Holy Orders and Completeness of the Church

Book excerpt: In Holy Orders and Completeness of The Church the author seeks to describe the pattern of Holy Orders. He also uses sound ecclesiology to ask how bishops, priests and deacons ought to be related to one another and to the order of 'unordained' Christians. Sources from diverse backgrounds are used throughout, often accompanied by translations from their original languages. In Holy Orders and Completeness of The Church the author does not examine in detail texts from the New Testament. Instead he concentrates on texts written roughly between the end of the first century and the end of the fourth - the formative period of development for early Christianity. In this excellently researched work, the author's expert opinion is presented in a well-constructed and extremely clear manner, making the text accessible to both academics of theology and those with less knowledge in the subject. The author closes the book by summing up his arguments and providing some views on the way ahead for the Church. He also presents his views on areas beyond the Local Church, with particular emphasis on Rome and the papacy.Fully indexed and with a comprehensive Select Bibliography, this book will prove to be of great value to the interested reader and researcher alike.