D01   1 <#FLOB:D01\><h_><p_>4. AUDIENCE: SITUATION AND CIRCUMSTANCES<p/><h/>
D01   2 <p_>One of the general weaknesses of Bultmann's theology is that 
D01   3 its austere challenge is issued directly to each individual, poor, 
D01   4 bare, forked, human animal in isolation from all the rest. It has, 
D01   5 in other words, virtually no social dimension. What is more, it is 
D01   6 curiously timeless. Bultmann never subjected his own existential 
D01   7 categories to the relentless scrutiny with which he probed the 
D01   8 'mythological' language of the Bible. And if he was able to present 
D01   9 his understanding of the Fourth Gospel as a message addressed 
D01  10 directly to his own contemporaries, with no need of modification or 
D01  11 adaptation, this is because he was convinced that this message had 
D01  12 lost none of its urgency or validity. The situation in which the 
D01  13 message was first proclaimed had consequently no importance for 
D01  14 Bultmann. <quote_>"Unlike the prophets' words,"<quote/> he says, 
D01  15 apropos of the Fourth Gospel. <quote_>"Jesus' words do not thrust 
D01  16 the concrete historical situation of the People into the light of 
D01  17 God's demand with its promise or threat; they do not open men's 
D01  18 eyes to what some present moment demands. Rather, the encounter 
D01  19 with Jesus' words and person casts man into decision in his bare, 
D01  20 undifferentiated situation of being human."<quote/> Accordingly, 
D01  21 his solution to Lessing's fundamental dilemma (<quote_>"contingent 
D01  22 truths of history can never serve as the demonstration of eternal 
D01  23 truths of reason"<quote/>) was to lop off one of its horns: history 
D01  24 does not count.<p/>
D01  25 <p_>Hence whereas in each of the other areas of interest (book, 
D01  26 content, origins) Bultmann's great commentary had made an indelible 
D01  27 mark, there was one area in which he left a gap. Slowly this gap 
D01  28 began to be filled; not just because in a field as well-trodden as 
D01  29 the Fourth Gospel it was encouraging to come across a relatively 
D01  30 green patch, but also no doubt because of the growing influence of 
D01  31 redaction criticism.<p/>
D01  32 <p_>The possibilities are not infinite, and it may be useful to 
D01  33 categorize them schematically. There are, broadly speaking, three 
D01  34 questions that may be asked concerning John's audience or 
D01  35 readership: was it (a) universal or particular; (b) Jewish or 
D01  36 Gentile (or possibly Samaritan - somewhere in between the two); (c) 
D01  37 Christian or non-Christian? If a non-Christian audience is intended 
D01  38 then the writer's aim could be either polemic (attack) or 
D01  39 apologetic (defence) or kerygmatic (missionary); if, on the other 
D01  40 hand, the audience is Christian then the purpose could be either 
D01  41 hortatory (to warn or encourage) or catechetic (to teach or 
D01  42 remind). These possibilities are not all mutually exclusive, since 
D01  43 a writer may have more than one purpose in writing and more than 
D01  44 one audience in mind. Besides, if it is allowed that the work may 
D01  45 have gone through successive stages, then it must also be allowed 
D01  46 that the purpose of each may be different. A document that was 
D01  47 directed in the first place, say, to refuting the claims of the 
D01  48 followers of the Baptist could be taken over and adapted as a 
D01  49 missionary tract by a disciple of Jesus. And so on. The situation 
D01  50 is complex, but provided that the key questions are borne in mind 
D01  51 it is possible to shape the enquiry fairly 
D01  52 straight<?_>-<?/>forwardly.<p/>
D01  53 <p_>Bultmann nowhere spells out his universalistic presuppositions. 
D01  54 C.K. Barrett, who in his commentary, as we have seen, avows himself 
D01  55 impressed by <quote_>"a certain detachment of the gospel from its 
D01  56 immediate surroundings"<quote/>, held a similar view and expressed 
D01  57 it unequivocally: <quote_>"John was not engaging in a pamphlet war, 
D01  58 either with Judaism or with the disciples of John the Baptist, but 
D01  59 writing theology in a book that was to be a possession for 
D01  60 ever."<quote/> The reasons for thinking this view mistaken will 
D01  61 emerge in the discussion that follows.<p/>
D01  62 <p_>Concerning the original conclusion of the Gospel, C. H. Dodd 
D01  63 has this to say: <quote_>"If ... we try to enter into the author's 
D01  64 intention, it must surely appear that he is thinking, in the first 
D01  65 place, not so much of Christians who need a deeper theology, as of 
D01  66 non-Christians who are concerned about eternal life and the way to 
D01  67 it, and may be ready to follow the Christian way if this is 
D01  68 presented to them in terms that are intelligibly related to their 
D01  69 previous religious interests and experience."<quote/> Anyone who 
D01  70 reads this with some knowledge of what follows will realize 
D01  71 straight away that it affords more insight into Dodd's own 
D01  72 intentions than into those of the fourth evangelist. For his whole 
D01  73 book rests upon the assumption that the Gospel is to be explained 
D01  74 in the way he suggests. In this one respect he resembles Bultmann, 
D01  75 for he justifies his own procedures in advance by aligning them 
D01  76 with the alleged intentions of the author. What he calls 
D01  77 <quote|>"background", for instance, he thinks of not as 
D01  78 intrinsically bound up with the beliefs of the evangelist but as an 
D01  79 external stimulus prompting him to find a new language in which to 
D01  80 couch a message that does not differ in any essential respect from 
D01  81 the kerygma he has inherited. It is hard to avoid the impression 
D01  82 that Dodd is reading his own interpretation into the conclusion of 
D01  83 the Gospel, which is just not clear enough to allow us to make any 
D01  84 direct inference concerning John's projected readership.<p/>
D01  85 <p_>As for the particular reader envisaged by Dodd, a devout and 
D01  86 thoughtful citizen of Ephesus tolerably well acquainted with 
D01  87 Hellenistic ideas, he is too Greek and insufficiently Jewish. Dodd 
D01  88 does admittedly devote a short section of his <quote|>"Background" 
D01  89 chapters to a consideration of rabbinic Judaism; but because his 
D01  90 often brilliant analyses of the Gospel's leading ideas were worked 
D01  91 out long before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls it is perhaps 
D01  92 not surprising that they are based largely on the Hellenistic 
D01  93 material already studied, though less thoroughly, by Bousset and 
D01  94 others.<p/>
D01  95 <p_>In 1957, Dr W. C. van Unnik of Utrecht read a paper at a New 
D01  96 Testament congress in Oxford designed to draw attention once again 
D01  97 to the essential Jewishness of the Gospel. He specifically 
D01  98 dissociates himself from the views expressed by members of the 
D01  99 history-of-religions school from Wrede to Bauer, who considered 
D01 100 that the evangelist's attitude towards the Jews was completely 
D01 101 hostile. Against these, van Unnik first remarks upon the emphasis 
D01 102 the Gospel places upon exclusively Jewish titles like 
D01 103 <quote|>"Messiah" and <quote_>"Son of God"<quote/> and then goes on 
D01 104 to ask who would be most likely to respond positively to this 
D01 105 emphasis. After adducing further evidence from Acts and 
D01 106 extra-biblical Jewish-Christian literature, he concludes that 
D01 107 <quote_>"the purpose of the Fourth Gospel was to bring the visitors 
D01 108 [he presumably means congregation] of a synagogue in the Diaspora 
D01 109 (Jews and Godfearers) to belief in Jesus as the Messiah of 
D01 110 Israel"<quote/>. Elsewhere he correctly asserts that the Johannine 
D01 111 phrase <quote_>"Jesus is the Christ"<quote/> <quote_>"is a formula 
D01 112 which has its roots in the Christian mission among the 
D01 113 Jews"<quote/>. None the less, the scholar from Utrecht exhibits in 
D01 114 this paper a certain short-sightedness, or rather strabismus, for 
D01 115 with both eyes turned inwards on the messianism undoubtedly present 
D01 116 in the Gospel, he misses (like others before him) the broader 
D01 117 implications of the evangelist's developed christology. Moreover, 
D01 118 if this Gospel, as van Unnik says, <quote_>"was not an apology to 
D01 119 defend the Christian Church, but a mission-book which sought to win 
D01 120 [<tf|>sic!]"<quote/>, then the evangelist must be adjudged to have 
D01 121 set about his task in a singularly ham-fisted way. Interestingly 
D01 122 enough, Karl Bornhuser, whose arguments van Unnik declares himself 
D01 123 unable to accept, had pointed the way he should have taken if his 
D01 124 views were to gain ground. What is required is the possibility of 
D01 125 distinguishing different senses of the word 
D01 126 <translitG_>vIonda<*_>i-circ<*/>oi<translitG/>, or rather of 
D01 127 finding another name for the 'Jews' of the diaspora. For how could 
D01 128 anyone believe that the evangelist was setting out to plead his 
D01 129 cause with those he calls 
D01 130 <translitG_>vIonda<*_>i-circ<*/>oi<translitG/> when he excoriates 
D01 131 their perversity and obstinacy on almost every page?<p/>
D01 132 <p_>J. A. T. Robinson takes up a position very similar to van 
D01 133 Unnik's, stating that it is the title <quote|>"Messiah" rather than 
D01 134 <quote|>"Logos" <quote_>"which controls John's Christology in the 
D01 135 body of the Gospel"<quote/>. And he adds, astonishingly, 
D01 136 <quote_>"This is obvious from a concordance."<quote/> If he had 
D01 137 continued leafing through his concordance as far as 
D01 138 <translitG_>nwi<*_>o-acute<*/>s<translitG/> he would have found 
D01 139 that the <}_><-|>occurences<+|>occurrences<}/> of <quote|>"Son" as 
D01 140 a special title - quite apart from the title <quote_>"Son of 
D01 141 God"<quote/> that is arguably to be linked with <quote|>"Messiah" - 
D01 142 considerably outnumber all the rest. It is true that the Gospel 
D01 143 does furnish some arguments for the view that it was originally 
D01 144 designed as a missionary-tract, even one specifically directed to 
D01 145 Jews of the diaspora, but like van Unnik, to whom he appeals, 
D01 146 Robinson fails to consider the ground and nature of the Gospel's 
D01 147 <tf|>opposition to <translitG_>owi 
D01 148 vIonda<*_>i-circ<*/>oi<translitG/>. This question cannot be 
D01 149 satisfactorily countered by observing that the Gospel is not 
D01 150 <quote_>"anti-Semitic, that is, racially anti-Jewish"<quote/> or 
D01 151 that <quote_>"the world of the Gospel narrative is wholly a Jewish 
D01 152 world"<quote/>. Rather, the question of the identity of 
D01 153 <translitG_>owi vIonda<*_>i-circ<*/>oi<translitG/> becomes even 
D01 154 more acute. Robinson slips easily from <quote|>"Jews" to 
D01 155 <quote|>"Judaism", and says that <quote_>"to John the only true 
D01 156 Judaism is one that acknowledges Jesus as its Messiah. Becoming a 
D01 157 true Jew and becoming a Christian are one and the same 
D01 158 thing"<quote/>. But where in the Gospel is there any invitation to 
D01 159 <quote_>"become a true Jew"<quote/> or any advocacy of 
D01 160 <quote_>"true Judaism"<quote/>? Certainly, as Robinson points out, 
D01 161 <quote_>"'the Jews' for the Gospel are not merely the Jews of 
D01 162 Palestine, but with two exceptions only (vi. 41 and 52) the Jews of 
D01 163 Judea"<quote/>. (In fact, as Bornhuser had shown, the term 
D01 164 frequently has an even narrower extension - the Jewish authorities 
D01 165 in Jerusalem.) But if one translates <translitG_>owi 
D01 166 vIonda<*_>i-circ<*/>oi<translitG/> by <quote_>"the Jews"<quote/> 
D01 167 and then goes on to employ <tf_>the same term<tf/> for those to 
D01 168 whom the Gospel is addressed, then the result can only be 
D01 169 thoroughly confusing. Robinson actually believes that in its 
D01 170 earliest period the milieu of the Johannine tradition was 
D01 171 <quote_>"the Christian mission among the Jews of Judea"<quote/>. 
D01 172 But this multiplies the difficulties. As for the phrase 
D01 173 <quote_>"the children of God who are scattered abroad"<quote/> (11: 
D01 174 52), Robinson may once again be right in asserting that it does not 
D01 175 refer to Gentiles. But that is not to say that it must refer to 
D01 176 Jews: it could just as well refer to other Christian groups.<p/>
D01 177 <p_>Interesting as it is, Robinson's article does not consider 
D01 178 sufficiently seriously the suggestion that the Gospel was not only 
D01 179 composed within a Christian community (which he concedes) but 
D01 180 primarily addressed to that community.<p/>
D01 181 <p_>The articles of Robinson and van Unnik both appeared in 1959, 
D01 182 some six years after the earlier of Dodd's two books. Meanwhile the 
D01 183 impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls had begun to make itself felt; and 
D01 184 there was an increasing readiness in the scholarly world to accept 
D01 185 that the origins of the Gospel were in some sense Jewish, though 
D01 186 there was not then (and is not now) any agreement about where 
D01 187 precisely to locate the Johannine community. As yet there had not 
D01 188 been published any major commentary that made use of the new finds, 
D01 189 though except for a handful of German scholars who still leaned 
D01 190 towards Bultmann's Gnostic theories the tide of opinion was 
D01 191 beginning to flow away from both Bultmann and Dodd. In 1966 came 
D01 192 the first volume of Raymond Brown's important commentary, and his 
D01 193 sensible and balanced advocacy of a Jewish setting for the Gospel 
D01 194 established this case beyond reasonable doubt. Moreover his theory 
D01 195 that the Gospel had gone through a number of different editions, 
D01 196 none the worse for a certain imprecision, was, as we have seen, 
D01 197 very definitely along the right lines, so that Schnackenburg, 
D01 198 assessing the results of what he called the 
D01 199 <quote|>"traditio-historical" method a few years later, could speak 
D01 200 of an almost universal consensus <quote_>"that we are actually 
D01 201 faced with a somewhat lengthy process of composition, with levels 
D01 202 of composition leading up to a final redaction"<quote/>.<p/>
D01 203 <p_>This double agreement, first on origins, secondly on 
D01 204 composition, paved the way for J. L. Martyn's <tf_>History and 
D01 205 Theology in the Fourth Gospel<tf/>, which for all its brevity is 
D01 206 probably the most important single work on the Gospel since 
D01 207 Bultmann's commentary.
D01 208 
D02   1 <#FLOB:D02\><p_>The principal means for educating Nonconformist 
D02   2 ministers were the various denominational colleges. All the major 
D02   3 denominations made great strides between 1870, when Board schools 
D02   4 began supplementing the work done by older bodies to give 
D02   5 elementary education to working people, and the end of the century, 
D02   6 in creating a ministry with at least some higher education. In 
D02   7 those years the number of Wesleyan ministers without any college 
D02   8 training dropped by 51 per cent and the number of those attending a 
D02   9 theological college rose by 46 per cent. Baptists saw the number of 
D02  10 ministers without any college training drop by 32 per cent while 
D02  11 those going to a college rose by twenty per cent. Those with a 
D02  12 university degree rose by twelve per cent. For Congregationalists 
D02  13 the percentage with a college training remained, surprisingly, the 
D02  14 same. Primitive Methodists made the greatest strides of all: the 
D02  15 number of their ministers without any college training fell by 60 
D02  16 per cent while the number with, rose by 59 per cent.<p/>
D02  17 <p_>Naturally, much depended on the quality of the education these 
D02  18 men received. The older colleges, which traced their history back 
D02  19 to the eighteenth century's 'dissenting academies' had not kept the 
D02  20 high standing they had then enjoyed. In the 1870s R. F. Horton's 
D02  21 father, himself a Congregational minister, refused to let his son 
D02  22 enter a Congregational college because, he wrote, <quote_>"there is 
D02  23 not one of them fit for you to enter. The professors are of an 
D02  24 inferior order, and very few of the students even approach 
D02  25 mediocrity."<quote/> Charles Brown recalled Bristol Baptist College 
D02  26 when he was there from 1879 to 1882: there was only one instructor 
D02  27 while the course was <quote_>"not altogether satisfactory"<quote/>. 
D02  28 The other change which took place was the growth of a minority who 
D02  29 went on to take advantage of new opportunities to get a university 
D02  30 degree. The number of men in all four major denominations who had 
D02  31 done a university degree more than doubled between 1870 and 1900, 
D02  32 from 14 to 37 per cent. The traditional dependence on Scottish 
D02  33 universities was replaced by the expanding university college 
D02  34 system, London University and the Victoria University group of 
D02  35 colleges. It was a sizeable achievement.<p/>
D02  36 <p_>The distance that had to be covered can be seen in the case of 
D02  37 the Primitive Methodists: they had no theological college until 
D02  38 1881 and when the new college in Manchester faced collapse it was 
D02  39 only saved by the generosity of Sir William Hartley. It was he who 
D02  40 persuaded A. S. Peake to leave Merton College, Oxford, for 
D02  41 Manchester in 1892. Peake introduced Greek, increased the course 
D02  42 from one year to two and increased accommodation to sixty. Even so, 
D02  43 expenditure per student, admittedly only a rough guide, fell from 
D02  44 pounds81 per student in 1890 to pounds38 in 1901; it was not 
D02  45 unusual for the college to spend more on the gardens than on buying 
D02  46 books. Again, entrance to the probationary ministry, from which 
D02  47 students were taken, was controlled by the districts, not the 
D02  48 college. The problem was too many men applying for too few places; 
D02  49 in 1895, eighty<?_>-<?/>seven men passed the required examination 
D02  50 for the ministry although the college still had only sixty places. 
D02  51 Even for those sixty, there were only vacancies in the circuits for 
D02  52 twenty-seven.<p/>
D02  53 <p_>For their part, Congregationalists suffered from a glut of 
D02  54 colleges: there were eight in England, three in Wales and one in 
D02  55 Scotland. There was virtually no denominational control. All was 
D02  56 left <quote_>"to the working of chance or of economic forces ... 
D02  57 Clearly this is a thoroughly British policy, but it is also 
D02  58 thoroughly pagan."<quote/> If a man had a 'call' to a chapel he 
D02  59 could become a minister without any denominational approval and 
D02  60 with no educational qualifications required. Even so, by the 
D02  61 beginning of the new century only six per cent of the ministers 
D02  62 newly appointed to a church were without some form of higher 
D02  63 education. Again, as with the Primitive Methodists, there were too 
D02  64 many men chasing too few churches: 223 ministers in 1901 could not 
D02  65 find a church. Expenditure in the various colleges varied 
D02  66 tremendously: in Nottingham Institute (admittedly non-residential) 
D02  67 it was pounds30 on each of its 60 students; Western College in 
D02  68 Plymouth spent pounds136 but it had only fourteen students. As a 
D02  69 general rule, expenditure only rose as enrolment fell. Baptists had 
D02  70 six colleges in England and two in Wales although in 1904 the 
D02  71 number was reduced to four in England through amalgamation. After 
D02  72 1893 expenditure fell although enrolment remained virtually at the 
D02  73 1890 level. Expenditure varied enormously: Regent's Park College in 
D02  74 London spent pounds140 on each of its twenty-nine students in 1901, 
D02  75 while Pastor's College, founded by Spurgeon in 1856, spent pounds64 
D02  76 on each of its sixty men.<p/>
D02  77 <p_>There were certain problems common to all nineteen 
D02  78 denominational colleges: the first was the quality of men who 
D02  79 entered the ministry and from whom students were recruited. Only 
D02  80 the Wesleyans had a system whereby the national organization had 
D02  81 any control and even they had problems. For the other three bodies 
D02  82 the problem was the same: either the districts (for Primitive 
D02  83 Methodists) or the individual chapels (for Congregationalists and 
D02  84 Baptists) allowed men into the ministry who had no academic 
D02  85 qualifications. Some colleges, such as Pastor's, existed 
D02  86 specifically in order to train men who would not put off people by 
D02  87 too much learning. Again, some colleges were simply too small and 
D02  88 had too little money: the Primitive Methodist college had only one 
D02  89 tutor until Peake arrived. In 1901 the Congregationalists' Western 
D02  90 and Hackney Colleges had only fourteen and twenty-one students 
D02  91 respectively while the Baptists' Nottingham and Bristol colleges 
D02  92 had only eleven and twenty-one. With so many colleges there simply 
D02  93 were not enough funds to go round: a twelve year survey (1890-1901) 
D02  94 of the Baptist colleges shows that of eighty-five annual budgets 
D02  95 for which there is full evidence, fifty-five had over-spent. As a 
D02  96 general rule the only way to spend more per student was to have 
D02  97 fewer students. The colleges' incomes were either constant or 
D02  98 declining.<p/>
D02  99 <p_>The greatest problem, therefore, was not in getting men into 
D02 100 the colleges but in raising the level of the education they 
D02 101 received once they were there. Wesleyan colleges were established 
D02 102 as theological training centres but Baptist and Congregational 
D02 103 colleges, because of their origins as dissenting academies, still 
D02 104 had a bias towards giving a general arts education and not just a 
D02 105 theological training. As there was no national system of state 
D02 106 secondary schools until 1902 there was a constant struggle between 
D02 107 those who wanted to raise the level of theological education in the 
D02 108 colleges and those who knew that many of the men coming into them 
D02 109 had nothing but a primary school education. Charles Brown, for 
D02 110 example, was born in Northamptonshire in 1855 and had to go to work 
D02 111 as a boy when his father, an agricultural labourer earning 12s. a 
D02 112 week, was taken ill. The boy earned 1s. 6d. a week scaring birds 
D02 113 away from crops. At fourteen he began to work as a postman at 2d. a 
D02 114 round, one round each morning. He left home in 1871 to work in 
D02 115 Birmingham, was converted during a Moody-Sankey campaign, and in 
D02 116 1879 entered Bristol Baptist College. It is not surprising that the 
D02 117 course in Baptist and Congregational colleges ran to six years: 
D02 118 there was a lot of ground to cover.<p/>
D02 119 <p_>Salvation came from without: the development of some <tf_>de 
D02 120 facto<tf/> secondary work in the higher 'standards' or years of 
D02 121 Board schools, the improvements in the older grammar schools, the 
D02 122 use of various 'institutes' dedicated to helping working men get 
D02 123 more education, the creation of new, civic universities like Owens 
D02 124 in Manchester, and the expansion of London University, gave men who 
D02 125 wanted a basic education beyond primary school new opportunities, 
D02 126 after which they could go on to a denominational college which was 
D02 127 now more able to concentrate on theology. The theological colleges 
D02 128 were eager to take up the new opportunities and transfer the 
D02 129 teaching of arts subjects to the new colleges and universities. In 
D02 130 1881, for example, Lancashire Independent College abolished all 
D02 131 preparatory classes as Owens College could do it so much better. 
D02 132 When the Congregational Union officially urged this new course on 
D02 133 the colleges in 1902 there was still a long way to go: A. M. 
D02 134 Fairbairn warned Sir Alfred Dale, then Principal of University 
D02 135 College, Liverpool, <quote_>"I think one has to be very careful as 
D02 136 to giving the theological colleges power over the regulation of 
D02 137 degrees. You must not let them level down the University, but 
D02 138 rather use your position to level them up."<quote/><p/>
D02 139 <p_>Wesleyans, along with Primitive Methodists, seemed less 
D02 140 concerned with the need for an educated ministry than the Baptists 
D02 141 and Congregationalists. They insisted their four colleges have a 
D02 142 spirit which was <quote_>"practical rather than academical"<quote/> 
D02 143 although it was agreed that the 254 places provided in the colleges 
D02 144 were not enough by the end of the century. A committee was 
D02 145 appointed to report on the situation in 1901 because Conference 
D02 146 wanted to know how to secure candidates <quote_>"of higher 
D02 147 educational proficiency and others of special promise"<quote/> and 
D02 148 they wanted the committee's views on the <quote_>"desirability of 
D02 149 raising the standard of the examinations for the ministry"<quote/> 
D02 150 as well as the possible need to give candidates <quote_>"a more 
D02 151 thorough training ... and a more complete equipment"<quote/>.<p/>
D02 152 <p_>Two additional problems were shared by all denominations. The 
D02 153 first concerned the large army of lay or local preachers: for every 
D02 154 minister in the four leading denominations there were seven lay 
D02 155 preachers. To on<?_>-<?/>lookers these men were seen in many cases 
D02 156 as <quote_>"Nonconformist ministers"<quote/> and of many it could 
D02 157 be said that <quote_>"his prayer was like himself, rough and 
D02 158 earnest"<quote/>. All major denominations strove to raise standards 
D02 159 for lay preachers; methods chosen included free circulating 
D02 160 libraries and denominational courses and examinations. The second 
D02 161 problem was the influx of men trying to enter the ministry by the 
D02 162 end of the century; if we look at ministers actively engaged in 
D02 163 church work in 1901 we see that three out of every ten Primitive 
D02 164 Methodists, four out of every ten Wesleyans, five out of every ten 
D02 165 Congregationalists and seven out of every ten Baptists had entered 
D02 166 the ministry in the 1890s. (Except for the Baptists the influx did 
D02 167 not lower the trend towards a more educated ministry: the total of 
D02 168 all Baptist ministers without any formal higher education was only 
D02 169 eighteen per cent by 1901. However among those men 'settled' in the 
D02 170 1890s it was over twice that, at 41 per cent.) Unlike the Church of 
D02 171 England, Nonconformity suffered not from too few but from too many 
D02 172 candidates. There was a real embarrassment of riches.<p/>
D02 173 <p_>The problem of too many men wanting to become ministers and too 
D02 174 many lay preachers who inevitably lowered the educational average 
D02 175 pointed up a fundamental dilemma. Robertson Nicoll, with his 
D02 176 journalistic exuberance, boasted in 1902 that <quote_>"the average 
D02 177 Dissenting minister has ... a better literary and theological 
D02 178 culture than the average minister of the Church [of 
D02 179 England]"<quote/> who were <quote_>"the worst educated [ministry] 
D02 180 in this country"<quote/>. Against this was the tradition that 
D02 181 Nonconformity was the religion of 'the people' and not of the 
D02 182 'privileged classes'. How far could a minister of the people be 
D02 183 educated beyond their level? When Spurgeon opened Pastor's College 
D02 184 in 1856 some of the first pupils were illiterate but he insisted 
D02 185 that his aim was to equip <quote_>"a class of ministers who will 
D02 186 not aim at lofty scholarship, but at the winning of souls - men of 
D02 187 the people"<quote/>. High standards of education were not needed 
D02 188 for work among the <quote_>"neglected classes, to whom a more 
D02 189 cultured ministry would have appealed less strongly"<quote/>. Yet 
D02 190 the same writer lamented that some of the first students 
D02 191 <quote_>"in many cases alienated the more thoughtful minds from the 
D02 192 denomination"<quote/>. Primitive Methodists rejoiced that 
D02 193 <quote_>"we are of the people, and know their needs"<quote/> yet, 
D02 194 as we have seen, they were also glad that <quote_>"our people are 
D02 195 everywhere participating in the social and intellectual advance of 
D02 196 the times"<quote/>. We saw earlier that critics in Northampton had 
D02 197 protested against what they called a <quote_>"cultured ministry 
D02 198 which ... shoots over the heads of the people"<quote/>.
D02 199 
D03   1 <#FLOB:D03\><h_><p_>The Lord's case against Israel<p/>
D03   2 <p_>Hosea 4.1-9.9<p/>
D03   3 <p_>The opening of the case<p/><h/>
D03   4 <p_>4.1-3 The rest of the book of Hosea is made up of a collection 
D03   5 of prophetic sayings and we hear no more about his life or 
D03   6 activities. It begins with what looks like a 'motto' oracle 
D03   7 introducing the theme of the whole collection (cf. Amos 1.2 and 
D03   8 Isa. 1.2-3). It takes the form of a legal disputation and consists 
D03   9 of a call to <tf|>hear in v. 1, the charge in the second half of v. 
D03  10 1 and v. 2, and the judicial sentence in v. 3. Some think this 
D03  11 'form' was borrowed from a special legal ceremony connected with 
D03  12 the Feast of Tabernacles, when annually or every seven years the 
D03  13 law was read and the people judged against it (Deut. 31.9ff.). On 
D03  14 the basis of an acknowledgment that they had broken it and that it 
D03  15 was now binding upon them for the future, the covenant was renewed. 
D03  16 The apparent references to the Decalogue in v. 2 may support this 
D03  17 view. It is equally possible, however, that the procedure was well 
D03  18 known both in the main centres where legal cases were judged and in 
D03  19 the less formal gathering of the elders of a town or city to 
D03  20 maintain justice there (cf. Amos 5.10).<p/>
D03  21 <p_>The charge against Israel is spelled out in two ways, first in 
D03  22 general and then in more specific terms. <tf_>Good faith<tf/> and 
D03  23 <tf|>loyalty are those very qualities which <foreign|>YHWH had 
D03  24 promised to show to his people through Moses (Ex. 34.6) and which 
D03  25 were therefore required from his people both to him and to one 
D03  26 another. Psalm 12 similarly complains that these qualities are not 
D03  27 to be found in Israel. Next comes <tf_>acknowledgement of God<tf/>. 
