglican discourse," it shows MacKinnon to rank among the most profound theologians of his day. This is an important book that one could wish every Anglican church leader to read, and an essential book for the study of modern British theology generally. -- Gary D. Badcock, Peache Professor of Divinity, Huron University College, Canada



Book Information
ISBN 9780567128492
Author Dr Timothy G. Connor
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint T.& T.Clark Ltd
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 363g