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John Milbank's ANGLICAN SOCIALISM AND WELFARE: JOHN MILBANK’S ‘BLUE SOCIALIST’ THINKING AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND’S APPROACH TO WELFARE SINCE 2008 A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2020 JOSEPH T. FORDE School of Arts, Languages and Culture This research was undertaken at Luther King House Educational Trust 2 CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………....8 DECLARATION………………………………………………………………………....9 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT……………………………………………………...……9 THE AUTHOR……………………………………………………………………….......9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………….....10 DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………..11 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………12 1. Background……………………………………………………………………... 12 2. Research Question……………………………………………………………….13 3. My Approach …………………………………………………………………....13 4. Outline of the Study……………………………………………………………...14 5. Part One………………………………………………………………………….14 6. Part Two………………………………………………………………………….15 7. Part Three………………………………………………………………………..17 8. Research Methodology…………………………………………………………. 18 PART ONE LOCATING JOHN MILBANK’S THINKING ON WELFARE AND THE CHURCH WITHIN THE ANGLICAN SOCIALIST TRADITION Research Goals for Part One…………………………………………………………...21 CHAPTER ONE………………………………………………………………………...22 THREE ANGLICAN SOCIALIST STRANDS: WELFARE STATIST, ENGLISH PLURALIST CHRISTENDOM, REVOLUTIONIST 1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………...22 1.2 Definitions ……………………………………………………………………….24 1.3 Socialism and the State ……………………………………………………….....26 1.4 The Welfare Statist Strand ……………………………………………………..31 1.4.1 Temple’s thinking on middle axioms……………………………………...39 1.5 The English Pluralist Christendom Strand………………………………….....41 1.5.1 John Neville Figgis’s thinking on the Modern State……………………….42 1.5.2 The “Return of Christendom” vision………………………..…………….44 1.5.3 The Christendom thinking of V.A. Demant……………………………....46 1.6 The Revolutionist Strand ……………………………………………………….50 1.7 Conclusions …………………………………………………………………...…53 3 CHAPTER TWO………………………………………………………………………..54 ANGLICAN SOCIALISM AND THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH WELFARE STATE CONSENSUS 2.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………….54 2.2 The Welfare State Consensus: 1945‒1976…………………………………...…55 2.2.1 The Attlee administration (1945‒1951) and the creation of the British Welfare State………………………………………………………….…..57 2.2.2 The period of Welfare State consensus: 1951‒1976 ……………………... 58 2.2.3 The Callaghan administration’s response to the oil crisis in the mid- 1970s……………………………………………………………………... 60 2.3 R.H. Tawney as an Anglican Socialist writing in the Welfare Statist Strand ………………………………………………………………………………….... 61 2.4 The Collapse of the British Welfare State Consensus: 1976‒2010………...…66 2.4.1 The emergence of the New Right’s perspective on the British Welfare State……………………………………………………………………… 68 2.5 ‘New Labour’ and the Welfare State …………………………………..………70 2.6 David Nicholls as an Anglican Socialist writing in the English Pluralist Christendom Strand …………………………………………………………….73 2.7 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………77 PART TWO JOHN MILBANK’S BLUE SOCIALIST THINKING AND HIS PERSPECTIVE ON THE BRITISH WELFARE STATE VIS-À-VIS THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR, AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND’S POST-WAR ROLE IN THE PROVISION OF WELFARE Research Goals for Part Two…………………………………………………………...79 CHAPTER THREE…………………………………………………………….…….....80 JOHN MILBANK AS AN ANGLICAN SOCIALIST WRITING IN THE ENGLISH PLURALIST CHRISTENDOM STRAND 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………...80 3.2 Definitions………………………………………………………………………..81 3.3 John Milbank’s Contribution to the English Pluralist Christendom Strand ………………………………………………………………………….………...90 3.4 From Pre-Reformation “Socialism of the Gift” to Post-Reformation “Commodity Exchange Subject to Contract”……………………………….…92 3.4.1 The abandonment of the Catholic doctrine of the Just Price and the Prohibition of Usury………………………………………………………95 3.4.2 Summary Position Statement ……………………………………………100 3.5 Alternative Perspectives to Milbank’s Thinking on the Reformation and the Rise of Capitalism……….……………………………………………………...102 4 3.6 A Blue Socialism that is beyond Left and Right? ….…………………………107 3.7 The Influence of Catholic Social Teaching on Blue Socialist Thinking and on Milbank’s Post-liberal Vision………………………………………………….111 3.8 Criticisms of Milbank’s Blue Socialist Perspective…………………………...112 3.9 Milbank’s Blue Socialist, Post-liberal, Civil Economy, Alternative to Capitalism………………………………………………………………...…….120 3.10 Conclusions……………………………………………………………………..122 CHAPTER FOUR…………………………………………………………………..