Tom Wright's God in Public - A Review

God in Public: How the Bible Speaks Truth to Power Today

by Tom Wright, 21 Apr 2016, Paperback

ISBN-13 9780281074235 Publisher SPCK Publishing  Pages 208

A review by Greg Smith

Make no mistake I'm a fan of N.T. (Tom) Wright. I love his biblical exegesis, his emphases on the "big story" of the Bible, the centrality of the resurrection, the multiple layers of the atonement and his account of the coming new creation. I'm encouraged by his teaching about heaven touching earth  and value greatly his reconciliation of the gospels of the kingdom with Pauline theology. Books like "Surprised by Hope" have refreshed and sustained me in my work in developing Christian social action and community involvement with churches and communities in urban areas. I've listened to his  podcasts and watched youtube videos of his lectures, and I was eagerly anticipating the publication of his new title, "God in Public ; How the Bible Speaks Truth to Power Today "

Undoubtedly there is good stuff in this book and I find myself agreeing with a lot of what he says. I share some of his political concerns about the quality and hollowness of some of the leaders and politics of the present time, and the horrendous consequences of the deceit and self interest that led Western powers to intervene in Iraq in 2003. I can go along with his critique of the world views of both modernity and post-modernity, and his attack on spiritualities that owe more to the Gnostic than the Christian tradition, as set out in the second chapter. I agree that the grand narrative of the Bible gives a much sounder foundation for both personal and social life. However, I do think we need to take more seriously the hermeneutical questions raised by post-modernity - there is no neutral objective reading of Scripture possible and a white male scholar's reading is not the only or necessarily the best way to approach the Bible.

The third chapter, where Tom Wright delves into John's account of the trial before Pilate is the highlight of the book.  It is good to see him looking at John's gospel, which is relatively absent from his earlier books. Without dismissing the traditional evangelical accounts of the crucifixion and the atonement altogether, he brings out the reality of the politics of the events, and the radical challenge to the Jewish religious establishment and the Roman state by one who was labelled "King of the Jews".  And this Kingdom which is not FROM this world brings an authority which is profoundly disturbing to Pilate, and all other rulers since - a power which through powerless love overcomes victoriously the powers and principalities of evil itself.

But then why am I disappointed, and why does that disappointment grow as I read on to the end of the book? The first problem seems to be repetition; inevitable perhaps as the chapters are based on scripts of various talks and lectures given to disparate audiences over recent years, all loosely linked with the theme of God and public life. One can understand that a lecturer needs to summarise and recapitulate key themes from an earlier vast corpus of theological scholarship. But by the end of the book I had concluded that this volume was mostly the product of the Tom/ N.T Wright instant  publishing industry.  I was becoming nostalgic for the quill pens of the monastic scribes of the medieval monasteries, and wondering if the invention of MS Word and the easy techniques of cut and paste actually represent progress in the development of original new thought.

More fundamentally however, I fear that in this volume at least Tom Wright is just not engaging with those who have been grappling with political and public theology for decades.  There is one mention of Jim Wallis, one of Pope Benedict and one of Bonhoeffer,  and on the back cover there is a commendation from Nick Spencer of Theos, and two Christian members of House of Lords. And that is it - I could find  no reference in the index to liberation theology or other forms of contextual theology, to Catholic social teaching on the common good or to Pope Francis. Political and public theologians of the stature of Walter Brueggemann, Luke Bretherton and  Elaine Graham, and Christian  political scientists like Jonathan Chaplain are missing. I'm not sure we should have expected a reference to that most turbulent of East End priests, the late Ken Leech, who inspired so many of us by his combination of theological erudition and practical example, but it would have been enlightening. Nor are the debates following Habermas, on secularization and post secularity recognized. It leaves the impression that there is nothing more than a bipolar conflict between faith and secularism as competing ideologies, with a little bit of Gnosticism thrown in for individuals exploring spirituality.

