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Rowan Williams on Theological Education

This is Rowan Williams at his reflective, discursive and penetrating best. This lecture on theological education is a startling and refreshing apologia for wisdom, holiness and loving God with heart and mind

"…a person who is educated in reading the Bible is a person who, you can say theologically, by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, has been brought into that relationship with the God of the Bible which allows them to recognise in the language of the Bible their own faith and their own narrative. And that is something rather different from quarrying the Bible for little bits that happily remind you of how you feel. That is not biblical theology. It may be a useful form of apologetical psychology but it is not particularly theological. But to find in that language, that narrative, that register of exploration, something of the faith that transforms your own life; that I think is to see what biblical understanding is. And it is not a million miles away from what Martin Luther said when claiming that the Christian response to reading the Bible always had to be, if you heard the words, this is about you, datae loquitor, this is about you."

The whole lecture text is here

16 July 2011
Embodying the Christian doctrine of reconciliation

I am doing a lot of thinking, slow pondering and imagining about reconciliation, a theme that lies at the heart of the Christian Gospel. Reconciliation finds varied expressions in forgiveness, conciliation, understanding, compassion, negotiation, self-expenditure, peace-making, bridge-building, and many other attitudes and activities in human healing and wholeness within the heart and within the communities we inhabit.

There are several reasons for this current research interest.

It is a central motif for understanding the meaning of Jesus. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself".

Asked what the mission of the church is, and how to do mission, I default immediately to "God has given to us this ministry of reconciliation" as a theological encapsulation of Jesus words that are both promise and demand, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God".

Then I look on a world fragmented against itself, criss-crossed by dividing walls of hostility and hear that other Pauline echo, the through Christ God purposed "to reconcile to himself all things making peace by the blood of the cross".

Then I reflect on the rise in Christian culture of conflict resolution courses, and reflect on years of experience of Christian communities struggling and straining, at times crumbling and imploding by the inability of Christians to live their communal life as reconciled reconcilers, peaceable peacemakers, forgiven forgivers and merciful receivers of mercy.

And after a number of conversations with experienced pastors, and reflecting on the responses to a questionnaire on what is essential in ministry training, it is confirmed that a major felt need is training in conflict resolution and dealing with difficult people.

There is a not to be missed irony in all this. That Christian communities experience powerful internal tensions which create strain and stress on relationships and structures is not new. Corinth is one of the reassuringly flawed churches of the New Testament – from the start Christians have unabashedly demonstrated pride and self-regard, power hunting and the urge to dominate, judgemental words and argumentative habits, unforgivingness as obstinacy of the closed heart, and much else. And yet.

As Jesus said, the language of empire, government, self-appointed and self-inflated leaders, and of all those who aspire to be first in any queue for handouts of power and status is not the language of the Kingdom of God. Mark 10.42-45 is for me the deal clincher in the arguments about how the life of the Kingdom is expressed in community. And Mark has preserved the tone of Jesus veto "Not so amongst you". Abrupt, uncompromising, comprehensive negation without negotiation – "not so among you."

But it is so. In many Christian communities the cultural drivers for recognition, status, power and possessions are deeply and invidiously installed. Mark 10.45 crucially links "giving himself" with "not to be served but to serve". So a Christian doctrine of reconciliation begins at the cross and ends in the embodied practice of reconciliation through self-giving love.

Conflict resolution for Christians is a process that is traceable to the deepest reality of the universe, the reconciling heart of God.

The painting is Van Gogh's "Pieta".

15 July 2011
Lessons on truth from Spam – Genuine quality replica truth!

"Buy Genuine Quality Rolex Replica".

This was a spam invitation that came in this morning.

Is it a genuine replica or a false one – what does the adjective genuine qualify? Quality or replica?

Or is it a replica of genuine quality?

It isn't a genuine Rolex but it is quality.

Quality what?

Amongst the sins of contemporary culture is our collusion with what is not true, what is verbal sleight of hand, what appeals to vanity so persuasively we opt to be blind to the lie and deaf to the truth.

And if I had a Genuine Quality Rolex replica – who would I be fooling – apart from myself.

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity…..

12 July 2011
Cross – stitch theology: “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”.

Just completed the latest tapestry – this time of the triumphant Lamb. It's based on the image of the Lamb on the covers of the recently reprinted volumes of John Howard Yoder. I tried some creative adaptation and intentional uses of colour to enrich and deepen the symbolism. The cross, the eucharistic cup, the bleeding wound and the banner of the Lamb are each christological referents. The ground on which the lamb stands is a God loved world, won by love not conquered by power, the blood of the lamb making peace, and the life of the world renewed by mercy.