D03  28 <tf|>REB has translated the same word in v. 6 as <tf|>knowledge and 
D03  29 it would probably have been better to have done so here. The word 
D03  30 is especially important for Hosea. It means more than intellectual 
D03  31 awareness and probably more than <tf|>acknowledgement as we 
D03  32 normally use that word. It often carries with it an idea of 
D03  33 intimacy and close relationship (cf. Amos 3.2). If there was no 
D03  34 <quote_>"knowledge of God"<quote/> in Israel it means that by 
D03  35 failure to show <tf_>good faith<tf/> and <tf|>loyalty they had 
D03  36 spurned their proper relationship with God.<p/>
D03  37 <h_><p_>KNOWLEDGE OF GOD<p/><h/>
D03  38 <p_>Since the idea of 'knowing' is so common in Hosea it may be 
D03  39 helpful at this point to examine it more closely. The verb 'to 
D03  40 know' in Hebrew has a wide range of meanings. It was thoroughly 
D03  41 investigated by the late Professor D. Winton Thomas in a number of 
D03  42 articles and studies. The variation of meaning is so wide that it 
D03  43 may be there are two identical Hebrew roots with different 
D03  44 meanings, one meaning 'to know' and the other meaning 'to humble' 
D03  45 or 'to humiliate'. There are places like Gen. 4.1, where the 
D03  46 meaning clearly is 'to have intercourse with' (<tf|>REB 
D03  47 <quote_>"lay with"<quote/>), in which it is hard to decide which of 
D03  48 the two roots is being used, always supposing there are two.<p/>
D03  49 <p_>To begin with, 'knowledge' can and often does refer to the 
D03  50 acquisition of information and the cerebral processes involved in 
D03  51 that. An illustration of the verb's use in this simple sense may be 
D03  52 found in II Sam. 11.20 (<quote_>"You must have known ..."<quote/>). 
D03  53 In the book of Proverbs the noun 'knowledge' is used fairly 
D03  54 frequently as a parallel to 'understanding' or even 'wisdom' (cf. 
D03  55 Prov. 14.6), where it refers not only to the information acquired 
D03  56 but also to the process of the ability to acquire it. Then too, as 
D03  57 in English, the verb may be used with a person as its object. 
D03  58 Sometimes it merely means 'to be acquainted with' someone; 
D03  59 sometimes it denotes a deeper relationship, 'to be familiar'. 
D03  60 Unless it is derived from the second root meaning 'to humiliate', 
D03  61 the sexual usage mentioned above is a vivid use of the word in this 
D03  62 sense of being familiar. All this means that the exact connotation 
D03  63 of the words, both verb and noun, has to be decided in the light of 
D03  64 the context in which it is used. In v. 6 of this chapter, where the 
D03  65 context is the teaching of the priests, it most probably means 
D03  66 knowledge of the law, i.e. intellectual, mental awareness of its 
D03  67 demands. Similarly in 9.7 and 11.3 it refers to knowledge of 
D03  68 certain facts. But in v. 2 of the present chapter, where <tf|>God 
D03  69 is the object, it possibly means more than awareness or recognition 
D03  70 of God and is used of the relationship with him which ought to 
D03  71 exist if only people showed <tf_>good faith<tf/> and <tf|>loyalty. 
D03  72 The familiar relationship which ought to be the mark of the chosen 
D03  73 people no longer exists. In 5.4 it is this same relationship which 
D03  74 is broken or prevented by their sin. The same meaning is found in 
D03  75 6.3,6; 8.2; 13.4.<p/>
D03  76 <p_>4.2 sets out some specific ways in which the lack of <tf_>good 
D03  77 faith, loyalty<tf/> and knowledge of God is manifested. <tf_>Kill, 
D03  78 rob and commit adultery<tf/> are all deeds forbidden in the 
D03  79 Decalogue in Ex. 20.13-15. To <tf_>swear oaths and break them<tf/> 
D03  80 or to swear them with no intention of keeping them is close to 
D03  81 <quote_>"taking the Lord's name in vain"<quote/>. These particular 
D03  82 wrongs are probably examples of a complete breakdown in social 
D03  83 order in which acts of <tf|>violence resulting in the frequent 
D03  84 shedding of <tf|>blood were commonly experienced. These sins were 
D03  85 punishable not just because they were breaches of the law. The law 
D03  86 was a guide to living in <tf_>good faith<tf/> and <tf|>loyalty, and 
D03  87 failure in respect of the law was simply a sign of a more 
D03  88 fundamental malaise, namely the lack of all those qualities which 
D03  89 held <foreign|>YHWH's people together.<p/>
D03  90 <p_>The judicial sentence in v. 3 is introduced by the usual 
D03  91 <tf|>Therefore and is directed against <tf_>the land<tf/> and 
D03  92 therefore against <tf_>all who live in it<tf/>. It will affect also 
D03  93 the wildlife, for all living things depend on the fertility of the 
D03  94 land, which the Israelites thought was provided by Baal (2.5) and 
D03  95 which <foreign|>YHWH, the true giver, would withdraw (2.9). As 
D03  96 remarked on 2.18, there is a bond between humanity and nature. The 
D03  97 fortunes of the two are inseparable (cf. Gen. 3; Isa. 11; Rom, 
D03  98 8.15ff.).<p/>
D03  99 <h_><p_>The case against a priest<p/><h/>
D03 100 <p_>4.4-6 If vv. 1-3 are a 'motto' oracle they lead naturally into 
D03 101 this next passage which is highly critical of the priests whose 
D03 102 duty it was to teach the law to the people. Part at least of the 
D03 103 reason for the people's disobedience was the failure of the priests 
D03 104 to fulfil this responsibility. The Hebrew of v. 4 is difficult to 
D03 105 understand but <tf|>REB has probably caught the right meaning, 
D03 106 though it involves some slight change in the text of the third 
D03 107 line. The court case with which the collection has opened is not 
D03 108 one brought by a human being, not even by Hosea himself; it is 
D03 109 brought by <foreign|>YHWH who addresses his people through his 
D03 110 prophet and his <tf|>quarrel is largely <tf_>with the priest<tf/>. 
D03 111 <tf_>The priest<tf/> is addressed in the singular. Whether it 
D03 112 refers to the priest in charge at Bethel (cf. Amos 7.10-16) or some 
D03 113 other one in, say, Samaria we cannot say. It could just possibly be 
D03 114 used in a collective sense. In the second line of v. 5 Hosea 
D03 115 mentioned <tf_>the prophet<tf/> alongside the priest. Since he 
D03 116 criticized prophets nowhere else, some commentators have been 
D03 117 inclined to omit this line as a later comment recalling, for 
D03 118 instance, the confrontation between Jeremiah and Hananiah (Jer. 
D03 119 27.28). But there had been and probably still were false prophets 
D03 120 in Israel (I Kings 22). Moreover the actual word order of the 
D03 121 Hebrew suggests that lines one and two are parallel and, further, 
D03 122 the prophet, like the priest, was responsible for making known the 
D03 123 mind and purpose of God. Literally, the last line of v. 5 should be 
D03 124 translated 'and I will destroy your mother'. This is extremely 
D03 125 unlikely to be what Hosea meant. There is a rare word very similar 
D03 126 to the word for 'mother' which means 'people' or <tf|>nation, and 
D03 127 <tf|>REB is doubtless correct to follow this meaning, especially as 
D03 128 the last line of v. 5 is then parallel with the first line of v. 6, 
D03 129 leaving two more parallel lines in v. 6.<p/>
D03 130 <p_>As was stated above, <tf|>knowledge in v. 6 seems closer to 
D03 131 mental grasp than to relationship with God. The <tf|>people have 
D03 132 lacked adequate <tf|>knowledge of God's will and have come <tf_>to 
D03 133 ruin<tf/>, but it is fundamentally the fault of the <tf|>priest who 
D03 134 had <tf_>rejected knowledge<tf/> and <tf_>forsaken the 
D03 135 teaching<tf/> (Hebrew <tf|>t<*_>o-circ<*/>r<*_>a-acute<*/>h 
D03 136 sometimes means 'law'). Therefore <foreign|>YHWH will <tf|>reject 
D03 137 him and <tf|>forsake his children. Thus there is a serious warning 
D03 138 here for all those in positions of leadership whose responsibility 
D03 139 it is to pass on to their people the message of God concerning the 
D03 140 way they live their lives. Ezekiel makes a similar point when he 
D03 141 describes the prophet as a watchman (Ezek. 3.16-21; cf. Hosea 
D03 142 5.8).<p/>
D03 143 <h_><p_>Priests and people devoid of understanding<p/><h/>
D03 144 <p_>4.7-14 This section again begins with an attack on the 
D03 145 <tf|>priests, moves on to include both <tf_>people and priest<tf/> 
D03 146 (v. 9) and then seems to be critical of the whole people. It is 
D03 147 clear from v. 7 that Hosea is not critical of the priesthood as an 
D03 148 institution. It is an office which carries with it <tf|>dignity, a 
D03 149 word sometimes translated 'honour' or 'glory'. It is the sin of the 
D03 150 priest which causes him to <tf_>turn their dignity into 
D03 151 dishonour<tf/>. Here, however, the sin is not limited to one priest 
D03 152 but to the priesthood of Hosea's day as a whole. In v. 8 the verb 
D03 153 <tf|>batten is used in the sense of 'grow fat on'. <tf|>RSV's 
D03 154 <quote_>"greedy for"<quote/> is perhaps closer to the Hebrew. The 
D03 155 verb means that the priests welcome it when the people sin and are 
D03 156 anxious for it to happen more often because it means more sacrifice 
D03 157 and, since they share the offered meat, more food for them. Verse 9 
D03 158 seems to extend the punishment to both <tf_>people and priest<tf/>, 
D03 159 yet the word <tf|>eat in v. 10 looks as though it is picking up the 
D03 160 <tf|>feed of v. 8 (it is the same word in the Hebrew) and that may 
D03 161 suggest that v. 10 refers only to the priests. <tf|>REB seems to 
D03 162 understand this with its <tf_>resort to prostitutes<tf/>. The word 
D03 163 is usually translated 'play the harlot' and naturally the subject 
D03 164 is usually feminine. The only place where a man is the subject of 
D03 165 the verb is in Num. 25.1, and this is during an incident to which 
D03 166 Hosea refers again later (9.10). There it refers to participation 
D03 167 in the Canaanite sexual orgies, and so it is quite likely that here 
D03 168 it refers to the priests sharing in the Canaanite fertility rites; 
D03 169 but their union with cultic prostitutes will produce no offspring. 
D03 170 This accords well with the fact that <tf_>they have abandoned the 
D03 171 LORD<tf/> (vv. 10<tf|>c-11<tf|>a).<p/>
D03 172 <p_>The rest of the passage (vv. 11<tf|>b-14) certainly seems to 
D03 173 refer to the whole people and not just to the priests. The 
D03 174 <tf|>wine which <tf_>steals my people's wits<tf/> may be either 
D03 175 wine drunk at parties or wine used to excess in Canaanite religious 
D03 176 rites as is suggested by vv. 12 and 13. The mockery of seeking 
D03 177 <tf_>advice from a piece of wood<tf/> reminds us of the prophet of 
D03 178 the exile who also makes fun of idolatry (Isa, 40.18ff.; 44.9ff.). 
D03 179 To be fair, those who worshipped idols did not usually believe that 
D03 180 a piece of wood was a god, but rather that the spirit or god lived 
D03 181 in the wood. Still, the mockery is effective. Canaanite shrines 
D03 182 were often situated on <tf_>mountain tops<tf/> and <tf|>terebinths 
D03 183 were sacred trees. In Hosea it is never easy to be sure whether 
D03 184 <tf|>promiscuity (v.12) refers to activities within the cult or to 
D03 185 activities in life generally or, metaphorically, to Israel's 
D03 186 attitude to <foreign|>YHWH. Similarly although v. 14<tf|>c and 
D03 187 <tf|>d refer to cultic prostitution, vv. 13<tf|>e and <tf|>f, 
D03 188 14<tf|>a and <tf|>b may refer to sexual irregularities outside 
D03 189 worship, encouraged by what went on inside.
D03 190 
D04   1 <#FLOB:D04\><h_><p_>THE DEMANDS MADE UPON CHRISTIANS<p/><h/>
D04   2 <p_>After these general considerations about what is involved in 
D04   3 religions living together it will be helpful to look in more detail 
D04   4 at what is required of Christians. The essential point is that 
D04   5 other religions have to be accepted as being on an equal footing, 
D04   6 that is, as being just as much religions as Christianity, and as 
D04   7 producing at least some good religious fruits. The acceptance of 
D04   8 other religions, however, also requires the abandonment of, or at 
D04   9 least the non-insistence on, some points of Christian belief, as 
D04  10 found in the New Testament and the ecumenical creeds; and this is 
D04  11 difficult for Christians, some would say impossible. The difficulty 
D04  12 can be eased, however, by distinguishing questions of fact from 
D04  13 questions of interpretation, since in the latter some latitude is 
D04  14 possible.<p/>
D04  15 <p_>The simplest example is that of the conception of the chosen 
D04  16 people, that is, God's choice, first of all of Abraham, then of the 
D04  17 Israelites, and then, as Christian theology has tended to maintain, 
D04  18 of the Christian Church as the true inheritor of the old covenant 
D04  19 and central to the new covenant. The concept of choice can be 
D04  20 understood in at least two ways. It could be held that Abraham, the 
D04  21 Israelites and the Church were chosen because they were superior to 
D04  22 the individuals or groups around and had great merits. On the other 
D04  23 hand, it could be held that they were chosen because of their 
D04  24 fitness for the performance of future tasks, namely, the 
D04  25 transmission of a special form of the knowledge of God to future 
D04  26 generations and to the whole world eventually. This second way of 
D04  27 understanding choice does not imply that those chosen were superior 
D04  28 to others in any exclusivist way, and in particular it does not 
D04  29 exclude the possibility that others, such as Muhammad, may be 
D04  30 chosen to perform some complementary task for God. According to 
D04  31 this second understanding, then, the belief of Christians in these 
D04  32 choices by God is not exclusivist.<p/>
D04  33 <p_>More difficult to deal with is the assertion that Jesus is 
D04  34 <quote_>"the only<?_>-<?/>begotten 
D04  35 <foreign|>(monogen<*_>e-stroke<*/>s) son of God"<quote/> as in the 
D04  36 Nicene creed. The term <foreign|>monogen<*_>e-stroke<*/>s comes 
D04  37 from the apostle John, and may mean no more than 'only' son. A 
D04  38 different conception is found at the beginning of the Epistle to 
D04  39 the Hebrews, where the writer says that God, who had formerly 
D04  40 spoken to the fathers through the prophets, has now spoken to us 
D04  41 through his son, whom he established as heir of all things, and 
D04  42 through whom he created the worlds; a little later he adds that 
D04  43 this son, after making a cleansing of the sins of the world, took 
D04  44 his seat at the right hand of the majesty on high. In this 
D04  45 conception two points are to be noted. One is that it was through 
D04  46 the son that God created the universe; and this is reminiscent of 
D04  47 the passage which says that it was through the Word or Logos - or 
D04  48 perhaps we could say the divine rationality - that every thing came 
D04  49 into being. Then this aspect of God's being, his rationality or 
D04  50 something like that, became flesh in Jesus, that is, took a human 
D04  51 form. This appears to make Jesus unique, but it might perhaps be 
D04  52 maintained that, in accordance with a second point, namely, his 
D04  53 cleansing of sins, his uniqueness was derived from his unique 
D04  54 achievement of cleansing sins.<p/>
D04  55 <p_>Official Christian doctrine is that Jesus is both human and 
D04  56 divine, and that his humanity and divinity are not intermingled; in 
D04  57 other words, he is not a god-man or superman. Theologians and 
D04  58 others, however, have often tended to emphasize the divinity at the 
D04  59 expense of the humanity. Yet there is also much in the Bible which 
D04  60 reduces the difference between Jesus and other human beings. In the 
D04  61 account of creation it is asserted that all men and women are made 
D04  62 in the image of God, an assertion which most Muslim theologians 
D04  63 have rejected as false. God is spoken of as a father in the Old 
D04  64 Testament, and human beings as his sons and daughters. In the 
D04  65 thought of Paul Jesus is sometimes distinguished as <quote_>"the 
D04  66 firstborn of many brethren"<quote/>, but this is balanced elsewhere 
D04  67 when the whole Christian community is called <quote_>"the church of 
D04  68 the firstborn (ones)"<quote/>. Paul also distinguishes Jesus from 
D04  69 his Christian followers by saying that, while he is truly son, they 
D04  70 are children by adoption. This again, however, can be balanced by 
D04  71 the important passage which says that all who believe in Jesus have 
D04  72 the right to become children of God, <quote_>"those who were 
D04  73 begotten, not of blood, not of the will of flesh, nor of the will 
D04  74 of a male, but of God"<quote/>.<p/>
D04  75 <p_>In the light of such assertions of the divinity in some sense 
D04  76 of all believers, it is particularly important for Christians 
D04  77 engaging in dialogue to have a clear idea of how the sonship of 
D04  78 Jesus differs from that of other Christians. Is it because of his 
D04  79 unique achievement, however we describe it, or is there something 
D04  80 else? It is to be noted at this point, too, that the uniqueness of 
D04  81 something does not necessarily mean that it is superior to 
D04  82 everything else, since other people also can have a unique but 
D04  83 different task, whose uniqueness consists in its being something 
D04  84 distinctive, not identical with any other task. I would not presume 
D04  85 to give a solution here to these problems, but must leave it to the 
D04  86 theologians. I would, however, like to call attention to the way in 
D04  87 which exclusivist theological interpretations can distort 
D04  88 translation. In the prologue to the Fourth Gospel there occur the 
D04  89 words <quote_>"we beheld his glory, <foreign_>doxan 
D04  90 h<*_>o-stroke<*/>s monogenous para patros<foreign/>"<quote/>, where 
D04  91 the literal translation of these Greek words would be: <quote_>"a 
D04  92 glory as of <tf|>an only (son) from <tf|>a (human) father"<quote/>; 
D04  93 and there is nothing contrary to Christian belief in such a 
D04  94 translation. Yet I find that the New English Bible translates: 
D04  95 <quote_>"we saw glory, such glory as befits <tf|>the Father's only 
D04  96 son"<quote/>; and the New Jerusalem Bible has: <quote_>"we saw his 
D04  97 glory, <tf|>the glory that he has from <tf|>the Father as only Son 
D04  98 of <tf|>the Father"<quote/>. There is, of course, justification for 
D04  99 such translations, but they are reading into a text what is not 
D04 100 actually present in it. Clearly theologians and Bible translators 
D04 101 should be more aware that we are moving into a situation of having 
D04 102 to live together with other religions, and should realize that this 
D04 103 places certain constraints upon them. Lest it should be thought 
D04 104 that what has been said is intended to belittle or diminish the 
D04 105 divinity of Jesus, I would suggest that the final result should 
D04 106 rather be a heightening of the status of all humanity.<p/>
D04 107 <p_>Apart from avoiding unjustified exclusivism, it is important 
D04 108 that Christian theologians should work out a doctrine of the 
D04 109 Trinity which would not remain an arcane mystery known only to a 
D04 110 few top theologians in an intellectual stratosphere, but which 
D04 111 would be accessible to ordinary Christians. Ordinary Christians 
D04 112 have to meet Muslims and members of other religions and have to 
D04 113 explain to them how, although they believe that Jesus is divine, 
D04 114 they believe that God is one. They may also have to meet questions 
D04 115 about the assertion that all believers are children of God.<p/>
D04 116 <p_>In a situation of dialogue I hold that the essential Christian 
D04 117 duty is to bear witness to the historical humans facts about Jesus, 
D04 118 and then leave it to the members of other religions to form an 
D04 119 interpretation of these facts in terms of their own tradition. The 
D04 120 traditional Christian interpretation of these facts is in terms of 
D04 121 late Hellenistic philosophy, which we now reject, though we have 
D04 122 not found any generally acceptable replacement. We seem, however, 
D04 123 to be moving into a situation in which new formulations may be 
D04 124 accepted as alternatives to the traditional formulation, not 
D04 125 replacing it but complementing it. Non-Christian interpretations of 
D04 126 the teaching and achievement of Jesus, then, should not be rejected 
D04 127 out of hand, but should be accepted at least provisionally and 
D04 128 further discussed, until it is discovered whether Christians can 
D04 129 accept them as alternative formulations of their own beliefs.<p/>
D04 130 <p_>In dialogue with Muslims it is also important that Christians 
D04 131 should reject the distortions of the medieval image of Islam and 
D04 132 should develop a positive appreciation of its values. This involves 
D04 133 accepting Muhammad as a religious leader through whom God has 
D04 134 worked, and that is tantamount to holding that he is in some sense 
D04 135 a prophet. Such a view does not contradict any central Christian 
D04 136 belief. It has, however, to be made clear to Muslims that 
D04 137 Christians do not believe that all Muhammad's revelations from God 
D04 138 were infallible, even though they allow that much of divine truth 
D04 139 was revealed to him. Arthur Arberry paid a profound tribute to the 
D04 140 religious value of the <foreign|>Qur'<*_>a-stroke<*/>n in the 
D04 141 Introduction to his translation:<p/>
D04 142 <p_><quote_>This task (of translating) was undertaken, not lightly, 
D04 143 and carried to its conclusion at a time of great personal distress, 
D04 144 through which it comforted and sustained the writer in a manner for 
D04 145 which he will always be grateful. He therefore acknowledges his 
D04 146 gratitude to whatever power or Power inspired the man and the 
D04 147 Prophet who first recited these scriptures.<quote/><p/>
D04 148 <p_>To this personal statement may be added an official one from 
D04 149 the section on Islam in the Declaration on the Relation of the 
D04 150 Church to non-Christian Religions issued by the Second Vatican 
D04 151 Council in 1965:<p/>
D04 152 <p_><quote_>The Church also regards with esteem the Muslims who 
D04 153 worship the one, subsistent, merciful and almighty God, the Creator 
D04 154 of heaven and earth, who has spoken to man. Islam willingly traces 
D04 155 its descent back to Abraham, and just as he submitted himself to 
D04 156 God, the Muslims endeavour to submit themselves to his mysterious 
D04 157 decrees. They venerate Jesus as a prophet, without, however, 
D04 158 recognizing him as God, and they pay honour to his virgin mother 
D04 159 Mary and sometimes also invoke her with devotion. Further, they 
D04 160 expect a day of judgement when God will raise all men from the dead 
D04 161 and reward them. For this reason they attach importance to the 
D04 162 moral life and worship God, mainly by prayer, alms-giving and 
D04 163 fasting. If in the course of the centuries there has arisen not 
D04 164 infrequent dissension and hostility between Christian and Muslim, 
D04 165 this sacred Council now urges everyone to forget the past, to make 
D04 166 sincere efforts at mutual understanding and to work together in 
D04 167 protecting and promoting for the benefit of all men, social 
D04 168 justice, good morals as well as peace and freedom.<quote/><p/>
D04 169 <h_><p_>THE DEMANDS MADE UPON MUSLIMS<p/><h/>
D04 170 <p_>For Muslims also, if they are to live alongside other 
D04 171 religions, it will be necessary to abandon their exclusivism. This 
D04 172 means admitting that, even if Islam has all the truth required by 
D04 173 the whole human race to the end of time, there may be complementary 
D04 174 ways of expressing this truth. It would also appear that Muslims 
D04 175 would have to reinterpret their conception of the finality of Islam 
D04 176 and of Muhammad's being the last prophet. This last point 
D04 177 presupposes that there has been a series of pure and perfect 
D04 178 revelations from God, but this is not borne out by what we now know 
D04 179 of the history of religion. It would seem that Muslims would have 
D04 180 to admit that religions like Hinduism and Buddhism also received 
D04 181 something from God, though not in a form resembling that of the 
D04 182 revelation to Muhammad.<p/>
D04 183 <p_>In respect of Muslim-Christian relations it is essential that 
D04 184 Muslims accept the historicity of the Bible and reject the doctrine 
D04 185 of its corruption. That doctrine contradicts known facts, such as 
D04 186 the existence of manuscripts dating from long before the time of 
D04 187 Muhammad. Throughout this century and last the Bible has been the 
D04 188 object of searching literary criticism by Christians and nominal 
D04 189 Christians. Some of this criticism has been very radical, and there 
D04 190 have been conservative Christians who accepted little of it. Most 
D04 191 Christians who understand the literary critics, however, would 
D04 192 accept the main points. This means admitting that some of the books 
D04 193 of the Bible have had a complex history of being compiled and 
D04 194 edited, but it would be vigorously maintained that such processes 
D04 195 were subject to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and do not 
D04 196 detract from the religious value of the Bible.
D04 197 
D05   1 <#FLOB:D05\><h_><p_>THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER<p/><h/>
D05   2 <p_>The Book of Common Prayer is a unique compilation. It is a book 
D05   3 of modest proportions - physically smaller than either medieval 
D05   4 Breviary or Missal, scarcely larger than a Book of Hours - yet it 
D05   5 contains provision for the whole liturgy. Its contents absorb not 
D05   6 only Breviary and Missal but also Processional, Manual (with the 
D05   7 rites of baptism, marriage, churching of women, commination, 
D05   8 visitation of the sick, and burial), and Pontifical (confirmation 
D05   9 and ordination). Its preface subsumes both Ordinal and Customary. 
D05  10 There is no need for Choir Psalter, Antiphonal, or Gradual: the 
D05  11 psalms are appended to the Book in numerical order, and all that is 
D05  12 required to supplement the Book of Common Prayer is the Bible.<p/>
D05  13 <p_>This conciseness is the result of abbreviation, and above all 
D05  14 by the excision of the greater part of the Proper. Much of this was 
D05  15 achieved in the compilation of the 1549 book, but it was furthered 
D05  16 in the 1552 version.<p/>
D05  17 <h_><p_>Versions of the Book of Common Prayer<p/><h/>
D05  18 <p_>Between 1549 and 1662 the Book of Common Prayer was subject to 
D05  19 change. From recent modern experience this should not surprise us: 
D05  20 more exceptional is the stability of the Book between 1662 and 
D05  21 1965. The most important changes came in 1552 but there were 
D05  22 further significant amendments, especially in 1559, 1561, and 
D05  23 1604.<p/>
D05  24 <p_>Apart from the addition of the introductory material in 1552, 
D05  25 the order of Mattins and Evensong remained largely unchanged, 
D05  26 except for the position of the Apostles' Creed (oddly placed 
D05  27 between <tf|>Kyrie and Lord's Prayer in 1549).<p/>
D05  28 <p_>The Order of Holy Communion changed substantially in 1552, but 
D05  29 retained its basic form thereafter, though important rubrics were 
D05  30 added in 1662.<p/>
D05  31 <p_>The 1559 Book saw the insertion of some additional prayers 
D05  32 after the Collects at Mattins and Evensong, and the introduction of 
D05  33 the Grace at the end of Mattins, Evensong, and Litany. The 
D05  34 Elizabethan Act of Uniformity was (and continues to be) printed at 
D05  35 the beginning of the Book together with a revised and extended 
D05  36 Preface. In 1561 the Calendar and Lectionary were significantly 
D05  37 amended and revised.<p/>
D05  38 <p_>1662 was the last revision. Here for the first time the Lord's 
D05  39 Prayer was directed to be said by all on all occasions (the old 
D05  40 practice of priestly recitation with the people responding 
D05  41 <quote_>"But deliver us from evil"<quote/> persisted in some 
D05  42 instances, even in 1552). The doxology was added to the Lord's 
D05  43 Prayer at the second recitation in Mattins, Evensong, and Holy 
D05  44 Communion. More additional prayers were provided (e.g. the Prayer 
D05  45 for All Sorts of Conditions of Men, and the General Thanksgiving). 
