Rowan Williams’ Being Christian is a great little introduction to the basics, and not-so-basics, of Christian faith. Well-known as scholar of the highest intellectual calibre, and also as possessing a sometimes challenging writing style, this book is straightforward and accessible.

Fundamental to Williams’ account of the Christian life is our being given a new human identity in the humanity of Jesus, growing into Jesus’ own experience of God and the world in which we have been placed. Williams explores this new identity in relation to the themes of Baptism, Bible, Eucharist and Prayer. Baptism is explored as a restoration to what it is to be truly human. The Bible is explored as a document converging on Jesus, and is read because Christians expect to be addressed by God. In the Eucharist God the Giver calls us to honest repentance and to imitate God’s own openness in inviting others to join God’s feast of life. The essence of prayer is in allowing the prayers of Jesus himself to become our own.

This short book could be read in a few hours but is filled with insight and pithy little statements on Christian life and practice which will exercise you for much longer!

The book is available in electronic and hard-copy versions from the usual places.