How many of us who call ourselves Christianscan honestly say we understand what is meant by "grace" ? We use the word a lot in our prayers and we hear it referred to in sermons, but for most of us it remains a vague notion that we would rather leave to the professional theologians. But in neglecting grace we fail to grasp a fundamental reality of the spiritual life. This book is a straightforward guide through what may seem at first sight a maze of difficult words and ideas. It describes the part played by grace in the Old Testament and the Gospels, its
development in the teachings of St Paul and tire Fathers, and the issues involved in the great disputes about grace which stretch from St Augustine in the fourth century through the Reformation to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuires and linger still in our ou times. The meaning of suchh terms as "sanctifying grace" is explained, together with the limits and endowments of human nature as they affect our response to this gift of God, the fruits of grace in our lives and its meaning for those outside the visible unity of the Church.