In this essay, I explore two main areas of Rowan Williams’ theology of revelation. The former is his reflections on the silence of God – God’s reticence to clarify himself to us amid our theological and spiritual confusion. I argue that he is not denying that God has genuinely revealed himself to us, but rather Williams is grappling with – and exhorting us to grapple with – the limits of that revelation. The second area I explore is his theory of revelation as generative phenomena, and how his theory underwrites his understanding of church tradition and, mainly, scripture. Williams argues that there is a division within scripture between the parts containing true divine revelation and the parts containing humanity’s broken response to that revelation. I argue that this view, while it is very well formulated and has some merits, cannot surmount the epistemological obstacle of how biased and interested humans can adequately differentiate between these parts within scripture.

Contemporary studies of Anglican biblical interpretation in the nineteenth century are scant. Those that do exist tend to paint the biblical interpretation of the period as unidimensional and flat. This paper highlights diverse ways the Bible was interpreted by Anglicans in the nineteenth century by looking at the writings of Charles Simeon, Benjamin Jowett, and Christina Rossetti. Each has interesting and distinct ways of approaching the Bible. The paper analyzes their interpretive practices before tracing them to the present and drawing out significant historical themes in each.

In October 2022 the Church of England commissioned an examination of the impact of the debate on same-sex blessing and same-sex marriage within other Anglican Churches. The examination involved a literature search, an original survey among key informers and a general internet search. This paper draws on the general internet search to contrast the impacts in New Zealand and Australia. Drawing on Jungian psychological type theory, this analysis employs the contrasting decision-making functions of feeling (concerned with subjective interpersonal values) and thinking (concerned with objective logical analysis). The data suggest that the feeling approach dominant in New Zealand, which prioritized offering space and time for those of differing opinions to meet together, reported more positive outcomes than the thinking approach dominant in Australia, which gave greater priority to adversarial debate.

Examining intercession and anamnesis in the Anglican Eucharist first, a theology of the world in which its brokenness as embraced by the compassion of Christ, is seen to undergird intercession, whereby a ‘natural’ link is found with the anamnesis. Turning to the historical background of relationship between these two topics – in the Early Church, noted are two particular forms as recorded by Justin Martyr and Cyril of Jerusalem; in the English Reformation, it is seen that intercession was maintained as a part of the canon (and therefore had some connection with the anamnesis), and then, the modern period displays a departure in Anglican provinces from the Reformation order with only a loose principle, or none, maintained in its position between Word and Sacrament. The retrieval of Christ overcoming the powers of evil in his redemptive work, as recorded in Hippolytus’ liturgical form, has made its way into the modern liturgy, providing implications for the connection between anamnesis and intercession. The liturgiology of the Orthodox Church strengthens the theme. Present concerns regarding the Anglican practice of Eucharistic intercession are raised and improvements are suggested. It is concluded that, theologically, intercession and anamnesis hold an intimate connection in the Eucharist.