review: Christian Atheist

Christian Atheist: Belonging without Believing
Brian Mountford

I happened upon this thoughtful book in Blackwell's Book Shop while I was Christmas shopping: so much for Amazon!  It caught my eye because Brian Mountford has been the Vicar of the University Church for as long as I can remember.  I've been aware of his ministry there almost exclusively second-hand.  Until a few years ago, I would probably have dismissed it as not for people like me. On the other hand, it's always been clear that the life of the University Church meets the needs of quite a number of people.

And that, really, is the point of departure for the book.  Through the church, and wider University life, Brian encounters numerous people who wouldn't claim to believe in God, but find themselves friends, fellow-travellers, and even active participants in the life of the Christian Church.  Mountford sets out to explore their experience and perceptions, and to consider how the Church should respond to them.

It's an interesting journey.  He points out that for all the credal, propositional public faith, the actual life of the Church, and the local congregation, and indeed the individual, is often much more tentative. It is based more on relationship, on belonging, than on belief.  "Belonging before believing" was of course a distinctive of some of the first people to write about the emerging church, so this is a meme that has a wider applicability.  Mountford, though, isn't talking of people on a spiritual journey towards God - or not particularly, anyway - but those who are quite happy with vast swathes of Christian life and practice, and with the experience of worship, without being persuaded, or even wanting to think about, the metaphysics.

So he discusses the place of Christian morality, aesthetics, and 'permeable borders of doctrine', in the lives of these Christian Atheists.  This is motivated and illustrated by lots of short 'interview' pieces with individuals he has encountered who embody these positions which seem initially contradictory.

The book is very plainly the work of a pastor.  This isn't high-blown abstract theology or philosophy, it's strongly rooted in the life and ministry of a thinking man in a city and University prone to a lot of deep thinking.  Of course, Mountford is well-read and highly-educated himself, so his work draws on countless theologians, philosophers and others throught the ages, their ideas woven together with skill to present an account strongly rooted in the western traditions of Christendom, yet moving the reader's thought into a seldom-explored category of unbelieving Christian practice.

You might guess that I'm rather taken with the book.  I don't think I fall quite into his category of being a Chistian Atheist - not on most days, anyway - though I can very much see the perspective he describes.  It strikes me as a much happier place than the militant atheists find themselves, and, dare I say it, an intellectually more satisfying place also.  I 'get' that you might want to dismiss the foundational belief system of two millenia for a significant part of the world's population, but it's simply careless to ignore at the same time the breadth and depth of cultural life and moral teaching that has accompanied it.  To liken the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to the Church of England is to make a category mistake.

The book avoids over-blown conclusions or predictions, but concludes with the notion that "Christian Atheists are definitely part of the enterprise - tangential, in some sense maybe, but contributors [...]"  He provocatively suggests that some of the best theology of our age may be written by such people.  He concludes that the correct and best response to those who don't just doubt, or seek, but really don't
believe, is one of welcome.  Amen to that.

review: Torn - Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs-Christians Debate

Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs-Christians Debate   
Justin Lee

(to be published in the UK as Unconditional: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays Vs Christians Debate)

I had this book shipped from the US because I was eager to read it, as soon as it was published (Nov 2012), not willing to wait until the UK publication (mid-Jan 2013) - I'm not sure why the publishers felt it necessary to stagger things this way (nor, to change the title, and apparently to re-write a few sections), but hurray for the global marketplace, even if it prevented me from getting the Kindle edition.

My eagerness was repaid.  It's a good book which deserves to have a significant impact.

Like the sainted Andrew Marin's Love is an Orientation, the central theme is that the Evangelical world needs to re-evaluate how it responds to gay people (and, perhaps, that gay people need to re-evaluate how they relate to the forces of Evangelicalism).  Whereas Marin's experience is driven by his experiences of friends coming out to him, Lee's account is largely autobiographical: he was the teenage "god boy" who to his horror and considerable dislocation, reached the conclusion that he was gay and he needed to report this honestly to those around him.

Lee comes from a loving conservative Christian context, so this was quite a big deal.  His parents helped him to access counselling of various kinds, and he briefly explored the 'ex-gay'/'cure' ministries.  These are dismissed with candour in the book: Lee, together with the great majority of those with any experience of such things, quickly concluded that no matter how well-meaning those folks were, they suffered from a mix of self-delusion and a considerable confusion of nomenclature.  'Success' was determined by promiscuous gay men ceasing to be sexually active - a positive thing in some conceptions of sexuality, but by no means whatsoever a 'cure for being gay'.

The author had anticipated a lifetime in Christian service.  Instead of the conventional paths through Evangelical ministry he has found himself leading the "Gay Christian Network" (GCN) - and in so doing, encountering vast numbers of people with similar stories.  He explains that their ministry embraces both those who believe that the Creator's will is for gay people to enter into full, loving relationships with members of the same sex, totally on a par with heterosexual relationships (the so-called 'Side A' position), and also those who believe that the calling of everyone who doesn't enter into heterosexual marriage is to lifelong celibacy ('Side B').  Lee is unambiguously on Side A, but in embracing both, the GCN is a model of peaceful co-existence on the non-essentials.

