Structures of Christian priesthood

the long version

In earliest Christianity, the author shows, the kind of life led by a priest was governed by the needs of his ministry. In later centuries he gradually became siphoned off into the highly professional, celibate class we know today. The author argues that this procees, though both natural and explicable, was in fact alien to the true traditions of the early Churches. More importantly, it now effectively inhibits the proper exercise of the Christian priesthood, despite the enormous gains it has brought in the past. In the second part of the book, the author argues that, whatever the advantages this alien withdrawal may once have carried with it, it can only represent a threat to the Church's survival now. If the Christian ministry is to cope with present-day demands, we must recover the earlier tradition which allowed the forms of a ministry to be determined by the demands made on it.