What does it take to reimagine Britain?
Justin Welby had already left a pregnant legacy from the offset half of his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury. The swift resolution to the inherited crunch of finding a workable settlement in relation to women bishops; the instigation of the Renewal and Reform program; reorienting the Church building'southward administration and finances towards mission; the re-estalishment of evangelism equally a priority; the prayer initiative around Thy Kingdom Come; and even the personal success of (just about) 'putting Wonga out of business concern'—all these have been meaning achievements. There take been frustrations and set-backs to. The discussions about sexuality drag on interminably without whatever sign of resolution or even a fragile peace breaking out in the war of words; and despite Welby's intensive efforts at building relationships, trust across the Anglican Communion appears to exist at an all-time low.
Welby's latest volume,Reimagining United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, is an ambitious attempt to picture what Britain might look like, in the low-cal of its present situation, its recent by, and the influence of Christian thinking, in a hopeful future. It is full of detailed analysis beyond an impressive range of areas, and offers much detailed annotate in suggestions of issues that need addressing. Only I must confess it left me with more questions than answers.
The introductory sections offering a brief account of fundamental events in our recent history, and an argument near the resource that we have from our own distinctiveness response to contemporary challenges that Welby summarises as the qualities of 'customs, courage and stability' (included in the helpful summary, offered at the end of each chapter, here on pp 59–60). I was surprised past several omissions here, in the recent history the nearly notable being Margaret Thatcher, and the eponymous shift to a costless-marketplace ideology known as 'Thatcherism'. This is not just important in economic terms, signalling a decisive rejection of Keynesianism and a shift to a debt-driven, consumer-led approach to economical growth, simply in human terms as an ideology. This shift (in the Great britain and beyond the Western earth) has certainly brought economic growth and prosperity, only information technology has also fundamentally shifted our understanding of what it means to be human. It had led us to treat people not as beings-in-community-in-the-image-of-God, just as economic units of product, and information technology is this which now offers us the measure of everything. So it is not uncommon for political leaders to talk near instruction in terms of its effectiveness in equipping students for the workplace, language that demonstrates a reductionist loss of vision of what pedagogy is for. I was also surprised by the omission of any reference to the internet, and its bear upon on learning, relationships, sexuality, and the sense of self—not least because in the U.k. we accept been distinctively early adopters of internet technology and use. Why is this, and what affect has it had on us?
And why draw on Catholic Social Pedagogy, important though that it, rather than the evangelical Quaker tradition of someone like Richard Foster, whose booksCelebration of Discipline,Money, Sex and Power, andThe Freedom of Simplicity had a particular impact on British Christian readers. And what of the Mennonite tradition of social critique? Or simply drawing straight on key biblical themes like the sovereignty of God and the stewardship of his people, expressed acutely in Ps 24.1 'The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it'?
The central section of the book and then explores in turn the 5 key edifice blocks of family, pedagogy, health, housing and economics & finance. These look similar proficient choices as the basics of society, but I was surprised to observe no mention of police, crime and penalization, for several reasons. First, law and order is a consistent political outcome that comes to the fore in normal times when we are non obsessed with Brexit; secondly, a central Christian confidence is that God is a God of justice; thirdly, in practical terms prison reform is one of the most pressing social issues of our twenty-four hour period, and the reality of British society is one where a third of developed males take a criminal record.
In the section on family unit, there was a clear description—perhaps with a slightly detached sense—of the changes and challenges of family life. But from this it is clear that 'family' ways unlike things to different people, and when Welby then says that 'Jesus upholds the values of family unit' and that Catholic Social Teaching calls the family 'the fundamental nucleus' of society, it feels like ducking the issue to omit noting that in both these cases 'family' ways something very specific, and non either general or particularly flexible. Welby is quite correct to note that Christian understanding of the family unit includes detail values of 'holiness, fidelity, hospitality and honey' (p 69), only these values are expressed in particularforms of human relationship. Does Christian agreement of marriage have aught to say to our culture'south increasing loss of ability to make life-long commitments? Are we but called to work with the results of that—or are we to minister to the causes and not just the effects of the problems and challenges we detect in our civilisation?
One oddity, which I found recurring, was the use here of Jesus' parables. Because the parable of the prodigal son (from Luke 15) was strangely open up ended, it perhaps suggests that we 'shouldn't have the moral high ground' on the question of family and relations, but value any pattern of life people choose for themselves. Thatcan be found in the parable—but just if you detach information technology from Jesus' other teaching, and perhaps fifty-fifty detach Jesus from his showtime-century Jewish context. Information technology seems office of a pattern of encouraging the church to 'come to terms with' the changes in society (p 67) rather than critiquing these changes or calling our country to a change of management.