The stitch work is a mixture of half cross stitch and goebelin. It's an interesting exercise in contemplative rumination on a Scripture symbol, to work a tapestry that is a combination of received symbol and creative playing with colour, and to dwell with such enriched ideas over a time.

This one is for a friend, for whom the slain lamb is the defining symbol of his spirituality. The primary themes of such spiritual commitment are justice, peace, reconciliation, the confrontation of power with gentleness, the imperative of speaking truth to power, the theological and ethical no to violence and coercion that lies at the heart of the cross, the Lamb as a summons to a different and dissident kind of discipleship.

10 July 2011
An Invitation to prayer for little people!

" Come now, little man, put aside your business for a while, take refuge for a little from your tumultuous thoughts; cast off your cares, and let your burdensome distractions wait. Take some leisure for God; rest awhile in him. Enter into the chamber of your mind; put out everything except God and whatever helps you to seek him; close the door and seek him. Say now to God with all your heart: "I seek thy face O Lord, thy face I seek'."

The words are by Anselm and were important guidelines in the spirituality of Archbishop Michael Ramsey for whom theology and prayer were experiential synonyms.

They read like a distillation of the Christian tradition of contemplative prayer, the deliberate paying attention to God by withdrawing attention from self-concerned, self-centred, and self-referential activity of mind, emotion and body, being still to know that God is God, not us.

They appeal to me because they address me personally, "Come now, little man…… " 🙂

9 July 2011
The News of the World – comment is superfluous, but what the hack!

Quite often I have a fairly opinionated comment to make on some of the happenings and people in the news. The hacking scandal is as big a news story about the news media as has broken in my lifetime. The photo is of someone who seems to just have taken the blinkers off and discovered what has been happening – or maybe they are sunglasses behind which to hide behind – I know about the double adverb, but there has been so much hiding behind going on already.

Victims of the London bombings 5 years ago, and their families; relatives of soldiers killed in action; a young woman found murdered; countless significant figures in politics, show business and other areas of public life; and around 4,000 others. Privacy invaded to sell the news product.

A paper editor gives evidence in a showcase Scottish contempt of court trial, and compromises the judicial process by being directly involved in the goings on of the News of the World. Questioned by Parliament, police and the Scottish Court, innocence was maintained. More difficult to maintain after recent revelations. The same person was communications director for our Prime Minister until earlier pressures of this case forced a resignation 'to clear his name'. Right.

Journalists and police officers set up an information exchange mart! Evidence can be bought, obtained by illegal hacking, exchange hands for upwards of £100,000 pounds over 5 years, and thus the criminal justice system is compromised.

The same institution (the police) believed to be independent of vested interests, carries out an investigation into hacking allegations – 5 years ago – identifies three or four culprits but gives the News of the World otherwise a clean bill ot ethical and legal health. Then the revelations of this week.

The paper is shut down, the CEO keeps her job, hundreds of innocent people lose their jobs on the strength of a mobile phone call from somewhere high up, maybe the chief priest of the current worshippers of the ruthless Gods of money, media, image and information technology. And this will make it all ok then? Right.

I am not qualified to comment on such a convoluted, systemic, chronic,illegal, immoral and repulsive culture of mocking indifference to human rights, human feelings, human suffering and humane standards of respect and justice in the treatment of people.

Another case of comment is superfluous. Why? Because we are not stupid – it doesn't need spelt out. This is evil – unambiguously, and without qualification as wrong as media power, invasive journalism and ruthless news gathering can get.

8 July 2011
Donald Mackinnon, Julian of Norwich and the seriousness of sin

One of the most terrifying two hours of my life was in 1986 when I delivered a paper to the Aberdeenshire Theological Club (the oldest such club in Scotland!). The paper was on Julian of Norwich, her view of Divine Love and human sin and whether in her theology these are adequately reconciled. The subject matter is intimidating enough, but sitting in the audience was Professor Donald MacKinnon. He was a large man – broad, tall, a craggy alp with a face that could be just as forbidding as any such North Face. He was also a large presence who when he laughed his shoulders resembled a kind of mirthful earthquake, and I found him to be a warm appreciative listener mainly, except when he gruffed out a 'yes' which was reassuring, or a harrumph which was worrying. The photo of a younger Mackinnon does no justice to the venerable, restless polymath ambling through Old Aberdeen with his brown leather message bag books and papers protruding, and stuffed with who knows what metaphysical speculations, and happy to stop and engage in conversation which could be gossip or gospel, metaphysics or meal times, German Romanticism or the state of the Harris Tweed industry.