The book is undoubtedly the stronger for its autobiographical element.  This is not a dry treatise; it is not a theoretical treatment of the topic.  It is built from experience - and many tears, much heart-searching, and a careful and long-lived review of scripture.  The latter is important: the perspective and methodology  is solidly and fully evangelical, even if the conclusion would be similar to that which might be found in more liberal-minded denominations and groups.

Everyone's experience is different.  Some day soon I'll be ready to talk about mine here.  But the subtitle is exactly right - the gospel desperately needs rescuing from the sterile "Gays-vs-Christians" debate.  It's an absurd false dichotomy and is doing immeasurable harm to the message of Jesus.  Robust grown-ups can draw their own conclusions.  Those who are more vulnerable - particularly lonely and confused teenagers - need a whole lot more help.  If Lee's book helps them, and those close to them, then it will already be worthwhile.  As it is, I hope and pray that it has even more impact than that (and I see that other reviews and reports suggest it is doing just that).

Review: A Better Atonement

A Better Atonement Beyond the Depraved Doctrine of Original Sin     
Tony Jones

When, half a lifetime ago, I started as a student, some of my peers were studying theology, and I was wide-eyed at the concept that they had a whole prelims paper on the Atonement [that link tells me that this is no longer the case...interesting].  I couldn't quite believe that there was enough to say, or, indeed, enough dispute to get a good argument from.  How naive I was!

I've always found the academic end of theology rather challenging - perhaps because I am not trained in the humanities or even the social sciences.  This book isn't high-blown academic theology (well, I don't think it is; how could you tell?), but it's not an easy popular read, either.  That's not to say that it's hard to read: indeed, Jones puts his easy, accessible writing to good effect here as elsewhere.  It's just that the whole theological venture seems, well, arbitrary.  The book is well-written, though it would have benefited from the attentions of an editor (a peril of self-publishing, I guess).

Many of the ideas previously appeared on Tony Jones' blog, so you can find some of it there.  I enjoy Tony's blog, so buying a 'book' with a collection of articles from there didn't seem like a bad idea.  [Aside.  It's ironic that the spell-check on this web-based blog client I'm using doesn't recognise 'blog' as a word, suggesting instead glob, bog, log, slob,...]

In the first part of the book, Jones explores the doctrine of original sin, rejecting it (in the sense that sin is somehow transmitted by semen) in place of an observation that we each sin for ourselves.

In other words, we don’t only lose our immortality because of Adam’s sin, but each of us stands guilty before God because of his sin.

I see the distinction, and yet it seems a bit like splitting hairs.  In the understanding I have received, the stress is much more on the "all have sinned" part; saying with the Psalmist "surely I was sinful from birth" rather than seeing this as particularly strongly tied to an inherited sinful state.  Perhaps I just blanked the semen bit.

But Jones sees the distinction as crucial to going on to understand the Atonement.  As an interlude, he explores his belief that Jesus really rose from being really dead.  He finds Jesus' miracles and his resurrection crucial to how these things are to be understood.

The second part explores various ways in which people have understood the Atonement.  The central idea for Evangelicals (and some others too) is Penal Substitutionary Atonement.  Jones shows a host of reasons for thinking that holding this a central pre-eminent doctrine is a mistake.  I'd have to agree there.  I've tried to avoid it in preaching and in leading worship, these last several years.  It's downright difficult - our patterns of thought, and our hymnology are suffused with it.  And yet it's unsatisfactory - particularly as a central idea, even if it makes for a good analogy and an angle to explore from time to time.

Having batted aside this and several other ideas - whilst seeing a measure of merit in most - he ends with a more constructive idea, trying to live up to the title of the book.  In this he draws upon Moltmann, but manages to confuse me so that I really cannot summarise or paraphrase what he is saying.  This paragraph seems valuable:

Our call is to identify with Christ’s suffering and death, much as he has identified with us. In his death, we are united with his suffering. And in identifying with his resurrection, we are raised to new life.

Evidently, I need to learn more about theological methodology.  Or perhaps there is no spoon.

forked tongue

Protopresbyter is a new one on me.



But he does have a point. Does it make sense to pray for guidance and wisdom for all in Synod, and then repudiate the result? Just another reason why we need a new theology of prayer.

saying what we want to be true

Aside from great sadness for all my Anglican friends who have prayed for - or feared - the consecration of women as bishops in the Church of England, and are now consigned to continue their prayers - or fears - for more years to come, I'm a little surprised by the tone of the debate.

The news reporting (especially, but not, I think solely, in the main news media) seems to have focussed primarily on the equality issues, and then on words from St Paul about women staying silent in church and not holding authority.  Not one that I have seen has talked of Apostolic Succession: maybe they were all being briefed by very reformed Evangelicals.  It's not my churchmanship, but the arguments are surely diminished without that piece - certainly the eventual sticking point about the nature of the arrangements for conscientious objectors.

