Product Description

When AIDS was first identified, Christians were thrown into a state of shock. No more nor less than the rest of the human race. The Christian right immediately declared that this was a punishment from God on promiscuous gays. But HIV and AIDS also spread amongst the heterosexual community and worked its devastating way through the African continent. HIV/AIDS now also poses a huge challenge to India, which has more than five million people living with HIV/AIDS, the second largest after South Africa.And yet The Vatican still condemns the use of contraceptives in any circumstances. Here a group of progressive Christians face the fundamental issues full on. From the start The Dominican Order made the care of AIDS sufferers a primary concern. This book was inspired by them and their former Master Timothy Radcliffe is a major contributor and inspiration in this book. The concern is to dig down to deeper issues of theology, sexuality and Christian ethics.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #513516 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 122 pages

About the Author
Timothy Radcliffe was until recently Master of The Dominican Order. He is the winner of the 2007 Michael Ramsey prize for theological writing for his book What is the Point of Being a Christian? He lives in Oxford. Lytta Basset is a Reformed Minister of Religion and Professor of Theology in Lausanne, Switzerland. This is her fifth book, but the first to be translated into English.

Customer Reviews

Reflections from those linked with the French 'Christians & AIDS' project
This short book is a summary of discussions at a conference by the French group 'Christians & AIDS' about the issues facing Christians in a world with aids. The majority of the contributors are Catholic and this undergirds much of the thought (for example, how to deal with the church's prohibition on condoms and homosexual behaviour). There is a very interesting foreword which addresses the pace of change within the Catholic hierarchy and the way in which what we see in the media may not be a true reflection of the underlying thoughts of the pope, which gave food for thought.

One of the most helpful contributions was from an African doctor, Abdon Goudjo, who described how AIDS has affected the Congo where he lives and what difference the church could make and in some cases does. However I found that the thoughts expressed overall were rather disjoint and often the papers were too short to really get hold of the person's argument.

Although much of the discussion was with regard to Catholic theology and practice, there are many aspects in this book that would be helpful to those of other denominations, but I can't help feeling that a more-rounded and coherent book by a single author might be more helpful with a complex and in-depth issue such as the Christian response to AIDS and modern-day sexuality and behaviour.