Rowan Williams PC, FBA, FRSL, FLSW (1950, E), was born in Swansea and is theologian and poet. He studied theology at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he graduated with starred first-class honours. He then went to Wadham College, Oxford, where he graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1975. He is best known as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held ten years. Williams speaks three languages and reads at least nine. His collection ‘The Poems of Rowan Williams’, published by Perpetua Press, have a strong spiritual and landscape flavour, the collection contains several fluent translations from Welsh poets. He was criticised in the press for allegedly supporting a “pagan organisation”, the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards, which promotes Welsh language and literature and uses druidic ceremonial but is actually not religious in nature. He has officiated at many royal weddings and works with many charities. He is also patron of the T. S. Eliot Society, as well as a joint patron of the Wilfred Owen Association, which commemorates the life and work of the renowned World War I poet Wilfred Owen. He is often outspoken on many religious and political issues.
Works
- The Theology of Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky: An Exposition and Critique (1975 DPhil thesis)
- The Wound of Knowledge (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1979)
- Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1982)
- Eucharistic Sacrifice: The Roots of a Metaphor (Grove Books, 1982)
- Essays Catholic and Radical ed. with K. Leech (Bowerdean, 1983)
- The Truce of God (London: Fount, 1983)
- Peacemaking Theology (1984)
- Open to Judgement: Sermons and Addresses (1984)
- Politics and Theological Identity (with David Nicholls) (Jubilee, 1984)
- Faith in the University (1989)
- Christianity and the Ideal of Detachment (1989)
- Teresa of Avila (1991)
- Open to Judgement: Sermons and Addresses (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1994)
- After Silent Centuries (1994)
- “A Ray of Darkness” (1995)
- On Christian Theology (2000)
- Christ on Trial (2000)
- Arius: Heresy and Tradition (2nd ed., SCM Press, 2001)
- The Poems of Rowan Williams (2002)
- Writing in the Dust: Reflections on 11 September and Its Aftermath (Hodder and Stoughton, 2002)
- Ponder These Things: Praying With Icons of the Virgin (Canterbury Press, 2002)
- Faith and Experience in Early Monasticism (2002)
- Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert (2003)
- Lost Icons: Essays on Cultural Bereavement (T & T Clark, 2003)
- The Dwelling of the Light—Praying with Icons of Christ (Canterbury Press, 2003 )
- Darkness Yielding, co-authored with Jim Cotter, Martyn Percy, Sylvia Sands and W. H. Vanstone (2004)
- Anglican Identities (2004)
- Why Study the Past? The Quest for the Historical Church (Eerdmans, 2005)
- Grace and Necessity: Reflections on Art and Love (2005)
- Tokens of Trust. An introduction to Christian belief. (Canterbury Press, 2007 )
- Wrestling with Angels: Conversations in Modern Theology, ed. Mike Higton (SCM Press, 2007)
- Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another (New Seeds, 2007)
- Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction (Baylor University Press, 2008)
- Faith in the Public Square (Bloomsbury, 2012)
- The Lion’s World – A Journey into the Heart of Narnia (SPCK, 2012)
- Meeting God in Mark (SPCK, 2014), reprinted as Meeting God in Mark: Reflections for the Season of Lent (Westminster John Knox Press, 2015)
- Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer (Eerdmans, 2014)
- Meeting God in Paul (SPCK, 2015)