Unsurprisingly I was looking for links with the thought and practice of William Temple. Apart from the coincidence of the exposition of John's gospel, there was not much else. Temple is not even in the index. At the very least a discussion of God in public needs to engage with the method of middle axioms, and Temple's insistence on the need to draw on wisdom and expertise from other disciplines than theology. And if one is not happy with the methods, theology and politics of Temple, or of various contextual theologies, there is always the Reformed tradition  which recognizes plural sovereignities under God in different social and political spheres, as expounded in the philosophy of Dooyeweerd and the politics of Kuyper.

The kind of God in Public that emerges from this book seems to me to be rather too much of an establishment and churchy one. Wright seems to me rather too trapped in the world of the New Testament, and scarcely emerges from a Pauline communitarianism.  Fundamentally he seems to be looking at the church as alternative society, radically providing an alternative welfare system which would gladden the hearts of those who invented the notion of Big Society. David Cameron promoted this for a while, then forgot about it as his austerity policy condemned the third sector to make more bricks without supplies of straw. Wright's almost sectarian view seems rather Anabaptist at least at the local level, but without the radical elements of pacifism, voluntarism and independent local church government that make it attractive (to me at least). The political role for the church seems little more than the voice of bishops in Parliament expressing Godly dissent within the confines and language of the establishment.

So my problem with the book is that it is not really answering the questions I and my colleagues deal with day to day in local faith linked community work, or those that Christian politician friends or broad based Citizens organizers engage with in their roles. I find too little understanding of the complexity of public involvement and partnership in an age where the welfare state is under attack, inequality and destitution grows, and the Third Sector is under resourced . There is little help about the messiness of negotiation, compromise and the pragmatism of achievable political change.  There is little about the nature of a plural and religiously diverse society, and how people of various faiths and none can speak of God in public, and work together for the common good,  finding allies on particular values and campaigns. While Tom Wright may understand and value holistic incarnational Christian mission, he says nothing about where Christians fit in the processes of community development and community politics at the local level. As a result there is the privilege of the prophet but there doesn't seem to be much space for the voice of poor and the marginalized.

So if you want a book that puts into print some of his latest talks and sermons you might want to read this book. However you might get just as much out of documents and podcasts that are available online at http://ntwrightpage.com/  or by searching for videos on Youtube. But if you want a book that helps you to think deeply about the complexity of faithful action in the contemporary world, or to inform your daily practice as a Christian politician, academic or community activist there are plenty of other publications that will deliver more.

40 years in the wilderness? - Personal theological reflections on living with ethno-religious diversity 1975-2015.

A presentation to the Manchester Chinese Christian Church 50th Anniversary conference April 30th 2016 .

40 years in the wilderness? - Personal theological reflections on living with ethno-religious diversity 1975-2015.

and    The powerpoint presentation

Northern Gospel, Northern Church: Reflections on Identity and Mission -A book review by Greg Smith

 

ISBN-13 9781910519196            Format Paperback

Publisher Sacristy Press

Publication date 1 Mar 2016

Pages 240

Edited by

Gavin Wakefield   & Nigel Rooms

Foreword by John Sentamu

This is an interesting book of varying length chapters by Anglican clergy serving in various roles in the North of England. Inevitably like the curate's egg it is good in parts - though at times I felt it the tone was that of a group of "good eggs" discussing theology in the common room after evensong in the college chapel. Indeed it arose from a clergy retreat at Bishopsthorpe and a bishops' retreat on Lindisfarne so it is not surprising that it seems far removed from the stories of the street of Blackpool, Burnley, Bury, Barnsley, Bradford and Bedlington. With so many of the authors raised or educated south of Birmingham it sometimes feels like a view from the south, a missionary account of a distant land. With their concerns for the survival, renewal and resurrection of the Church of England in the northern province, and the dire statistics about membership and age profile of parish congregations their concerns for the re-evangelisation of the region are timely and important.

