Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, now divested of Episcopal responsibilities, has demonstrated in a few years an exceptional new lease of intellectual energy, no doubt prompted further by the pressing questions of his students in Cambridge.

In this new book, Williams answers the question Jesus put to his disciples "Who do you say that I am?" In a world heavily influenced by Greek philosophical tradition, there were at the start two key words, logos and ousia--word and substance. If Jesus was a man with a soul, how did his inner human life relate to his inner divine life?

All his life, Rowan Williams has been deeply influenced by thinkers of the Orthodox tradition (for example the idea of Godmanhood) and has published books on Orthodox theologians as well as a critically acclaimed book on Dostoevsky.

The present book concerns fundamental issues for Christian belief and Williams tackles them head on--he writes with pellucid clarity and shows his real gift for putting across what are inevitably complex ideas to a wide audience.