
Discovering Christianity
A Guide for the Curious
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Narrated by:
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Rowan Williams
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By:
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Rowan Williams
About this listen
'Rowan Williams offers a typically intelligent, attractive, and beguiling picture of what it means to be a Christian... When I read Williams I feel something coming to birth inside me, whispers from a shore I want to set out for.'
Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark Cathedral, London
Internationally acclaimed theologian Rowan Williams invites you to explore with him the vital questions that go right to the heart of Christianity:
How does Jesus reveal God?
Who or what is the Holy Spirit?
Why do Christians treasure the Bible?
What's the point of theology?
Rowan Williams' guide to the essentials of the faith will get you thinking about God in fresh and exciting ways. It will help you to grasp the way in which the best Christian theology is arrived at through the creative interplay of scripture, tradition and reason. And it will help you develop a broader and deeper appreciation of the positive difference Christianity continues to make in the world today.
Brief, engaging and profoundly simple, this book takes you to the heart of what Christianity is all about, offering food for thought for a lifetime.
©2025 Rowan Williams (P)2025 SPCK PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
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Discussions of the Bible and human sexuality often focus on a scattered handful of specific passages. But arguments about this same set of verses have reached an impasse, two leading biblical scholars believe; these debates are missing the forest for the trees. In this learned and beautifully written book, Richard and Christopher Hays explore a more expansive way of listening to the overarching story that scripture tells. They remind us of a dynamic and gracious God who is willing to change his mind, consistently broadening his grace to include more and more people.
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The Eastern Christian tradition is filled with theological and spiritual riches. In Passions of the Soul, Rowan Williams opens up the great classics of Eastern Christian writing to show how it can help us to understand and cope with the ups and downs of modern life. With compelling and illuminating insight, he shows the cost of living in a culture that is theologically and philosophically undernourished, working with a diminished and trivialized picture of the human self.
-
-
Thoughtful and readable
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By: The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Lord Williams of Oystermouth Rowan Williams
-
The Tears of Things
- Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage
- By: Richard Rohr
- Narrated by: Drew Jackson
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his first major work since The Universal Christ, one of our most prominent spiritual voices offers a wholehearted and hope-filled model for the world today, grounded in the timeless wisdom of the Hebrew prophets. How do we live compassionately in a time of violence and despair? What can we do with our private disappointments and the anger we feel in such an unjust world? In his most personal book yet, Richard Rohr turns to the writings of the Jewish prophets, revealing how some of the lesser-read books of the Bible offer us a crucial path forward today.
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The Abolition of Man
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- Length: 1 hr and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Both astonishing and prophetic, The Abolition of Man remains one of C. S. Lewis's most controversial works. Lewis sets out to persuade his audience of the ongoing importance and relevance of universal objective values, such as courage and honor, and the foundational necessity of natural law. He also makes a cogent case that a retreat from these pillars of our educational system, even if in the name of "scientism", would be catastrophic. National Review lists it as number seven on their "100 Best Nonfiction Books of the 20th Century".
-
-
Lewis the philosopher, not the theologian
- By Ian McKay on 05-11-17
By: C. S. Lewis
-
The Widening of God's Mercy
- Sexuality Within the Biblical Story
- By: Christopher B. Hays, Richard B. Hays
- Narrated by: Simon Kerr
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discussions of the Bible and human sexuality often focus on a scattered handful of specific passages. But arguments about this same set of verses have reached an impasse, two leading biblical scholars believe; these debates are missing the forest for the trees. In this learned and beautifully written book, Richard and Christopher Hays explore a more expansive way of listening to the overarching story that scripture tells. They remind us of a dynamic and gracious God who is willing to change his mind, consistently broadening his grace to include more and more people.
-
-
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-
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Performance
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Performance
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Typical Williams
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Performance
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The Architecture for All Liberation Theology
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Critic reviews
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Passions of the Soul
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thoughtful take.
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Despite the recent ferocious public debate about belief, the concept most central to the discussion "God" frequently remains vaguely and obscurely described. Are those engaged in these arguments even talking about the same thing? In a wide-ranging response to this confusion, esteemed scholar David Bentley Hart pursues a clarification of how the word "God” functions in the world’s great theistic faiths.
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The clearest thinking I have heard in ages.