To start near the end of the Mark Powley's chapter on Vocation and Resurrection faces up to the difficulty of attracting clergy to Northern parishes and advocates a contextual training model for new clergy. This surely must be the right approach, although to train clergy in the context of ministry in the church as it currently is, is not to be confused with localised contextual theological reflection, or a missiology which is informed by a sociological or anthropological understanding of the life worlds outside the institution.. In fact the book as a whole is weak on social analysis. The assumption is that it is the ancient history and geography that shapes the spirituality and ethos of the region as a whole. There is little discussion of the detailed social ecologies and local identities between counties such as Yorkshire and Lancashire, between cities like Bradford and Leeds, or  Liverpool and Manchester or the segregation by class and ethnicity that divides towns like Blackburn and Oldham  or Blackpool and Lytham. It's curious too that most of the authors are based in Yorkshire or the North East. Apart from a short excursion to Bootle the land west of the Pennines features hardly at all.  In the midst of current devolution debates, and the longing among some for Scotland to move the border down to the M62, the question remains as to whether the notion of the North of England has any real substance.

Many of the chapters are steeped in the Christian tradition of the region, with many of the writers retelling the stories of the Northumbrian saints of Saxon times. Inspiring though these may be, and however attractive their relics and monuments remain for the tourist and the pilgrim I'm not convinced they are particularly relevant in the face of more recent history. The Industrial Revolution, (Gavin Wakefield's chapter gives about three pages to this period) that transformed the North an the 19th Century, and the devastation of industry in the late 20th Century profoundly shapes the image, the culture and the social realities of the region. And far more deeply than the stereotype of flat caps, warm brown ale and whippet racing that persists to this day in many minds. Particular industries, their location and the housing alongside them shaped local class solidarities, labour politics and gender relationships.  Stephen Spencer's chapter on William Temple's relationship with the working men (sic) of the North (which as a Temple fan I enjoyed reading) explores the relationship between the North and the national church  at the height of  industrial activity. There is room for more study and reflection, and maybe a different book, about the social and economic impact of the post Thatcher era on the region, and how that has impacted the religious landscape of north.

The industrial revolution and more recent economic globalisation both triggered major people movements with migration of labour from rural hinterlands and distant countries. This shaped the religious ecology far beyond the parishes of the established church. In the Northwest Irish migration added to the persistent recusant tradition of Lancashire produced a Roman Catholic ethos distinct from that of Yorkshire, where the Non Conformist chapels played a major role, while German merchants and Jewish refugees brought minority religions to places such as Bradford and Leeds. David Goodhew, in his chapter on the emergence and growth of new churches, concludes that ethnicity is everything in contemproary church growth. There are indeed some signs that the trends of growth that have renewed London churches are spreading north. Even in a relatively small place like Preston, new congregations of Romanians, Pakistanis, Poles, South Indians, Chinese and west Africans have emerged in the last decade.  Goodhew realizes too that most of the new life is found in denominations outside the Church of England and is willing to learn from them, though I'm not sure that the conclusion can be other than that it's better not to be Anglican.

There is a tendency to perceive the whole of the North of England as urban and multiply deprived despite the existence of such affluent enclaves as George Osborne's Tatton constituency in Cheshire, and the "golden triangle" between Harrogate, Ripon and York. Nonetheless widespread poverty and inequality is obvious between the North and the South and within the North of England and within it's various communities. John Wigfield's chapter addresses these issues  in terms of "the Spirit level" and links this with a reading of the Biblical texts in Deuteronomy. There are some useful insights though I'm not quite convinced that these are the most apposite passages of Scripture or that they will lead us to a missiological application where practical social action and social justice ministries will flourish. 