D05  46 There were two additions to the Calendar.<p/>
D05  47 <p_>Revisions in scriptural texts are not discussed here, nor are 
D05  48 the 'parish' services (baptism, confirmation, marriage, etc.), nor 
D05  49 the ordination services (first printed in 1550); however, the three 
D05  50 distinct forms of the Burial Service are outlined below.<p/>
D05  51 <p_>No student of the formation of the Book of Common Prayer can 
D05  52 ignore Brightman's <tf_>The English Rite<tf/> (London, 1915), which 
D05  53 sets out the sources and texts of the versions of the Book in 
D05  54 parallel columns, along with a historical introduction and copious 
D05  55 annotation.<p/>
D05  56 <h_><p_>THE INFLUENCE OF THE 1549 BOOK<p/><h/>
D05  57 <p_>The history of the Book of Common Prayer is such that though 
D05  58 the specific orders of the 1549 version were in use for so short a 
D05  59 period, the influence of its ethos and ritual style has persisted 
D05  60 far longer. Reference to the 1549 Book has been encouraged by the 
D05  61 paragraph on ornaments and ceremonies incorporated in the 
D05  62 Elizabethan Act of Uniformity (1559). This has inevitably proved a 
D05  63 contentious section in a denomination which embraces such wide 
D05  64 traditions of theological outlook and liturgical practice. But it 
D05  65 has proved a reference point for those who wish to stress the 
D05  66 continuity of the Church of England with a liturgy extending from 
D05  67 the pre-Reformation Use, and for those who perceive worship as an 
D05  68 act that demands ceremony and ritual in the service of the 
D05  69 Almighty. Along with other ambivalent or imprecise provisions, it 
D05  70 has enabled a more elaborate practice than is implied in the 1552 
D05  71 Book and its successors, a practice which is therefore often 
D05  72 undocumented.<p/>
D05  73 <p_>From the sixteenth century there has been constant and 
D05  74 inevitable tension between the extreme wings of the Church of 
D05  75 England. At certain times and in individual places one or other 
D05  76 wing has gained ascendancy. The polarity was strongest in the 
D05  77 seventeenth century with the sudden swing from the dominance of the 
D05  78 'high church' party led by Archbishop Laud in the reign of Charles 
D05  79 I to the other extreme of 'puritan' Protestantism (here extending 
D05  80 beyond the Church of England to influential non-conformists) during 
D05  81 the Commonwealth. In this case the result was the suspension of the 
D05  82 Book of Common Prayer, and with it the stripping of altars, 
D05  83 dismantling of ornament (including stained glass), vestment 
D05  84 (including surplices), and ceremonial, the suppression of choirs, 
D05  85 dismantling of organs, and prohibition of church music in 
D05  86 general.<p/>
D05  87 <p_>If the Commonwealth represented and exceptional period, the 
D05  88 wide spread of religious outlook has always been part of the Church 
D05  89 of England, and it continues to affect the presentation of the 
D05  90 liturgy in different cathedrals, collegiate foundations, and parish 
D05  91 churches. Between the extremes there is the larger body of middle 
D05  92 ground (which prevailed in the stabilization of the 1662 Book), a 
D05  93 body coloured at any time by current influences and trends but 
D05  94 avoiding extremes of theology and liturgical practice.<p/>
D05  95 <h_><p_>MUSIC AND THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER<p/><h/>
D05  96 <p_>The establishment of the Book of Common Prayer in 1549 not only 
D05  97 instituted new liturgical orders; for its forms and vernacular 
D05  98 language also rendered instantly obsolete the chant of the medieval 
D05  99 Church and the burgeoning repertory of Latin polyphony. This is not 
D05 100 the place to bewail the loss but rather to underline the 
D05 101 consequences.<p/>
D05 102 <p_>The Book of Common Prayer has always been published without 
D05 103 music. This reflects the new circumstances of the Church. The 
D05 104 dissolution of all religious houses and most collegiate foundations 
D05 105 as well as smaller communities (e.g. chantries and religious 
D05 106 hospitals) created a new balance. Corporate foundations able to 
D05 107 sustain a sung liturgy were reduced in less than fifteen years from 
D05 108 many hundreds to less than fifty: The Chapel Royal, the cathedrals, 
D05 109 the colleges in Oxford, Cambridge, Eton, and Winchester, and no 
D05 110 more than five other places. The new Book was intended for parish 
D05 111 churches, their people (especially on Sundays), and their priests 
D05 112 (often assisted by no more than a parish clerk).<p/>
D05 113 <p_>Given the dismantling of liturgical communities and the 
D05 114 overnight obsolescence of a musical heritage that had evolved over 
D05 115 the preceding millennium, it is remarkable that in England rather 
D05 116 than anywhere else in Europe the corporate singing of a daily 
D05 117 Office has continued in choral foundations.<p/>
D05 118 <p_>Provision for singing the services of the 1549 Prayer Book was 
D05 119 made in John Marbeck's <tf_>Book of Common Prayer Noted<tf/> 
D05 120 (1550). (Though the only printed book of its kind, it represents 
D05 121 what must have been a common practice of adaptation.) It was 
D05 122 rendered obsolete shortly afterwards by the requirements of the 
D05 123 1552 Book, but its methods give some indication of how the musical 
D05 124 needs of the vernacular liturgy were met. Further evidence comes 
D05 125 from the corpus of music that survives from the period <tf|>c. 
D05 126 1550-1640.<p/>
D05 127 <p_>A series of emerging practices can be discerned:<p/>
D05 128 <p_>(<tf|>a) adaptation of the medieval chant (especially the 
D05 129 repeated formulas of the tones) to the 
D05 130 <}_><-|>verncular<+|>vernacular<}/> (e.g. the Litany, Marbeck), and 
D05 131 composition of new melodies in the idiom of simple chant (e.g. 
D05 132 Marbeck) - albeit more rhythmic in idiom;<p/>
D05 133 <p_>(<tf|>b) use of functional polyphony based on and decorating 
D05 134 the chant (this was a long-established practice, often improvised 
D05 135 in the Middle Ages, and continued thereafter; see the polyphonic 
D05 136 form of the Litany, and Tallis's preces and festal psalms);<p/>
D05 137 <p_>(<tf|>c) free polyphonic compositions derived from the 
D05 138 principle of (<tf|>b) and resulting in the 'short' style used for 
D05 139 many English canticles (largely syllabic, and found in the early 
D05 140 vernacular repertory of the Wanley Partbooks, but also in the music 
D05 141 of Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons, and their contemporaries);<p/>
D05 142 <p_>(<tf|>d) compositions alternating (accompanied) solo sections 
D05 143 and choral sections, the so-called 'verse' style, similar in 
D05 144 principle to the alternation of soloists and choir in responsorial 
D05 145 chant, and also to <foreign|>alternatim practice (alternate use of 
D05 146 chant and polyphony based on the chant);<p/>
D05 147 <p_>(<tf|>e) free compositions alternating a larger group of 
D05 148 soloists with the choir ('great' services), comparable with both 
D05 149 the use of larger numbers of soloists on great feasts in the 
D05 150 medieval Uses, and the elaborate polyphony for festal occasions in 
D05 151 the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Such music was 
D05 152 not necessarily accompanied, and must have been limited to only a 
D05 153 few large and able choirs.<p/>
D05 154 <p_>On the face of it the 1552 Book of Common Prayer makes little 
D05 155 provision for music, let alone for the use of music to distinguish 
D05 156 feast and feria. In practice choral foundations sang the liturgy, 
D05 157 and this practice is codified in the Elizabethan Injunctions issued 
D05 158 in 1559. The injunctions permit the use of <quote_>"a modest and 
D05 159 distinct song"<quote/> that may be <quote_>"plainly understanded as 
D05 160 if it were read without singing"<quote/>. The implication is that 
D05 161 the music of the daily Office derived mostly from (<tf|>a), 
D05 162 (<tf|>b) and (<tf|>c) listed above, and - on the evidence of what 
D05 163 survives - increasingly on (<tf|>c) in the singing of canticles. 
D05 164 The absence of surviving music for the psalms suggests that these 
D05 165 were sung from the psalter to the old plainsong tones (metrical 
D05 166 psalms were not sung during the Office).<p/>
D05 167 <p_>The few liturgical psalm settings that do survive are for the 
D05 168 four festal cycles provided by the Book of Common Prayer (listed in 
D05 169 Appendix 2.6). They show that musical style distinguished 
D05 170 liturgical observance in the later sixteenth and earlier 
D05 171 seventeenth century. A number of the early seventeenth-century 
D05 172 festal preces and psalms (e.g. those of William Smith) derive from 
D05 173 Durham Cathedral, indicating their 'high church' associations. And 
D05 174 it is not too fanciful to see a hierarchy of canticle settings: 
D05 175 (<tf|>c) 'short' settings, often with alternation between the two 
D05 176 sides of the choir, for ordinary days; (<tf|>d) 'verse' settings 
D05 177 with one or two soloists, for the equivalent of the old Feasts of 
D05 178 Nine Lessons; and (<tf|>e) 'great' services with as many as eight 
D05 179 choral parts and as many soloists for principal feasts.<p/>
D05 180 <p_>At most these sets of canticles consisted of <tf_>Venite, Te 
D05 181 Deum, Benedictus<tf/> (or <tf|>Jubilate), Responses to the 
D05 182 Commandments, Creed, <tf|>Magnificat, and <tf_>Nunc dimittis<tf/>. 
D05 183 As indicated above in the discussion of the Order of Holy 
D05 184 Communion, even in those cathedrals and colleges where there was a 
D05 185 celebration of the Communion each Sunday and on feasts, this was 
D05 186 said rather than sung after the Creed.<p/>
D05 187 <p_>The ritual distinctions implied by the types of musical setting 
D05 188 of services became more prominent during the reign of James I and 
D05 189 especially Charles I. For the first time in England larger organs 
D05 190 with two divisions (Chair and Great) were built. Some foundations 
D05 191 bought wind instruments and engaged special players on feast-days. 
D05 192 Though there was nothing on the scale of the continental 
D05 193 celebrations with instruments and several choirs (see Chapter 10), 
D05 194 the Laudian movement stands out as the most significant period of 
D05 195 ritual and ceremonial in the Church of England until the Oxford 
D05 196 Movement in the nineteenth century.<p/>
D05 197 <h_><p_>ADDITIONAL MUSIC: THE ANTHEM AND THE METRICAL PSALM<p/><h/>
D05 198 <p_>The Elizabethan Injunctions allowed additional choral music 
D05 199 before or after Mattins and Evensong <quote_>"for the comforting of 
D05 200 such that delight in music"<quote/>. In choral foundations this 
D05 201 provided for the anthem. Though formal provision for the anthem was 
D05 202 not included until the Book of 1662, it is plain that this confirms 
D05 203 earlier practice rather than establishing a new precedent. The 
D05 204 practice of singing an anthem (or antiphon) at the end of the 
D05 205 Office dates back to the memorials and votive antiphons of the 
D05 206 medieval liturgy (see Chapter 8). During the first half of the 
D05 207 sixteenth century votive antiphons in honour of the Blessed Virgin 
D05 208 Mary shared popularity with antiphons in honour of our Lord 
D05 209 (so-called Jesus Antiphons). Injunctions prescribed as early as 
D05 210 1548 by the Visitors to Lincoln Cathedral required that such an 
D05 211 antiphon (anthem) be sung in English, and followed by <quote_>"the 
D05 212 collect for the preservation of the King's Majesty"<quote/>.
D05 213 
D06   1 <#FLOB:D06\><p_>The days flew by. Again and again I returned to the 
D06   2 cathedral. To Mateo. Just behind the Gate of Glory, facing down the 
D06   3 long nave, there is a small statue of the master who created this 
D06   4 wonderful work in stone. Tradition suggests you knock your forehead 
D06   5 against his, hoping to obtain some measure of his gifts.<p/>
D06   6 <p_>There was always a steady stream of people climbing up the 
D06   7 steps behind the altar, where they may clasp the saint by the neck, 
D06   8 kissing and touching his cape of relics. It is as if all the scuffs 
D06   9 and scars and scabs of the journey of that tired, worried figure, 
D06  10 you have seen again and again, in the worn robe, wide-brimmed hat, 
D06  11 staff, and leather bottle, it is as if his wear and tear has been 
D06  12 transformed into gems, just as he is transformed. He is no longer 
D06  13 an anxious traveller, but a witness to the peace, perfection and 
D06  14 resolve of heaven.<p/>
D06  15 <p_>Feet of every description peep out from the dark of the 
D06  16 confessional boxes on either side of the nave. Margery Kempe must 
D06  17 have cherished her absolution from here.<p/>
D06  18 <p_>The murmur of masses and liturgy continues throughout the day. 
D06  19 On random, important feasts, the vast <foreign|>bota-fumeiro, a 
D06  20 silver incense<?_>-<?/>burner five feet high is swung by six 
D06  21 priests in an arc in front of the altar, from ropes to the lantern 
D06  22 above. The air is filled with white smoke and the excited, cheering 
D06  23 applause of the pilgrims.<p/>
D06  24 <p_>In the Plaza Obradoiro there is the magnificent Hostal de Los 
D06  25 Reyes Catolicos. It was built by Isabel and Ferdinand to house the 
D06  26 pilgrims. Now it is considered to be, possibly, the most 
D06  27 outstandingly beautiful hotel in Europe. I was told conflicting 
D06  28 tales of the hotels' contemporary hospitality to pilgrims. Some 
D06  29 said that those who received a Compostela, verifying their genuine 
D06  30 pilgrimage, may eat three meals for three days, or one meal for one 
D06  31 day, in the hotel's kitchens. I felt I should find out the 
D06  32 facts.<p/>
D06  33 <p_>The staff were immensely courteous. They said that three meals 
D06  34 for three days was given to the pilgrims in the hotel kitchens. I 
D06  35 was given a slip to gain entry to the kitchens and seek out some 
D06  36 foot-sore pilgrims for lunch the next day.<p/>
D06  37 <p_>In spite of all their courtesy, the hotel staff certainly do 
D06  38 not like the pilgrims loitering about in their magnificent hall. 
D06  39 Down dark passages, past the garages, through a little garden, then 
D06  40 up and down more passages, until the evidence of steam and cooking 
D06  41 smells lead you clearly in the right kitchen direction. Great hunks 
D06  42 of red meat, large gleaming fish, the deft pull and slap and cut of 
D06  43 the chefs at work in various different kitchens. Then the huge, hot 
D06  44 sluice of the washing-up, tired, aproned women in caps, going about 
D06  45 their business with a certain degree of exhausted resignation; 
D06  46 quite unlike the flourish and panache of the cooks.<p/>
D06  47 <p_>A very heavy wooden platter is loaded by the chefs. That day it 
D06  48 was spinach soup, some dark burger, mountains of chips, a large 
D06  49 orange, and a generous glass of <foreign_>vino tino<foreign/>. It 
D06  50 is quite difficult to carry a heavy breadboard, without sides of 
D06  51 any kind, and all these objects on it. It looked and felt extremely 
D06  52 precarious. Concentrating madly on my wooden platter, rather as you 
D06  53 might at an egg and spoon race, I mistook the direction, and found 
D06  54 I had pushed the door through into the hotel dining-room. 
D06  55 Immediately an appalled mob of major domos rushed to redirect 
D06  56 me.<p/>
D06  57 <p_>The room where all the hotel staff and all the pilgrims take 
D06  58 their meals, looked like some leftover sixties' bar. The red carpet 
D06  59 shone with dropped food, ground in. But the space was cool and 
D06  60 comfortable. There were many women eating, from the hotel staff. 
D06  61 There was no sign of a pilgrim.<p/>
D06  62 <p_>Then suddenly three sunburnt men walked in. They were 
D06  63 definitely pilgrims. There was a Frenchman - Michel - he was 
D06  64 fifty-eight from Le Mans, he had walked 1600 kilometres from Le 
D06  65 Puy. Paul, the tallest and most relaxed was a banker from 
D06  66 Amsterdam, he was twenty-three. Friso, another Dutchman was the 
D06  67 youngest. He was nineteen. He had been walking for three months.<p/>
D06  68 <p_>For the next four hours they eagerly regaled their adventures. 
D06  69 All three, with quite different motives and intentions agreed on 
D06  70 one thing, it was The Way, <foreign_>El Camino<foreign/> that 
D06  71 mattered. The Way was everything.<p/>
D06  72 <p_>For Michel it had been a serious and definitely religious 
D06  73 experience. He had made an Ignatian retreat in preparation for the 
D06  74 journey. He was an austere man. As he recounted his experiences, 
D06  75 his eyes lit up and he became increasingly animated. Two words 
D06  76 brought to all three an identical reaction. Aubrac and Figeac. 
D06  77 Aubrac for its danger and isolation, a day's walking in dense fog 
D06  78 and deep snow, with nothing but God and a compass, as Michel put 
D06  79 it. People had died there. Figeac was memorable for the violent and 
D06  80 threatening distaste of the parish priest for all pilgrims. Each 
D06  81 one, at different times had been hurled abuse by him, and sent off 
D06  82 to the police. <quote_>"I can't wait,"<quote/> Michel said, 
D06  83 <quote_>"to visit that priest in a suit and tie and get out of a 
D06  84 clean car, and and<&|>sic! then ask him who his neighbour 
D06  85 is?"<quote/><p/>
D06  86 <p_>The real horrors, even worse than rain and tempest and 
D06  87 unfriendly priests, were the dogs. Recently a woman had been 
D06  88 savaged to death by dogs. Michel had taken a gas gun as protection 
D06  89 against dogs, but he had never used it. He had killed two 
D06  90 vipers.<p/>
D06  91 <p_>Spain was deemed to be far more welcoming than France. In 
D06  92 France, Friso said, <quote_>"I felt like a clochard, a vagabond, an 
D06  93 oddity. Only in Spain did I feel the welcome of a pilgrim."<quote/> 
D06  94 Friso was very endearing, very frank and open. He had gone to grow 
D06  95 up, to find out who he was. <quote_>"You have to get away from your 
D06  96 family,"<quote/> he said, <quote_>"in the first two weeks I was 
D06  97 terrified - no bed, no place - then suddenly I thought, it's 
D06  98 nothing, just get up and walk twenty kilometres, that's all it is. 
D06  99 One night I sat for seven hours in the pouring rain, no shelter, no 
D06 100 tree, no wall, nothing. I couldn't believe it. It was terrible. 
D06 101 Then afterwards I thought, it's not so big a thing, not 
D06 102 really."<quote/><p/>
D06 103 <p_>For every story of rejection and dog or pig horrors, there were 
D06 104 wonderful tales of welcome. A bishop's bed with duvet, everything, 
D06 105 and no charge. The Benedictine welcome always seemed to come 
D06 106 top.<p/>
D06 107 <p_>Friso had found a small house on the route, in France, near 
D06 108 Lousine, with a large placard on the cottage wall, with the sign of 
D06 109 the shell and a notice that read: Compostela 924 k Drinking water. 
D06 110 Friso had knocked at the door and found a great welcome. Every 
D06 111 night the family lay a spare place at the table in case a pilgrim 
D06 112 comes by.<p/>
D06 113 <p_>The blessing at Roncevalles was holy, different, definitely 
D06 114 special. They were all well and both glad and sad that it was over. 
D06 115 But Friso felt uneasy. He wanted to keep walking. He didn't want to 
D06 116 return home. He wasn't ready. With his rucksack on his back, he 
D06 117 felt free, different. He wanted to go on. Both Paul and Friso were 
D06 118 ardent admirers of Sir Ranulph Fiennes. I stressed that my 
D06 119 connections were remote, bloodless, less than incidental. But they 
D06 120 were still inordinately pleased that we should have the same 
D06 121 name.<p/>
D06 122 <p_>All of them stressed the power of silence. The need to be alone 
D06 123 and find oneself in that silence.<p/>
D06 124 <p_>As they talked together of The Way, the obstacles, the people, 
D06 125 the different <foreign|>refugios, the signs; crosses and bridges, 
D06 126 passes and chapels; with groans, again and again, at the word 
D06 127 Figeac, you felt the great importance of physicality in the quest. 
D06 128 Moving alone, with silence as the single companion, seems a most 
D06 129 profound means to register the natural balance of world without, 
D06 130 and world within.<p/>
D06 131 <p_>Continually the talk had to be of return. Return must be within 
D06 132 the shape of every adventure, and certainly of every pilgrimage.<p/>
D06 133 <p_>It occurred to me that to meet a genuine woman pilgrim 
D06 134 somewhere near my own age, would be interesting. Vaguely as I 
D06 135 wandered about Santiago, I had my ears pricked as it were, to 
D06 136 discover such a person. There were various art tours, with erudite 
D06 137 guides. There were several, worn, solitary men, but few women. Paul 
D06 138 had said that a woman was on her way, travelling with two children, 
D06 139 but my flight was booked before she was due.<p/>
D06 140 <p_>Then suddenly I saw this smiling, open face, fair hair flying, 
D06 141 blue jeans, pink shirt. Without thinking I said in English, 
D06 142 <quote_>"Are you a real pilgrim?"<quote/> I usually started with: 
D06 143 Do you speak French or English, but luckily Gustava spoke English 
D06 144 and she was a real pilgrim. She was German. She was a doctor. She 
D06 145 had promised herself this pilgrimage after her fiftieth birthday 
D06 146 celebration. She had four sons, they were wonderfully vivid as she 
D06 147 described them, and obviously very close to her. Their ages were 
D06 148 between fourteen and twenty-six.<p/>
D06 149 <p_>Her husband lives and works at the centre of the Arts, 
D06 150 worldwide. <quote_>"Black tie, is our natural uniform."<quote/> 
D06 151 Although Gustava is a doctor, she felt that she wanted, in some 
D06 152 way, to widen her sense of herself, beyond her profession, marriage 
D06 153 and motherhood.<p/>
D06 154 <p_>She had walked for ten days alone, starting at Astorga. Her 
D06 155 first night at Ponferrada, on a damp mattress in the presbytery 
D06 156 cellar, had been the hardest. Her son Cornelius had said as she 
D06 157 left ... <quote_>"I hope you find what you are looking 
D06 158 for."<quote/><p/>
D06 159 <p_>I asked her what she had found. <quote_>"I have sown 
D06 160 seeds,"<quote/> she said, <quote_>"Now I must go home, live and 
D06 161 work and wait for the harvest. I'll tell you in two 
D06 162 years."<quote/><p/>
D06 163 <p_>We had delicious meals together, walked out of Santiago to a 
D06 164 small Romanesque church and bussed to Padron. Gustava was full of 
D06 165 tales; eager with all the adventures, but she was also very happy 
D06 166 to be going home. <quote_>"Certainly it had been difficult, 
D06 167 sometimes grim,"<quote/> How had she coped. <quote_>"I trained 
D06 168 myself to remember the faces of the children, they were so clear, 
D06 169 as if they were with me."<quote/><p/>
D06 170 <p_>Gustava, like the others, stressed that 'The Way', to be one 
D06 171 who is <quote_>"on The Way"<quote/>, was an extraordinary feeling. 
D06 172 She told of the joy of continually seeing the sign, a yellow shell, 
D06 173 on blue ground. <quote_>"When you come to a crossroads, that shows 
D06 174 no sign, nothing, then your heart is so heavy. But then suddenly it 
D06 175 is there again, on a stone wall, a barn, the bark of a tree. Your 
D06 176 joy then is indescribable. Involuntarily you cry out for 
D06 177 joy."<quote/><p/>
D06 178 <p_>I asked Gustava why she had gone. <quote_>"For my 
D06 179 sins,"<quote/> she replied smiling. Never has anyone seemed so 
D06 180 loving, open, caring and sinless. Gustava is a Catholic. She 
D06 181 explained to me that although you may be absolved of sin, the sin 
D06 182 is itself a separation from God. She had wanted to work through 
D06 183 that separation. <quote_>"Also I wanted to thank,"<quote/> she 
D06 184 said, <quote_>"thank for my life and health and my immediate family 
D06 185 and I wanted to pray for two particular people."<quote/><p/>
D06 186 <p_>I thought of Cornelius's remark to his mother. One is always 
D06 187 looking. Perhaps finding, is simply, looking further. 'Looking' is 
D06 188 life. Maybe a pilgrimage puts that 'looking' into keener focus.<p/>
D06 189 <p_>Just as at Rocamadour and V<*_>e-acute<*/>zelay, it was sad to 
D06 190 be in Santiago for the last time. It is easy to try too hard to see 
D06 191 and feel. To be filled with excitement and longing, and miss the 
D06 192 point completely.<p/>
D06 193 <p_>I wondered what I had been looking for. Certainly the adventure 
D06 194 with cancer had been an impetus. There had been some sense of 
D06 195 urgency after that, urgency towards a deeper understanding of 
D06 196 oneself; the nature and opportunity of one's being. Obviously 
D06 197 quality of life depends on the kind of trigger you choose.<p/>
D06 198 <p_>Carl Jung once said, <quote_>"To my mind it is more important 
D06 199 that an idea exists, than that it is true."<quote/><p/>
D06 200 
D07   1 <#FLOB:D07\><h_><p_>The Torah in Modern Judaism<p/><h/>
D07   2 <p_>For centuries Jews have maintained that the Torah was revealed 
D07   3 by God to Moses on Mt Sinai. Such belief 'guarantees' that the Five 
D07   4 Books of Moses including history, theology, and legal precepts are 
D07   5 of Divine origin and have absolute authority. In consequence 
D07   6 Orthodoxy refuses to accept any modernist interpretation of the 
D07   7 Pentateuch. As Zwi Werblowsky explains: <quote_>"Jewish Orthodoxy 
D07   8 has ... always staunchly upheld the theory of verbal inspiration in 
D07   9 its extremist form - at least so far as the Pentateuch is 
D07  10 concerned. Higher Criticism of the Pentateuch is flatly rejected 
D07  11 and is considered a major heresy. The underlying assumption is that 
D07  12 the whole fabric of traditional Judaism would crumble if its 
D07  13 foundation, the notion of Divine legislation to Moses, were to be 
D07  14 exchanged for modernist ideas about historical growth and the 
D07  15 composite nature of sacred texts"<quote/>. This clash between the 
D07  16 Orthodox understanding of scripture and the modern liberal 
D07  17 perspective has been and continues to be the central theological 
D07  18 stumbling block to inter-Jewish unity. Recently this irreconcilable 
D07  19 conflict was highlighted in a notorious debate between Rabbi Dr 
D07  20 Jonathan Sacks, the designate Chief Rabbi of the UK, and the 
D07  21 distinguished scholar, Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs. Their disagreement 
D07  22 and the subsequent public reaction illustrate that the traditional 
D07  23 and liberal conceptions of Torah inevitably preclude the 
D07  24 possibility of religious reconciliation.<p/>
D07  25 <h_><p_>NEO-ORTHODOX FUNDAMENTALISM<p/><h/>
D07  26 <p_>In 'The Origin of Torah' in the 2 November 1984 issue of the 
D07  27 <tf_>Jewish Chronicle<tf/> Sacks presents his view of Torah in a 
D07  28 lengthy review of a recent book by Jacobs - <tf_>The Tree of 
D07  29 Life<tf/>. According to Jacobs, the Torah was not revealed in its 
D07  30 totality at Mt Sinai; it grew slowly as the accretion of documents 
D07  31 and decisions. (This view, Sacks notes, was originally propounded 
D07  32 by Jacobs in <tf_>We Have Reason To Believe<tf/> published nearly 
D07  33 30 years ago.) Jacobs' view is invalid, Sacks believes, since it 
D07  34 contains several errors. First, Sacks attacks Jacobs' contention 
D07  35 that the Torah is a collaboration between God and man. What sort of 
D07  36 collaboration could this be? Sacks asks. <quote_>"He [Jacobs] has 
D07  37 told us: men make up the words. What then did the Almighty 
D07  38 contribute? The theme? The plot? The rough idea? How are we to 
D07  39 tell? The only evidence we have is the words themselves. And the 
D07  40 words, says Jacobs, are human, all too human!"<quote/> Thus Sacks 
D07  41 concludes that throughout Jacobs' work there is a persistent 
D07  42 confusion between the historical and the metaphysical. On the one 
D07  43 hand, there is an acceptance of historical scholarship; on the 
D07  44 other hand, Jacobs argues that revelation is a matter of faith 
D07  45 rather than historical scholarship. Sacks contends it is 
D07  46 inconsistent for Jacobs to employ the criterion of historical 
D07  47 scholarship in evaluating the veracity of the Orthodox claim that 
D07  48 God revealed the Torah to Moses on Mt Sinai.<p/>
D07  49 <p_>Sacks' second criticism concerns Jacobs' use of the term 
D07  50 'fundamentalist' to describe the rabbinic approach to Torah and 
D07  51 halachah. Fundamentalism, he points out, is an approach to the 
D07  52 Bible which sets primacy on the literal reading of the text and 
D07  53 sees the main function of the Torah as conveying information of a 
D07  54 factual nature. But, Sacks continues, the rabbinic tradition gave 
D07  55 supremacy to the Oral Law which frequently departed from the 
D07  56 apparent plain meaning and saw the Torah's function as establishing 
D07  57 communal obligations. Here there is a confusion between the Bible 
D07  58 as a document and the Torah as the constitution of the covenant 
D07  59 between God and His people. To ask of the Bible if it is true is to 
D07  60 view the Torah as a document - this would be a fundamentalistic 
D07  61 approach. But when the Torah is correctly seen as an halachic 
D07  62 constitution, such a question is irrelevant. Sacks concludes that 
D07  63 in arguing for a <quote_>"non-fundamentalistic halachah"<quote/> 
D07  64 Jacobs has misunderstood this distinction and has thereby coined a 
D07  65 phrase which is devoid of meaning.<p/>
D07  66 <p_>Related to this criticism is what Sacks sees as a further 
D07  67 important error: Jacobs mistakenly believes in halachic change 
D07  68 since Jewish law is man-made and occasionally wrong. However, Sacks 
D07  69 argues that laws are not an individual's private code but rules 
D07  70 which govern a community. No law can be changed by an individual 
D07  71 will or a sub-group unless they have authority over the community. 
