A chance meeting with Bishop Anthony, late of Dorchester and now of Ely, led to a discussion about Martyn Percy’s new book. Bishop Anthony was delighted that now, so many years after the publication of his own ‘The Clerical Profession’ there was a worthy successor to continue a dialogue between theology, the practice of ministry and the insights of sociology.
Martyn Percy’s book ‘Clergy: the origin of species’ is a delightful, provocative, interesting and a very informative book about clergy and how their role has changed over the years and how they perceive themselves today. It is crammed with careful reviews of other people’s thoughts, and illuminating stories from the past with all sorts of reality checks.
At the heart of the book is an enquiry into how God calls people into ministry and how response to that divine call is shaped over and over again by circumstance and social and political contexts. Martyn Percy is a teacher at heart, and this book is packed with easy to read and hugely informative snippets of history, theology and theory.
The interplay between revelation and how revealed truth is incarnated in historical place and time is a constant theme of this book, and is illuminated by mirroring with the clashes between creationism and evolution.
In his final chapter and coda Martyn Percy offers not just history and theology, but also carefully considered and wise understanding of the way in which the Church and its ministers are making sense of this endless dance between Revelation and the demands to interpret the truths of God in each new place and time. Personal stories of ministry and the way in which ministry is so often shaped in the early days by pastoral encounters and experience bring this book to life and it is a book well worth reading, enjoying and pondering over.
Keith Lamdin is director of Stewardship, Training, Evangelism and Ministry
Continuum publishing
£15.99