…125 A HISTORICALLY BASED CRITIQUE OF JOHN MILBANK’S THINKING ON THE BRITISH WELFARE STATE VIS-À-VIS THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR, AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND’S POST-WAR ROLE IN THE PROVISION OF WELFARE 4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….125 4.2 Definitions………………………………………………………………………126 4.3 John Milbank’s Thinking on Welfare and the Church ……………………..127 4.4 John Milbank’s Perspective on the History of the British Welfare State vis-à- vis the Voluntary Sector: 1945‒2010……………………….…….…….……...130 4.4.1 Governmental welfare policy and its interface with the voluntary sector. A ‘Big Society’ before the ‘Big Society’? The Welfare State and the Labour Administrations’ welfare policy towards the voluntary sector ………………………………………………………………………..….133 4.4.1.1 The Attlee Administration and the voluntary sector……………135 4.4.1.2 The Wilson administration and the voluntary sector…………..138 4.4.1.3 New Labour and the voluntary sector………………………….139 4.4.2 Governmental welfare policy and its interface with the voluntary sector. A ‘Big Society’ before the ‘Big Society’? Voluntarism, the Welfare State and the Conservative Administrations’ welfare policy towards the voluntary sector……………………………………………………………………. 141 4.4.2.1 The Thatcher administration and the voluntary sector ………...142 4.4.2.2 The Major administration and the voluntary sector……………145 4.4.3 Summary Position Statement (1)…………………………………… ….146 4.4.4 A ‘Big Society’ in Britain before the launch of the ‘Big Society’ project. .147 4.4.5 “Should the salt of the earth be managed?” Increased governmental financing of the voluntary sector and the impact it had on its delivery of welfare………….………………………………………………………..148 4.4.6 A summary of the key findings of academic work done on state funding of the voluntary sector ……………………………………………….……..151 4.4.7 Summary Position Statement (2)………………………………………... 155 4.4.8 “Swimming into the mouth of the Leviathan”. The alleged retarding effect of the Welfare State on Church affiliation and observance…………….. 156 4.4.9 Summary Position Statement (3)………………………………….…….. 167 4.5 “The Church is the site of the true society”. The Church of England and the Politics of the Common Good: John Milbank’s Blue Socialist Vision of a Post- Liberal Alternative Role for the Church of England in the Delivery of Welfare in the Twenty-First Century………………………………………………...…168 5 4.5.1 John Milbank’s vision of the role he sees for the Church of England in the provision of welfare………………………………………………….…..171 4.5.2 Holistic Mission: Restoring the Church of England as also the Welfare State? ………………………………………………………………………..….173 4.6 Conclusion…………………………………………………………….….… 177 PART THREE RESPONDING TO THE FINANCIAL CRASH OF 2008: JOHN MILBANK, THE ‘BIG SOCIETY’ PROJECT AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND Research Goals for Part Three……………………………………….………….……180 CHAPTER FIVE………………………………………………………………………181 THE ‘BIG SOCIETY’ PROJECT AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: AN ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCES THAT SHAPED GS1804 5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….181 5.2 The ‘Big Society’ Project and Phillip Blond’s Red Tory Influence on Shaping it…………………………………………………………………………………182 5.2.1 The ‘Big Society’ project and public sector reform……………………....187 5.3 John Milbank’s Blue Socialist Thinking on the ‘Big Society’ Project seen in the Context of Other Alternative Perspectives from within Anglican Socialism …………………………………………………………………..…………..….. 190 5.4 The Church of England’s Positions on Welfare: 1945‒ 2010……………………………………………………………………………..196 5.4.1 Summary Position Statement (1)………………………………..……….201 5.5 The Church of England’s response to the ‘Big Society’ Project, with Specific Reference to the Advice it received in GS1804 in late 2010 from Malcolm Brown, Director of Mission and Public Affairs, and the Influences he Cites as Key to the Shaping of that Advice……………………………………….……204 5.5.1 The Near Neighbours Initiative………………………………………..…206 5.5.2 GS1804 and the General Synod of November 2010……………….……..208 5.5.3 Summary Position Statement (2)………………………………………...211 5.5.4 The influences that shaped Malcolm Brown’s advice to the Church of England in GS1804 on the handling of the ‘Big Society’ project…………………………………………………………………... 212 5.5.5 Malcom Brown’s interpretation of William Beveridge’s report of 1948 on “Voluntary Action” in relation to the Attlee Government’s implementation of his work of 1942 on “Social Insurance and Allied Services”………… 217 5.5.6 John Milbank’s and Phillip Blond’s views on the need for a minimalist state and the influence they have had on Malcom Brown’s thinking ……..….222 5.5.7 Summary Position Statement (3)………………………………...………225 6 5.5.8 Malcolm Brown’s advice to the Church of England in relation to its post- war positioning on the theology of the state……………………………. 226 5.5.9 Malcolm Brown’s perspective on the ‘Big Society’ project as seen by him in retrospect………………………………………………………………...228 5.6 The Key Outcomes of the ‘Big Society’ Project……………………………….230 5.6.1 The outcomes of the ‘Big Society’ project for the Church of England…………………………………………………………………..232
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