D07  72 <quote_>"A group of Jews"<quote/>, he writes, <quote_>"could 
D07  73 constitute themselves as a <foreign_>beth din<foreign/> and issue 
D07  74 rulings designed at a stroke to remedy every religious grievance, 
D07  75 but they would not have changed the law; rather they would have 
D07  76 unilaterally declared independence from it."<quote/> Sacks contends 
D07  77 that Jacobs fails to grapple with the question of halachic 
D07  78 authority and his opinions therefore lack any communal basis. 
D07  79 Jacobs asserts that halachic authorities have not addressed 
D07  80 themselves to the issues of our time. Sacks disagrees - he thinks 
D07  81 they have done so but have given answers which Jacobs simply does 
D07  82 not like. These halachists who issued non-concessive rulings were 
D07  83 not evading the present, but responding to it in a way that 
D07  84 recognizes idealism as a more potent spring of action than 
D07  85 compromise. They sensed the need to re-establish the fundamentals 
D07  86 of faith after the Holocaust.<p/>
D07  87 <p_>The final criticism of Jacobs' position concerns the role of 
D07  88 the modern halachists. Jacobs states that they should take account 
D07  89 of the history of halachic change: Sacks argues that it would be a 
D07  90 mistake for them to become historians. Why, Sacks asks, should 
D07  91 halachists have a methodology that negates time? The answer is that 
D07  92 the Torah is an eternal covenant, a mutually binding constitution 
D07  93 between God and Israel. Such a covenant does not change; it resists 
D07  94 time: <quote_>"The eternity of the Torah is the eternity of the 
D07  95 Jewish people, an island in the stream of time"<quote/>. This 
D07  96 conception has important consequences. When a rabbi decides an 
D07  97 issue in Jewish law, he is bound by the decrees of previous 
D07  98 rabbinic authorities. Even when the issue is topical he must bring 
D07  99 to bear the halachah's cumulative verdicts. According to Sacks, 
D07 100 Jacobs' analysis does not take into account this timeless quality 
D07 101 of the tradition. Thus Sacks concludes: <quote_>"in taking too 
D07 102 rough a hold on the Tree of Life, he has pulled it, roots and all, 
D07 103 from the soil in which it grows"<quote/>.<p/>
D07 104 <h_><p_>A NON-PROPOSITIONAL VIEW OF REVELATION<p/><h/>
D07 105 <p_>In the 16 November issue of the <tf_>Jewish Chronicle<tf/>, 
D07 106 Jacobs presents his defence. In 'The Origin of the Torah: A 
D07 107 Response' he attempts to answer Sacks' claim that there is a 
D07 108 contradiction between accepting Divine revelation and the 
D07 109 conclusions of historical scholarship. Jacobs asserts that this is 
D07 110 in no way inconsistent: revelation is an event or series of events 
D07 111 in which there is a meeting between God and man - a matter of 
D07 112 faith. Biblical criticism examines the accounts of such encounters. 
D07 113 It asks how they came about, who wrote them down, and when and 
D07 114 whether our present texts are completely accurate in all their 
D07 115 details. Jacobs grants that if revelation is understood as verbal 
D07 116 inspiration, Biblical scholarship is impossible. But it is Jacobs' 
D07 117 view that such scholarship renders the notion of verbal inspiration 
D07 118 untenable. Here he invokes the example of Abraham Ibn Ezra's 
D07 119 contention that the final section of Deuteronomy describing Moses' 
D07 120 ascent on the mountain to die could not have been written by Moses. 
D07 121 If, Jacobs asks, the claim is made on the grounds of faith that 
D07 122 Moses did write it, on what is such faith based? The issue, Jacobs 
D07 123 believes, can be settled by human investigation. Invoking faith is 
D07 124 unnecessary. Thus Jacobs believes that both faith and historical 
D07 125 criticism have separate roles and can harmoniously combine in a 
D07 126 true understanding of God's relation to man.<p/>
D07 127 <p_>Concerning Sacks' criticism of his use of the term 
D07 128 'fundamentalist' to describe the rabbinic approach to Torah and 
D07 129 halachah, Jacobs disputes Sacks' understanding of the concept. 
D07 130 Fundamentalism is concerned primarily with inerrancy rather than 
D07 131 the literal reading of the text. <quote_>"Non-fundamentalist 
D07 132 halachah"<quote/> is therefore not a confusion but a legitimate 
D07 133 notion of halachah based on tenable premises. Jacobs continues by 
D07 134 examining Sacks' claim that he (Jacobs) believes that the law can 
D07 135 be changed by an individual or sub-group. <quote_>"I have never 
D07 136 argued for such a position"<quote/>, Jacobs writes. <quote_>"Where 
D07 137 a change in the law is required it must be brought about by the 
D07 138 acknowledged authorities of the whole observant community."<quote/> 
D07 139 Jacobs points out that in the past halachists conceived of the law 
D07 140 as dynamic in character; this should provide the basis for a 
D07 141 creative interpretive approach. Yet such a change is inhibited by 
D07 142 the present climate of Orthodox opinion. The obstacle to such a 
D07 143 dynamic perspective is the Orthodox adherence to a rigid 
D07 144 fundamentalist understanding of the origin of Torah.<p/>
D07 145 <p_>Such fundamentalism, Jacobs believes, cannot be sustained in 
D07 146 the face of critical research. Let us ask Sacks, he writes, 
D07 147 <quote_>"whether he believes that the Masoretic text is always 
D07 148 accurate and all the versions always wrong; whether he rejects any 
D07 149 suggestion that the Pentateuch is a composite work; whether the 
D07 150 massive researches of Krochmal, Ginzberg, Finkelstein, Buchler, 
D07 151 I.H. Weiss, Lieberman and many other historians of the Talmudic 
D07 152 period, into the way the doctrine of the Oral Torah has developed, 
D07 153 are so much hot air"<quote/>. Jacobs notes that Sacks gives the 
D07 154 appearance of accepting the results of modern scholarship - even 
D07 155 where they are at variance with traditional views. But if so, it 
D07 156 would have been helpful to have a clear exposition of his position. 
D07 157 In response to Sacks' final criticism concerning his views about 
D07 158 halachah and history, Jacobs emphasises that he does not wish that 
D07 159 halachists become historians. What he urges is that they should 
D07 160 have a better knowledge of the past, and not think Judaism is 
D07 161 beyond space and time. <quote_>"If new knowledge in medicine, 
D07 162 science, and technology is allowed a voice in the halachic process, 
D07 163 where is the logic in denying increased historical knowledge a 
D07 164 voice?"<quote/> What Jacobs seeks to show is that the Law is not 
D07 165 unyielding and lifeless; it can grow as it has in the past.<p/>
D07 166 <h_><p_>IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES<p/><h/>
D07 167 <p_>In this debate there is clearly no possibility of agreement; in 
D07 168 the letters to the editor printed in subsequent issues of the 
D07 169 <tf_>Jewish Chronicle<tf/> similarly irreconcilable views were 
D07 170 expressed. Supporting Rabbi Sacks, the Rev. Chaim Ingram declared: 
D07 171 <quote_>"the vast majority, ever growing legions of 
D07 172 yeshiva-oriented Jewish young men and women ... espouse the very 
D07 173 so-called 'fundamentalist' approach to Torah which Rabbi Sacks 
D07 174 defends. They have realised that the middle-of-the-road is an 
D07 175 indecisive and potentially dangerous place to be"<quote/>. Again, 
D07 176 Rabbi Alain Kimche writes: <quote_>"It is common knowledge that 
D07 177 from father to son for over 3,000 years the Jewish people have 
D07 178 lived with God by total acceptance of the historical and textual 
D07 179 authenticity of the Torah. Those who left this position rarely 
D07 180 lasted to the third generation within the Jewish nation. By 
D07 181 subjecting the Torah and Sinai to historical and textual criticism, 
D07 182 Jacobs has placed himself fair and square outside the national 
D07 183 Talmudic heritage"<quote/>. In praise of Sacks, Dr Tali Lowental 
D07 184 asserts that the Torah is supra-rational in the life of the Jewish 
D07 185 people. Is this supra-rational force relevant to the rational man 
D07 186 of today's world? he asks. <quote_>"Rabbi Sacks in his commendable 
D07 187 article is clearly saying 'yes'. Halachah takes note of reality - 
D07 188 continuously - and at the same time gives guidance which ultimately 
D07 189 is Divine."<quote/><p/>
D07 190 <p_>Supporters of Jacobs, however, contend that Sacks is mistaken 
D07 191 in his criticism. Michael Milston, for example, writes: <quote_>"It 
D07 192 is unfortunate that Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has joined the mountainous 
D07 193 ranks of Anglo-Jewish thinkers who have failed to understand the 
D07 194 point which Rabbi Jacobs is making. It is agreed amongst all Jewish 
D07 195 thinkers that God is infinite but it is also agreed amongst 
D07 196 everyone that language is finite. Therefore, language must, 
D07 197 <tf_>ipso facto<tf/>, contain only part of God's revelation. In 
D07 198 that sense language is finite man's attempt to understand the 
D07 199 infinity of God"<quote/>. Isaac Newman emphasizes the importance of 
D07 200 historical criticism: <quote_>"As one who studied under the 
D07 201 illustrious teachers of Jew's College"<quote/>, he writes, 
D07 202 <quote_>"I cannot today dispense with the tools of their historical 
D07 203 and critical methodology in the study of Judaism - with the hopeful 
D07 204 possibility of applying its findings to the contemporary world of 
D07 205 thought and practice where it is so badly needed.
D07 206 
D08   1 <#FLOB:D08\><p_>How does one conclude the study of a cult which 
D08   2 became the central symbol of a culture - it is as difficult to 
D08   3 explain an ending, as it is the point of departure in the 
D08   4 interpretation of evolving and changing ideas and practices. Yet we 
D08   5 do face at the end of the Middle Ages the two Reformations, whose 
D08   6 programmes redesigned the symbolic order with the eucharist at its 
D08   7 heart, in very different ways. The events of the sixteenth century 
D08   8 can satisfactorily be explained only in terms of the dynamics of 
D08   9 cultural change: they are inconceivable without the existence of 
D08  10 deeply divergent attitudes towards virtue, authority and holiness, 
D08  11 and differing symbolic constructions of these moods. A site where 
D08  12 some (but not only) divergent concepts were articulated, the 
D08  13 eucharist possessed enormous importance; its correct understanding 
D08  14 bespoke a host of attitudes and endowed identities. The eucharist, 
D08  15 thus, could never be simply reformed; attempts to do so in the 
D08  16 fifteenth century failed to produce sharp and apt new formulations 
D08  17 in the language of sacramental religion. If the eucharist were to 
D08  18 change, it had to be a dramatic change; it could either be wholly 
D08  19 espoused - Christ, miracle, well-being - or negated and rejected. 
D08  20 And as the world of the sixteenth century came both to realise this 
D08  21 necessity and to undertake the new design, the eucharist became 
D08  22 identified as a controversial object, a militant emblem of a 
D08  23 struggle unto death. There were no two ways about it, so when a 
D08  24 crisis about its use and meaning emerged, Europe was thrown into 
D08  25 turmoil for 150 years over it. The eucharist was fought over 
D08  26 regionally and nationally, personally as well as communally, and 
D08  27 became a touchstone of attitudes towards community, family, virtue 
D08  28 - and politics.<p/>
D08  29 <p_>The eucharist's sacramental claims were designed at the 
D08  30 beginning of our period in discussions and debates which began in 
D08  31 the eleventh century and matured in the twelfth, whose implications 
D08  32 were widely disseminated by the thirteenth century, and were 
D08  33 subject to wide<?_>-<?/>ranging creativity and application in the 
D08  34 next two centuries. The eucharist, it is true, was an important 
D08  35 symbol in early Christianity, but it was refigured in the eleventh 
D08  36 and twelfth centuries to create a new structure of relations, thus 
D08  37 modifying the symbolic order, and the social relations and 
D08  38 political claims which could be attached to it. In this new order 
D08  39 we witness the raising of a fragile, white, wheaten little disc to 
D08  40 amazing prominence, and fallible, sometimes ill-lettered, men to 
D08  41 the status of mediator between Christians and the supernatural. The 
D08  42 eucharist emerged as a unifying symbol for a complex world, as a 
D08  43 symbol unburdened by local voices and regional associations. Its 
D08  44 language differed from that associated with pilgrimage sites and 
D08  45 the cult of saints; thus it was one which provided a framework for 
D08  46 interaction and communication between disparate interests and 
D08  47 identities. It linked together identities already locally bound in 
D08  48 the emerging quasi-national units which were more closely in touch 
D08  49 in the increasingly more cosmopolitan world which the eleventh and 
D08  50 twelfth centuries heralded. Within the developing parochial net 
D08  51 cast over Europe in these centuries the eucharist was reckoned to 
D08  52 be equally efficacious in Vienna or Valladolid, viewed or received 
D08  53 by woman or man, at cathedral altar or village chancel: it mediated 
D08  54 grace and supernatural power in rituals independent of contingent 
D08  55 boundaries of political variation. Thus, it possessed universal 
D08  56 meaning.<p/>
D08  57 <p_>Sacramental mediation was not the only metaphor for expressing 
D08  58 the world, but it was one which highlighted a stage in the 
D08  59 narrative of Christian medieval culture. Tensions inherent in the 
D08  60 scriptural tales themselves, the versions of the synoptic gospels 
D08  61 and in the Pauline epistles, were resolved in the eucharist in the 
D08  62 creation of a symbol which bound the essential narratives of 
D08  63 incarnation, crucifixion, and the legacy of redemption. It was 
D08  64 this-worldly in emphasising that channels of regeneration and 
D08  65 salvation were available and attainable, renewable and never 
D08  66 exhaustible. It possessed little of the eschatological pull which 
D08  67 informed the cultural worlds of late antiquity, or of the early 
D08  68 modern era, but was geared towards the present, was fulfilled here 
D08  69 and now, offering powerful and tangible rewards to the living in 
D08  70 the present, as well as to their relatives, the dead. The eucharist 
D08  71 provided an axis around which worlds revolved; in it were bound 
D08  72 order and hierarchy, inducements towards conformity and promises of 
D08  73 reward in health, prosperity, tranquillity. Our task has been to 
D08  74 trace and interpret the workings of this world of meaning, its 
D08  75 construction and use by some and by others, its implications, 
D08  76 threats and promises.<p/>
D08  77 <p_>So in the orthodox teaching, in vernacular preaching, in story 
D08  78 and tale, in magic as in civic ceremonial, the eucharist was used 
D08  79 and reused, determined and applied. Those who possessed power and 
D08  80 authority could articulate the symbol through their own positions 
D08  81 most forcefully. They did so by inducing moods, designing rituals, 
D08  82 commissioning works of art, in drama, by exerting authority and 
D08  83 charisma, and thus influencing directions in eucharistic readings, 
D08  84 creating hegemonic symbolic idioms around themselves. The power 
D08  85 exercised in the networks of social relations is always realised 
D08  86 through symbolic formations which tend to attach themselves to the 
D08  87 holy. A variety of local and universal, individual and collective, 
D08  88 lay and sacerdotal claims came to reside in the eucharist; and they 
D08  89 were sometimes fleeting and private and at other times public, 
D08  90 sometimes bespeaking a single perception, and other times densely 
D08  91 inscribed in ways which <tf|>overdetermined the symbol. It thus 
D08  92 became linked to partly compatible, but also varying and vying 
D08  93 claims which militated against the smooth, lofty, universal, 
D08  94 equally shared and accessible pristine nature which had made it so 
D08  95 powerful at the outset. This gave it the power to encompass 
D08  96 divergent notions about authority, the supernatural, virtue and 
D08  97 legitimacy. In its use, however, it was interpreted through a 
D08  98 process which entailed the filling up of gaps and spaces for 
D08  99 evasion and ambiguity; we have here the aging of a symbol.<p/>
D08 100 <p_>This overdetermination was again a subject of concern and 
D08 101 attention for those who wished to claim a single articulatory 
D08 102 position within the language of religion. We witness in the later 
D08 103 Middle Ages attempts to recapture, redesign, reclaim its lost 
D08 104 symbolic innocence. This is clear not only from the vehemence of 
D08 105 anti-heretical activity, but more interestingly in the redrawing of 
D08 106 boundaries of prescribed behaviour. Jean Gerson (1363-1429) 
D08 107 criticised the irreverence shown by people to the eucharist in the 
D08 108 very proliferation of its celebrations; he recommended the 
D08 109 observance of fewer feasts and reiterated the view that celebration 
D08 110 of the sacraments was the role of priests alone, not even of 
D08 111 mendicant friars. He significantly shifted one of the emphases 
D08 112 which had been maintained in pastoral teaching over some 300 years 
D08 113 when he underlined human unworthiness to receive the eucharist, 
D08 114 even to prepare for its reception, and as he posited these as 
D08 115 dependent on God's grace alone, grace which was manifest in the 
D08 116 creation of the sacraments, and which merited hope since it alone 
D08 117 could effect worthiness. Similarly, the German councils of the 
D08 118 1450s decided to allow eucharistic processions only on Corpus 
D08 119 Christi and its octave, and to draw the eucharist back into the 
D08 120 interior of churches with only infrequent and necessary 
D08 121 processional exhibition and transportation. At the same time the 
D08 122 area around the altar was being reclaimed, divided from the nave by 
D08 123 ever thicker and more elaborate rood-screens. These were no longer 
D08 124 the open structures with thin arches, but now the more opaque wood 
D08 125 or stone curtains which by the fifteenth century enclosed the area 
D08 126 of consecration and elevation.<p/>
D08 127 <p_>These preoccupations with access to and understanding of the 
D08 128 eucharist, the eucharist seen as the essence of stability of social 
D08 129 order and of dominant ideology, possessed an urgency which arose 
D08 130 from the very centrality of the symbol. Within the language of 
D08 131 religion with the eucharist at its heart many objections, 
D08 132 criticisms and attacks could be tolerated, as long as they were not 
D08 133 aimed at that heart. Thus Wyclif's trenchant criticism of papal 
D08 134 authority, the wealth of the church, the religious orders, imgages 
D08 135 and pilgrimages were all tolerated early in his career, until he 
D08 136 began to pronounce on the eucharist. From 1381 on, with the 
D08 137 publication of his <tf|>Confessio, his views were subjected to 
D08 138 ecclesiastical condemnation, the patronage of John of Gaunt was 
D08 139 withdrawn, some of his followers were chased out of Oxford, and he 
D08 140 retired to his parish of Lutterworth in Leicestershire. Similarly, 
D08 141 and some 250 years later, the formulations of Galileo's optics, as 
D08 142 published in <tf_>The Assayer<tf/> in 1623, were condemned by the 
D08 143 Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith by 1625 because of their 
D08 144 implications when applied to the edifice of eucharistic doctrine. 
D08 145 His corpuscular theory of physics threatened to change the way in 
D08 146 which substance and accidents were related, and contradicted the 
D08 147 Aristotelian foundations which were so necessary for the 
D08 148 maintenance of the eucharist as a mystery of Christ's body with the 
D08 149 appearance of bread. Galileo's atomistic theory meant that the 
D08 150 colour, taste, smell and heat, the accidents, were contained in 
D08 151 tiny particles of substance which must remain, in the case of bread 
D08 152 and wine, even after the consecration to produce the accidents of 
D08 153 bread and wine, and this was obviously anathema. It was this which 
D08 154 probably convinced the Holy Office that it was necessary to bring 
D08 155 Galileo to trial for heresy.<p/>
D08 156 <p_>The desire to multiply prayers, relics and indulgences, which 
D08 157 so characterised late medieval religious practice is also evident 
D08 158 in late medieval eucharistic practice. The claims about the 
D08 159 eucharist stressed that whenever it was celebrated, wherever it was 
D08 160 consecrated, however it was apprehended, it remained the very same 
D08 161 historic suffering body of Christ. As such, it differed from other 
D08 162 images of sanctity, since it was a source of power itself, one 
D08 163 which could not be procured by the laity, nor dispersed in the 
D08 164 manner of the cult of relics and holy images. The dominant 
D08 165 eucharistic idiom was one of unity and exclusivity, and yet in the 
D08 166 ways it was perceived there was a pressure towards fragmenting and 
D08 167 apportioning it. The economy of the holy was none the less applied 
D08 168 to the eucharist in the widespread understandings of it which 
D08 169 developed in practices, in forms of containment and approach 
D08 170 current in the cult of saints' relics. Attempts at its 
D08 171 multiplication, desire to have tactile contact with it, the 
D08 172 increase of frequency of exposition, all exerted pressures which 
D08 173 contradicted the dominant trope - that of a powerful unique 
D08 174 universal nature.<p/>
D08 175 <p_>The eucharist also came to be associated with sectional 
D08 176 interests and identities, with claims to power by groups and 
D08 177 institutions. We have observed the competition which developed 
D08 178 within towns over the processions and drama of the eucharist feast 
D08 179 of Corpus Christi. The feast was also taken up as a theme for 
D08 180 patrician virtue in English towns. The hierarchies which the 
D08 181 eucharist marked within the public sphere enabled, if not forced, 
D08 182 an identification of order and a disposition of power, and in so 
D08 183 doing it also suggested the critique of this order. Thus, the 
D08 184 claims of Lollards and Hussites, as well as the assertions of 
D08 185 heretics all over late medieval Europe, presented the eucharist, 
D08 186 both in its orthodox formulations of the mass as in its 
D08 187 processional and ritual manifestations, as a symbol of political 
D08 188 and social privilege. When they articulated an alternative it was 
D08 189 in terms of a different symbolic ordering of access to God, in 
D08 190 refashioning the eucharist and the ritual attached to it. This is 
D08 191 evident in Lollard claims against the sacerdotal efficacy and 
D08 192 transubstantiation, and in the claims of Hussites for Utraquism, 
D08 193 which broke down the barriers between priest and laity and 
D08 194 expressed a more egalitarian and anti-authoritarian creed.<p/>
D08 195 <p_>The eucharist could never really be reformed; it could only be 
D08 196 wholly accepted or negated outright. The more abstract and 
D08 197 'spiritual' interpretations of the practices of religion offered by 
D08 198 such as Erasmus in the early sixteenth century were too evasive to 
D08 199 provide a true alternative, a language of religion, useful and 
D08 200 resonant. Attacks on the eucharist were thus attacks on the heart 
D08 201 of living faith, ritual practice, ideological bonding, 
D08 202 institutional purpose. When the Council of Trent confronted all 
D08 203 these issues, raised by both Catholic and Protestant reformers in 
D08 204 the sixteenth century, it came up with formulations which none the 
D08 205 less asserted Real Presence, sacerdotal efficacy, moderate 
D08 206 frequency of communion, the cult and veneration of the eucharist, 
D08 207 and a powerful affirmation of the feast of Corpus Christi.
D08 208 
D09   1 <#FLOB:D09\><h_><p_>iii) Providence - The Idea of History<p/><h/>
D09   2 <p_>Both Hegel and Coleridge identify history with the plan and 
D09   3 outworking of divine Providence which is Reason, Logos. Hegel 
D09   4 rejects the idea that divine Providence is unfathomable. Providence 
D09   5 is the immanence of the divine wisdom, which is <quote_>"one and 
D09   6 the same in great things and in small. It is the same in plants and 
D09   7 insects as in the destinies of entire nations and empires"<quote/>. 
D09   8 He insists that <quote_>"the world's events are controlled by a 
D09   9 providence"<quote/> and that <quote_>"divine providence is wisdom 
D09  10 coupled with infinite power, which realises its ends, i.e. the 
D09  11 absolute and rational design of the world; and reason is freely 
D09  12 self-determining thought, or what the Greeks called 
D09  13 <tf|>nous"<quote/>. <quote_>"God's will"<quote/>, he asserts, 
D09  14 <quote_>"must always prevail in the end, and ... world history is 
D09  15 nothing more than the plan of providence"<quote/>. Coleridge claims 
D09  16 that the <quote_>"<tf|>science of HISTORY"<quote/> is 
D09  17 <quote_>"History studied in the light of philosophy, as the great 
D09  18 drama of an ever unfolding Providence."<quote/> This understanding 
D09  19 of the role of the Logos as Providence becomes increasingly 
D09  20 important in Hegel's later writings (post 1820). The Idea of 
D09  21 history, he claims, is the progressive revelation of a 
D09  22 <quote|>"chain" of necessity, the great scheme of redemption which 
D09  23 is nevertheless made up of <quote_>"free-acting links"<quote/>, the 
D09  24 contingent and particular events which form the whole. For this 
D09  25 reason, the truths of history must be integrated with the facts of 
D09  26 history. History reveals the Logos as within it and directing its 
D09  27 course.<p/>
D09  28 <p_>Coleridge's <quote_>"Historic Idea"<quote/> has much in common 
D09  29 with Hegel's World Spirit, which is not only the first, final and 
D09  30 efficient cause of the whole historical process, but the actuality 
D09  31 of the historical process itself. The close parallel is illustrated 
D09  32 by Coleridge's note on a copy of the <tf_>Statesman's Manual<tf/> 
D09  33 concerning the theme of his lectures on the history of philosophy 
D09  34 which he states to be <quote_>"the gradual Evolution of the Mind of 
D09  35 the World contemplated as a single Mind in the different stages of 
D09  36 its development"<quote/>. There are differences in Hegel's and 
D09  37 Coleridge's understanding of history which have important 
D09  38 implications for their respective religious and philosophical 
D09  39 views. Both, however, recognize the Logos as Providence acting in 
D09  40 nature and in history. Coleridge links the purpose of historical 
D09  41 study to prophecy, for: <quote_>"Whatever is unfolded is rendered 
D09  42 <tf|>prophetic, whether a physical or moral Law. To prophesy is to 
D09  43 unroll and draw out the involved consequences, be it of a state of 
D09  44 things, or of an action or series of actions, or of a 
D09  45 truth"<quote/>.<p/>
D09  46 <p_>Because the Logos is revealed in history as Providence, Idea 
D09  47 and Law, Coleridge denies that history is concerned merely with 
D09  48 accumulated chronologies of facts and events. Hegel has a similar 
D09  49 view. He describes the reflective type of historical analysis which 
D09  50 he believed to be obsessed with petty and particular details as 
D09  51 <quote_>"a motley assortment of details, petty interests, actions 
D09  52 of soldiers, private affairs, which have no influence on 
D09  53 <tf|>political interests - they are incapable [of recognizing] a 
D09  54 whole, a general design"<quote/>.<p/>
D09  55 <h_><p_>iv) I-Thou Relationship<p/><h/>
D09  56 <p_>For both Hegel and Coleridge, the Johannine Logos, incarnate in 
D09  57 Christ, is, at an early stage, recognized as a powerful answer to 
D09  58 Enlightenment rationalism and its religious expression, Deism. 
D09  59 Since the philosophy and religion are reconciled in the Logos, 
D09  60 reason and revelation are never at odds. St John shows that 
D09  61 revelation is not an object of debate or analysis, but the 
D09  62 undeniable truth of <tf|>encounter. In the encounter with Christ 
D09  63 (revelation), living faith is restored which is beyond the reach of 
D09  64 the speculative intellect. In the early essays Hegel rejects Kant's 
D09  65 righteousness of reflective rationality, seeing in Jesus the 
D09  66 communicator of the spirit of absolute love. Through love neither 
D09  67 God nor our fellow man/woman is a mere object to us:<p/>
D09  68 <p_><quote_>Religion is one with love. The beloved is not 
D09  69 contrasted with us, he is one with our being. In him we see 
D09  70 ourselves, and yet once again he is not identical with us. This is 
D09  71 a wonder which we cannot grasp.<quote/><p/>
D09  72 <p_>In his early attempts to reconcile faith and reason, 
D09  73 Coleridge's position is similar to that of Hegel. He finds in a 
D09  74 Spinozism, allied to his Unitarian views and to a psychological 
D09  75 determinism (through David Hartley), support of his belief in the 
D09  76 One who is All. Hegel too has adopted the <translitG_>we Kai 
D09  77 pan<translitG/>, which, he agrees with Moses Mendelssohn, could 
D09  78 form the basis of a higher, purer kind of Spinozism, perfectly 
D09  79 reconcilable with Theism. Coleridge too draws on St John's Gospel 
D09  80 to demonstrate and support the reconciliation of reason and 
D09  81 religion in the Logos, by which both, at this stage, believe the 
D09  82 man Jesus to be inspired. Following Priestley (and in stark 
D09  83 contrast to those beliefs which are, a few years later, to form the 
D09  84 nucleus of his whole system), Coleridge denies the divinity of 
D09  85 Jesus, claims to which, he argues, devalue his humanity and his 
D09  86 message. Hegel too insists, in the Frankfurt years, that Jesus must 
D09  87 not be seen as some mystical divinity: that the tendency of his 
D09  88 followers to exalt his name above his message led to the distortion 
D09  89 of that message.<p/>
D09  90 <p_>Despite his disagreements with Kant, Hegel (in the early 
D09  91 writings) shares with Coleridge the view of Jesus as representing 
D09  92 an ideal of virtue, and the belief that this aspect of him is 
D09  93 imperilled by a faith which deifies him and separates him from man. 
D09  94 During his Frankfurt period, however, Hegel's Christology alters. 
