New Companion: 784 Pages

From Virginia Theological Seminary

Virginia Theological Seminary has announced the release of The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion. The book’s editors include the Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, dean and president of Virginia Theological Seminary, and the Rev. J. Barney Hawkins IV, the seminary’s vice president for institutional advancement and associate dean of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies (CACS) at VTS.

“One of the goals of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies is education,” Markham said. “This remarkable book is a significant contribution to meeting that goal. It is a reference work which will help individuals to understand the Communion. I am delighted this is coming out from VTS.”

Along with Markham and Hawkins, the book’s editors include the Rev. Leslie Nuñez Steffenson (VTS ’12), former administrative coordinator of CACS, and the Very Rev. Justyn Terry, dean and president of the Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, and author of The Justifying Judgement of God: A Reassessment of the Place of Judgement in the Saving Work of Christ (Wipf & Stock, 2008).

At more than 750 pages, Companion to the Anglican Communion explores every aspect of the Communion — from analyzing its instruments of unity, to its central role in interfaith communication, to each of its 44 provinces, to the role of women in the church. Organized under the headings “History,” “Structures of the Communion,” “Provinces” and “Themes,” the 65 substantial articles compose a work that is “invaluable to anyone interested in Anglicanism,” according to the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

“The Anglican Communion is home to the third largest family in Christendom,” Hawkins said. “This book with its many voices is a map of sorts, exposing the Communion’s diverse and global geography of faith.”

The comprehensive reference was a project of CACS, which works to support theological education; the engagement of Anglican leaders and scholars in study, research and conversation; and interreligious dynamics across the Communion. The four editors also served as contributors, along with several other leading Anglican commentators from around the world.

Among the local contributors in this book are Katherine L. Wood, current assistant director of CACS, and the Rev. Robert S. Heaney, who this fall will join the seminary faculty as the center’s director and assistant professor of Christian mission at VTS. Other VTS contributors include the Rev. Robert W. Prichard, the Rev. William Bradley Roberts, and the Rev. William L. Sachs of the faculty, and two students: Cameron J. Soulis of the Diocese of Washington and the Rev. Jane L. Dogue-is of the Diocese of North Central Philippines.

The Companion to the Anglican Communion is the first collaboration of Markham and Hawkins since the 2010 publication of Christ and Culture: Communion after Lambeth (Canterbury Press/Church), which they also edited. Markham recently edited The Student’s Companion to the Theologians (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), and he is the author of Against Atheism (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), among other books. Hawkins is the author of Episcopal Priesthood and Etiquette: Living the Craft of Priesthood in the Episcopal Church (Morehouse, 2012) and co-editor of Staying One, Remaining Open: Education Leaders for a 21st Century Church (Church, 2010).

The Companion costs $195 in hardcover and $159.99 as an e-book.

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