Michael Sadgrove Woolgathering in North East England Seascapes: a retreat for those being ordained.
Jonathan Clatworthy St Bride’s blog Food with dignity – The origins of the Eucharist
[first of a series]
Jonathan Clatworthy Château Clâteau New directions for the Church 5: open membership
Emma Percy Women and the Church Install Updates
Sam Wells preached this sermon at the Service of Hope for LGBTI equality in the Church of England held at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Clapham, on 7 June: Not until you give me your blessing
Simon Cross After evangelicalism: tipping over the certainty curve
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Are Abuse Survivors Prophets to the Church?
Thank you to Simon Cross for his informative observations regarding people who ‘tip’ out of evangelicalism and its arrogant certainties. It would surely benefit the Church of England if every evangelical tipped over into healthy doubt and left this judgemental tradition, making it disappear altogether.
Thanks FrDavidH for expressing the inclusivity all of us on TA are working towards.
FrDavidH – it may, in fact, surely benefit the CofE if you were to leave and take your judgmental and sel-centred attitude with you. Not very nice put like that, is it?
How can ‘inclusivity’ possibly work when it includes people who wish others weren’t included? It would be better if they left.
While vigorous debate is encouraged on TA, we have always expected people to refrain from ad hominem attacks on identifiable individuals. I am surprised that the moderators permitted the contribution timed at 1710 today.
FrDavidH – I am a little shocked by your generalisation about Evangelicalism and your desire for its extinction. I am not an Evangelical. My early contact with Evangelicalism as a teenager and again at university were largely negative. Certain strains within Evangelicalism I find profoundly questionable. Nonetheless I am Rector of a team parish in which we have benefitted hugely from clergy colleagues from that tradition, lay people from that tradition and, currently, placement ordinands from that tradition; none of whom have exhibited judgementalism or arrogant certainty. Indeed, their passion for the gospel and kingdom, their belief in discipleship and… Read more »
As a moderator, I apologise for not taking a stronger line against some odd the earlier comments on this thread. Not only I suggest the one to which RP refers. Let us all resolve to do better.
I have at various times called myself a ‘recovering evangelical’, or more often an ‘apophatic evangelical’. I relate to much of what Simon Cross writes about a tradition I continue to be deeply grateful for. I also note he acknowledges what he says can apply to ‘any social structure that relies upon certainty as a founding dogma’ (but why ‘social’ when his focus is on a church tradition?). He could have written this article about any wing of the church actually. I would also rather see the interplay of faith and certainty and doubt as a dynamic cycle. The image… Read more »
Simon Cross’s article reminds me of the sermon preached by Archbishop Stuart Blanch at the funeral of David Watson, a fellow evangelical and hugely inspirational leader and preacher in his day but who privately struggled with doubts and depression most of his life. He said, ‘There is a sense in which every minister of the gospel is diminished by their ministry. If they have any self-knowledge at all, their ministry makes them less confident in themselves, less assured, less doctrinaire and therefore less secure. They become more aware of the dark places in their own lives and in the lives… Read more »
David Runcorn: without in any way trying to diminish David Watson, he was just “a good chap” when at Ridley – a cheerful, outgoing Old Rugbeian, one of many conservative evangelicals. Keith Sutton, later +Lichfield and a liberal evangelical, was the go-to person if we needed a more thoughtful analysis of why ‘godtalk’, as traditionally presented, didn’t chime with today’s understanding of the human condition (aka religion). I sensed that David was a bit overwhelmed by the ecstatic reception he got when he cheerily (not arrogantly) talked about God (or ‘Gudd’ as he pronounced it). There’s more to it than… Read more »
Michael Skliros ‘without in any way trying to diminish David Watson’. But you do – ‘just a good chap’. His impact over a number of years at St Michael’s York and as a leader, speaker and writer as the charismatic movement was becoming more of an influence in the CofE, was immense. But that was simply the original context of the quote itself. Stuart Blanch was speaking more generally of the experience of ministry – and not just of evangelicals. You do not comment on that. I do resonate with your concerns about the evangelical voice you call ‘liberal’. Though… Read more »
I think David Watson went to Wellington. Apologies.
