ABSTRACT

This title was first published in 2002.Christian Language in the Secular City offers a series of meditations by the internationally renowned sociologist, David Martin. Martin presents a distinctive angle of vision on key issues of Christian faith, dividing the book into three clear sections: the Liturgical Year; the Christian agenda, including prophecy, justification, sacred places and spaces, wisdom, providence, peace and war, angelic and demonic; and Emergent Occasions such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 900th anniversary of Winchester Cathedral, commemoration of poets and of martyrs, and more. With its uniquely lyrical presentation, David Martin's book transposes central issues of theology and Christian faith into a new key. This work complements David Martin's theoretical book focusing on Christian Language and its Mutations, published in Ashgate's Religion and Theology in Interdisciplinary Perspective series. David Martin is Honorary Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, UK. He is the author of some two dozen books, including Divinity in a Grain of Bread, and many landmark titles in the sociology of religion.

chapter |10 pages

The Language of Christianity

Story, Body and Sign

part I|66 pages

Christian Alignments in Liturgical Sequence

chapter |4 pages

Advent I

In the Beginning – Creation and Redemption

chapter |2 pages

Advent II

High Time

chapter |4 pages

Advent III

O Sapientia

chapter |2 pages

Advent IV

A Word in Time

chapter |2 pages

Epiphany

A Showing to Visitors

chapter |2 pages

After Epiphany

Incubations of Hope

chapter |4 pages

Purification

Biological and Spiritual Birth

chapter |4 pages

Sexagesima

From Lakeside to City

chapter |4 pages

Quinquagesima

Love and Hell’s Dis-ease

chapter |4 pages

Lent and Ash Wednesday

Fallen Faces and Restored Faces

chapter |4 pages

The Vigil of Holy Saturday

Violence and Peace

chapter |4 pages

Resurrection

Singing and the Kingdom

chapter |4 pages

Easter

The Living Vine

chapter |4 pages

Easter

The New Name

chapter |4 pages

Ascension-Pentecost

chapter |2 pages

The Transfiguration

The Restored Face

chapter |4 pages

All Saints’ Day

Heroes and Martyrs

part II|76 pages

Faith’s Repertoire

chapter |2 pages

Faith’s Repertoire

chapter |4 pages

True Comforts

chapter |4 pages

Loss and Realization of Life

chapter |2 pages

The Prophetic

Antepast and Foretaste

chapter |2 pages

Kinds of Discovery

chapter |4 pages

Justification of Fallen Creatures

chapter |4 pages

On Faith and Being Made Whole

chapter |2 pages

Duty and Divine Charity

chapter |2 pages

Holy Hospitality

chapter |2 pages

Holy Ground and Violation

chapter |4 pages

Enshrining

chapter |2 pages

Denying the Temple?

chapter |2 pages

Vision and Intimation

chapter |2 pages

Peace and Unity

chapter |2 pages

Murder and Blood Brotherhood

chapter |4 pages

Angelic and Demonic 1

chapter |4 pages

The Venom and Wisdom of Serpents

chapter |2 pages

The Family Resemblances of Wisdom

chapter |4 pages

Conversing with God

chapter |4 pages

Divine Providence

chapter |2 pages

Infection and Re-creation

chapter |2 pages

The Imageless and the Human Face of God

chapter |4 pages

Good Things

chapter |4 pages

Bedevilment and Delivery

chapter |2 pages

Descending and Ascending

A Homily

chapter |2 pages

Signs of New Creation

part III|53 pages

Emergent Occasions

chapter |2 pages

Emergent Occasions

Celebration and Mourning in Sacred Spaces

chapter |4 pages

Commemoration of Martyrs 1

chapter |4 pages

Commemoration of Tyndale’s Birth

1494-1536

chapter |4 pages

Rededication of the House

St Peter’s, Old Woking, 1995

chapter |4 pages

Sacred Place and Secular Government 1

900th Anniversary, Winchester Cathedral, 1993

chapter |4 pages

Remembrance of Things Past

Guildford Cathedral, November 1989

chapter |4 pages

War, Peace and Remembrance

ad 2000

chapter |4 pages

The Meaning of a Cathedral

Guildford, 1993

chapter |4 pages

In Honour of St Cecilia

St Michael’s, Cornhill

chapter |4 pages

Surprised by Joy

The Refreshment of Music

chapter |4 pages

Holy Matrimony I

chapter |4 pages

Holy Matrimony II

chapter |4 pages

Commemoration

Donald Davie

chapter |1 pages

Identification of Quotations