Ponder These Things

A close look at three classic icons of the Virgin and Child reveals profound truths about discovering God in our World. “Icons, says Archbishop Rowan, show us the way.... They help us to cross borders, to enter into a new and transfigured world. And that is exactly what I experienced as I read....This is a book to be read not once only, but many times.”—Kallistos Ware, from the Foreword What we call holy in the world—a person, a place, words, or a work of art—is so because the foreign is brought together with the familiar and the everyday. No one embodies this holiness more than Mary, who makes a home for the Creator of all things in her own body and in her own house. Ideal for all Christians—Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant—Ponder These Things invites you to explore and reflect on the depths of meaning in three classic icons from the Eastern Christian tradition. Icons have been described as “theology in line and color.” Tracing the movement within them, the Archbishop of Canterbury discovers the pattern of love that they reveal. This love invites and embraces us so that we find ourselves caught up in the drama of the love of God. Rowan Williams is a poet, theologian, and the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury. In 2013, he will become Master of Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge.