Book Review

The Ascension of Christ. Pioneer, Priest and King by Ed Moll, Latimer 2025

I have a confession to make.  Though I am an Anglican vicar I’ve never led an Ascension Day service.  Currently we are in Lent and my head is full of thoughts about Jesus’ death and resurrection as we head towards Easter.  I even wrote my Good Friday sermon on Jesus’ seven words from the cross a few days ago (most unlike me!)  But the Ascension? - I’ve never really thought about it much and certainly haven’t celebrated it publicly.

Well, according to Ed Moll - I’m not the only low church Anglican who hasn’t reflected much on the importance of the Ascension as an major Christian doctrine with important implications for pastoral work, preaching and mission.  This book is a valuable addition to Latimer Trust’s great new Christian doctrine series.  It has got me to seriously think about about the vital role that the Ascension plays in the biblical narrative and also it’s crucial outworking in our Christian life.

After kicking off with a short chapter asking whether the Ascension is a neglected doctrine (the short answer is ‘yes’) Moll spends a couple of chapters looking at all the biblical references to the Ascension beyond the couple of descriptions of the historic event itself.  He clearly shows how there are lots of passages and verses across the gospels and epistles which witness to Christ’s ascension.  One that particularly struck me was a reference to it in one of my favourite passages that of the Great Commission (Mt 28.18-20). 

I’ve always concentrated on the missional mandate to ‘go and make disciples’ of all nations and the discipleship demand to teach believers all that Christ taught his first disciples.  Moll reminded me of the importance that ‘all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’ (v.18).  He quotes Schreiner: ‘Christ at his ascent received power over the whole cosmos and was installed as the king of both heaven and earth’ (19) and comments:

‘Jesus lives because he is risen but he reigns because he is ascended’.

Chapter four asks the question of how all this biblical material on the ascension should shape our life and belief as followers of Jesus. It explores this doctrine in the thirty nine articles of the Anglican Church, its collects and litanies as well as the historic Christian creeds. One observation of particular interest was how the ascension of Christ shed more clarity on what Cranmer thought was happening during Holy communion (a debated subject of whether Cranmer was more Catholic or Protestant here).  Moll shows how the Ascension Day collect ‘reinforces the teaching of the Article that Christ’s body is in heaven and encourages us to ascend to him rather than seek to bring him down to us’ (61).

The final chapter fleshes out some more doctrinal, pastoral and missional implications arising from this doctrine including a surprising suggested application of compassion for our ministries, developed from Colossians 3. I love Moll's comment that:

‘...mission is not less than sharing Christ’s compassion for the poor.  We strengthen our union with Christ in heaven by care for his children on earth’ (89).

This has been a timely and encouraging read for me - filling in holes in my biblical & theological understanding and leading me to worship the ascended Christ more.

On finishing this book I decided to have an Ascension day service this year even though it falls in half-term (29th of May) and I might even use some of the sermon illustrations in the back of the book.  Thanks very much Rev’d Dr. Ed Moll!

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Daniel Kirk is vicar of St Michael's church in Gidea Park. He is also a trustee of Cuba for Christ and a member of CMS Latin American Forum.

Views expressed in blogs published by the Latimer Trust are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Latimer Trust.