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For the Life of the World
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Performance
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The audiobook version of this book on an approach to the world and life within it stems from the liturgical experience of the Orthodox Church. The author understands issues such as secularism and Christian culture from the perspective of the unbroken experience of the Church, as revealed and communicated in her worship, in her liturgy—the sacrament of the world, the sacrament of the Kingdom.
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Path to reverse in Orthodoxy
- By The Angelic Knotter on 03-14-25
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Looking East in Winter
- Contemporary Thought and the Eastern Christian Tradition
- By: Rowan Williams
- Narrated by: Elliot Fitzpatrick
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In many ways, we seem to be living in wintry times at present in the Western world. In this new book, Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and a noted scholar of Eastern Christianity, introduces us to some aspects and personalities of the Orthodox Christian world, from the desert contemplatives of the fourth century to philosophers, novelists and activists of the modern era, that suggest where we might look for fresh light and warmth.
-
-
Beautiful and Rich Exemplification of Eastern Christian thought
- By Ushiwaka on 12-17-23
By: Rowan Williams
-
Passions of the Soul
- By: The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Lord Williams of Oystermouth Rowan Williams
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Eastern Christian tradition is filled with theological and spiritual riches. In Passions of the Soul, Rowan Williams opens up the great classics of Eastern Christian writing to show how it can help us to understand and cope with the ups and downs of modern life. With compelling and illuminating insight, he shows the cost of living in a culture that is theologically and philosophically undernourished, working with a diminished and trivialized picture of the human self.
-
-
Thoughtful and readable
- By rocky500 on 03-10-25
By: The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Lord Williams of Oystermouth Rowan Williams
-
On Augustine
- By: Rowan Williams
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since his retirement as Archbishop of Canterbury and his return to academic life (Master of Magdalene College Cambridge), Rowan Williams has demonstrated a massive new surge of intellectual energy. In this new audiobook, he turns his attention to St Augustine. St Augustine not only shaped the development of Western theology, he also made a major contribution to political theory ( The City of God) and, through his Confessions, to the understanding of human psychology.
-
-
thoughtful take.
- By Michael McGuire on 04-17-22
By: Rowan Williams
-
The Way of St Benedict
- By: Rowan Williams
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bloomsbury presents The Way of St Benedict by Rowan Williams, read by Peter Noble. With typical eloquence and wisdom, in The Way of St Benedict Rowan Williams explores the appeal of St Benedict’s sixth-century Rule, showing it to be a document of great relevance to present day Christians and non-believers at our particular moment in history.
-
-
Typical Williams
- By Vincent schwahn on 05-26-20
By: Rowan Williams
-
The Experience of God
- Being, Consciousness, Bliss
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Tom Pile
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Despite the recent ferocious public debate about belief, the concept most central to the discussion "God" frequently remains vaguely and obscurely described. Are those engaged in these arguments even talking about the same thing? In a wide-ranging response to this confusion, esteemed scholar David Bentley Hart pursues a clarification of how the word "God” functions in the world’s great theistic faiths.
-
-
The clearest thinking I have heard in ages.
- By Carlos Miranda on 06-17-15
-
For the Life of the World
- By: Alexander Schmemann
- Narrated by: Zachariah Mandell
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The audiobook version of this book on an approach to the world and life within it stems from the liturgical experience of the Orthodox Church. The author understands issues such as secularism and Christian culture from the perspective of the unbroken experience of the Church, as revealed and communicated in her worship, in her liturgy—the sacrament of the world, the sacrament of the Kingdom.
-
-
Path to reverse in Orthodoxy
- By The Angelic Knotter on 03-14-25
-
Looking East in Winter
- Contemporary Thought and the Eastern Christian Tradition
- By: Rowan Williams
- Narrated by: Elliot Fitzpatrick
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In many ways, we seem to be living in wintry times at present in the Western world. In this new book, Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and a noted scholar of Eastern Christianity, introduces us to some aspects and personalities of the Orthodox Christian world, from the desert contemplatives of the fourth century to philosophers, novelists and activists of the modern era, that suggest where we might look for fresh light and warmth.
-
-
Beautiful and Rich Exemplification of Eastern Christian thought
- By Ushiwaka on 12-17-23
By: Rowan Williams
What listeners say about Discovering Christianity
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- James Rhodenhiser
- 03-03-25
Profound concise simple and alive. Great interviewer as well.
It ended. Possibly examples from different cultures of what he’s talking about would’ve been enriching.
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