laudable Practice

While doing some background reading on the Bible Society's excellent Quiet Revival report (it is required reading), I came across a very good reflection by Sarah Coppin , a theologian in the charismatic tradition. I will be addressing aspects of the report in subsequent posts, but - amongst many important and insightful points made by Sarah Coppin - this one particularly caught my attention: Be open about the cost of being a Christian. Young men in particular really want to be challenged. Talk about the ways that following Jesus has been hard, and then talk about why it was worth it. Talk about Christian views on sex and porn. Talk about giving money away to the poor. Talk about how Jesus teaches us to forgive our enemies. Talk about the spiritual disciplines. Talk about sacrifice. Tell them to read Bonhoeffer. The reason it caught my attention is that, with Confirmation soon to be administered in the parish, I have been re-reading Jeremy Taylor's A Discourse of Confirmation ...

In the dedication of The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living (1650), Taylor addressed the circumstances of the Episcopalian faithful during the Interregnum, with episcopacy abolished, the Prayer Book prohibited, and Episcopalian clergy deprived of their livings.  What particularly struck me when reading this beautiful passage is how deeply Hookerian it is in its understanding of the relationship between the visible and invisible Church. As Hooker emphasises, the difference between the two is a significant theological principle: For lacke of diligent observing the difference, first betweene the Church of God mysticall and visible ... the oversightes are neither fewe nor light than have beene committed ( LEP III.1.8). The visible Church is a "visible body", marked by "externall profession", possessing "lawes of politie or government" (III.1.1 & 1.7): If by externall profession they be Christians, then are they of the visible Church of Chris t (III.1.7)....

From Tillotson's Sermon 'Of The Inward Peace And Pleasure Which Attends Religion': My design, at present, from these words, is to recommend religion to men, from the consideration of that inward peace and pleasure which attends it. And surely nothing can be said more to the advantage of religion, in the opinion of considerate men, than this. For the aim of all philosophy, and the great search of wise men, hath been how to attain peace and tranquillity of mind; and if religion be able to give this, a greater commendation need not be given to religion ... Now religion, and the practice of its virtues, is the natural state of the soul; the condition which God designed it. As God made man a reasonable creature, so all the acts of religion are reasonable and suitable to our nature: and our souls are then in health, when we are what the laws of religion require us to be, and do what they command us to do ... A great part of religion consists in moderating our appetites and passio...

An excellent recent study of Tillotson's theology has suggested that "cultivating civility" was a significant part of the Latitudinarian sensibility: The message of Christian charity, delivered by Tillotson and his friends to the Englishmen who had experienced the national turmoil of the midseventeenth century, might have played not a small part in creating the comparative peace and stability of the next century.  This emphasis on the theological roots of civility, the ecclesiastical responsibility to promote civility, has surely some contemporary relevance in a cultural context in which religion is widely regarded as divisive, doing more harm than good.  A 2017 global survey suggested that 49% of people agree that religion does more harm than good.  In the United Kingdom, the figure is 62%.  As the report accompanying the survey stated, "Countries which are most likely to believe that religion does more harm than good tend to be in Western Europe". Almost cer...

The Archbishop of York recently described the Church of England's ' vision for the 2020s ' as defined by " three qualities we seek: to be a simpler, humbler and bolder church ".  These qualities are to find expression in the Church of England becoming "a Church of missionary disciples" in which "a mixed ecology is the norm", rather than the parish being central.  This is to be the answer to the "deep thirst in the Church and in the world for theological and spiritual renewal". As a number of commentators have pointed out, this vision sits uneasily beside classical Anglican (and not merely CofE) forms, commitments, and virtues.  Above all, it might imply what we might term a 'Hauerwasian turn': a turn away from an incarnational commitment as a national church to a sectarian congregationalism.  At heart, it appears to be a decision to embrace a very different theology of the Church, of mission, and of culture.   What, then, migh...