ABOUT THIS BOOK

They would appear to be simple actions, accessible to all. Wash someone in water: 'baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit'. Share a meal of bread and wine: 'Take, eat . . . Drink from it, all of you'.

Yet few areas of Christian theology and practice have been made more complicated. And nothing has divided Christians more deeply than the teaching and practice of these simple actions that are given for us to be one in.

Is there a way back to the simplicity, depth and unity of these actions given to us by Jesus? Any such attempt would need to be approached with needful humility and love.

Under the impact of human sin, these profound and simple gifts so easily become human actions bent uponself-redemption. It is only as we get back to seeing and knowing that 'all things are from God', and that God 'did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for us all', that we will receive and practice them rightly.