Ann Loades

Ann Loades has been instrumental in bringing forward for the attention of readers in later generations “voices from the past,” notably highlighting the work of pioneering women such as Evelyn Underhill and Dorothy L. Sayers as well as advancing the study of better-known Anglican forebears C. S. Lewis and Austin Farrer—always with her own distinctive concerns. A key interpreter of the Anglican tradition and with a keen eye to ensure the full recognition of women, these studies by Ann Loades are essential reading in Anglican, feminist, and twentieth-century theology.

Reflecting on the particular challenges facing a schoolgirl of the 1950s attracted to the possibility of going to university to read Theology, and her path to becoming the first woman to be given a CBE for services to Theology, Ann Loades introduces some of the key tenets of her theological thinking.

Mary, Mother of Jesus, has been the focus of much piety and theology down the centuries, and whatever it is she represents has been and remains central to the vitality of Christianity in many parts of the world. Grace is Not Faceless collects the essential writings and addresses on Mary by Ann Loades, one of the most important contributors to contemporary feminist Marian theology, especially from an Anglican perspective. Including both rare and original material spanning more than thirty years, this volume traces the trajectories of Loades’ distinctive writings on Mary; for example, her emphasis on Mary in the arts, her attention to the iconology of the Rabbula Gospels, and the key she finds to approaching the Mother of Jesus in Cornelius Ernst’s memorable phrase ’grace is not faceless’. It is prefaced with a substantial introduction by Stephen Burns, providing significant context both for the chapters and the wider work of Ann Loades herself.

Ann Loades is one of the most significant figures in contemporary theology, becoming the first female President of the Society for the Study of Theology and one of only two people ever to be awarded a CBE for services to theology. Grace and Glory in One Another’s Faces is a collection of her best sermons given in cathedrals, college chapels, parish churches and ecumenical contexts around the UK and abroad. Many engage the lectionary readings for Sundays in the Christian year, exploring the seasons as well as the texts set before the church. Others make accessible the legacy of figures from different eras: Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, Martin Luther and John Wycliffe through to influential twentieth-century Christians. There is a leaning to influential women in Christian history, thus introducing readers not only to engagements with scripture but reformers of Christian worship, of social practice, and of patterns and possibilities for Christian discipleship. Also included are two essays that illumine Ann’s sacramental understanding of worship and preaching.

The sacrament par excellence, the Eucharist, has been upheld as the foundational sacrament of Christ's Body called Church, yet it has confounded Christian thinking and practice throughout history. Its symbolism points to the paradox of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of God in Jesus of Nazareth, which St. Paul describes as a stumbling-block (skandalon). Yet the scandal of sacramentality, not only illustrated by but enacted in the Eucharist, has not been sufficiently accounted for in the ecclesiologies and sacramental theologies of the Christian tradition. Despite what appears to be an increasingly post-ecclesial world, sacrament remains a persistent theme in contemporary culture, often in places least expected. Drawing upon the biblical image of ""the Word made flesh,"" this interdisciplinary study examines the scandal of sacramentality along the twofold thematic of the scandal of language (word) and the scandal of the body (flesh). While sacred theology can think through this scandal only at significant risk to its own stability, the fictional discourses of literature and the arts are free to explore this scandal in a manner that simultaneously augments and challenges traditional notions of sacrament and sacramentality, and by extension, what it means to describe the Church as a ""eucharistic community.""

This unique anthology of Christian spirituality draws on the experiences and reflections of six contemporary writers. From the perspective of the late twentieth century, and from very different Christian traditions, they explore our relationship with God and with one another. Each selection begins with a brief outline biography and includes excerpts that confront a rich variety of themes: from vital social and colitical issues to experiences of great personal joy and pain. The authors include Helen Oppenheimer, Janet Martin Soskice, Margaret Spufford, Carlo-Maria Martini, Jacques Pohier and Kenneth Leech.

This first volume focuses on the basic order of service - the classic fourfold shape of gathering, word, sacrament and sending. In simple, non technical language leading writers in the field get to the heart of the matter and provide invaluable guidance to clergy, ordinands, Eucharistic ministers, study groups and individuals who wish to understand the Eucharist more fully. Subsequent volumes will focus on Engaging with Scripture, Entering into Communion, Modes and Moods of Prayer and Celebrating the Christian Year.

Some feminist women search for the roots of feminism in the recent past; others write the past off. Too many assume that religious traditions have nothing to offer feminism, so even when religious belief has been central to the inspiration of some of the most powerful campaigners for the value and worth of women, the significance of that belief has been ignored. Mary Wollstonecraft argued for the 'rights' of women'; Josephine Butler fought against the devaluation of women expressed in the Contagious Diseases Acts; Dorothy L. Sayers had a powerful sense of the way women and men grace one another's lives in their work. They all drew on the Christian tradition of their own times, but this has rarely been given weight. These women have not been considered together, nor as theologians, as here in Ann Loades's new book. In their life time, each of them opened up some painful issues: abortion and its significance in our shared social lives, forms of coercion, especially the sexual abuse of children, and the importance of women's work. Their courage and generosity offer salutary challenges to our own times. Feminist Theology will be of interest to all those concerned with contemporary theological questions as well as to students of feminism and the analysis of gender, in sociology, politics and the humanities.