MOIRA ASTIN writes as a natural teacher, attuned to today’s learning needs and the communication style of adult education.

The evidence of this is there in the title. It artfully invites further exploration into the ascension of Jesus as something that is enigmatic and mysterious.

The book is dedicated to students whose questions have prompted Astin’s own reflections on the subject. The dedication also records her thanks to the dioceses of Oxford and Southwark for the opportunity to teach and to reflect theologically.

There is no mention of the fact that Astin is the Archdeacon of Reigate, and, since 2023, she has also been the Church of England’s Faith in the Countryside Officer. These details are worth noting as a reminder that serious theological inquiry should, can, and does, in some instances, go hand in hand with a lively attention to the strategic, missional detail of ecclesial life.

It is predominantly as a teacher, who is also a disciple, that she sets the tone of this book, charting a well-informed and practical approach to our explorations. She gives us an analysis in five chapters of the biblical material, an assessment of the doctrinal implications, a three-chapter review of the theological history, and a very succinct reflection on how the mystery of the ascension sits in the context of proclaiming Christian faith in the 21st century.

The biblical analysis is enlivened by the inclusion of reference to Tobit, Ecclesiasticus, and 1 Enoch. These texts might well be unfamiliar to many who are training for lay or ordained ministry in the Church of England.

In other parts of the universal Church, these non-canonical books carry much greater importance than they do in post-Enlightenment Europe. In the fragile, ancient Churches of the Middle East and Africa, they set a framework for the imaginative, cultural, and liturgical environment that gives shape to the mystery of the ascension.

Even in the Latin West, the relatively well-known story of Jacob’s ladder, echoed in the words of Jesus to Nathaniel, indicates the power of the image of angelic traffic ascending and descending between earth and heaven. This is the point of the Sursum Corda, “Lift up your hearts,” and the reference to angels and archangels which concludes the preface to the Eucharistic Prayer.

The study of liturgy is now so rare as to be an endangered species. Although elements of that study do surface in this exploration, it is missing as a discrete theological narrative. In a more general perspective, one consequence of its absence might well be the diminution of informed, confident, and evangelistic liturgical practice among many who train for ministry today.

Astin has done a splendid job of gathering together the resources that could sustain a lively seminar on the ascension. But the outcome of joy, proposed in the book’s subtitle, might demand something more. Awe and praise, symbol, adoration and worship — these elements of liturgical worship are perhaps what we are missing more widely.

Dr Martin Warner is the Bishop of Chichester.

The Missing Ending: Rediscovering the joy of the ascension
Moira Astin
Canterbury Press £16.99
(978-1-78622-603-7)
Church Times Bookshop £13.59