D09  95 Now God's <tf|>presence in Jesus becomes more important than Jesus' 
D09  96 role as a teacher and example. Man and God are indeed reconciled in 
D09  97 the Son:<p/>
D09  98 <p_><quote_>In this Son there exists also his disciples; they too 
D09  99 are one with him; so that there is a real transubstantiation and a 
D09 100 real indwelling of the Father in the Son and of the Son in his 
D09 101 pupils. All of these are not simply separate substances which are 
D09 102 only united in a universal concept; rather it is as with a vine and 
D09 103 its branches: there is a lively indwelling of the Godhead in 
D09 104 them.<quote/><p/>
D09 105 <p_>Jesus is the direct opposite of the legalism and the alienation 
D09 106 of Judaism. He is the <quote_>"one who wished to restore man's 
D09 107 humanity in its entirety"<quote/> and the one in whom 
D09 108 reconciliation with <tf|>life is made possible through love:<p/>
D09 109 <p_><quote_>It is in the fact that even the enemy is felt as life 
D09 110 that there lies the possibility of reconciling fate. This 
D09 111 reconciliation is thus neither the destruction or subjugation of 
D09 112 something alien, nor a contradiction between consciousness of one's 
D09 113 self and the hoped-for difference in another's idea of one's self, 
D09 114 nor a contradiction between desert in the eyes of the law and 
D09 115 actualisation of the same, or between man as concept and man as 
D09 116 reality. This sensing of life, a sensing which finds itself again, 
D09 117 is love, and in love fate is reconciled.<quote/><p/>
D09 118 <p_>Hegel's concept of reconciliation with life is closely bound up 
D09 119 here with the relationship between the self and the 
D09 120 <quote|>"other". This relationship is central, too, in Coleridge's 
D09 121 whole system of thought. It is the idea of <quote_>"finding a Self 
D09 122 in another and now another, yea! even an alien and an enemy, in the 
D09 123 Self"<quote/>. Coleridge makes constant reference to the 
D09 124 reconciliation of love whereby the self and the <quote|>"Other" are 
D09 125 united as equal objects of love. In the <tf_>Biographia 
D09 126 Literaria<tf/> he quotes Spinoza, in expressing the experience of 
D09 127 divine love as that by which a man is able to live free from the 
D09 128 bondage of his own emotions and lusts. It is <tf_>love, not 
D09 129 legalistic piety,<tf/> that reconciles law with will. Both 
D09 130 Coleridge and Hegel develop this idea to the full, in repudiation 
D09 131 of Kant's formalism. Increasingly, both see Christianity as 
D09 132 expressing the fulfilment of life and love which they find, in 
D09 133 their early work, to be revealed in the life of Jesus and, later, 
D09 134 to be actualized and realized in the Logos as Christ. It is just 
D09 135 this truth of life and love which each finds to be lacking in much 
D09 136 of the theological inheritance of their own time. Nominalist and 
D09 137 Reformation theology seemed to them to emphasize only an arbitrary, 
D09 138 capricious, almighty Will. The theology of Descartes, Wolff and the 
D09 139 Enlightenment offered, on the other hand, only a systematic 
D09 140 principle of order. Despite an increasing divergence in their later 
D09 141 understanding of Logos, both Hegel and Coleridge continue to find 
D09 142 in Christ, first, the witness, teacher and example of divine love, 
D09 143 and, as their thought develops, the Incarnation of love. For both, 
D09 144 love is the means and the source of a reconciliation which is not 
D09 145 merely emotional and psychological but epistemological and 
D09 146 ontological.<p/>
D09 147 <h_><p_>v) The 'I Am' - Divine and Human<p/><h/>
D09 148 <p_>Influenced, as we have seen, by Schelling's combination of 
D09 149 Fichte's Ego with objective Substance, and understanding Logos as 
D09 150 this identity, both Hegel and Coleridge are concerned to restore 
D09 151 the subjectivity of religion. The divine and the human 'I am' are 
D09 152 reconciled in the Logos, and the essence of every true self is 
D09 153 spirit. It is through the realization and fulfilment of self that 
D09 154 man comes to know God and to recognize that his true self <tf|>is 
D09 155 the I AM of the Logos. Schelling, they believe, is mistaken in 
D09 156 concluding that nature itself is not merely contained within and 
D09 157 created through the movement of Life and Love, but <tf|>one with 
D09 158 it. However, both Coleridge and Hegel agree that the Self, whether 
D09 159 divine or human, finds itself in the Other and the Other in the 
D09 160 Self. Absolute Spirit is revealed as Person in the Logos, through 
D09 161 the act and freedom of self-consciousness. Coleridge believes that 
D09 162 man's potential for personhood is actualized by the redemption of 
D09 163 the will. Hegel finds it fulfilled in man's elevation of himself, 
D09 164 as the individual who is also universal and, as such, one with the 
D09 165 divine Logos who is incarnated in the individual-universal 
D09 166 Christ.<p/>
D09 167 <p_>In the revelation of Christianity, in the Incarnation, God can 
D09 168 be, according to Hegel, <quote_>"sensuously and directly beheld as 
D09 169 a Self, as an actual individual man"<quote/>. Man must find his 
D09 170 true self in God. We must participate in the redemption and 
D09 171 reconciliation <quote_>"by laying aside our immediate subjectivity 
D09 172 (putting off the Old Adam) and learning to know God as our true and 
D09 173 essential self"<quote/>. The parallel with Coleridge's conclusion 
D09 174 is clear; I, as a purely subjective self, find the true objectivity 
D09 175 - <tf|>myself, as real and true <tf|>object - only in the Logos who 
D09 176 is Christ: <quote_>"My Self ought to exist, and might exist, wholly 
D09 177 in the 'I' - the <tf|>Subjective - the object being he who is 
D09 178 <tf_>the Being<tf/>, the living Truth, the <foreign_>Deitas 
D09 179 objectiv<*_>a-grave<*/><foreign/> - Christ"<quote/>.<p/>
D09 180 <p_><quote_>God hath also revealed in His Word, that He is the I AM 
D09 181 or Esse, the very essential Self; and the One only Being, which is 
D09 182 Self-essent, (<foreign_>Ipsum et Unicum quod in Se<foreign/>), and 
D09 183 thereby the First, or Beginning, from whom are all things. It is by 
D09 184 means of this revelation, that the natural man is enabled to 
D09 185 elevate himself above nature, and thereby above himself, and to 
D09 186 contemplate such things as have relation to God.<quote/><p/>
D09 187 <p_>In common with the tradition which is developed by Pico della 
D09 188 Mirandola from Aristotle and Aquinas, one of the chief 
D09 189 characteristics of humanity, according to Hegel and Coleridge, is 
D09 190 self-development and self-definition. This is accomplished, Hegel 
D09 191 maintains, when the subject-object identity in Spirit, fragmented 
D09 192 in the otherness of finitude and mere reflection, is realized 
D09 193 through their reconciliation in philosophical thought and in the 
D09 194 whole historical process of Mind or Spirit through which the human 
D09 195 logos is found to be one with the divine. Coleridge too finds the 
D09 196 subject-object reconciliation is achieved within 
D09 197 self-consciousness, and that in this <tf|>act the human logos 
D09 198 images the begetting of the divine. The 'I' is therefore more than 
D09 199 the expression of individuality; it is <quote_>"the act of 
D09 200 self-consciousness generically, absolutely, coinstantaneous with 
D09 201 which the consciousness of Individuality will doubtless introduce 
D09 202 itself"<quote/>. The essential quality of mind, for Coleridge, is 
D09 203 that of a <quote_>"self-finding power"<quote/>, just as, for Hegel, 
D09 204 Absolute Spirit is a finding of itself in the reconciliation of 
D09 205 otherness. There is, however, in Coleridge's estimation, a further 
D09 206 step required to the fulfilment of self and of person, that is, to 
D09 207 distinguish between the 'I', and mind.<p/>
D09 208 
D10   1 <#FLOB:D10\><h_><p_>5. CONCLUSION: THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE 
D10   2 CREATIONIST TRADITION TO TWENTIETH-CENTURY PHYSICS (EINSTEIN AND 
D10   3 BOHR)<p/><h/>
D10   4 <p_>We have traced the history of the creationist tradition in 
D10   5 relation to the physical sciences from the second century BC 
D10   6 through to the nineteenth century AD. Major contributors to the 
D10   7 sciences during those twenty-one centuries were frequently inspired 
D10   8 by the belief that God had created all things in accordance with 
D10   9 laws of his own devising, laws which made the world comprehensible 
D10  10 to humans and gave the world a degree of unity and relative 
D10  11 autonomy, and that God had sent his Son and poured out his Spirit 
D10  12 to initiate a worldwide ministry of healing and restoration.<p/>
D10  13 <p_>We have also found that the creationist tradition began to 
D10  14 unravel in the twelfth century with the polarization between 
D10  15 theologies emphasizing the workings of nature and the truths of 
D10  16 reason, on the one hand, and the supernatural and the suprarational 
D10  17 mysteries of revelation, on the other. This was not a conflict 
D10  18 between science and religion. Both sides of the issue were rooted 
D10  19 in the creationist tradition and both made significant 
D10  20 contributions to the development of science. At various junctures, 
D10  21 attempts were made to synthesize nature and supernature in a 
D10  22 recovery of biblical thought, often in conjunction with 
D10  23 extrabiblical philosophies like those of Aristotle, Neoplatonism 
D10  24 and Hermeticism. Nonetheless, the process of fragmentation and 
D10  25 secularization continued to reassert itself until the decline of 
D10  26 the creationist outlook as an international, public tradition in 
D10  27 the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.<p/>
D10  28 <p_>It is beyond dispute that the creationist tradition made 
D10  29 significant contributions to the rise and development of both 
D10  30 medieval and classical (seventeenth to nineteenth century) physics. 
D10  31 The major breakthroughs in astronomy, medicine, mechanics, 
D10  32 chemistry, thermodynamics, and electricity and magnetism were all 
D10  33 associated with theological ideas related to God and creation. It 
D10  34 would appear, however, that the triumph in the nineteenth century 
D10  35 of individualism in religion and professionalism in the sciences 
D10  36 had severely reduced the likelihood that scientific developments of 
D10  37 the twentieth century would be embedded in a similar theological 
D10  38 matrix.<p/>
D10  39 <p_>Certainly physicists of the twentieth century are more diverse 
D10  40 in their religious beliefs. Many would be reluctant to identify 
D10  41 themselves with any theological tradition at all. And even where 
D10  42 particular beliefs may be held privately, they are not as likely to 
D10  43 play a dynamic role in the choice of science as a profession or in 
D10  44 the quest for insight into nature as they were in medieval and 
D10  45 early modern times. In any case, scientists no longer include 
D10  46 prayers in their professional writings, as Kepler did, or draw 
D10  47 attention to the existence of God, as Maxwell still did as late as 
D10  48 the 1870s. The most that can be said is that a few scientists have 
D10  49 allowed the possibility of God's existence in their more popular 
D10  50 writings.<p/>
D10  51 <p_>In this final section, however, we shall argue that remnants of 
D10  52 the creationist tradition played a key role in the foundations of 
D10  53 twentieth-century physics in the work of its two principal 
D10  54 founders, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) and Niels Bohr (1885-1962). 
D10  55 We cannot hope to do justice to the philosophies of either Einstein 
D10  56 or Bohr in their own right - we shall not even treat them 
D10  57 separately. But we must ask what contribution, if any, the 
D10  58 creationist tradition has made in the case of these two figures 
D10  59 that form a bridge from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. If 
D10  60 ideas and beliefs have a momentum of their own, we might expect to 
D10  61 find traces of the same beliefs in their work that inspired their 
D10  62 predecessors, particularly those in the tradition of Michael 
D10  63 Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, whom Einstein and Bohr so admired 
D10  64 and emulated.<p/>
D10  65 <p_>It is a well known fact that Einstein and Bohr differed 
D10  66 strongly on many issues, particularly ones concerning the adequacy 
D10  67 of the quantum-mechanical formalism, the development of which they 
D10  68 both did so much to further. Einstein's 1905 paper on the 
D10  69 photoelectric effect first showed that light was quantized in units 
D10  70 (later called 'photons') whose momentum and energy were directly 
D10  71 related to the wavelength and frequency of the light waves. It is 
D10  72 to Einstein also that we owe the mathematical formula for the 
D10  73 probability of the radiation of light from an atom (1916). 
D10  74 Subsequently, the ideas of discontinuity and statistical 
D10  75 explanation became basic ingredients of quantum mechanics. Despite 
D10  76 Einstein's pioneering work in these areas, he himself insisted on 
D10  77 continuity and completeness of dynamical description (not to be 
D10  78 equated with 'determinism' in the classical sense) and saw this as 
D10  79 required by the field theory of Faraday and Maxwell.<p/>
D10  80 <p_>Bohr's 1913 theory of the hydrogen atom provided the first 
D10  81 working model of the new mechanics describing the interaction of 
D10  82 atoms and light. Bohr also provided the most influential 
D10  83 interpretation of the fully developed quantum mechanics of the late 
D10  84 1920s with his principles of 'correspondence' and 
D10  85 'complementarity'. Unlike Einstein, however, he judged these 
D10  86 developments to be consistent with overall principles of natural 
D10  87 philosophy and argued for their being foundational, if not final, 
D10  88 in the progress of modern physics. Whereas Einstein pointed to 
D10  89 Maxwell's field theory as the precedent for his own work, Bohr 
D10  90 looked back to the beginnings of atomic theory under Maxwell and 
D10  91 his successors, J.J. Thomson and Ernest Rutherford.<p/>
D10  92 <p_>Culturally, Einstein and Bohr were both products of late 
D10  93 nineteenth<?_>-<?/>century European culture. Ethnically a German 
D10  94 Jew, Einstein was steeped in the literature of nineteenth-century 
D10  95 German philosophy; Bohr was raised in cosmopolitan Copenhagen (his 
D10  96 mother was also Jewish), where the primary influences mediated were 
D10  97 those of nineteenth-century England and Germany. He further came 
D10  98 <quote_>"under the spell of Cambridge and the inspiration of the 
D10  99 great English physicists"<quote/> (Thomson, Jeans, Larmor, and 
D10 100 Rutherford) during his post<?_>-<?/>graduate studies in 1911-12.<p/>
D10 101 <p_>Though religion was not taken seriously in either of their 
D10 102 families, both Einstein and Bohr struggled with religious questions 
D10 103 in their youths. And both expressed appreciation for the religious 
D10 104 sense as that was understood in the liberal, romantic vein of the 
D10 105 nineteenth century. Einstein spoke of a <quote_>"cosmic religious 
D10 106 feeling"<quote/> that was common to creative scientists and 
D10 107 religious mystics alike. Bohr referred to a <quote_>"universal 
D10 108 religious feeling"<quote/> that exists in every age, particularly 
D10 109 among poets, and which is in intimate harmony with insight into 
D10 110 nature. Both Einstein and Bohr recognized the great religious and 
D10 111 philosophical traditions of other cultures, though, it should be 
D10 112 noted that they knew Indian and Chinese thought mostly through the 
D10 113 German adaptations of Schopenhauer and Schiller. Einstein developed 
D10 114 his own version of certain fundamental Jewish truths he once 
D10 115 identified as <quote|>"Mosaic". Bohr was well versed in the German 
D10 116 poets, particularly Schiller and Goethe. He was also fond of 
D10 117 Kierkegaard's <tf_>Stages on Life's Way<tf/>, though he did not 
D10 118 agree with the thought of Kierkegaard as a whole.<p/>
D10 119 <p_>The reason why neither Einstein nor Bohr were willing to adopt 
D10 120 a positive theological stance was that they both associated 
D10 121 religious teachings and formal doctrine with narrow-mindedness. 
D10 122 After a brief period of religious devotion in his youth, Einstein 
D10 123 rejected what he called the <quote_>"anthropomorphic 
D10 124 character"<quote/> of the <quote_>"God of Providence"<quote/> as 
D10 125 portrayed in the Hebrew Bible and eschewed any suggestion of 
D10 126 personality in God or of the miraculous in his dealings with 
D10 127 humans. Einstein's unfavourable references to the <quote_>"moral 
D10 128 religion"<quote/> and the <quote_>"social or moral conception of 
D10 129 God"<quote/> in this connection suggests that he associated the 
D10 130 idea of a personal God with the pragmatism that characterized much 
D10 131 German religion, both Jewish and Christian, in his early years.<p/>
D10 132 <p_>Bohr was opposed, in principle, to any formal system or dogma 
D10 133 that claimed to be the whole truth. Even with respect to his own 
D10 134 attempt at a universal synthesis, the principle of complementarity, 
D10 135 he disavowed any overall system or doctrine of ready-made precepts, 
D10 136 and he never attempted to give a formal definition. Accordingly, he 
D10 137 thought of religion primarily in terms of a <quote_>"universal 
D10 138 feeling"<quote/> and rejected any attempt to <quote_>"freeze 
D10 139 it"<quote/> in terms of the concepts of any given period of human 
D10 140 history. Bohr referred to the anthropomorphic notion of a 
D10 141 supernatural power with whom people could bargain for favours as a 
D10 142 figment of primitive imaginations, and did not take the possibility 
D10 143 of historical revelation seriously.<p/>
D10 144 <p_>It is likely that both Einstein and Bohr were influenced in 
D10 145 their views by the evolutionary theory of religion developed by 
D10 146 Herbert Spencer, Edward Tylor, and Andrew Lang. Einstein, in 
D10 147 particular, described an evolution of religion from a primitive 
D10 148 stage, in which humans conceived of God in their own image, through 
D10 149 the higher religions of social and moral value to the vision, held 
D10 150 by a few, of a cosmic God.<p/>
D10 151 <p_>The fact that for Einstein and Bohr the biblical teachings of 
D10 152 the synagogue and church had little to do with the serious issues 
D10 153 of science and society serves to confirm our observations 
D10 154 concerning the decline of the creationist tradition in Western 
D10 155 culture. Since the twelfth century, miracle had become increasingly 
D10 156 viewed as the antithesis of natural law, and faith in a personal 
D10 157 God had been gradually isolated from its moorings in the history of 
D10 158 nature and culture. The positive faith of Einstein and Bohr, 
D10 159 however, points to another important fact, seemingly at variance 
D10 160 with the first: the survival of creationist themes in the absence 
D10 161 of the tradition that originally mediated and sustained them.<p/>
D10 162 <p_>If we were to characterize the primary object of the respective 
D10 163 faiths of Einstein and Bohr with a single word, that word would be 
D10 164 <quote|>"harmony". Both Einstein and Bohr spoke of harmony in 
D10 165 metaphysical, and even reverential, terms that would traditionally 
D10 166 have been reserved for God.<p/>
D10 167 <p_>For Einstein, the physical world was an incarnation of reason 
D10 168 which, though manifest in various laws and principles, was 
D10 169 inaccessible to the human mind in its profoundest depths. Thus 
D10 170 physics itself was a quest of religious proportions. The true 
D10 171 scientist was enraptured by <quote_>"the harmony of natural law, 
D10 172 which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared 
D10 173 with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is 
D10 174 an utterly insignificant reflection"<quote/>.<p/>
D10 175 <p_>The enterprise of physics, as Einstein understood it, was based 
D10 176 on the conviction that the entire cosmos was governed by what 
D10 177 Leibniz had called the <quote_>"pre-established harmony"<quote/> of 
D10 178 the parts. For instance, when Einstein described the work of Max 
D10 179 Planck - discoverer of the quantum of action (1900) - he used 
D10 180 words, as his most recent biographer, Abraham Pais, has pointed 
D10 181 out, that described his own conviction and experience as well as 
D10 182 Planck's:<p/>
D10 183 <p_><quote_>The longing to behold ... pre-established harmony is 
D10 184 the source of the inexhaustible persistence and patience with which 
D10 185 we see Planck devoting himself to the most general problems of our 
D10 186 science without letting himself be deflected by goals which are 
D10 187 more profitable and easier to achieve ... The emotional state which 
D10 188 enables such achievements is similar to that of the religious 
D10 189 person or the person in love; the daily pursuit does not originate 
D10 190 from a design or a programme [of one's own choice or invention] but 
D10 191 from a direct need.<quote/><p/>
D10 192 <p_>This statement may readily be compared to the teachings of 
D10 193 Church fathers like Irenaeus and Basil or the writings of Christian 
D10 194 natural philosophers like Paracelsus and Bacon, or Kepler and 
D10 195 Newton. It shares with them its ideal of selfless service as well 
D10 196 as its belief in the unity and harmony of the world. It also 
D10 197 indicates that, however much he reacted against the current 
D10 198 understanding of the 'personality' of God, Einstein's experience of 
D10 199 the divine presence was not entirely an impersonal one like that 
D10 200 generally associated with Spinoza, with which Einstein's 
D10 201 theological views are often compared. The quest of the scientist is 
D10 202 compared to the religious affections and the passion of a person in 
D10 203 love. Einstein once stated that he read the Hebrew Bible often (in 
D10 204 German translation), and he particularly admired the cosmic sense 
D10 205 of the Psalms and some of the Prophets. At age eighteen, the young 
D10 206 Einstein had cited strenuous labour and contemplation of God's 
D10 207 nature as <quote_>"the angels which, reconciling, fortifying, and 
D10 208 yet mercilessly severe, will guide me through the tumult of 
D10 209 life"<quote/>. Undoubtedly, the reference to angels here is a 
D10 210 figure of speech for Einstein, but the sense of personal calling 
D10 211 and guidance was very real, and it never left him.
D10 212 
D11   1 <#FLOB:D11\><h_><p_><quote_>"Not just the ecumaniacs or the 
D11   2 Evangelicals, but everyone"<quote/>; <quote_>"Be as relentless as 
D11   3 St Paul"<quote/><p/>
D11   4 <p_>Churches all over England to make a shared start on a 
D11   5 missionary decade<p/>
D11   6 <p_>by Betty Saunders<p/><h/>
D11   7 <p_>THE DECADE OF EVANGELISM begins officially on Sunday, the Feast 
D11   8 of Epiphany, with special services in cathedrals, churches, and 
D11   9 chapels throughout the country.<p/>
D11  10 <p_>In York Minster the Archbishop of York will preach at a 
D11  11 eucharist to mark the inauguration; and Dr Habgood will commission 
D11  12 twelve men and women as 'advisers for the Decade of Evangelism', 
D11  13 who are to be sent to encourage the York parishes in their 
D11  14 outreach.<p/>
D11  15 <p_>Guildford is one of the dioceses where the Decade will be 
D11  16 launched tomorrow, 5 January, at a cathedral service followed by a 
D11  17 vigil and celebration called <quote_>"Alight for Christ"<quote/>, 
D11  18 led by the Bishops of Guildford and Dorking. Leicester, too, is to 
D11  19 start tomorrow night, in Leicester Cathedral, when parish 
D11  20 representatives will join in a statement of commitment.<p/>
D11  21 <p_>Roman Catholics are calling it the <quote_>"Decade of 
D11  22 Evangelisation"<quote/>, but the aim is the same. They will share a 
D11  23 common approach with Anglicans, Free Churches, house groups, 
D11  24 Pentecostalists and members of the Evangelical Alliance, all of 
D11  25 whom are to place an emphasis on attracting young people to the 
D11  26 churches, especially those who have had no contact with the 
D11  27 Christian faith.<p/>
D11  28 <p_>In some places the Decade will be launched on Sunday 20 
D11  29 January, during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In 
D11  30 Manchester, the presidents of the Ecumenical Council hope to fill 
D11  31 the Free Trade Hall at a launching celebration on 21 January. The 
D11  32 Bishop of Worcester says in his <tf_>Diocesan News<tf/>: 
D11  33 <quote_>"The main thing is that everyone should go to one or other 
D11  34 of the launches. Not just the ecumaniacs or the Evangelicals but 
D11  35 all, Prayer Book Society included."<quote/><p/>
D11  36 <p_>Unity as the Decade begins will be celebrated in Winchester 
D11  37 Cathedral on Sunday, when leaders of local Anglican, Roman 
D11  38 Catholic, Methodist and United Reformed Churches are to sign a 
D11  39 covenant. In some other dioceses churchgoers will arrive in church 
D11  40 on Sunday to hear the voice of their bishop delivering a recorded 
D11  41 message.<p/>
D11  42 <p_>Many worshippers throughout England will find leaflets in 
D11  43 church, giving them information about the Decade, and signed by the 
D11  44 Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Hume, the Revd Dr John Newton of 
D11  45 the Free Church Federal Council and the Revd Desmond Pemberton of 
D11  46 the Wesleyan Holiness Church. All four represent Churches Together 
D11  47 In England, the new ecumenical body which took over from the 
D11  48 British Council of Churches.<p/>
D11  49 <p_>The twice-yearly Anglo-Catholic journal <tf_>Living Stones<tf/> 
D11  50 devotes an entire issue to the Decade, including contributions from 
D11  51 two Evangelical bishops, the Rt Revd John Taylor of St Albans and 
D11  52 the Rt Revd Michael Baughen of Chester, who urges: <quote_>"Be as 
D11  53 relentless as St Paul in opening up the task and its 
D11  54 motivation."<quote/><p/>
D11  55 <p_>Cardinal Hume had the Decade in mind when he preached in 
D11  56 Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral at the celebration of Archbishop 
D11  57 Derek Worlock's episcopal silver jubilee on 21 December. 
D11  58 <quote_>"As one historic decade ends, another begins: one dedicated 
D11  59 to the spread of the good news - evangelisation. We are to take 
D11  60 with increasing seriousness the task of recognising that the Church 
D11  61 is by its very nature missionary, of telling the world about God 
D11  62 and the Son he sent, what he has done and will do for us, of 
D11  63 speaking to the minds and hearts of thousands of people in search 
D11  64 of meaning and purpose to their lives."<quote/><p/>
D11  65 <p_>In Bradford, where 1990 has been <quote_>"a year of 
D11  66 evangelism"<quote/> in preparation for the Decade, Bishop Robert 
D11  67 Williamson has warned of <quote_>"the communications gap"<quote/> 
D11  68 between the churches and society. <quote_>"A great shock may await 
D11  69 us. It will drive us to our knees - no bad thing."<quote/><p/>
D11  70 <p_>The new Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Revd John Oliver, said in an 
D11  71 enthronement sermon in his cathedral on 22 December that Christians 
D11  72 ought not to be tempted, in an unfriendly environment, to pull up 
D11  73 the drawbridge and hope for the best. <quote_>"We are in the 
D11  74 business of celebrating and sharing our faith, of 'singing the 
D11  75 Lord's song'; we need to do it confidently, joyfully, expectantly. 
D11  76 The Decade of Evangelism gives us the opportunity and obligation to 
D11  77 use every possible means to enable people to know and love and 
D11  78 follow Jesus Christ."<quote/><p/>
D11  79 
D11  80 <h_><p_>Peter Mullen on Anthony Burgess, the writer, who asks 
D11  81 <quote_>"What curious game is God playing?"<quote/><p/>
D11  82 <p_>The novel-a-year man who wrestles with the problem of evil<p/>
D11  83 <p_>PROFILE<p/><h/>
D11  84 <p_>DECLINING the proffered malt whisky, 14 years old, I took a 
D11  85 glass of red wine with Anthony Burgess and his wife, Liana, who 
D11  86 have temporarily quit their Mediterranean villa in order to 
D11  87 publicise the second volume of Anthony's <tf|>Confessions in 
D11  88 London. (To get that part out of the way, it is called <tf_>You've 
D11  89 Had Your Time<tf/>, and published at pounds17.50 by Heinemann.)<p/>
D11  90 <p_>He came comparatively late in life to writing, beginning when 
D11  91 he was frail and 40, when he was told he had less than a year to 
D11  92 live. He resolved to write ten novels in that last year in order to 
D11  93 provide some sort of income for his wife.<p/>
D11  94 <p_>In the event, she died - violently and grotesquely of cirrhosis 
D11  95 of the liver - and Anthony lived to write 33 novels in as many 
D11  96 years. And he is still writing. On the way this 'bottle-a-day man' 
D11  97 gave up booze. The 14-year-old malt sat stoppered in its 
D11  98 decanter.<p/>
D11  99 <p_>In all that fictional output, his concerns are sex and 
D11 100 metaphysics. He reminded me of Goethe's insistence that every good 
D11 101 novel must in some way or other be obsessed with love and death.<p/>
D11 102 <p_>Of course, if you live as we do in a post-Freudian, 
D11 103 post-Darwinian world, it is no longer possible to write about sex 
D11 104 and death as the gently (rather than heavily) breathing lady 
D11 105 novelists of the last century did. Unless you are Barbara 
D11 106 Cartland.<p/>
D11 107 <p_>BURGESS is a religious writer in the sense that he is concerned 
D11 108 with those two eschatological preoccupations of all time, the 
D11 109 utopia and the dystopia. These have always inspired great writing. 