Su Reid's first chapter does better in grounding her theology in the social action networks of Together Middlesbrough, and in her commitment to "let the poor speak". She has some trenchant insights about the concept of sin, and the way that liturgies such as confession can speak condemnation on people who are struggling. In her second chapter she reflects on the parallels between Northern England and Samaria in the time of Jesus. Her reading of Christ's encounter with the woman at the well in John's gospel, is radical and possibly controversial. Clearly she is right in seeing the story as one where boundary fences of ethnicity, religion and gender between the righteous me and the unrighteous "other" are dismantled. Yet this reading seems to me to take away some of personal moral responsibility from the woman and those who identify with her today as marginalized outsiders, and perhaps could be seen as diminishing the personhood of the poor. Personally I would rather understand and apply the text as multi-layered and nested with multiple meanings and applications, and to see the incident at the well as one of those "blurred encounters", increasingly common today of which Chris Baker and John Reader have written, and which I described in a blog about the messy church in my own parish.

In summary this is a book that is worth reading if you are concerned about the future of the church in the North of England. But it is not the last word, it lacks as much as it contributes and is really only "your starter for ten".

As Local Authorities Shrink, Should Faith Groups Fill the Gaps?

My new Temple blog spelling out some current Chills of the North

 

http://williamtemplefoundation.org.uk/as-local-authorities-shrink-should-faith-groups-fill-the-gaps/

All I Want for Christmas is a Brand New Policy

A new personal  blog .. just gone live on William Temple Foundation site .

 

With seasonal best wishes to all our readers

 

http://williamtemplefoundation.org.uk/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-a-brand-new-policy/

Woe to the Rich

Warning to rich oppressors - James 5 (NIVUK)

5 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. ² Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. ⁴ Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. ⁵ You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter ⁶ You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

This week our church home group tried to tackle this passage. It is indeed fiery stuff, though it's not the only place in the Bible such thoughts are written. (e.g. Amos 4;1 5;10-15 Isaiah 3;12-17  Luke 6;24-25).  And even this weeks SU Word Alive Bible notes  dealt with the rich young ruler and Jesus' one-liner about camels and the eye of a needle.

 

So how do we apply this stuff today. Indeed who are the rich and oppressors we may encounter today. Here's a possible list:

 

• The Saudi Princes wallowing in their oilfields
• The Russian oligarchs buying up the Premier League and half of Mayfair
• The merchant banker gamblers who were responsible for the great crash of 2008
• The arms traders who sponsor war and terror
• The people traffickers who profit from human misery
• The politicians with mansions and duck houses funded at public expense
• The employers who put their staff on zero hours contracts and fail to pay the living and often the minimum wage
• The petty loan sharks and pay day lenders who profit from the desperate poor
• The DWP job centres who sanction desperate benefit claimants for trivial reasons
• The consumers who want a bargain regardless of who has been exploited in the process
• The affluent pensioners who rely on investments in less than ethical funds
• Every reasonably comfortable family who benefits from the global economic system
• and not least chiefly ourselves

 

We discussed in our home group whether, since James was speaking to "you rich" whether there were any rich oppressors in his audience in the early church. We didn't come to a conclusion about that, but we agreed it is clear that just being a Christian does not in itself protect you from the possibility of behaving like this. There is actually and potential sin in each one of us - perhaps it takes the commandment "Thou shalt not covet" to make it clear. And as James wrote in 2;10 whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it .

 

However, if James and Amos and Jesus were divinely inspired to cry out against the rich who oppressed "the least of these" then it seems obvious that we too have a right, and probably a duty, to denounce and warn the perpetrators when we see injustice and oppression in the church and the world around us. We may be less than perfect and less than pure ourselves, and as long as we are humble enough to admit that and rely on God's grace and forgiveness we are still called to cry loudly for justice anf freedom from oppression.

 

That of course may lead to denial, opposition and even martyrdom, but we are called to speak truth to power, and to pray that oppressors might repent and change their evil ways.

The Rituals That Bind Us, Or Blind?

My new blog raising questions of rituals and Remembrance tide

 

 http://williamtemplefoundation.org.uk/the-rituals-that-bind-blind-remembrance/