I made quite a bit about Julians doctrine of sin appearing reductionist, and at times sitting light to the seriousness of sin as a radical negation of being, a pervasive and invasive power of evil that insinuates itself into the very structures of created being, so that only a redemption which reached into such profound depths of reality (the Cross of Christ as the Love of God ) could adequately negate that negation. The loud gravelly 'Yes', exploding into the sedate company, and the forward thrust of a leonine head were enough to keep me going forward with my paper, while hoping there would be nothing ahead that might provoke an equally strong 'No!'

At the end there were questions, observations, critique, appreciation and a feeling that the paper had, however marginally, passed. Then Professor Mackinnon came up, said kind things and said he would send me a book. He didn't – I think he meant he would send me a suggested book which he did. I bought it in the days before amazon the quick book getter existed. It was The Word of Reconciliation by H H Farmer,(London: Nisbet, 1966) a far too easily overlooked theologian whose philosophical theology remains worth our time and attention. I'll come back to HH Farmer. But in his book are these words, which capture in such lucid theological writing, the psychology and ontology of sin:

A great many people's concern about their sinful shortcomings springs in large measure from a disguised and subtle egotism and pride. They are, perhaps, particularly if they have had a Christian upbringing and take their Christian profession seriously, formed an image of themselves as displaying an exalted Christian character, and when they find, as they inevitably do, that they persistently fall short of this 'ego-ideal', they are cast down and depressed and harassed with guilt feelings. This they mistake for a true and deep repentance but it may be little more than a feeling of injured pride and self-esteem.

…

On the lips of the deeply penitent religious man therefore, the cry against thee, thee only, have I sinned', might almost seem to be an exactly and literally true statement. Some such awareness as this, however expressed, or perhaps not expressed or even expressible in terms at all, but only felt, some sense that because of one's sin the very foundation of one's being and life has been shaken (for what is God if not the very foundation of one's being and life?0, some consciousness that sin holds one suspended not over the shallows of time but over the abyss of eternity, the abyss of God, is an element in sincere and true penitence towards God; it is in fact this consciousness which in part constitutes it towards God.

Pages 65 and 67

6 July 2011
When Comment is Superfluous 4: Art Garfunkel and his Greatest Performance of the Greatest Simon and Garfunkel Song

I remember buying the Bridge Over Troubled Water Album just before I was married. The song is now embedded in the minds and I suspect the souls of those who lived through the 70's and 80's. It remains a powerful and lyrical description of love's commitment, compassion, faithfulness and what it means in our lives to find another human being who is utterly and reliably, our friend.

Sentimental, romantic, emotionally generous, the song is a poem, a prayer, a promise, and it describes one of life's greatest gifts – the self-giving of another in love and kindness, to the enrichment of our lives.

Comment is superfluous, not on the song, but on this definitive performance by Art Garfunkel in 1981, at the Central Park Concert – I just watched it for the I've lost count of it time – see it here

4 July 2011
When Comment is superfluous: 3 Gerhard Ebeling on The Lord’s Prayer

Reading a Journal I wrote some years ago I came across a short extract from Gerhard Ebeling's book on the Lord's Prayer. This Lutheran theologian has written several books translated into english. His major work awaits translation, especially his Dogmatics. But meantime here is a taste of Ebeling at his astringent best:

"It sounds religious to put God beyond time as the Eternal, and to keep time well clear of God as being something limited, earthly, human. But with this kind of piety we make God unreal and reality godless."

3 July 2011
When Comment is Superfluous 2: The Fruit of the Spirit.

"Other elements of the fruit of the Spirit have also a strong experiential or emotional dimension, particularly…joy and peace. It should be noted, however, that Paul would not have thought of either of these in individualistic terms: joy was characteristically for Paul a shared experience strengthening bonds of community (e.g. Rom 15.32; 2Cor 8.2; Phil 2.19-30; Philemon 7); and in Jewish thought peace was not reducible to a personal tranquility but included all that makes for social well-being and harmonious relationships."

The Theology of Galatians, J D G Dunn, (Cambridge, CUP 1993) p.112

I allow myself in this series of posts, one unsuperfluous comment –

given the heavy dependence of Evangelical spirituality on the writings and theology of Paul,

and in the light of Evangelicalism's characteristic individualism in the narratives of Evangelical experience,

such corrective exegesis might broaden, deepen and renew the Evangelical vision of discipleship

as intentionally following after Jesus in the community that is the Body of Christ,

that Body given to God in praise and prayer and worship,

and offered in service to the world to embody and express the Love of God,

by actively working towards the renewing of creation,

the redeeming of loss, and the reconciliation of all things

in the power of the Living Christ.

Long sentence for one comment I know. Important point though.

2 July 2011