The chapter on education included some interesting details and analysis, and felt to me every bit though it offered a adept map of where we are, particularly in relation to inequalities in eduction—merely not then much of direction as to where nosotros should go. I confess to wincing whenever I see the phrase 'life in all its fulness' (the heading of this affiliate) attached to any educational activity policy, since life in all its fulness comes from Jesus in John 10.10 and not from any education system or policy! But at least it does serve to question the utilitarian agreement of eduction I mentioned above, every bit only equipping students with skills to exist useful in the workplace. I am not at all convinced that the pic of the early church in Acts ii offers united states a model for schools, considering schools are not churches and we cannot presume the commitments of discipleship. (Is the inability properly to tell the departure at the root of the failure of the Church of England'south eduction policy in connecting young people with church and discipleship?). I would have hoped to have seen a critique of the use of league tables, competition and the notion of 'added value' which I think (from my fourth dimension every bit a parent and a school governor) I think are securely problematic from a Christian point of view. And what about the connectedness between education and family—in a context where the single greatest predictor of educational achievement is the stability of the marriage relationship and the involvement of parents in a child's education?
The chapter on wellness focussed on health inequalities and mental wellness, and did make a mention of mental health and the prison system. Simply, again, I was puzzled by the omissions. There was footling critique of the managerialist approach to health strategy, which I recollect is the single most contentious issue inside the health service itself—and do nosotros not accept anything to learn from culling systems on continental Europe? What virtually the apparently corrupting influences of Big Pharma on health management? What nearly the loss of bones disciplines of cocky-management and good for you eating, which boss the evening TV schedule these days? A fundamental Christian value of massive important hither is the virtue of self-management and self-stewardship—and the loss of such responsibilities is having a crippling effect on a service 'gratis at the point of use' regardless of self-management. A real weakness in this affiliate is the use of the parable of the sheep and the goals in Matt 25—which (every bit I accept repeatedly highlighted) has zero to do with treat the poor!
Welby is correct to notation the increasing issues of mental health, specially in immature girls (p 121). But, again, can we ask about the causes and non just the symptoms? Could this exist connected with the sexualisation of culture, not to the lowest degree through young people's use of the net? What does the gospel say to this issue? And tin nosotros really talk almost healthcare from a Christian perspective without mentioning abortion?
The chapter on housing included some good observations, highlighting the basic need for more homes, and the shortage caused past local authorities no longer building—though omitting the name of the person who brought in this change. Merely there was no mention of i of the key drivers in the housing shortage—the fragmentation of households caused by divorce, and by the loss of the addiction (continued in near of the earth) or intergenerational households where older members were cared for by the next generation. And then we have alone onetime people in larger houses and young families crowded into homes they cannot afford—and the most potent solution to this is not economical or political merely relational.
On finance, you would expect Welby to know his onions, and indeed he does. At that place are some shocking statistics on the growth of the financial sector and the impact on pay inequalities, and Welby offers a critique of the U.k.'s condign a 'monocrop' civilisation where the financial sector is so ascendant. Simply I would like to accept heard something about the relational nature of fiscal transactions within a Christian vision, and the fundamental problem with detaching investment from relationships in the stock market as nosotros have it (quite contrary to its origins). The advent of computerisation, initially in the Big Blindside of the 1980s, not only exacerbated this disengagement, only too introduced the inherent instability of computer algorithms effectively trading with each other, which is a massive threat to future stability. And, over again, is there non a fundamental question to be asked about an economic system that runs on debt?
And please, please, Delight, the parable of the talents (as well in Matthew 25) isnotabout economical policy or almost our use of our abilities (p 152). Information technology is a parable almost what we do with the treasure of the kingdom that God has offered to us as a free gift, at great cost!
At that place are more, detailed questions I could ask near the final sections of the book—but I think I take already asked plenty of those. The volume overall left me with a bigger question: what is the nature of the hope that we have to offer, and what should exist our strategy in thinking about the future of club?
Exercise we focus on what is realistic, looking for some of the positives in the situation that nosotros are faced with, and attempting to build on those? Do nosotros avoid some of the starker, more than hard challenges and assumptions that our culture makes? Do nosotros first of all deal with the problems, with the symptoms that we discover in our world, and do we work hard to avoid causing any unnecessary offence by challenging the starting places, trying to find practical partners in a project to improve the world? That appears to be the approach taken past this volume—and I tin can run across both its appeal and its applied application. This is a strategy informed past pastoral realism.
Or do nosotros exercise something quite unlike? Practise we look at some of the fundamental assumptions made by our culture about what the earth is like, how things happen, and what it ways to exist human—and seek to offer a radically different vision of all of this? Do nosotros seek to place the radically new and challenging perspective of Christian faith upwards against the starkly contrasting assumptions and values of gimmicky Western civilisation—and see what emerges from this challenge that we tin human activity on? Are we prepared to address not just the symptoms (something that the church building has consistently done in its practical action) but also prepared to diagnose the causes?
Whether this is just a part of my temperament, or whether from theological conviction, I would always opt for the second.
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