D11 110 We think of Dante - the <tf|>Inferno and <tf|>Paradiso; of Milton, 
D11 111 of course, and Thomas More; of Huxley's <tf_>Brave New World<tf/> 
D11 112 and Orwell's <tf|>1984.<p/>
D11 113 <p_><tf|>1985 was Burgess's great dystopia: an unhappy world of 
D11 114 punk, faithlessness and violence in which the supreme accolade is 
D11 115 <quote_>"You was on the telly."<quote/> Well, you've only got to 
D11 116 look at programmes like <tf_>Blind Date<tf/> to see how life mimics 
D11 117 art. He had already written <tf_>A Clockwork Orange<tf/>, which 
D11 118 demonstrated not the immorality but - a much worse thing - the 
D11 119 amorality of our age. He saw in that novel the social consequences 
D11 120 of a world which says, <quote_>"Evil, be thou my good,"<quote/> and 
D11 121 commits therein the sin against the Holy Spirit.<p/>
D11 122 <p_>But his big novel - it may be compared for its range and depth 
D11 123 with <tf|>Middlemarch and <tf|>Ulysses - came out in 1980. It was 
D11 124 called <tf_>Earthly Powers<tf/>. Of this work he said: 
D11 125 <quote_>"This extensive structure had at its core a mere anecdote. 
D11 126 A Pope is to be canonised. The Vatican needs evidence of 
D11 127 saintliness: a miracle, for instance. When he was a mere priest, 
D11 128 the Pope cured a child of terminal meningitis through the power of 
D11 129 prayer. This child grows up to be a sort of James Jones, the leader 
D11 130 of a religious sect who orders his followers to commit suicide.<p/>
D11 131 <p_>"God, permitting the miracle, clearly intended its beneficiary 
D11 132 to perform an act of great evil. Free will does not come into it; 
D11 133 since a disease has free will, and its lethal progress has been 
D11 134 reversed. If the child had died he would not have caused the death 
D11 135 of others.<p/>
D11 136 <p_>"What curious game is God playing? If God is also the Devil, 
D11 137 then it is as likely that evil will come out of good as the other 
D11 138 way round. Perhaps more so. If our century is to be explained at 
D11 139 all it is in terms of God becoming his opposite."<quote/><p/>
D11 140 <p_>Now this is unpalatable to say the least. But it reminds me of 
D11 141 Job, the Old Testament God and the whirlwind. Certainly it is a 
D11 142 piece of creative conjecture; and does not all creativity proceed 
D11 143 from the Holy Ghost - or would you give the Devil a half share in 
D11 144 it? If you would, then you concede Burgess's point and the world 
D11 145 instantly becomes Manichaean - 'half golden, half rotten.'<p/>
D11 146 <p_><tf_>EARTHLY POWERS<tf/> should be on the reading-list of all 
D11 147 the theological colleges. It raises, frighteningly, the question of 
D11 148 the nature of God in the century of the Somme, Auschwitz and 
D11 149 Hiroshima. On the human level, <tf_>Earthly Powers<tf/> questions 
D11 150 the 'free-will defence' and with it all the 'liberal' and 
D11 151 'enlightened' answers which our age gives to that question raised 
D11 152 by Job, by Paul and by Augustine: the question of the undisputed 
D11 153 reality of evil.<p/>
D11 154 <p_>In a sceptical age when 'liberal' opinions flourish, perhaps 
D11 155 all we can do - in the absence of the mixed blessings of 
D11 156 authoritarianism - is raise the questions in those places where 
D11 157 answers used to be. Burgess certainly raises the questions. And, 
D11 158 since he does so in a story which has real characters, he makes the 
D11 159 questions more urgent because they are not abstracted (as in the 
D11 160 philosophy class) but incarnated in human specimens we can believe 
D11 161 in.<p/>
D11 162 <p_>He smokes a cheroot and ruminates. I sense he is really 
D11 163 remonstrating with himself. No, he does not believe in personal 
D11 164 immortality - and he is, moreover, relieved not to feel the 
D11 165 pressure to believe in it.<p/>
D11 166 <p_>A Roman Catholic brought up in Manchester, where his father 
D11 167 played the piano in the silent movies, he still goes to mass now 
D11 168 and then. But he thinks the discontinuing of the Latin rite 
D11 169 <quote|>"disgraceful". He agrees with Auden that, in the matter of 
D11 170 spurning the Prayer Book, The Church of England merely 
D11 171 <quote_>"spat on its luck"<quote/>.<p/>
D11 172 <p_>Burgess is nothing if not controversial. But then so was the 
D11 173 prophet Jeremiah. I was immensely encouraged by him and all his 
D11 174 works. Here is a man asking and, in his prolific procession of 
D11 175 novels, trying to uncover the issues which have always perplexed 
D11 176 us.<p/>
D11 177 <p_>I admire him. And all the more so for being able to keep the 
D11 178 stopper on the whisky. In short, I suspect the Holy Ghost at work 
D11 179 in all this turbulence.<p/>
D11 180 
D11 181 <h_><p_>Hugh Montefiore<p/>
D11 182 <p_>It should stay special<p/><h/>
D11 183 <p_>THE WIDESPREAD opening of retail shops on the Sundays before 
D11 184 Christmas, in deliberate defiance of the law, has been a public 
D11 185 scandal. But the law of the land about Sunday opening, with its 
D11 186 absurd anomalies, is also a public scandal. Yet more scandalous has 
D11 187 been the refusal of the Government to do anything about it since 
D11 188 their Shops Bill fell in the House of Commons in 1985.<p/>
D11 189 <p_>The Bill (which involved total deregulation) was first 
D11 190 introduced in the House of Lords. Because of the 'Salisbury 
D11 191 convention' whereby that chamber does not vote down the second 
D11 192 reading of a Bill introduced by a popularly elected Government, I 
D11 193 could only move 'a reasoned amendment' to the effect that the House 
D11 194 agreed the Bill but regretted its introduction. The chamber was 
D11 195 told that General Synod had disapproved the Bill by 427 votes to 6. 
D11 196 Lady Trumpington, in a speech hardly befitting a Government 
D11 197 minister, seemed to think that the fact that Canterbury Cathedral 
D11 198 illegally sold bibles on a Sunday meant that my amendment was 
D11 199 hypocritical. As soon as lots of peers appeared, specially 
D11 200 'whipped' up from the shires, coming to vote after eight hours of 
D11 201 debate without having listened to any of it, it was clear that we 
D11 202 had lost.<p/>
D11 203 <p_>Their Lordships have no constituencies; but MPs are different. 
D11 204 The Jubilee Trust fought a splendid campaign, stirring up feelings 
D11 205 in parishes and congregations. Thousands of letters were sent to 
D11 206 MPs who, not wishing to lose all those supporters, successfully 
D11 207 opposed the Bill. Fortunately for the Government, President 
D11 208 Reagan's bomb attack on Colonel Gadaffi took place with British 
D11 209 connivance that very night, and this diverted public attention away 
D11 210 from the most crushing defeat Mrs Thatcher's Government ever 
D11 211 suffered, largely instigated by the Churches.<p/>
D11 212 <p_>Her Government had insisted on total deregulation, and was not 
D11 213 prepared to consider any kind of halfway house.
D11 214 
D12   1 <#FLOB:D12\><h_><p_>Ruler and Rescuer<p/>
D12   2 <p_>BY THE REVD DR A.D.C. GREER,<p/>
D12   3 <p_>DUMFRIESSHIRE<p/><h/>
D12   4 <p_>Colin Mitchell is Head of a big school. In Scotland the Head 
D12   5 Teacher of a secondary school is very often called the Rector. One 
D12   6 Friday Dumfries people opened their local paper to read<p/>
D12   7 <p_><tf_>Rector's Rescue Honoured<p/>
D12   8 <p_>Colin saved puppy from 12-Ft Gorge<tf/><p/>
D12   9 <p_>Above a picture of Mr Mitchell receiving a special certificate 
D12  10 from the Director of the SSPCA. Underneath the headline, it told 
D12  11 how Colin had abseiled down a slippery chasm at Crichope Linn, swam 
D12  12 upstream in the cold November water, then downstream again and then 
D12  13 climbed out up a rope. In a rucksack on his back he brought up the 
D12  14 one he went in to rescue, an 18 week old springer spaniel puppy, 
D12  15 Gyp. Gyp was the only one who was dry. <quote_>"I am not a hero and 
D12  16 I am just glad the dog was all right"<quote/>, said Mr Mitchell, a 
D12  17 member of the Moffat Hill Rescue Team.<p/>
D12  18 <p_>We don't usually think of Head Teachers as heroes, do we? We 
D12  19 don't usually think of Rectors as rescuers. A Rector is a 'ruler', 
D12  20 the dictionary tells us. Colin Mitchell proved that a ruler can be 
D12  21 a rescuer. Gyp knows that. So do the pupils of Dumfries High 
D12  22 School.<p/>
D12  23 <p_>Christians know that God, the Ruler of all things in heaven and 
D12  24 on earth is a Rescuer too. He cares enough to come and help in 
D12  25 whatever sort of trouble and danger we have got ourselves into. And 
D12  26 he is able to save us and set us free. Remember that when we sing 
D12  27 in church about <quote_>"the wisest love"<quote/> that <quote_>"to 
D12  28 the rescue came"<quote/>.<p/>
D12  29 
D12  30 <h_><p_>Our Teacher<p/>
D12  31 <p_>BY DENNIS K. TACKLEY, BA, BD, MED,<p/>
D12  32 <p_>SHERBORNE, DORSET<p/><h/>
D12  33 <p_>Visual aids: A school exercise book, a children's slate, and a 
D12  34 pointed stick to represent a stylus.<p/>
D12  35 <p_>I expect you will know what this is <tf_>(Hold up the exercise 
D12  36 book)<tf/>. You must use books like this every day at school. But 
D12  37 in ancient times paper was much too expensive for children to use. 
D12  38 When they went to school they might learn to write by drawing with 
D12  39 their fingers on a sanded floor. Or they might have a shallow box 
D12  40 about the size of this slate which was coated with soft wax. Then 
D12  41 they held a stick with a pointed end and practised their letters by 
D12  42 scratching on the wax.<p/>
D12  43 <p_>We are told that in ancient Greece the master who was teaching 
D12  44 boys to write would put a line of writing at the top of the tablet, 
D12  45 and each boy was expected to copy this. He would keep practising 
D12  46 this sentence until he could copy it without making any mistakes. 
D12  47 Sometimes, we're told, the master would hold his hand over the 
D12  48 boy's hand and guide him as he traced the letters on the wax 
D12  49 tablet. That would get the boy started and give him confidence.<p/>
D12  50 <p_>Now this is a wonderful illustration of what Jesus does for us. 
D12  51 He has given us an example of how we should live, but he doesn't 
D12  52 leave us to get on with the job all by ourselves. He <tf|>helps us 
D12  53 to follow his example; he holds our hand as we try to imitate the 
D12  54 way in which he lived.<p/>
D12  55 <p_>And there is more to it than that. What could a boy do who had 
D12  56 made a mistake on his wax tablet? <tf_>(Wait for answers)<tf/> Yes, 
D12  57 he could smooth the wax over and try again. Jesus, too, is always 
D12  58 making it possible for us to make a new start, forgiving us for the 
D12  59 mistakes we make, and encouraging us to do better next time.<p/>
D12  60 
D12  61 <h_><p_>Go for the Real<p/>
D12  62 <p_>BY THE REVD GEORGE S. GIBSON,<p/>
D12  63 <p_>LEAMINGTON SPA<p/><h/>
D12  64 <p_>The psychiatrist Jung wrote: <quote_>"It is frankly 
D12  65 disappointing to see how Paul hardly ever allows the real Jesus to 
D12  66 get a word in"<quote/>. He is just one in a long line of critics 
D12  67 who have accused Paul of theologizing Jesus out of all 
D12  68 recognition!<p/>
D12  69 <p_>But is Paul really the villain of the piece? Certainly he does 
D12  70 not have much to say about the earthy life of Jesus, but that, in 
D12  71 part, was because there were others around far more able to talk 
D12  72 from personal experience of the 'Jesus event', and Paul had other 
D12  73 things he urgently wanted to do! But this is not to say that he was 
D12  74 either uninterested or uninformed about Jesus of Nazareth. Writing 
D12  75 to the Galatian church he speaks of making a special trip to 
D12  76 Jerusalem to <quote_>"see Peter"<quote/> and someone has suggested 
D12  77 that <quote|>"see" is to be interpreted as when we say <quote_>"I 
D12  78 must see the doctor"<quote/>. It was a purposeful visit and the two 
D12  79 of them wouldn't spend the time talking about the weather! I 
D12  80 believe that Paul was anxious to learn from one who had known Jesus 
D12  81 intimately over a period of time; to have his hearsay information 
D12  82 'filled in.'<p/>
D12  83 <p_>Why, then, is there so little said by Paul about the Galilean? 
D12  84 I think it is because Paul knew from bitter experience how futile 
D12  85 exhortations to <quote_>"be like Jesus"<quote/> would be. He had 
D12  86 found <quote_>"keeping the Law"<quote/> something beyond unaided 
D12  87 effort. How much more then would such an exhortation be a counsel 
D12  88 of despair.<p/>
D12  89 <p_>Yet many of us have not learned Paul's lesson. The element of 
D12  90 struggle is only too evident in the lives of Christians, and the 
D12  91 strain shows. Our mistake, to use a phrase much used in evangelical 
D12  92 circles, is that we want the fruit without the root. We are like 
D12  93 the suitor in the well-known song who was discovered <quote_>"tying 
D12  94 apples to the lilac tree"<quote/>! When Paul wrote to the Roman 
D12  95 Christians he told them (as Phillips translates him) that there 
D12  96 must be <quote_>"no imitation Christian love"<quote/>. Put bluntly, 
D12  97 the Christian life cannot be faked!<p/>
D12  98 <p_>There is a principle here which we are prepared to acknowledge 
D12  99 in other spheres, but which apparently we do not always apply to 
D12 100 our spiritual life. No lover would offer his girl a bouquet of 
D12 101 artificial flowers - though there are some very lifelike creations 
D12 102 - and they would last longer! No art expert is fooled by the most 
D12 103 clever reproduction of a masterpiece - or by a daub claimed to be 
D12 104 'art' in the latest fashion! No musical virtuoso can be 'explained' 
D12 105 in terms of his perfected technique alone.<p/>
D12 106 <p_>What we are concerned with here is what Dr Fosdick called 
D12 107 <quote_>"The Principle of Released Power"<quote/>. And he goes on 
D12 108 to say: <quote_>"Power is primarily a matter not of self-generation 
D12 109 but of appropriation. Not strenuous activity but hospitable 
D12 110 receptivity is the ultimate source of energy."<quote/> That was 
D12 111 Paul's liberating discovery. From the moral struggle of Romans 7 to 
D12 112 the exhilarating liberty of Romans 8, this possibility is for him 
D12 113 the glorious gospel - truly Good News. <quote_>"Christ in you - the 
D12 114 hope of glory."<quote/> Christlikeness is an inward beauty 
D12 115 reflected in outward character. This then is the truth to which 
D12 116 Paul returns again and again. He talks of <quote_>"putting on 
D12 117 Christ"<quote/>, of Christ <quote_>"being formed in us"<quote/>, 
D12 118 about <quote_>"having the mind of Christ"<quote/>. And ever and 
D12 119 anon he breaks into personal testimony: <quote_>"I live, yet not I 
D12 120 but Christ lives in me"<quote/>; <quote_>"the law of the Spirit of 
D12 121 Life in Christ has made me free of the law of sin and 
D12 122 death"<quote/>. He was free at last!<p/>
D12 123 <p_>Yet there is another emphasis in his teaching. No one has 
D12 124 insisted more than Paul did on the necessity of strict discipline 
D12 125 in the spiritual life. He is the author of that seeming paradox, 
D12 126 <quote_>"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for 
D12 127 it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good 
D12 128 purpose"<quote/>. What Paul is saying is that, having come to the 
D12 129 end of our resources, God in Christ supplied the missing impetus. 
D12 130 But having now divine resources, we must use them. We cannot 
D12 131 initiate the new life, but we must cooperate in its fulfilment. 
D12 132 Christian discipleship never can be a laid-back affair.<p/>
D12 133 <p_>Here again we have a principle we recognize in other spheres of 
D12 134 experience. True art is 'inspired' - but the artist sweats blood to 
D12 135 give his vision expression on canvas. Great literature is 
D12 136 'inspired' - but an author's wastepaper basket often bears 
D12 137 testimony to the travail of writing. And, as one of the world's 
D12 138 reluctant gardeners, I am painfully aware of the effort required in 
D12 139 tending and nourishing the life that is in the seed! The Christian 
D12 140 way is neither <quote_>"leave it all to God"<quote/> nor 
D12 141 <quote_>"buckle to and get on with it"<quote/>. Which is what Jesus 
D12 142 was saying when he offered rest to the over-burdened and then 
D12 143 called them to <quote_>"take his yoke"<quote/> upon them. He was 
D12 144 saying, <quote_>"I've released you from the treadmill - now let us 
D12 145 pull together"<quote/>.<p/>
D12 146 <p_>So we have entered on the road to Christlikeness. But that will 
D12 147 not be achieved in a moment. God has planted the seed but we are at 
D12 148 times indifferent husbandmen! Prayer becomes irksome. The Bible 
D12 149 seems stale. Church is in danger of becoming a bore. This happens 
D12 150 to most of us at some stage. The reason is that we see these things 
D12 151 as ends in themselves. We're back to the futility of salvation by 
D12 152 works! We have lost sight of the goal. We need to take another long 
D12 153 look at Jesus, until once again the hunger for that kind of life 
D12 154 becomes clamant, and everything that ministers to its realization 
D12 155 ceases to be a 'duty'. C. S. Lewis wrote: <quote_>"I think all 
D12 156 Christians would agree with me that though Christianity seems at 
D12 157 first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and 
D12 158 guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into 
D12 159 something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not 
D12 160 talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Everyone there is 
D12 161 filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled 
D12 162 with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it 
D12 163 anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at 
D12 164 the source from which it comes."<quote/><p/>
D12 165 <p_>Most of us are a long way from that - though I have met that 
D12 166 kind of 'goodness' more than once. But God will not let us go. Paul 
D12 167 again: <quote_>"(I am) confident of this, that he who began a good 
D12 168 work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ 
D12 169 Jesus"<quote/>. And the completion of that good work will be that 
D12 170 <quote_>"we shall be like him - for we shall see him as he 
D12 171 is"<quote/>. It will be the Real Thing - for God never was 
D12 172 interested in mere cosmetic surgery!<p/>
D12 173 
D12 174 <h_><p_>A January Journey<p/>
D12 175 <p_>BY THE REVD MICHAEL J. WARD, BSC, BD,<p/>
D12 176 <p_>ST MADOES, PERTHSHIRE<p/>
D12 177 <p_>Ps 139:1-12; Mt 2:1-12.<p/><h/>
D12 178 <p_>Well, that was Christmas and New Year, that was! The church 
D12 179 Christmas tree is now down, along with all our decorations and 
D12 180 cards, and we're probably relieved that life is again returning to 
D12 181 normal after the festive binge of eating and drinking that somehow 
D12 182 seems to resemble more of the Roman Saturnalia and less of the 
D12 183 peaceful atmosphere of the coming of the Christ-child. And what has 
D12 184 changed in the last two weeks? On the face of it, very little. In 
D12 185 our own community as elsewhere, deaths and funerals have continued 
D12 186 during the so-called festive season. Our newspapers are once more 
D12 187 filled with stories of terrorism and strife. It would appear that 
D12 188 the world has been untouched by our celebration of Christ's birth, 
D12 189 leaving some of us to wonder what kind of godly intervention it is 
D12 190 that we celebrated on Christmas Day.<p/>
D12 191 <p_>Perhaps we're looking for the wrong sort of change, the wrong 
D12 192 sort of signs that the entry into our world of the God-with-us does 
D12 193 make a difference. <quote_>"Unless you people see miraculous signs 
D12 194 and wonders, you will never believe."<quote/> Jesus might just as 
D12 195 easily have been speaking to us. For we long, do we not, to see a 
D12 196 sign that the peace and goodwill of Christmas might last into 
D12 197 <}_><-|>he<+|>the<}/> New Year, a sign that the annual journey to 
D12 198 Bethlehem might at last pay off, a sign that nations and peoples 
D12 199 are being drawn to the light of the world?
D12 200 
D13   1 <#FLOB:D13\><h_><p_>ROB WARNER<p/>
D13   2 <p_>British Baptists<p/>
D13   3 <p_>a new wave of growth<p/>
D13   4 <p_>British Baptists are reversing the trend towards church decline 
D13   5 with ambitious plans for growth. How did a dying denomination 
D13   6 spring back to life?<p/><h/>
D13   7 <p_>Take any major evangelical gathering and ask the <tf|>Baptists 
D13   8 to stand up and you will find that at least a third of those 
D13   9 present will rise to their feet. Unlike their <tf|>Anglican 
D13  10 counterparts they appear to be the majority in their denomination. 
D13  11 Whilst voices over the decades have called them to come out of the 
D13  12 denomination, they have persevered and now seem set to pioneer a 
D13  13 new era of growth and orthodoxy in the British Baptist Church.<p/>
D13  14 <p_>The evangelical Baptists are growing. A small denomination in 
D13  15 Britain, Baptists are one of the largest Protestant denominations 
D13  16 in the world, and in many countries Baptists are seeing significant 
D13  17 growth.<p/>
D13  18 <p_>The latest figures for Britain reveal that only three groups of 
D13  19 churches have enjoyed significant overall growth in Sunday 
D13  20 congregations, over the last four years. They are 
D13  21 <tf_>Pentecostals, New Churches<tf/> and <tf|>Baptists.<p/>
D13  22 <p_>So who are the Baptists? The most well known from previous 
D13  23 generations include William Carey, <quote_>"the father of modern 
D13  24 world mission"<quote/>, and the preaching giants Charles Spurgeon 
D13  25 and F.B. Meyer. The most well known 20th-century Baptists must 
D13  26 surely be Billy Graham and Martin Luther King. Speakers and writers 
D13  27 Tony Campolo and Ron Sider both lecture at Baptist colleges in the 
D13  28 States.<p/>
D13  29 <p_>Baptists have usually been thought of as a mainly evangelical 
D13  30 denomination. This is reflected in the large Baptist attendance at 
D13  31 Spring Harvest, and in the high level of participation in Mission 
D13  32 89 and the Person to Person evangelism training programme. Both 
D13  33 historically and today Baptists are essentially an evangelical 
D13  34 movement.<p/>
D13  35 <p_>In Britain, Baptists make a significant contribution to wider 
D13  36 evangelical life - e.g. Ian Coffey at the Evangelical Alliance (to 
D13  37 name but one); Ernest Lucas at Christian Impact; Roy Pointer, known 
D13  38 to many for his church growth insights. Many evangelical missionary 
D13  39 societies and Bible colleges have Baptists among their senior 
D13  40 staff. The new organisation which has made the greatest impact in 
D13  41 recent years is probably Steve Chalke's Oasis, with its imaginative 
D13  42 programmes of evangelism and care as well as the culturally 
D13  43 innovative Christmas Cracker/Unwrapped events.<p/>
D13  44 <p_>This new phase of Baptist growth is not centred on a few mega 
D13  45 churches. Exciting reports are coming in from all over England. To 
D13  46 take three local examples: in Kingsbridge, Devon the church has 
D13  47 quadrupled in size in ten years, 60% by conversion and baptism; in 
D13  48 Skipton, Yorkshire 40 have grown to 150 in three years; in 
D13  49 Brickhill, Bedford there have been 250 baptisms in the last 8 
D13  50 years. In the Northern Baptist Association most churches are now 
D13  51 enjoying growth.<p/>
D13  52 <p_>Derek Tidball has been preaching at churches nationwide as 
D13  53 President of the Baptist Union. His assessment is clear 
D13  54 <quote_>"After nearly a year of travelling it is certainly my 
D13  55 impression that the vitality and growth is taking place among the 
D13  56 evangelicals. I have been in church after church which has grown in 
D13  57 recent years."<quote/><p/>
D13  58 <p_>Growth hasn't always happened. For many years the denomination 
D13  59 was drifting from its roots, and only recently can we speak of an 
D13  60 evangelical resurgence. Baptists faced the same sorry decline as 
D13  61 other churches through most of this century. The late Sixties and 
D13  62 early Seventies were for many a 'spiritual dark age'. Alongside 
D13  63 continued numerical shrinkage there was a decline into radically 
D13  64 unbiblical theology and in some quarters an intolerance towards 
D13  65 evangelical convictions.<p/>
D13  66 <p_>Looking back, the Seventies proved the decisive turning point. 
D13  67 In 1972 a debate over the divinity of Christ was sparked by a 
D13  68 senior liberal Baptist, not in a theological seminar but in a main 
D13  69 meeting of the Baptist Union Assembly. For some this was the last 
D13  70 straw. Over forty churches and ministers abandoned ship.<p/>
D13  71 <p_>Others were convinced that they should seek reform and renewal 
D13  72 within the denomination. Pat Goodland, one of the key figures in 
D13  73 this group, recalls that their meetings and prayers were 
D13  74 <quote_>"born out of a deep sense of concern at our churches' lack 
D13  75 of life and growth"<quote/>.<p/>
D13  76 <p_>In 1977 the annual report of the BU spoke of continued decline. 
D13  77 At the annual Assembly Douglas McBain could contain himself no 
D13  78 longer. Many recall his impassioned plea for urgent analysis and 
D13  79 prayer, which was speedily affirmed by Paul Beasley Murray when he 
D13  80 scented prevarication from the Assembly chairman. Times have 
D13  81 changed for these young turks of evangelism who assailed the 
D13  82 establishment: Douglas is now Area Superintendent for London; Paul 
D13  83 is Principal of <tf_>Spurgeon's College<tf/>, the leading 
D13  84 evangelical Baptist college.<p/>
D13  85 <p_>By the end of the decade a major new grouping of evangelical 
D13  86 Baptists had been formed. Mainstream, as it became known, has never 
D13  87 had a formal membership, but provides a quarterly newsletter, an 
D13  88 annual conference since 1980, and an occasional preaching workshop 
D13  89 or theological consultation, the latest in 1990 on gospel and 
D13  90 culture with Leslie Newbiggin and Andrew Walker.<p/>
D13  91 <p_>Mainstream is committed to evangelical inclusiveness - what 
D13  92 Derek Tidball calls <quote_>"a wide embrace of charismatics and 
D13  93 traditional evangelicals"<quote/>. There have never been Mainstream 
D13  94 campaign issues or Mainstream candidates for senior posts, but it 
D13  95 quickly became a rallying point for Baptist evangelicals. What's 
D13  96 more, the movement's slogan emphatically embraced mission as 
D13  97 central to living orthodoxy - <quote_>"Baptists for Life and 
D13  98 Growth"<quote/>.<p/>
D13  99 <p_>At first Mainstream was dismissed. Some disregarded it as tiny 
D13 100 and irrelevant. Others slammed it as divisive and fundamentalist or 
D13 101 accused the leaders of being <quote_>"charismatic 
D13 102 confectioners"<quote/>. But the name had been chosen well. Through 
D13 103 the Eighties a groundswell of local church leaders endorsed the 
D13 104 Mainstream vision.<p/>
D13 105 <p_>In January 1991 Mainstream enjoyed their largest conference 
D13 106 yet, with John White speaking on <quote_>"Leadership in the Power 
D13 107 of the Spirit"<quote/>. The worship, more vibrant than ever, was 
D13 108 led by Nigel Wright. Nigel, a lecturer at Spurgeon's is likely to 
D13 109 prove a leading Baptist theologian of the Nineties.<p/>
D13 110 <p_>The delegates were clearly in good heart for the decade of 
D13 111 evangelism. Harry Weatherley, for many years a full-time 
D13 112 association missioner (associations are increasingly appointing a 
D13 113 regional senior evangelist), summed up the mood in two words - 
D13 114 <quote_>"increasingly expectant"<quote/>.<p/>
D13 115 <p_>Evangelical vigour is not only seen in national conferences and 
D13 116 local growth. Senior denominational appointments have come to 
D13 117 evangelicals in the last few years, many of them present or former 
D13 118 members of the Mainstream executive. David Coffey, a 
D13 119 well<?_>-<?/>known Spring Harvest speaker, was made National 
D13 120 Secretary for Evangelism. Even before he took office many 
D13 121 evangelicals found fresh inspiration from his appointment. This 
D13 122 <}_><-|>Spring<+|>spring<}/> he will become the new General 
D13 123 Secretary, which for Baptists is as significant as the appointment 
D13 124 of evangelical Anglican George Carey as Archbishop of 
D13 125 Canterbury!<p/>
D13 126 <p_>Derek Tidball, currently BU President and previously a Director 
D13 127 of Studies at <tf|>LBC and Chairman of <tf_>British Youth for 
D13 128 Christ<tf/> will be the new Secretary for Mission and Evangelism. 
