Power and the Church

The Very Reverend Professor Martyn Percy was until recently The Dean of Christ Church Oxford. Previously he was Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon, in Oxfordshire. He is the author of a number of books and learned articles including The Humble Church, Untamed Gospels and Clergy: the Origin of Species. His wife is also an ordained theologian. He has two daughters and a dog.

"Power in religious institutions is as inevitable and ubiquitous as anywhere else. Percy examines its occasions both in the main stream churches and the proliferating charismatic movement...he is a fresh voice eminently worth serious attention."--Church Growth Digest, Summer 2001

• Some models of power; the healing benediction; wisdom and weakness in ministerial formation; fundamentalism and power; an anatomy of violence in established and new religious movements; theories of exchange for the "Toronto Blessing"; bureaucratic ideology in established religion, erotic ideology in experimental religion; things fall apart I - experimental religion and the presence of sexuality; things fall apart II - experimental religion and the absence of theology; the future of the power of God in a post-foundational world.