Claudia Rapp

This book is an eye-opener. It is news to me, and I am very pleased with it, that even after the Constantinian transformation of the Church, it remained necessary for bishops to authenticate themselves, as their pre-Constantinian predecessors had done, in terms not of power, but of ascetic or spiritual integrity. It suggests to me that there is scope in the face of cultural and social shifts around us today for Churches to salvage some plausible sense of themselves other than as agents of 'establishment', and that it need not be in vain for any of us - whether or not a bishop - to aspire to a self-understanding which is primarily moral or spiritual, rather than institutional. I'm not sure that I hear many bishops saying this, however.… (meer)