But many of the arguments against simply seem disingenuous.  There has been a constant refrain that this is not about equality - and certainly not about employment equality.  Bishops, we are reminded, are servants of the church: leaders, yes, but by no means part of a power hierarchy.  This is a convenient story.  It may have a good spiritual pedigree.  We may wish it to be true.  But it is manifestly not true. The very characteristics which are said have marked Justin Welby as a good candidate for Archbishop are strikingly similar to those required of those aspiring to high office in a variety of other professions - albeit with a degree of winsomeness too often lacking in many corporate boardrooms.

Although the Church maintains a fiction that it does not employ its Priests (they are employed, apparently, by God, and he is not amenable to being summoned to appear before employment tribunals), to all intents and purposes that is exactly what it does.  And it most plainly runs something that looks exactly like a career structure, with a variety of promotions to more senior posts for those who demonstrate relevant expertise (or gifts).  Pretending otherwise really does no one any favours.

Viewed in that light, for the Church - the Church established by law, with a variety of ancient privileges - looks very poor if it seeks exemption from the Equality Act.  A martyrdom of principle would be honourable, but to retain special treatment from the state whilst not taking on board the state's norms looks really quite unprincipled.  Many -apparently most, in fact - in the Church of England share something like this view, of course.

Christians seem to have a track record of treating things as true which they'd like to be true, even when they are not - and everyone else can see it.  That can be embarrassing sometimes.  When it's used to defend the indefensible, it's even worse.

honesty

Vaughan Roberts is one of my neighbours - not that I could claim to know him.  He's also the Rector of St. Ebbe's church in Oxford, which I think you'd have to say is close to the extreme end of the Evangelical party in the Church of England.  He's a council member of Reform, and that entails giving annual assent to a whole raft of fairly hard-line propositions.

So, his recent interview in which he describes his own same-sex attraction - he seems to be happy to identify it as a 'battle' - is noteworthy.  I don't at all agree with most of his approach or conclusions, but I must respect him for speaking up in this way.

Review: When God Talks Back

When God Talks Back:
Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God 

T. M. Luhrmann 

I read this book soon after the last one I reviewed - The Bible Made Impossible.  Bible and Prayer are truly central parts of the Christian story - so these two together represent something of a rationalist onslaught against traditional approaches to faith.

That's not to say that Luhrmann has set out to undermine faith as such.  I'd say that the book could be read without blushes by both thinking Evangelicals and atheists alike. This is no small achievement.  That's not to say that her analysis is not quite close to the bone: the dispassionate observation of the behaviour of believers is striking in its precision, and in a sense devastating because it strips away much of the mystical component often associated with prayer and hearing God's voice.

The author is an anthropologist and psychologist.  Her approach to her topic was, I guess the classic technique modelled by countless researchers: just as some will embed themselves with remote jungle tribes in order better to understand them, she joined herself to Vineyard Fellowships over a period of several years.  She worshipped and socialized with her subjects, attending study groups, retreats and courses as well as the main public services and gatherings.  She describes - without side or any sense of disparaging - the way that believers are taught and practice their prayer life, and how they describe what they have heard and done.

The work is scholarly and well-footnoted. It manages detachment without becoming impersonal: we hear the voices of the subjects under study, and the author's own reactions and reflections, too.  She began the process as an agnostic [or that is the impression I formed - I can't find a reference for this], but in a note in the last chapter describes her own journey to a form of faith: not to the point of calling herself a Christian, but certainly to understanding God in much the same way as those she has worshipped amongst. This may detract from the objectiveness of the narrative sustained throughout - but is some testimony to the strength of the common life she experienced among the Vineyard folks.

The core of the book is a narrative of her Vineyard experiences, and reflection upon them.  But it is leavened with well-researched histories of relevant topics, and considerations of other spiritualities - within Christianity and beyond - and how they may be compared with the material she is documenting first-hand.

The conclusion?  I suppose the over-arching conclusion would be that there is much learned behaviour, and that genuinely altered states of consciousness are achieved through classical spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation.  She even undertakes an experiment where participants are given different spiritual exercises to follow for an extended period - and document their spiritual responses and experiences. She observes along the way that her subjects are not idiots - well aware of the scepticism of those around them about their interactions with an invisible being whom they believe has a real impact on their lives.  Nor, she says with professional judgement, are they suffering from mental illness or showing any classical signs of psychosis.  Mental disorder, she notes, is almost always troubling and disturbing; prayer is at worst neutral and more commonly  positive experience for the participants.

There is much more to the book.  I do not claim to have summarised the results, nor even necessarily detailed the most important observations - just some of those that struck me.  I have argued elsewhere that the Christian community needs a new theology of prayer for the 21st Century.  T. M. Luhrmann's analysis robs prayer of none of its depth, yet strips away a lot of the overlaid and (to my mind) unwanted narrative: it's a big step in the right direction.