Turbulent Priests

February 1986 Marxism Today 11 TURBULENT Few would have predicted, in 1979, that the Church of England would assume the mantle of the moral voice against Thatcherism. PRIESTS 'Many members of the Church of Eng Kenneth Leech to become Archbishop of Canterbury, land are socialists and would establish a became archbishop) and had claimed, in wrote, in his first book in 1936, that commonwealth whose people should an article in 1908, that the choice before 'individualism. has no place in Christ own the land and the industrial capital the church was between socialism and ianity, and Christianity verily means its and administer them cooperatively for heresy. In that article he referred to 'evolu extinction.'4 the good of all. Such public ownership tionary socialism'. But in a book published they regard as urgent and as a necessary The recent report Faith in the City, as its deduction from the teachings of the in 1927 he made it clear that what he was authors themselves point out, 'proceeds church.'1 arguing for was gradual conservative from a long tradition of Christian social reform.3 Temple was in fact a believer in concern.'5 Those critics who have referred This unlikely passage comes from the capitalism with a human face. the church back to its 'spiritual' role, colourful Anglican revolutionary Conrad There were many more openly socialist thinking that in so doing they were repre Noel, vicar of Thaxted, Essex, in the early groups within the Church of England from senting 'orthodox' opinion against some years of the century. Noel (1869-1942) Stewart Headlam's Guild of St Matthew, new trend, stand within the other tradi founded the Catholic Crusade, whose aim founded in 1877, which campaigned for tion, much less ancient, typified by Stan was 'to smash the British Empire and all the nationalisation of land as well as for ley Baldwin when he asked, when the empires to bits.' It stood for 'a revolution recognition of ballet, the music hall, the bishops tried to intervene in the 1926 coal ary attitude in politics, and the establish pub, and school reform, to such groups as strike, how would they feel were he to refer ment, if necessary by force, of a classless the Council of Clergy and Ministers for the revision of the Athanasian Creed to the cooperative society on communist lines.' Iron and Steel Federation. The flying of the red flag from Thaxted What is relatively new in the attacks on church led to fierce controversy and vio what is relatively new in the the report is the use of the word 'Marxist'. lent clashes. Of course, the use of 'Marxist' as accusa What those who have described the attacks on the report is the tion rather than description has been a recent Archbishop's Commission Report use of the word 'Marxist' well-established feature of right-wing as 'Marxist' would have made of Noel and polemic for some years. Rarely does the his comrades, one can only speculate. term bear any relationship to Marx or the While Noel, with his strong commitment Common Ownership (1942), a group Marxist tradition. Within right-wing to the Russian Revolution, was by no dominated by the Reverend Stanley Evans Christian circles, the term was used some means typical of the Anglican socialism of who was well known in the Communist sixteen times in a recent symposium: in no his period, it is true to say that by the party. Today there are a number of Christ case was the use of the term explained, nor beginning of the 20th century a vague kind ian socialist groupings, the only explicitly was there any reference to Marx or any of socialism did represent the mainstream Anglican one being the Jubilee Group, Marxist thinker.6 A few years earlier an thinking of the Church of England, while founded at Bethnal Green in 1974. attack on the General Synod of the Church the smaller but more militant groups with of England had appeared with the fascinat 7 in it, of which the Crusade was one, made Not so trendy ing title A Marxist Heaven? The use of the that socialism more explicit. At the vague Much of this Anglican socialist tradition term in relation to the recent report has semi-official level, 'a kind of socialism' was has been forgotten, or was never known, been at the same unintelligent level. 'Tory expressed in statements from the Lambeth by current right-wing critics, who there anger at C of E Marxists' was the Daily Conferences and the powerful Christian fore see the church's involvement in the Telegraph headline on December 2 last, Social Union, and more specifically in such political arena as something novel and reports as that of the Archbishop's 5th 'trendy'. In fact, the Church of England, Commission of Inquiry on Christianity and both at its official level (bishops, confer 1 Conrad Noel Socialism in Church History London Frank Palmer 1910 p7. Industrial Problems (1918) and the famous ences, etc) and through its clergy and 2 Malvern Conference (1941). William Temple Christianity and the State 1929 parishes, was probably more involved in and Citizen and Churchman 1941. The culmination of the tradition of the social and political arena in the period 3 William Temple Essays on Christian Politics and from the 1870s to the death of Temple than Kindred Subjects Longmans 1927 p65. reformist socialism was represented in the 4 figure of William Temple, who was in recent years. Statements of the bishops A M Ramsey The Gospel and the Catholic Church in the last few years look quite mild Longmans 1936 p38. Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942 to 5 Faith in the City Church House Publishing 1985 his death in 1944. Temple has been hailed compared with some of the earlier writers p57. as the pioneer of the welfare state, and he and activists. Thus the Lambeth Confer 6 Digby Anderson ed The Kindness That Kills: the was certainly the first writer to use the ence Report of 1948 claimed that Marxism churches' simplistic response to complex social issues 2 SPCK 1984. term. He had joined the Labour party as a was closer to Christian doctrine than any 7 other philosophy. Michael Ramsey, later National Federation of Self-Employed and Small young man (though had left it before he Businesses, 1979. 12 February 1986 Marxism Today while Auberon Waugh in The Spectator only 42 of socio-economic analysis. And presidential address to the Convocations in was true to type. The report was 'more this is true of the entire Latin American 1947, after referring to the pressing needs overtly Marxist and anti-religious' than tradition. Where it is used, Marxist analy of the nation, went on to speak of the 'first usual, he claimed, and went on to speak of sis is seen as an aid to understanding the and most essential step', the revision of 'the Archbishop's explicit adoption of development of capitalist societies. But the Canon Law, on which the church then Marx.'8 theology is deeply, and even conservative spent years. Michael Ramsey, a man deep ly, Christian. ly influenced by the self-styled socialist Re-assertion of liberalism There are other Christian traditions F D Maurice and the genuine socialist Whether Marxists would be pleased that which have learnt a good deal from Marx Charles Gore, rescued the church from its the Archbishop had joined the ranks or ism, such as some north American black self-absorption, and it is the blossoming of suspicious of his motivation I do not know, theology associated with the Yale professor this renewed social tradition which we are but the fact is that, while there are a Cornel West. But very little of this think now seeing. But it is not particularly a number of influences, both theological and ing has affected the Church of England. socialist tradition, though there are social political, which one can detect in the pages Indeed, it is probably true to say that ists within it. It is more a liberal reformist of the report, Marx is certainly not one of Marxism was more fashionable in Angli tradition which looks more left wing simp them. This is not to say that Marx has had can circles in the 1930s and 40s than it is ly because the government has moved so no influence on world Christianity. Some, today. What has been happening in recent far to the right. The Bishop of Southwark though by no means all, of the writers years has been a renewal of the social has suggested that the church may have known as 'liberation theologians', based conscience of the church as it existed prior become more critical of the government mainly in south and central America, draw to the second world war. It is a return to because of the lack of a strong opposition heavily on Marxist analytical tools. One of the tradition of Temple, rather than the party, and this is partly true.9 the best-known such writers is Jose Miran appearance of something new. da, author of Marx and the Bible (Orbis It was the immediate postwar period, A growing radicalism 1974). But, in spite of the title, 270 of its the era of Archbishop Fisher, which was in But the source of the present conflict can 312 pages consist of biblical exegesis, and a sense the 'freak' period. Fisher, in his also be sought in the increased awareness February 1986 Marxism Today 13 which the bishops have of concrete politic clergy have sat at their feet as students.

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