For the Good of the Church: Unity, Theology and Women

Gabrielle Thomas is Lecturer in Early Christian and Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School, Connecticut and is an ordained priest in the Church of England. Prior to moving to the U.S., she worked as an assistant professor (research) at Durham University, U.K. and served as a Minor Canon in Durham Cathedral. Her publications include the monograph The Image of God in the Theology of Gregory of Nazianzus (Cambridge University Press, 2019), and she has written articles for the Scottish Journal of Theology, Exchange and Studia Patristica, as well as a number of chapters for edited collections, and articles for the popular Christian press. She is a member of the theological reflection group of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which meets at Lambeth Palace bi-annually and serves on the Church of England’s Living in Love and Faith project.

‘This important book draws together how we learn both from other churches and from the voices of women. As it does so it challenges us to reflect on how we listen properly to the experiences of those who are different from us or whose voices are sometimes not heard. It is a rich resource and well worth reading carefully and thoughtfully for all the wisdom it contains.’ -- Paula Gooder, Canon Chancellor, St Paul's Cathedral

It would have been enough to tell the fascinating story of a fruitful project with women deeply committed to a wide range of churches, but Gabrielle Thomas does even more. She gives prophetic insights, together with wise, accessible theology, on key issues (including painful ones) relevant to all churches, and in the process she adds an important dimension to one of the most promising Christian movements of our time, Receptive Ecumenism -- David Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus, University of Cambridge