D13 129 John Capon, a respected evangelical journalist with <tf_>TEAR 
D13 130 Fund<tf/> and a former editor of <tf|>Crusade will be the new 
D13 131 editor of the <tf_>Baptist Times<tf/>.<p/>
D13 132 <p_>Eric Westwood, who has brought back from missionary service in 
D13 133 Brazil a passion for a new wave of evangelism and church planting, 
D13 134 will be the BU President in 1992.<p/>
D13 135 <p_>The tide is also turning in the training colleges. It will be 
D13 136 no surprise to state that most of the students in training are 
D13 137 evangelicals. A recent college survey showed that most are also 
D13 138 positively influenced by renewal.<p/>
D13 139 <p_>With growth in applicants has come new approaches to training. 
D13 140 Most colleges have now developed in-pastorate training as an 
D13 141 alternative to college-based courses. Probably even more 
D13 142 significant is the course pioneered by Oasis and Spurgeon's - 
D13 143 specialised training for church-based evangelists. Local churches 
D13 144 considering additional staff are increasingly appointing 
D13 145 evangelists, and so such training is invaluable.<p/>
D13 146 <p_>No one is complacent. Present growth is nowhere near enough! 
D13 147 Local churches and national leaders alike are calling for a 
D13 148 decisive shift of priority from maintenance - keeping Christians 
D13 149 comfortable, to mission - reaching a lost world.<p/>
D13 150 <p_>Already many churches are extending premises or holding more 
D13 151 services because of growth. But there is a further key factor - at 
D13 152 every level Baptists are seizing a church planting vision once 
D13 153 again. (The last Baptist church planter on a massive scale in 
D13 154 Britain was Spurgeon last century).<p/>
D13 155 <p_>Influential Baptist figures such as David Coffey and Geoffrey 
D13 156 Reynolds are now working with Stuart Christaine to develop a 
D13 157 national church planting initiative.<p/>
D13 158 <p_>Stuart is another former missionary to Brazil who has brought 
D13 159 Brazilian zeal back to Britain. This zeal overflows into his role 
D13 160 at Spurgeon's as the first Oasis Director for Church Planting and 
D13 161 Evangelism. He confidently expects many new congregations this 
D13 162 decade - <quote_>"Despite the lack of experience in this form of 
D13 163 evangelism, there is unquestionably a new confidence in the gospel 
D13 164 growing among our people ... we have met with overwhelming 
D13 165 enthusiasm."<quote/><p/>
D13 166 <p_>Many local churches are embracing the vision. Some are planting 
D13 167 new churches; others are adapting the model of one church with 
D13 168 multiplying congregations, (like Roger Forster's Icthus). In some 
D13 169 areas strategies are in place and the momentum is growing, as Area 
D13 170 Superintendent Geoffrey Reynolds explains: <quote_>"On average in 
D13 171 our Southern Area we have planted one church every year over the 
D13 172 past 15 years. Our strategy for the next five years will 
D13 173 particularly turn to the large residential growth areas along the 
D13 174 south coast"<quote/>. At the other end of the country several new 
D13 175 churches have been planned.<p/>
D13 176 <p_>At every level - numerical growth, senior appointments, 
D13 177 increasing numbers of trained leaders and ambitious evangelistic 
D13 178 strategy - the evidence is clear. We are witnessing an evangelical 
D13 179 resurgence among Baptists which is unprecedented this century.<p/>
D13 180 <p_>But evangelical Baptists have no desire to be isolated from 
D13 181 other Christians. All of us need to learn from each other. What's 
D13 182 more, the nation can only be reached if all evangelicals work 
D13 183 together. Derek Tidball sums up the new climate of expectancy - 
D13 184 <quote_>"We're part of that new tide of the Spirit sweeping across 
D13 185 the nation, and across the denomination."<quote/><p/>
D13 186 <p_>My hope is not merely for Baptists, but for all evangelicals. 
D13 187 Because of the generations who were faithful through hard times to 
D13 188 the essential task of guarding the gospel (2 Timothy 1:13-14), we 
D13 189 are indeed seeing a new dawn of influence and growth. More than 
D13 190 that, my hope is for the nation and the world that all 
D13 191 evangelicals, charismatic and non-charismatic and without regard to 
D13 192 denomination, will together find a new zeal and urgency to take the 
D13 193 good news of Jesus Christ to every home and community in Britain - 
D13 194 and to the unreached peoples of the earth!<p/>
D13 195 <h_><p_>Between two Worlds<p/>
D13 196 <p_>COLE MORETON<p/>
D13 197 <p_>What does it mean to be an Asian Christian in Britain today? 
D13 198 ALPHA talked to leading Asian believers and discovered the cost of 
D13 199 discipleship is high for those caught between two cultures.<p/><h/>
D13 200 <p_>Asian Christians in Britain may not have a high profile but 
D13 201 they are working behind the scenes in several major initiatives. 
D13 202 Christmas Cracker, the youth compassion project that has captured 
D13 203 the imagination of thousands of young Christians, has two Asian 
D13 204 trustees, one of whom, Ram Gidoomal, is the chairman.<p/>
D13 205 <p_>A key figure in much of the planning and organisation of Pray 
D13 206 For Birmingham, which has packed out the NEC on several occasions, 
D13 207 is Solihull schools worker Pall Singh.<p/>
D13 208 <p_>How do they and their fellow Asian believers cope with the 
D13 209 clash of cultures experienced by those who move away from 
D13 210 traditional Asian religion?<p/>
D13 211 <p_>A lively Oxford church provides some of the answers. Flying 
D13 212 fingers wove intricate rhythms on table and Dhulak drums, as more 
D13 213 than 100 Christians worshipped God in the Punjabi language.<p/>
D13 214 <p_>It is a familiar sight for churchgoers in India - but this 
D13 215 particular service was taking place in England. The grey winter sky 
D13 216 outside testified to that. So does the silent church organ, 
D13 217 neglected in favour of Eastern scales played on melodeon and 
D13 218 accordion.<p/>
D13 219 <p_>Pastor Sifte Massey leads his thriving congregation in an 
D13 220 hour-long service. He slips easily between Southern Asian languages 
D13 221 and English - but there is a translator during the sermon, for 
D13 222 those whose Punjabi is a bit patchy.<p/>
D13 223 <p_>Everyone in this meeting has roots in the Punjab, although most 
D13 224 of the younger people were born in Britain. They are all born-again 
D13 225 believers, preserving their traditional cultural background, 
D13 226 worshipping in their own languages with their own music, in a 
D13 227 borrowed church building.<p/>
D13 228 
D14   1 <#FLOB:D14\><h_><p_>THE LITERAL SENSE OF SCRIPTURE<p/>
D14   2 <p_>ROWAN WILLIAMS<p/><h/>
D14   3 <h|>I
D14   4 <p_>In recent years, British and American theology has shown a good 
D14   5 deal of interest in reclaiming the insights of 'pre-critical' 
D14   6 exegesis, and in challenging what has been seen as the unproductive 
D14   7 dominance of scholarly concern with original forms of a scriptural 
D14   8 text, with questions about the community background of this or that 
D14   9 strand of tradition, or with the redactional concerns of an editor 
D14  10 or a series of editors. In short, there has been a widespread 
D14  11 dissatisfaction with all the modern conventions of textual study - 
D14  12 source, form and redaction criticism - and a reaction towards 
D14  13 alternative modes of reading. We have seen pleas for a return to 
D14  14 allegory, a sophisticated deployment of modern literary theory to 
D14  15 question any remaining obsession with authorial intentions, and the 
D14  16 various forms of canonical criticism, insisting that we read 
D14  17 scriptural texts in the context of their present and deliberate 
D14  18 positioning in relation to each other as constituting a <tf|>single 
D14  19 book, settled once and for all in a community's history. With all 
D14  20 this in mind, though, it has become difficult to see how what is 
D14  21 also a central aspect of traditional and 'pre-critical' 
D14  22 hermeneutics, the belief in the primacy of the 'literal' sense of 
D14  23 Scripture, can now be understood. If we have become suspicious of a 
D14  24 hermeneutic that looks for authorial meanings and treats them as 
D14  25 normative, if - in literary theory in general - we have been taught 
D14  26 a certain uneasiness about the whole notion of normative meaning, 
D14  27 how are we to talk about a 'primary' or authoritative level of 
D14  28 reading that is bound to history, in the way traditional exegesis 
D14  29 conceived the <tf_>sensus litteralis<tf/> to be?<p/>
D14  30 <p_>One way of seeing how the relation between literal and 
D14  31 non-literal senses of Scripture has been worked out in doctrinal 
D14  32 history is to see it as a tension between what I shall call 
D14  33 'diachronic' and 'synchronic' styles of reading. I can read a text 
D14  34 in a more or less 'dramatic' way, by following it through in a 
D14  35 single time-continuum, reading it as a sequence of changes, a 
D14  36 pattern of transformations; or I can read it as a 'field' of 
D14  37 linguistic material, of signs that refer backwards and forwards to 
D14  38 each other in a system of interaction more like the surface of a 
D14  39 picture than a performance of drama or music. There is a reading - 
D14  40 we could say - where the unity of what is read is worked out in 
D14  41 time, and a reading where the unity is worked out in something more 
D14  42 like space. The former, the diachronic reading is not by any means 
D14  43 a naive strategy: it can operate at several different levels. I may 
D14  44 begin by simply following the movement of the text as it stands; 
D14  45 but that will alert me to deeper movements or rhythms within it, 
D14  46 relations between whole blocks of material, all the ways in which a 
D14  47 text can display subversions and tensions within its own 
D14  48 progression - the ways in which it can put itself in question. I 
D14  49 may become aware of a 'strategy' in the text itself; and that 
D14  50 awareness may compel a recognition of the narrative context of the 
D14  51 act of writing, of the world of the writer and of his or her goals 
D14  52 as they are enacted in the text. If diachronic reading is a reading 
D14  53 which can show me something of a text's intentionality (in the 
D14  54 widest sense - its internal direction and its consciously envisaged 
D14  55 audience), it will put to me questions about the writer's world, 
D14  56 questions about history, even if only the history of the process of 
D14  57 composing. And such questions are not necessarily a way of 
D14  58 disregarding the specificity of the writing as it presents itself, 
D14  59 to the extent that they genuinely arise from the act of reading 
D14  60 with attention and patience.<p/>
D14  61 <p_>To take an example: T.S. Eliot's <tf_>Four Quartets<tf/> can be 
D14  62 read most simply as a sequence of more or less interrelated 
D14  63 meditations on time and eternity, or on the presence of meaning 
D14  64 within the apparent blind contingency of the world. Closer reading, 
D14  65 however, brings to light contradictions and cross<?_>-<?/>currents: 
D14  66 one section will be seen as making a proposal that will be 
D14  67 undermined or rejected, or at least forced into a new light, by a 
D14  68 subsequent development; a good second reading will display the 
D14  69 movement of earlier stages in a significantly different light from 
D14  70 that in which they were first understood. We learn to see ironies 
D14  71 or even falsities not visible in our initial movement through the 
D14  72 text. In Eliot's own words, there is a <quote_>"new and shocking 
D14  73 valuation"<quote/> within the movement of the poems. The whole work 
D14  74 appears as an exercise in the conscious putting into question of 
D14  75 the poet's own symbolic idiom; and we grasp this more adequately 
D14  76 insofar as we are aware of the pull towards symbolist 
D14  77 self-reference, a self-contained world of poetic discourse, in the 
D14  78 rest of Eliot's work up to the time of the <tf|>Quartets, and aware 
D14  79 too of the poetic voices - Dante, Baudelaire, 
D14  80 Mallarm<*_>e-acute<*/>, Yeats - that were for Eliot both a 
D14  81 formative influence and a seduction, a danger. Eliot's quarrel with 
D14  82 his own preferred poetic voice is part of a larger world of 
D14  83 relating and conflicting poetic idioms.<p/>
D14  84 <p_>To say, as I should want to claim, that all this belongs with a 
D14  85 'literal' reading of the text may seem an odd use of the term; but 
D14  86 all the levels of reading I have described are unified by the fact 
D14  87 that they are generated out of the experience of reading the text 
D14  88 'diachronically', as a movement in time. One level of movement 
D14  89 appears as reflecting or opening the door to another, and the 
D14  90 reading never wholly escapes from the primary fact the reader has 
D14  91 <tf_>taken time<tf/> in following the progression of the text as it 
D14  92 stands. A mature reading capable of discerning at an early stage 
D14  93 meanings which in fact depend upon later moments remains in this 
D14  94 sense diachronic, because the <tf|>possibility of such a reading 
D14  95 would still be consciously dependent upon the prior fact of a 
D14  96 <foreign_>lectio continua<foreign/> in which the reader had to 
D14  97 experience the temporal formation and emergence of meanings. It is, 
D14  98 of course, possible to do what some critics of the <tf|>Quartets 
D14  99 have done, and regard each section, even each line, as enunciating 
D14 100 a single vision, identical from beginning to end of the sequence, 
D14 101 so that early lines are made to bear a freight of deliberate 
D14 102 positive meaning in a quite undialectical way. This may or may not 
D14 103 be a fruitful reading (I find it for the most part decidedly 
D14 104 <tf|>not); but it should at least be clear that it could not exist 
D14 105 at all without the experience of first working through the whole 
D14 106 complex over time, with all that that implies of provisionality and 
D14 107 're-visioning'. Thus, to attend to a 'literal' sense in this sort 
D14 108 of context is to insist upon there being some controlling force in 
D14 109 the fact that meaning comes to light in a process of learning to 
D14 110 perceive; it is to challenge the idea that there could be an 
D14 111 adequate reading of the text which ignored the time of the text 
D14 112 itself, its own movement, with the time of the writer and the 
D14 113 writer's world opened up to us through the movement of the text. It 
D14 114 is to protest against any reading which elided or softened or 
D14 115 simply ignored the tensions realised and worked through in the time 
D14 116 of the text, its movement as something that can bear continuous 
D14 117 reading. Concern with the literal, the diachronic, is a way of 
D14 118 resisting the premature unities and harmonies of a non-literal 
D14 119 reading (whether allegorical, existentialist, structuralist or 
D14 120 deconstructionist), in which the time that matters is only the 
D14 121 present of the reader faced with the 'spatial' expanse of a text 
D14 122 cut off from its own inner processes and the history of its 
D14 123 production.<p/>
D14 124 <p_>Something like this seems to be at work in Thomas Aquinas' 
D14 125 insistence on the priority of the literal sense. He takes the 
D14 126 literal sense to be that which refers to the intention of the 
D14 127 author - who, in the case of Scripture, is God; and this intention 
D14 128 is primarily manifest in events, not in the text itself, for God 
D14 129 can communicate through the material processes of the world's 
D14 130 history, while human beings can only organise words to convey their 
D14 131 meanings. What Scripture has to tell us can be apprehended only 
D14 132 through awareness of a reference to the lives and actions of 
D14 133 <quote_>"those persons through whom God's revelation reaches 
D14 134 us"<quote/>; the narrative of Scripture displays the 
D14 135 <quote|>"authority" of these figures, their status as enacting or 
D14 136 communicating the purposes of God, and that authority is the basis 
D14 137 of the normative significance of <quote_>"Scripture or 
D14 138 teaching"<quote/> (<foreign_>sacra scriptura vel 
D14 139 doctrina<foreign/>). All readings of Scripture are finally 
D14 140 answerable to this, so that nothing in <foreign|>doctrina can be 
D14 141 established solely on the basis of a non-literal reading. As Thomas 
D14 142 makes clear, the literal sense is not dependent on a belief that 
D14 143 all scriptural propositions uncomplicatedly depict real states of 
D14 144 affairs detail by detail; it can and does include metaphor within 
D14 145 the literary movement that leads us into the movement of God within 
D14 146 the time of human biography. In this way, Thomas sketches an 
D14 147 understanding of the literal that allows for a plurality of 
D14 148 <tf|>genres within it; it is the failure to see and to develop this 
D14 149 insight that has led to those narrow and sterile definitions of the 
D14 150 literal sense against which recent hermeneutics has so sharply 
D14 151 reacted.<p/>
D14 152 <p_>Paradoxically, it was the development of a more sophisticated 
D14 153 literary hermeneutic, by way of historical and comparative 
D14 154 criticism, that led to the effective redefinition - and the 
D14 155 disastrous shrinkage - of the literal sense that we associate with 
D14 156 fundamentalism. Correctly identifying 'literal' with 'historical', 
D14 157 in sound traditional fashion, fundamentalism assumed that 
D14 158 'historical' could be applied only to a univocally descriptive and 
D14 159 exact representation of particular sequences of 'fact'. Against the 
D14 160 potential totalitarianism of this, and the equally stagnant 
D14 161 prospects of a formal and archaeological historical criticism, the 
D14 162 retrieval of non-literal or 'pre-critical' modes is entirely 
D14 163 intelligible. But this in its turn has its dangers. Of the problems 
D14 164 of post-structuralist exegesis I shall say more shortly; but at 
D14 165 least some forms of 'canonical' criticism risk just that elision of 
D14 166 <tf|>conflict that has characterised other styles of non-literal 
D14 167 exegesis. An uncritical canonical criticism threatens to prohibit 
D14 168 or ignore any questions about meaning that arise from the refusal 
D14 169 to take the homogeneity of the canon for granted. If this reaction 
D14 170 against the literal were to prevail, it would point either to a new 
D14 171 totalitarianism of canonical context, understood without reference 
D14 172 to history, or to an <tf|>arbitrary pluralism, in which the idea of 
D14 173 a given textual content capable of effectively challenging or 
D14 174 changing the reader would be hard to sustain. To guard 
D14 175 intelligently against this, we need to re-examine and re-state the 
D14 176 case for the primacy of the literal; this essay is an attempt to 
D14 177 begin that task.<p/>
D14 178 <h|>II
D14 179 <p_>It is in fact very difficult to make sense of the idea of a 
D14 180 total triumph for synchronic, non-literal or 'spatial' reading. 
D14 181 <quote_>"We love stories because our lives are stories"<quote/> 
D14 182 says one recent contributor to this discussion; that is to say that 
D14 183 we are aware in our own lives of the process of learning and 
D14 184 producing meanings, and naturally look, in our reading, for 
D14 185 comparable processes of production. The meanings in our reading are 
D14 186 like the meanings in the rest of our experience, they are to be 
D14 187 discovered, unfolded: the reading of narrative in particular has an 
D14 188 open future and a gradually accumulating past. So long as our 
D14 189 humanity remains unintelligible except as a life of material 
D14 190 change, irreversible movement, it is unlikely - to say the least - 
D14 191 that we could establish non-diachronic modes of reading as primary. 
D14 192 It is quite true that works which set out to operate in a linear 
D14 193 temporal mode of the simplest kind escape from this constraint in 
D14 194 all kinds of ways; but I have already suggested that this, so far 
D14 195 from leading us directly to synchronic interpretation, has the 
D14 196 effect of opening us up to more than one 'time' in the text, more 
D14 197 than one story.
D14 198 
D15   1 <#FLOB:D15\><h_><p_>THIRTEEN<p/>
D15   2 <p_>YOU HAVE THE POWER<p/><h/>
D15   3 <p_>For thousands of years communities, secret brotherhoods and 
D15   4 loosely-affiliated networks have heralded the New Age, the arrival 
D15   5 of heaven on earth. From the ascetic Essenes guarding their 
D15   6 specialized knowledge on the shores of the Dead Sea, to the pockets 
D15   7 of wild-eyed libertines touring Europe during the Middle Ages, to 
D15   8 the intrigues of the Rosicrucians and the other-worldly 
D15   9 intellectualism of the Theosophists, innumerable groups have 
D15  10 believed that they have the power to bring about a new era.<p/>
D15  11 <p_>Today's New Age has garnered from its heritage a spiritual 
D15  12 hotch<?_>-<?/>potch of abstruse theories and esoteric snippets, 
D15  13 sprinkled with a liberal dose of Eastern exoticisms. The result: a 
D15  14 vast umbrella movement embracing countless groups, gurus and 
D15  15 individuals, bound together by a belief that the world is 
D15  16 undergoing a transformation or shift in consciousness which will 
D15  17 usher in a new mode of being, an earthly paradise.<p/>
D15  18 <p_>Rather than filing itself away under philosophical or 
D15  19 theological labels, the New Age provides seekers with a spiritual 
D15  20 core around which they can orbit, picking up whichever rays of 
D15  21 enlightenment they feel hit the mark, or resonate with their own 
D15  22 inner truth. By dismissing logical argument, by putting intuition 
D15  23 above intellect and feeling above theory, the New Age happily 
D15  24 embraces wildly differing creeds. For the New Age is not 
D15  25 'either/or' but 'both/and', as its proponents so often insist. 
D15  26 Therein lies much of its appeal: the New Age has something for 
D15  27 everyone. While it attracts its fair share of confirmed 1960s 
D15  28 children, it also draws in businesspeople, so-called 'New Age 
D15  29 yuppies', health professionals, lawyers - anyone who wants to take 
D15  30 control over their life and at the same time escape, just for a 
D15  31 while, from the monotony of everyday existence. It does help, 
D15  32 however, if you are reasonably well off: the New Age brand of 
D15  33 enlightenment doesn't come cheap.<p/>
D15  34 <p_>What distinguishes a New Age convert? At one extreme, the New 
D15  35 Age is a fashion item: at the beginning of the 1990s, several 
D15  36 magazines and newspapers ran New Age fashion spreads, the clothes 
D15  37 ranging from a return to 1960s psychedelic gear to white, 
D15  38 loose-fitting outfits intended to symbolize the spiritual purity 
D15  39 and holistic values of the wearer. Casual New Agers wear the 
D15  40 clothes, sport crystal jewellery, read the odd book and attend a 
D15  41 course now and again. At the other extreme are the committed New 
D15  42 Agers. And while some might still be wearing their original 1960s 
D15  43 clothes, many wear business suits, sport Filofaxes and only betray 
D15  44 their spiritual allegiances when they open their mouths: key New 
D15  45 Age words such as 'commitment', 'empowerment', 'transformation', 
D15  46 'integrity' and 'unity' come tumbling out in a tone of high 
D15  47 seriousness.<p/>
D15  48 <p_>While today's New Age revival can in part be attributed to the 
D15  49 approach of the millennium and the threat of the environmental 
D15  50 crisis, it is the desire for power and control which accounts above 
D15  51 all for the current upsurge of interest in the movement. Despite 
D15  52 its aversion to labels, the New Age can be summed up by one simple 
D15  53 phrase: you have the power.<p/>
D15  54 <p_>Power is, it appears, an increasingly valued commodity in the 
D15  55 latter part of the twentieth century - one which mainstream 
D15  56 religions often fail to provide. Instead, they tend to emphasize 
D15  57 powerlessness - and besides, say New Agers, most mainstream 
D15  58 religions treat women appallingly and are divorced from real life. 
D15  59 Whereas at first the twentieth century saw a drifting away from 
D15  60 religion, the New Age marks a return to an all-embracing, 
D15  61 all-powerful spirituality.<p/>
D15  62 <p_>Of course, the heady sense of being privy to supposedly secret 
D15  63 information has lured people towards esoteric paths for centuries. 
D15  64 But what is different about the twentieth century search for power 
D15  65 and control is that rather than simply being sought after by fringe 
D15  66 groups or oppressed sections of society - as, for instance, with 
D15  67 the revolutionary millennial sects of the Middle Ages - it is 
D15  68 all<?_>-<?/>pervasive.<p/>
D15  69 <p_>Over the past few decades, the average man and woman has been 
D15  70 bombarded with information revealing how traditional seats of 
D15  71 authority - the Church, the government and the family - have failed 
D15  72 and deceived them. In tandem with such revelations, social 
D15  73 commentators have been claiming that humanity is feeling 
D15  74 increasingly out of control over everything from the minutiae of 
D15  75 everyday life to world events which threaten their very existence. 
D15  76 Not only are we living in a rapidly changing world, but also the 
D15  77 mass media is continually making us aware of the situation. Many 
D15  78 people were already half way to the conclusion that the self was 
D15  79 the only place where they could locate Truth. The New Age simply 
D15  80 pushed them over the edge by handing them the tantalizing concept 
D15  81 of the 'empowered self'.<p/>
D15  82 <p_>In the late 1960s, American psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton 
D15  83 described the new type of being produced by modernity as 
D15  84 <quote_>"Protean man"<quote/> - named after the shape-shifting 
D15  85 Greek God Proteus. <quote_>"Protean man,"<quote/> he said, 
D15  86 <quote_>"is incapable of maintaining an unquestioning allegiance to 
D15  87 the large ideologies and Utopian thought of the nineteenth and 
D15  88 early twentieth centuries."<quote/> Modern man was, he claimed 
D15  89 <quote_>"confused about limits"<quote/>. The response to this 
D15  90 crisis was, he said, twofold. Some people chose to <quote_>"hold 
D15  91 fast to all existing categories"<quote/>, creating 
D15  92 <quote_>"nostalgic visions of restoring a golden age of exact 
D15  93 boundaries, an age in which men allegedly knew exactly where they 
D15  94 stood"<quote/>. The opposite response, he said, was <quote_>"to 
D15  95 destroy, or seek to destroy, all boundaries, in the name of an 
D15  96 all-encompassing oneness"<quote/>.<p/>
D15  97 <p_>The New Age sets out to break down the boundaries of reality, 
D15  98 the boundaries of religions, the boundaries of nations and the 
D15  99 boundaries of mind-body-spirit. Boundaries imply alienation and 
D15 100 separation - and for the New Age, separation is the greatest evil. 
D15 101 True to its 'both/and' doctrine, the New Age also returns men and 
D15 102 women to a golden age - one in which they are all-powerful, no less 
D15 103 than gods. In practice, however, it is often the New Age leader or 
D15 104 guru who has the power: the follower will be told to locate truth 
D15 105 in his or her inner self - but the leader will interpret what the 
D15 106 inner self says. And although the New Age teaches a profound sense 
D15 107 of 'self'-responsibility, many converts seem eager to hand over all 
D15 108 semblance of personal decision-making to a leader who provides 
D15 109 direction on everything from their choice of partner to what to eat 
D15 110 and how often to wash.<p/>
D15 111 <p_>The New Age also allows no boundaries between God and man - 
D15 112 hence the difficulty with the Judaeo-Christian God who is seen as 
D15 113 separate from his creation, and hence the New Age teaching that 
D15 114 <tf|>you are God. There must also be no distinction - no 
D15 115 'separation' - between the individual's reality and the outside 
D15 116 reality, a doctrine which gives rise to the New Age maxim: you 
D15 117 create your own reality.<p/>
D15 118 <p_>For some converts, the maxim can be immensely liberating; for 
D15 119 the unconverted, it can be infuriating: logical argument becomes 
D15 120 impossible. In practice, 'you create your own reality' lays itself 
D15 121 open to abuse. The emphasis on self can easily lead to selfishness, 
D15 122 and even callousness: one New Age convert, explaining his 
D15 123 philosophy of life, remarked that of course he could treat women 
D15 124 how he liked because it was up to them how they chose to experience 
D15 125 his behaviour. On a larger scale, some New Age groups teach that 
D15 126 since people are <quote_>"responsible for"<quote/> and 
D15 127 <quote|>"create" their own reality, there is no point in giving to 
D15 128 charity. During the massive 1985 Live Aid campaign, at least one 
D15 129 New Age group staunchly refused to contribute any money. Although 
D15 130 some of today's New Agers are active campaigners on issues which 
D15 131 concern them, many have decided that a meditation or a dance will 
D15 132 work just as well.<p/>
D15 133 <p_>The idea that you create your own reality can also create 
D15 134 profound feelings of guilt: someone suffering from an illness might 
D15 135 be told that it is simply their <quote|>"story" - and it is up to 
D15 136 them to get rid of the victim mentality and change the punchline. 
D15 137 The New Age tends to dismiss the existence of absolutes, among them 
D15 138 pain and death, which are often seen as simply yet another dogma. 
D15 139 The one absolute which the New Age does promote is the power of the 
D15 140 self.<p/>
D15 141 <p_>New Agers themselves are often quite open about the dangers of 
D15 142 self-discovery. LSD turned breath-control therapist Stanislav Grof 
D15 143 recently co-wrote <tf_>The Stormy Search for The Self<tf/>, 
D15 144 advising seekers on how to deal with crack-ups on the path towards 
D15 145 enlightenment. Others are worried not so much about the 
D15 146 psychological as about the spiritual dangers of the New Age. Some 
D15 147 leaders of established religions are so horrified by the emphasis 
D15 148 on power that they are convinced Satan is behind the movement - a 
D15 149 demonic puppeteer pulling the strings with the ultimate aim of 
D15 150 effecting a world takeover.<p/>
D15 151 <p_>Many New Agers actively promote the movement as being both 
D15 152 dangerous and covert - and even the charge of Satanism is 
D15 153 transformed into an attribute by some prominent New Age figures who 
D15 154 see Satan not as the Anti-Christ (against Christ) but as the 
D15 155 ante-Christ (before Christ), preparing the way for heaven on earth. 
