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This book seeks to describe God in an old way. It doesn't present theories or suggest that you become involved in a particular practice of religious culture. It shows how human understanding about God changed 2,000 years ago, and invites you to explore the strange and beautiful dynamic that was created by that change. The subject is the forgiveness of sins.
The message isn't for religiously minded people, or just for churchgoers. It is for everyone. This is because the issue of forgiveness touches everyone's life. At some point, on a small or very significant issue, we are faced with the question of forgiveness. What is it? How does it relate to me? What does it mean to forgive?
Exploring the answers takes us on a journey.
About the author
John Rogerson gave this text as a series of lectures to friends in 2018, and it is the last of his lectures because he died later that year. If this book is your first encounter with John Rogerson, then you can be assured that you are in the company of a very great internationally celebrated scholar, who spent his life studying the biblical traditions of scholarship and the history and interpretation of the Bible. John was also an Anglican priest. During his long career he showed how the Bible, carefully handled, has something profound to say to our lives today, drawing on biblical scholarship, theology, philosophy, sociology, politics, ethics and literature.
He continued this work in retirement and served and taught the small community at Beauchief Abbey, where he brought his gifts and knowledge into service for this little local Anglican church in Sheffield. His friendship was something that many people found transformative, and this friendship, grounded in John's experience and reflection on the Christian offer, is something that continues to resonate very deeply with his friends and readers following his death. We created the Beauchief Abbey Press to allow others to share the remarkable conversations and invitations that came through working with and alongside John. If you enjoy this book you will find others by John, such as The Kingdom of Heaven, Perspectives on the Passion, and The Poet-Prophets of the Old Testament, that may interest you further, as well as several collections of his remarkable sermons.
