The Vowed Life: The promise and demand of baptism

The Vowed Life explores a paradox in the Church today: while vows are made sacramentally, there is a longing for a vowed life that is truly transforming and life-giving. Contributors suggest that the longing for life-changing forms of life is a displaced desire for something intrinsic to Christian life, and that fresh attention to the vowed life can offer the Church valuable insights into sex, gender, and identity.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 31 January 2023
Publisher: Canterbury Press Norwich

The Vowed Life delves into a perplexing paradox that poses a significant challenge to the Church's mission and witness in the contemporary era. While vows continue to be made sacramentally within the Church, there exists a profound yearning for a vowed life that would be truly transformative and life-giving. Vows hold a captivating allure, yet they can also be perceived as unattractive due to the escalating lay memberships of religious orders, while the traditional religious communities struggle to attract younger members due to their demanding lifelong commitments. The Vowed Life seeks to unravel the underlying reasons and mechanisms behind this paradoxical situation, emphasizing the urgent need for the Church to respond effectively.

By re-establishing baptism as the foundational anchor of all other Christian vows, a diverse group of contributors explore whether the longing for profoundly life-changing forms of life is a displaced desire for something that should be intrinsic to Christian existence. Within the context of a Church that values pastoral sensitivity, they raise the question of how these demands can be re-expressed in a manner that resonates with our contemporary culture. In their quest for a coherent theology of vows that encompasses both liturgical practice and sacramental context, they discover that a renewed focus on the vowed life holds immense value for the Church's ongoing discussions about sex, gender, and identity. Furthermore, it contributes to a holistic approach to the life of the Church and its mission, embracing the complexities and diversity of the contemporary world.

Dimension: 216 x 135 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781786221896