D15 156 Virtually all the derogatory remarks made about the New Age can 
D15 157 also be seen as the very essence of what makes the movement so 
D15 158 attractive: the New Age is not 'either/or' but 'both/and'.<p/>
D15 159 <p_>Some believe that, before long, the New Age will develop an 
D15 160 orthodoxy. While this would, in a sense, strip the New Age of what 
D15 161 it is, it might help to ensure that New Age leaders are prevented 
D15 162 from taking advantage of their spiritual authority: followers would 
D15 163 have some code of practice against which they could measure their 
D15 164 leader's behaviour; something concrete to hang on to in times of 
D15 165 uncertainty. While some New Agers are happy to flit from group to 
D15 166 group, others become totally dependent on the movement and if their 
D15 167 faith is shaken they can feel immensely let down. Sometimes, the 
D15 168 disillusionment can be shattering, and the struggle to rebuild 
D15 169 their lives well-nigh overwhelming.<p/>
D15 170 <p_>While there are countless New Age leaders whose behaviour 
D15 171 towards their followers is faultless, there are a number who have 
D15 172 abused the power which their personal charisma, together with the 
D15 173 persuasiveness of their teachings, has given them. These leaders 
D15 174 are accountable only to themselves - and their followers have 
D15 175 little, if any, means of redress. The story of the Movement of 
D15 176 Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA) provides a good illustration of 
D15 177 the problem. Teachings within the movement encourage followers to 
D15 178 reject criticism of them or their leader as <quote|>"negative". 
D15 179 Specific charges of malpractice by MSIA leaders are dismissed as 
D15 180 tales that cannot be substantiated short of <quote_>"personal 
D15 181 experience"<quote/>. Those who become unhappy within the movement 
D15 182 have either to obliterate any negative thinking, or leave it.<p/>
D15 183 <p_>The founder of MSIA is Roger Hinkins. Born in Rains, Utah, in 
D15 184 1934 to Mormon parents, Hinkins was an ordinary kind of child, 
D15 185 distinguished from his schoolfellows only by his claimed ability to 
D15 186 see the auras or colours surrounding people. After gaining a degree 
D15 187 in psychology, Hinkins took a job as an English teacher at Rosemead 
D15 188 County High School, California.<p/>
D15 189 <p_>Then the transformation occurred: falling into a coma following 
D15 190 a kidney stone operation in 1963, Hinkins claimed to have undergone 
D15 191 a profoundly enlightening near-death experience and, on returning 
D15 192 to the living, became aware that a spiritual being - John the 
D15 193 Beloved - had entered his body. In Christian belief, John the 
D15 194 Beloved is St John the Evangelist, one of Christ's apostles. From 
D15 195 then on, Hinkins adopted the name of John-Roger, or J-R. He also 
D15 196 claimed he was the embodiment of the Mystical Traveller 
D15 197 Consciousness - a being, so his followers came to believe, which 
D15 198 appears only once every 25,000 years, and without whom it is 
D15 199 virtually impossible to reach God or the <quote_>"soul 
D15 200 realm"<quote/>.<p/>
D15 201 <p_>In his spare time, J-R began to lead evening classes, preaching 
D15 202 his new-found spirituality and gradually gathering a group of firm 
D15 203 devotees around him. Meanwhile, he continued his more mundane 
D15 204 teaching at Rosemead until, one day, the headmaster walked into his 
D15 205 classroom to find the lights extinguished and curtains drawn: J-R 
D15 206 had been introducing his pupils to hypnosis. Deciding that his 
D15 207 spiritual teachings took priority, J-R and the school went separate 
D15 208 ways.<p/>
D15 209 
D16   1 <#FLOB:D16\><h_><p_>7 The Bible, Doctrine and Economic 
D16   2 Issues<p/><h/>
D16   3 <p_>Putting things as simply as possible, we can say that 
D16   4 decision<?_>-<?/>making in the Christian life means both acting 
D16   5 from the right motive and making the right decision in particular 
D16   6 cases. It means having a sensitive conscience which uses its power 
D16   7 of reasoning on moral issues with discernment. Motivation involves 
D16   8 what the catholic tradition calls <quote_>"spiritual 
D16   9 formation"<quote/>, including the practice of public worship and 
D16  10 private prayer, which themselves embrace reflection on Christian 
D16  11 sources in the Bible and the tradition of doctrine. It also 
D16  12 involves a mutual building up within the Christian community of 
D16  13 perceptiveness by discussion, dialogue and, on occasions, pastoral 
D16  14 counselling. All this is not the direct concern of this book. 
D16  15 Bringing these resources to bear on particular issues is our 
D16  16 concern. How this is done applies, of course, to every area of 
D16  17 life, personal and social, but we are focussing on economic 
D16  18 issues.<p/>
D16  19 <p_>It is evident that some knowledge of the data of these issues 
D16  20 is indispensable, even if it is often not as adequate as we would 
D16  21 like. If we do not know the data we cannot focus on the issue. It 
D16  22 is also evident that the data cannot come from the Bible or 
D16  23 doctrine. They can only come from understanding evidence in the 
D16  24 present. That is why in respect of many of the issues an element of 
D16  25 expertise is needed on which to draw (though not uncritically). But 
D16  26 expertise by itself does not settle the matter. The further 
D16  27 question is how we relate the two elements needed in ethical 
D16  28 decision-making: the Bible and the doctrinal tradition on the one 
D16  29 hand, and the data of the contemporary world on the other. How much 
D16  30 detail can we derive from them? Certainly the former give us an 
D16  31 understanding of human life and destiny (or, put another way, of 
D16  32 nature, humanity and God), which then has to be brought alongside 
D16  33 our analysis of 'what is going on' in our contemporary 
D16  34 situation.<p/>
D16  35 <p_>I suggest that there is a reciprocal relation between the two. 
D16  36 The Christian sources give us criteria which are important in 
D16  37 selecting and interpreting from the mass of contemporary data. 
D16  38 These criteria are not necessarily peculiar to Christianity, but 
D16  39 may overlap at times with those of other faiths, religious and 
D16  40 humanist. But the data may also reflect back on our understanding 
D16  41 of the Christian sources and lead us to reflect on them anew, 
D16  42 instead of inheriting them as a fixed and unchangeable deposit from 
D16  43 the past. For example, the human sciences of psychology and 
D16  44 sociology have modified and enriched the understanding of the 
D16  45 personal which is central to Christian faith. In this way an 
D16  46 ongoing reflection on our past in the light of our experience of 
D16  47 the present is always at work in the church at every level, from 
D16  48 church leaders and governing bodies downwards to particular 
D16  49 congregations, and to groups thinking and praying together within 
D16  50 congregations, or groups of Christians with similar vocational 
D16  51 concerns meeting together in medicine, education, industry and 
D16  52 commerce, administration or the arts.<p/>
D16  53 <p_>I am broadly content with this account. Of course, it can be 
D16  54 greatly expanded, and would need to be in a thorough exposition of 
D16  55 method in Christian ethics. Many, however, are unhappy with it. To 
D16  56 them it seems altogether too contextual and relativistic. It seems 
D16  57 to be in danger of selling out to whatever notions are popular with 
D16  58 the intelligentsia (or, less likely, the 'workers') at a given 
D16  59 moment. It reminds them of Dean Inge's remark that he who marries 
D16  60 the spirit of the age soon finds himself a widower in the next. 
D16  61 They want something much more fixed and detailed. This is 
D16  62 particularly the case with the Bible.<p/>
D16  63 <h_><p_>1. The use of the Bible<p/><h/>
D16  64 <p_>Behind this search for more detailed and unchangeable material 
D16  65 from the Bible lies a belief, particularly in some evangelical 
D16  66 circles, that God is the author of scripture, and that every text 
D16  67 therefore has potential permanent authority. It is assumed that God 
D16  68 reveals himself to humans through the words of scripture without 
D16  69 any of the cultural and relativizing factors and shifts in the 
D16  70 meanings of words which occur when humans communicate by words with 
D16  71 one another. This attitude is reinforced by the current practice of 
D16  72 saying <quote_>"This is the word of the Lord"<quote/> after reading 
D16  73 in church services a non-gospel passage from the Bible. Thus an 
D16  74 epistle from St Paul to one of the churches is turned into an 
D16  75 epistle from God to St Paul. By contrast there is much to be said 
D16  76 for the traditional Anglican appeal to scripture, tradition and 
D16  77 reason. Indeed the Bible alone has not proved enough to establish 
D16  78 doctrine. The church had in fact to go outside it in order to 
D16  79 protect its understanding of Christ at the time of the Arian 
D16  80 controversy, and its wording is embodied in the 'Nicene' Creed. 
D16  81 Tradition alone also will not do, or the church would never do 
D16  82 anything for the first time. Reason is important: not the deductive 
D16  83 reason which can draw logical conclusions from a premiss<&|>sic!, 
D16  84 but a historical and critical reason. However, reason must also 
D16  85 have the Bible and tradition to work on, or it will be conjuring up 
D16  86 rational abstractions, because the Christian faith is rooted in the 
D16  87 life and ministry of Jesus, which occurred at a particular time and 
D16  88 place in history.<p/>
D16  89 <p_>The kingdom of God is the focus of Jesus' ministry: a radical 
D16  90 understanding of God's way of exercising his rule as king or 
D16  91 sovereign over his creation, and one which is always seeking 
D16  92 expression in human life and institutions and always transcending 
D16  93 any particular expression. Jesus did not give us detailed moral 
D16  94 rules, even on marriage and divorce, or on what precisely is due to 
D16  95 the state (Caesar). His teaching is questioning, illuminating, 
D16  96 liberating, imaginative and life-giving. There are indeed many 
D16  97 contextual decisions elsewhere in the Bible, but we cannot move 
D16  98 directly from them to the modern world. In the New Testament they 
D16  99 are concerned with how the people of God should behave to one 
D16 100 another (for instance, Paul says they should not go to law against 
D16 101 one another in secular courts), and how they should relate to the 
D16 102 state. In the Old Testament this was not a problem because church 
D16 103 and state were one kingdom: Israel was a theocracy. From New 
D16 104 Testament times there has always been a problem because there are 
D16 105 two kingdoms, both God's kingdoms, but with different tasks. The 
D16 106 Christendom situation in Europe (pre-supposed by Hooker in England) 
D16 107 which united them again is now almost gone; it was an exception in 
D16 108 Christian history, in the course of which the church has lived 
D16 109 under a great variety of state authorities.<p/>
D16 110 <p_>The National Evangelical Anglican conference at Nottingham in 
D16 111 1977 said very wisely that: 1. the words of scripture are to be 
D16 112 understood in their context; 2. the context is to be understood in 
D16 113 terms of the cultural assumptions of the writers; 3. there is need 
D16 114 for alertness to our own cultural assumptions. However, many 
D16 115 evangelicals, and others, have not accepted this, or do not follow 
D16 116 it in practice.<p/>
D16 117 <p_>Sometimes the attempt is made to take a single text or a catena 
D16 118 of texts as a simple rule or example. Hundreds of Puritan sermons 
D16 119 were preached in the year after the execution of Charles I, 
D16 120 1648-49, on the text of Psalm 149.8, which has the words: 
D16 121 <quote_>"To bind their kings in chains; and their nobles with links 
D16 122 of iron."<quote/> Karl Barth, in a startling passage in 'The 
D16 123 Christian Community and the Civil Community', says that because 
D16 124 Jesus is the light of the world there must be no secret diplomacy. 
D16 125 In the nineteenth century a strong <tf|>defence of slavery was 
D16 126 advanced by detailing biblical texts, and in this century 
D16 127 homosexuality is <tf|>attacked by the same method. Many other 
D16 128 examples could be quoted.<p/>
D16 129 <p_>However, some who see the inadequacy of quoting texts in this 
D16 130 way want to derive from them <tf|>principles which can then be 
D16 131 followed in a contemporary context. How well does this work? I take 
D16 132 three examples.<p/>
D16 133 <p_>1. A paper from the Cambridge (UK) Jubilee Centre says that we 
D16 134 should establish the intention of the original text in its social 
D16 135 context (for this is God himself speaking), then look for analogies 
D16 136 or situational correspondences between the situation today and that 
D16 137 in the Bible, and then apply the moral principle involved. If the 
D16 138 Old Testament says in Leviticus 25 that all land is to be returned 
D16 139 to the original owners every fifty years, we can work back by 
D16 140 abstraction to the need for justice in economic life. We are to 
D16 141 exclude in the Old Testament requirements which (<tf|>a) are part 
D16 142 of the sacrificial law; (<tf|>b) are designed to make Israel 
D16 143 exclusive of others; (<tf|>c) assert that Israel is executing God's 
D16 144 judgment on Canaan; (<tf|>d) are purely theocratic, since church 
D16 145 and state were one Kingdom. In the New Testament we are to exclude: 
D16 146 (<tf|>a) a command addressed to an individual; (<tf|>b) one 
D16 147 addressed to the church as an economic community. The Old Testament 
D16 148 is to be a paradigm for a pattern of relationships between key 
D16 149 institutions - family, kinship, state, land, capital and community 
D16 150 - which is to be replicated today <quote_>"in certain fundamental 
D16 151 respects"<quote/>. In practice, this leads to a strong emphasis in 
D16 152 Jubilee Centre publications on the extended family as against the 
D16 153 state. But in so far as content can be given to it, the requirement 
D16 154 that such a paradigmatic correspondence between Israel's 
D16 155 institutions in biblical times and the ones today, whether we live 
D16 156 in the First, Second or Third Worlds, seems an arbitrary 
D16 157 restriction.<p/>
D16 158 <p_>2. Associated with the same group is a campaign for keeping 
D16 159 Sunday special, in the sense of restrictions on trading activities 
D16 160 so that it remains different from the other six days of the week. 
D16 161 The four principles underlying the campaign are all alleged to be 
D16 162 biblically based, but whatever we may think of them, the texts 
D16 163 quoted will not work as a basis for the principles. (<tf|>a) The 
D16 164 purpose behind the sabbath is love to God, so that we do not give 
D16 165 him the odd bits of our time but the best. The text here is Luke 
D16 166 10.27, which is Jesus' two-fold summary of the Torah as love of God 
D16 167 and neighbour. (<tf|>b) The sabbath protects the low-income worker 
D16 168 from pressure to work seven days a week. The text is Deuteronomy 
D16 169 5.12-16 (a variation of Exodus 20), where the weight falls on the 
D16 170 deliverance from Egypt, though the welfare of slaves is mentioned. 
D16 171 (<tf|>c) Family, community and church life are preserved if 
D16 172 everyone is at leisure at the same time. Here the Exodus 10.8-11 
D16 173 passage is quoted, but that stresses that the family should keep 
D16 174 the sabbath not because of the family, but because God keeps it. 
D16 175 (<tf|>d) The sabbath follows a regular rhythm of work and rest 
D16 176 which is God's design. The quotation is Genesis 2.3, but this is 
D16 177 not concerned with biological rhythms but with God the creator.<p/>
D16 178 <p_>It seems clear that in the Old Testament, in a one-kingdom 
D16 179 situation, the sabbath is a stretch of time to be set apart for 
D16 180 God. In the New Testament it also seems clear that there is no 
D16 181 stress on keeping any day special in the sense intended by the four 
D16 182 principles. These may very well be wise principles, but they cannot 
D16 183 be sustained by quoting texts in the way proposed. That Christians 
D16 184 should specially worship together on Sunday, a new day celebrating 
D16 185 Jesus' triumph over death, is quite another matter. That work and 
D16 186 leisure are both divine gifts is also another matter. What state 
D16 187 regulation should be, and how workers should be safeguarded against 
D16 188 unjust demands by employers in a competitive society, is yet a 
D16 189 third question.<p/>
D16 190 <p_>3. An extended attempt to arrive at biblical principles for the 
D16 191 economic order is made by Donald Hay in the book referred to in 
D16 192 Chapter 6. He derives eight principles by what he calls a process 
D16 193 of deduction and imaginative reflection from the great biblical 
D16 194 themes of creation, fall, judgment and the people of God.
D16 195 
D17   1 <#FLOB:D17\><h_><p_>JOHN KENT<p/>
D17   2 <p_>7 Women, ministry, and 'apostolicity'<p/><h/>
D17   3 <p_>I write in the Methodist tradition, as a member of a Church 
D17   4 which decided to ordain women to the priesthood a generation ago, 
D17   5 has done so, and does not seem to have suffered the divisive, 
D17   6 destructive effects that are frequently assumed to have happened 
D17   7 elsewhere - in Scandinavia, for example. In this absence of 
D17   8 conflict Methodism is no more remarkable than the British Free 
D17   9 Churches in general, which have taken this particular change as an 
D17  10 unbuckling step towards the greater equality of the sexes, and as a 
D17  11 recognition of what women have already contributed to the life of 
D17  12 their Churches. I mean, quite seriously, that no great emotional 
D17  13 investment was involved, either for or against a proposal which in 
D17  14 Anglican terms is sometimes presented as though it would mean the 
D17  15 end of religion in our time.<p/>
D17  16 <p_>In the Methodist case - the one I understand the best - the 
D17  17 phrase 'apostolic ministry' has never been the catchword of a 
D17  18 group, nor has 'ministry', in the broader sense, ever been 
D17  19 identified exclusively with the masculine. John Wesley judged 
D17  20 'apostolicity' in terms of faithfulness to doctrinal (he would have 
D17  21 said Anglican, doctrinal) standards: he took it for granted that 
D17  22 the teaching of the Church of England, evangelically (and not 
D17  23 Calvinistically) understood, was 'apostolic'. He also measured 
D17  24 'faithfulness' partly in terms of effectiveness, asking if God 
D17  25 honoured what was preached or otherwise taught by conversions or 
D17  26 other signs of spiritual fruitfulness. These attitudes constituted 
D17  27 a pragmatic test which made it hard for him to reject altogether 
D17  28 the collaboration of women. I do not mean that John or his brother, 
D17  29 Charles Wesley, both of whom were regularly ordained Anglican 
D17  30 ministers, considered the formal ordination of women a possibility: 
D17  31 Charles steadily resisted as totally improper John Wesley's 
D17  32 willingness himself to ordain the Wesleyan itinerants, all of whom 
D17  33 were male. But both men accepted the role of women as pastoral 
D17  34 advisers and spiritual leaders; John found it difficult to say that 
D17  35 women should never preach, as long as they did not actually call it 
D17  36 preaching.<p/>
D17  37 <p_>Indeed, eighteenth-century Wesleyanism at the local level - and 
D17  38 it was the local level which mattered - was as much the creation of 
D17  39 women as of men. Women could, it is true, play an important role in 
D17  40 eighteenth-century Anglican Evangelicalism, but the existence of 
D17  41 women class-leaders, who had a pastoral role but were not ordained, 
D17  42 gave a more formal value to their position in Wesleyanism. Even in 
D17  43 1968, when the official, ill-fated scheme for Anglican-Methodist 
D17  44 unity was produced, the Methodist leaders had to be careful to say 
D17  45 that their future acceptance of the <quote_>"strictest 
D17  46 invariability of episcopal ordination"<quote/> would not commit the 
D17  47 Methodist Church to the view that the historic episcopate was 
D17  48 essential to the apostolic character of the Church, and that this 
D17  49 character was something which nonepiscopal Churches necessarily 
D17  50 lacked. There had to be a saving clause for pragmatism, because a 
D17  51 pragmatic attitude to questions of church order was the fundamental 
D17  52 presupposition of the eighteenth-century Wesleyan movement. Not all 
D17  53 modern Methodists rejoice in the pragmatic origins of Wesleyanism, 
D17  54 but they cannot ignore them altogether. Indeed, it was a pragmatic 
D17  55 fact that in the 1970s many Methodists were offering to accept 
D17  56 episcopal ordination for the sake of unity, not unity for the sake 
D17  57 of episcopal ordination, or for some kind of fresh guarantee that 
D17  58 Methodist ministers were, after all, in an 'apostolic succession'. 
D17  59 It is equally clear, I think, that having once tested the 
D17  60 ordination of women in practice and found it acceptable, the 
D17  61 Methodists will not worry very much about Catholic opposition. 
D17  62 There may be cultural elements involved, but whereas an older 
D17  63 generation of Methodists had found the presence of women local 
D17  64 preachers, who conducted non-sacramental services in local chapels, 
D17  65 something of a problem, there was no similar reaction against women 
D17  66 presiding at the Eucharist. It is an additional example of the 
D17  67 pragmatic tradition that women had in fact already been conducting 
D17  68 eucharistic services for many years as Methodist 'deaconesses', 
D17  69 that is, without formal ordination but with the specific authority 
D17  70 of the Methodist Conference.<p/>
D17  71 <p_>Methodists, therefore, find Anglo-Catholic objections to the 
D17  72 admission of women to the priesthood hard to follow. 
D17  73 'Apostolicity', after all, was a mark of authenticity put forward 
D17  74 in the early Church as a way of distinguishing local churches which 
D17  75 had been founded in some kind of continuity with the apostles from 
D17  76 other churches which showed heretical trends. In the sixteenth 
D17  77 century large-scale division inevitably gave the idea fresh 
D17  78 prominence, and while Roman Catholics put their stress on the 
D17  79 possession of an episcopal succession from the apostles, the 
D17  80 Reformers asserted that they were reviving a theological continuity 
D17  81 with the apostles and the primitive Church which had largely 
D17  82 disappeared in recent centuries. The difference between the two 
D17  83 could also be thought of to some extent in terms of 'tradition', on 
D17  84 the one side, and 'Scripture' on the other, both of which depended 
D17  85 on apostolic authority. An 'apostolic' ministry, therefore, was one 
D17  86 which claimed to be faithful to the essential witness of the 
D17  87 apostles, and there was an obvious need for some such idea, and for 
D17  88 some such institution, if Christianity was to remain visibly what 
D17  89 its founders had intended.<p/>
D17  90 <p_>However, by the time that the Reformers had established 
D17  91 themselves it had become clear that the idea that Christianity must 
D17  92 maintain an essentially unchanged, apostolic identity was 
D17  93 ambiguous: it could be used to object to any kind of change, on the 
D17  94 ground of loss of identity, or it could be used to defend 
D17  95 innovation, on the ground that what was proposed expressed the true 
D17  96 spirit of the apostles. This situation caused great anxiety in the 
D17  97 sixteenth century, and again in early nineteenth-century 
D17  98 Anglicanism, when John Henry Newman and his friends agonized over 
D17  99 the where<?_>-<?/>abouts of the true, 'apostolic' Church. Yet again 
D17 100 in the late twentieth century Anglo-Catholics and Anglican 
D17 101 Evangelicals are both anxious about a loss of the Church's 
D17 102 identity, though they don't necessarily define it in the same way. 
D17 103 One has to recognize, in any case, that the apostolic identity, 
D17 104 even when defined as episcopal succession, is primarily to be found 
D17 105 in the whole life of the Church, and that the particular form in 
D17 106 which we have received the church's ministry is a sign, not the 
D17 107 substance, of the apostolic witness as such. It is truer to say 
D17 108 that there have always been ministers of some kind in the apostolic 
D17 109 succession than it is to say that these ministers have always been 
D17 110 male.<p/>
D17 111 <p_>This conclusion may sound perverse, but one has only to 
D17 112 consider the history of the ecclesia. A few examples must suffice 
D17 113 here. In the medieval period, for instance, Catherine of Siena 
D17 114 dominated the western Church in her lifetime; in the seventeenth 
D17 115 century the Inquisition worked hard to destroy the religious 
D17 116 credibility of the iron Teresa of Avila, but those who study her 
D17 117 today waste little time on the Inquisition's views. In the early 
D17 118 nineteenth century, Elizabeth Fry, who had no doubt that she stood 
D17 119 in the succession of the apostles, firmly rejected the 'modern' 
D17 120 penitentiary prison system which was supported by many masculine 
D17 121 ordained chaplains, and was certainly nearer to the mind of Jesus 
D17 122 in doing so. And if one looks for traces of that great succession 
D17 123 in more recent years, I think that one would pass over the male and 
D17 124 usually ordained theologians, and rest on another gallant, tragic 
D17 125 Carmelite, Th<*_>e-acute<*/>r<*_>e-grave<*/>se of Lisieux, and the 
D17 126 unofficial patron saint of the 'almost christians', Simone Weil. 
D17 127 The official Churches may have wanted an authoritarian, 
D17 128 male-dominated structure, but the existential Church, the only 
D17 129 Church that can really be in the 'succession', has never been as 
D17 130 gender-simple as that. There was always an unsatisfactory attempt 
D17 131 at balancing, which meant that in practice women could organize 
D17 132 Orders and run convents, could become deaconesses, could dictate 
D17 133 whole spiritual traditions through their alleged mystical 
D17 134 experiences: it is not so very surprising that in the end Wesleyan 
D17 135 women became class-leaders and local preachers, and finally 
D17 136 ordained ministers. The case would be complicated, but one could 
D17 137 argue that this was an example of theological development within 
D17 138 the tradition which has reached the point where the official Church 
D17 139 has to accept what has happened. Even in the fairly limited case of 
D17 140 the traditional male priesthood the relationship between the sexes 
D17 141 has differed so much that one can hardly speak of an authoritative 
D17 142 tradition running back to the apostles.<p/>
D17 143 <p_>This becomes obvious when one looks at the ways in which the 
D17 144 male priesthood, for which so much is claimed, has actually been 
D17 145 developed. In the Roman Church, theory requires a celibate 
D17 146 priesthood, but in the Orthodox tradition priests were left free to 
D17 147 marry, as they were in the Church of England from the sixteenth 
D17 148 century. The concept of the married priest has also shifted in 
D17 149 recent times: at first the priest's wife was almost an anonymous 
D17 150 figure; then she was transformed into a kind a married deaconess, 
D17 151 who had to exhibit total loyalty to the ideal of the family while 
D17 152 giving herself to the service of her church or parish - perhaps the 
D17 153 extreme example of this was the relationship between Salvation Army 
D17 154 married couples. In the past generation a sudden revolution has 
D17 155 meant that the priest's wife increasingly refuses what is seen as a 
D17 156 male-determined role and pursues, quite properly, her own identity 
D17 157 in work not connected with her husband's responsibilities. It is 
D17 158 rather late on in the day now to argue that one of these traditions 
D17 159 is right and the other wrong: one has to look at the whole Church 
D17 160 and recognize that there has been a great uncertainty about the 
D17 161 nature of the priesthood and about the proper relationship of the 
D17 162 sexes in that priesthood, an uncertainty which Protestantism, which 
D17 163 had the historical advantage of disunity, was able to explore much 
D17 164 further, though in the present-day Roman Catholic Church similar 
D17 165 anxieties are reflected in the gulf, on the subject of priests 
D17 166 being allowed to marry, between Hans K<*_>u-umlaut<*/>ng, for 
D17 167 example, and the present Pope.<p/>
D17 168 <p_>K<*_>u-umlaut<*/>ng is an interesting example of how uncertain 
D17 169 the situation really has become. In his <foreign_>Wozu 
D17 170 Priester?<foreign/> (1971), translated as <tf_>Why Priests?<tf/>, 
D17 171 he said that one could not say dogmatically that ordination to the 
D17 172 priesthood was instituted by Christ: <quote_>"there is not the 
D17 173 least proof of this institution"<quote/>; and he went on to say 
D17 174 that today ordination could no longer, as in the medieval period, 
D17 175 <quote_>"pass as a sacral investiture, by virtue of which the 
D17 176 receiver is ... invested with a legal and sacral potestas that 
D17 177 would enable and authorize him alone to consecrate the 
D17 178 eucharist"<quote/>. K<*_>u-umlaut<*/>ng also said that the 
D17 179 ecclesial ministry should not be exclusively male: <quote_>"in this 
D17 180 respect the New Testament should be viewed as a time-conditioned 
D17 181 work (remember the veiled women in Corinth)"<quote/>, and it should 
D17 182 be interpreted on the basis of Paul's 'abolition' of discrimination 
D17 183 between men and women.<p/>
D17 184 <p_>There are obvious criticisms of K<*_>u-umlaut<*/>ng's argument. 
D17 185 If the New Testament is a time-conditioned document - and I 
D17 186 entirely agree that it is - one can do no more with a quotation 
D17 187 from Paul on this matter than point out that even in such a 
D17 188 conditioned source surprising things could be said about the 
D17 189 relationship of the sexes, but what Paul said can have no absolute 
D17 190 authority, and it is obvious that he was not thinking about the 
D17 191 ordination of women as such. Either the Church has a meaningful 
D17 192 history or it does not, but that it has a history cannot be denied. 
D17 193 And just as the New Testament is time-conditioned so is tradition, 
D17 194 and so is our modern response to the problem of the ordination of 
D17 195 women. What we also have, however, is a, by now, highly developed 
D17 196 set of practical examples of what it means to authorize women to 
D17 197 behave as full ministers of the Church; we are not simply 
D17 198 innovating in the dark, we are not simply responding to some 
D17 199 fashionable current of 'liberal' opinion, we are watching a 
D17 200 situation develop and trying to learn from what is happening.<p/>
D17 201 <p_>What was significant about K<*_>u-umlaut<*/>ng's discussion was 
D17 202 that in the Roman Catholic Church one already had an important 
D17 203 theologian whose vision of priesthood as a ministry of leadership 
D17 204 and service, open to both men and women, came very close to what 
D17 205 had evolved on the broad plain of Protestantism.
D17 206 
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