THE book Made in the Image of God is a serious contribution to a discussion about human identity which confronts us globally. It is generated from within the Scottish Episcopal Church, reminding us of a commitment to scholarship which has distinguished the Anglican presence north of the border.

As a compendium of theological essays, this collection displays a properly challenging range of reference points by theological practitioners. Five of the 13 contributors have experience of pastoral practice in parochial, chaplaincy, and diocesan ministry. Others have a teaching connection with a Scottish university.

A distinctive coda in this collection is that we are offered a set of questions for discussion. This reader did not find the questions uniformly helpful, perhaps because of the length or the wording. There was just a whiff of being examined rather than encouraged.

The first five essays lead us out from scripture and the history of Christian writing into a range of explorations about the human person. These chapters touch on sin and redemption, worship, prayer, death, and eschatology, and cover some of the ground that we might expect.

The essay on human and divine compassion by Harriet Harris opens up very stimulating material that touches on our recent experience of Covid and issues about how to handle grief. This chapter also takes us to the classical categories of God as compassionate and yet impassible, without the capacity to suffer or change. A brief discussion contrasts the post-Holocaust trauma in the West with reference to the wisdom of Irenaeus and a very different response, strongly preserved in the East. That small detail does raise a larger question about the scope of this collection.

There is considerable reference within these essays to Roman Catholic and Orthodox work in the field of Christian anthropology. The collection lacks an ecumenical contribution on how this vital subject has shaped Christian thought and practice outside our own culture — in Oriental and Eastern Orthodox traditions or South American Pentecostalism, for example.

In a similar way, the hegemony of Western post-Enlightenment thought drives David Jasper to pose a serious challenge to our conventions on how we talk about God and of humanity made in God’s image. He states that “theology quickly descends to mere piety, and that is hard to share.” Nevertheless, a footnote in his chapter refers us to China as an altogether different context, and a widening of perspective which would enrich this collection.

But, that said, this volume, none the less, presents a breadth of perspectives. Essays on the importance of science in technology, biology, and human identity relate the theological narrative on being human to a wider sphere of inquiry, and they do so with skill and imagination.

The publication of Made in the Image of God is timely, as we in the Church of England also seek how to speak wisely and authentically about being made by God. This contribution from Scotland is clearly academic. That is one strand, among many, that we need for a properly synodal engagement in the Church Catholic, walking on the road together as the Holy Spirit makes the presence of the Teacher, Jesus Christ, our guide.

Dr Martin Warner is the Bishop of Chichester.

Made in the Image of God: Being human in the Christian tradition
Michael Fuller and David Jasper, editors
Sacristy Press £24.99
(978-1-78959-170-5)
Church Times Bookshop £22.49