To give him more due credit, though, I did the Lent week at Haileybury one year and created a bit of interest. He did the same the following year, and cleaned up.
You misread me, David Runcorn. At Ridley, David W was indeed just a team player amongst us – literally: cricket, hockey, rugby, football, you name it. It was at York, later, that he sprang to fame, whereas we thought it would be only Michael Green and the other prominent conservatives who we would be hearing about later. David’s appeal was sincerity, plus simplicity. But that’s where one has to wheel in a remark of Einstein’s, even though he was referring to physics: “everything should be made as simple as possible . . . but no simpler”. This seems to be… Read more »
I did indeed Michael – thank you for clarifying, This is all off the topic but I just note that David Watson was not actually among the conservative evangelicals of his day. His focus on renewal, charismatic gifts, healing and ecumenism made him suspect to them.
Meanwhile – the topic in hand?
David R, your thread averred: “I would also rather see the interplay of faith and certainty and doubt as a dynamic cycle.”
I prefer Woodbine Willie’s comment: “there’s more faith in honest doubt than in half yer creeds”, namely that faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin – glass-half-full and glass-half-empty. Their opposite is certainty, the bane of all religion and indeed of science. It was Bernard Lovell who said “there was a time when we really thought we were onto something. Now we know that we know nothing.”
I have been evangelical my entire Christian life, despite the fact that I find it very difficult to be 100% certain of anything! I’d like to point out that conservative evangelicals don’t have a corner on arrogance and certainty. In the 1980s the bishop who was the chair of the Canadian Doctrine and Worship Committee that produced the ‘Book of Alternative Services’ told me quite categorically that if a wafer was not on the corporal when the prayer of consecration was said, that wafer was not consecrated. I respected and liked Bishop Short very much, but his certainty about that… Read more »
Really enjoyed the two articles by Emma Percy and Sam Wells, which seem to me to read the world accurately, and offer genuine hope.
David Watson may have sprung to fame at York …but his curacy at St Marks Gillingham under John Collins was probably where the foundations were laid.
Mr Chesterton, perhaps the bishop was worried that if wafers not on the corporal could be consecrated, the bread in the supermarket next door could be too. This is a real problem for me, as it happens.
Tim, what did he mean / do you mean ?
I am genuinely not sure where else the bread would be if not on the corporal / holy table. I’m not being difficult.
Laurie, I understood him to mean that if it was not on the square cloth the vessels were sitting on, it wasn’t consecrated.
Since I see no evidence that the corporal was in common use in the New Testament period, well…
Excellent clear and comprehensive piece by Emma Percy, on the urgent need for updates.
Tim Chesterton seems to suggest that Christians can only believe what was prevalent in the NT period. Thus there can be be no theological development, no new insights or doctrines.
I sense that you and I are in a time warp, Rod Gillis. I did have a classical education, before reading Nat Sci and then Theology, and am fluent in academe, but choose not to use it, as the lingua franca today is what one might describe as ‘coal face’, or ‘small s science’. A perfect example is the topic dear to the heart of this blog, namely acceptance of LGTB+ people. Traditionally, the view was “can’t have these shirtlifters around, can we, eh, what?”, with only a passing glance at Romans and Leviticus. Then Kinsey, and Masters & Johnson,… Read more »
‘Tim Chesterton seems to suggest that Christians can only believe what was prevalent in the NT period. Thus there can be be no theological development, no new insights or doctrines.’
Not at all. I was simply nonplussed by the bishop’s certainty on this subject. And apparently people who find evangelical certainties offensive don’t seem to be able to see the 2×4 in their own eyes…
“There is no such thing as objective reality either”
Oh dear. Seriously? Metaphysical objectivity is not an intelligible phrase? There are not things, realities, that exist independent of the knowing mind? Yes, we may not be able to describe anything in all its relationality. Yes, our seeing is shaped by our ‘cognitive interests’. But such an incautious claim beggars believe. Maybe you mean no pure *epistemological* objectivity.