Categories: uncategorized
Date: 15 October 2007 10:35:15
I am a big Rowan fan. So when it was announced that he was coming to Swansea to give a lecture, I was tremendously excited. Until I realised that I was in Harlow, of all soulless places, that day due to work. Rhys and Richard both have something to say about the lecture. I missed it. Sulk.
Now, we sometimes go along to a local Anglican church for their 'prayer, praise and healing' service on a Sunday night. It's a very nice, informal, interdenominational affair. So we thought that we'd engage the vicar in a conversation about how he found Rowan.
He didn't go. On principle. The reason he gave was that although he respects The Eyebrowed One, he believes that the Gospel is a simple message, and Williams' brand of academic theology obscures that message rather than clarifies it. 'Imagine,' he said, 'that you love someone and want to kiss them. You don't ask another person to go and kiss them, and write a book explaining how to kiss them. You just kiss them.' He went on to talk about Karl Barth's summary of his life's work as being 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.' That, he said, was scholarship he could respect.
(It may be worth pointing out that the vicar in question is no fool, as his 2 PhDs go to show. He just feels that the Gospel message should be kept simple.)
Much as I love this vicar, I just can't agree with him. I believe that the Christian message is simple enough for the feeblest mind, yet satisfying to the greatest intellect.
It isn't enough to respond to criticisms of religion by saying that 'Jesus loves me, for the Bible tells me so.' You need someone who understands every last problem with religion; but still has a vibrant and humble faith. You need someone who can even reach out and side with the non-religious against bad religion. You need someone who understands the gospel so well, and all its implications, that they can constructively critique both the church and society; and command wide-ranging respect. On all of those counts, Rowan Williams passes with flying colours.
Kissing someone is indeed simple. Living in a lifelong relationship with someone in the context of a fallen world is not. Loving God is indeed simple. But protecting, promoting and living our faith in the context of a fallen world is not. We need leaders like Rowan who can demonstrate its truth in every way.
So now I'm sulking even more that I missed that lecture.