Barkley Thompson

Thompson's theological approach emphasizes communicating the Christian gospel inductively and narratively through storytelling. This approach is visible both in his preaching and in his published work. Thompson's technique combines the presentation of biblical stories or doctrines with stories of common life to illuminate key themes of the gospel in a way intended to be accessible to Christian audiences.[10] It is a way of communicating theology practically that has been described as “[combining] stories from Scripture and stories from everyday life”.[11] Thompson's approach is developed most fully in Elements of Grace, where he couches his characteristically narrative style in meditations that are organized thematically into the "elemental" categories of Earth, Water, Spirit, Light, Darkness, Discipleship, and Word.[12]

In 2018, Thompson's second book, In the Midst of the City: The Gospel and God's Politics was published by Bright Sky Publishing. The book focuses on the intersection of the Gospel and civic life. In it, Thompson says, "The politics of God is commentary and action that proclaim the advent of God's kingdom in the world...It is central to the role of the Church to be the Body of Christ: to be Christ's voice, hands, and feet; to enact the commentary and action that proclaim the advent of God's kingdom in the world. Without politics, there is no church."[13] The book tackles such topics as the embrace of the LGBTQ+ community, anti-Semitism, gun regulation, and Civil War monuments. NPR personality Diane Rehm described the book as helping "interpret both the divisions and connections we experience as we move through this complex religious, secular, and political world."[14]

In addition, Thompson has published academic essays focusing on figures as diverse as the 19th-century philosopher Josiah Royce and the contemporary agrarian writer Wendell Berry.[15][16] Thompson has also published a historical essay on the murder of his great, great, great-grandfather, potentially by his great, great, great, great-grandfather, Texas hero Colonel John Henry Moore (Texas settler).[17]

The early years of Thompson's career coincided with a tumultuous time in the Episcopal Church, as tensions around human sexuality led to internal fractures in the denomination that spilled over into the Episcopal Church's relationships with other churches of the Anglican Communion. In response to the trend of individual parishes and dioceses separating themselves from the Episcopal Church, Thompson appealed the historic principle of conciliarism to advocate for a General Council of Anglicanism as the proper arena in which to adjudicate ecclesiastical disputes.[18] For Anglicans, according to Thompson, such a council should be in the form of a Lambeth Conference that would have juridical power.

Thompson has also disputed the practice of Anglican bishops foreign to the United States asserting episcopal supervision over Anglican/Episcopal bodies within US geographical boundaries. He has advocated that the fundamentally provincial character of Anglican polity ought to dictate that the various churches of the Anglican Communion respect one another's autonomy and independence.[19] This attitude, in Thompson's view, would be in conformity with the spirit of the Act in Restraint of Appeals, one of the foundational parliamentary acts of the English Reformation. Thompson has referred to the ideals contained in the Act in Restraint of Appeals the “First Principle of Anglicanism”.[20]