Public and the Prophetic Church By John M. Hull

The concept of public theology has appeared in the last thirty years or so.1 At its most straightforward, public theology is simply the opposite of private theology, i.e., whereas private theology is the theology of the gathered Christian community or of the individual Christian, public theology is the voice of the church in secular society, Christian faith proposing policies and challenging assumptions in public life. Public theology has arisen in response to two factors.

The secularisation of society

Under the conditions of secular modernity, a widely accepted philosophy of the liberal state argued that only those policies which could claim the agreement of all reasonable people could occupy the public square. The points of view put forward by religions were not thought to be admissible; they are unable to claim the allegiance of all reasonable people. Therefore religion must be confined to the private realm and can have no place in rational public debate. Religious belief is unable to influence public life because it can only be thought credible by a minority of religious believers.2

This philosophical argument was supported by the secularisation hypothesis, according to which religion was bound to be forced back further and further into the private realm as secular society grew stronger and stronger. Religious belief and practice, it was argued, could have no place in a society in which technical reason, the realities of economics and increased plurality were becoming more dominant.3 Indeed, many sociologists thought that religion would disappear completely, and the statistics showing decreasing church attendance and religious belief seem, at first sight, to support this view.

However, the secularisation theory has lost a lot of support in more recent years. Far from disappearing, religion has remained a factor in the modern world. Worldwide, it is estimated that eight out of ten people profess some kind of religious affiliation and even in Europe, which is by far the most secular of the continents, religion continues to be a constant theme of public life. In the UK, religious plurality has provoked many public debates, and the church is seen as one of the most important elements of the Third Sector, and as an important place in ‘the Big Society’, sharing with government departments in the policies of community cohesion and welfare. As secular human rights have become more significant, the right to religious belief, to change one’s religion and to bring one’s children up in a religious tradition have also been emphasised. Typical legal controversies in the UK today have to do with the exercise of freedom of speech and the equal distribution of justice, the right to express one’s religious belief and the demand for objective public 1

services. Have Christians running a hotel the right to deny access to gay people? Should Muslim women wear the niqab when teaching in school or giving witness in court? Should the traditions of male church leadership prevail over the search for the equal ministry of both women and men? Respect for religious and cultural diversity is often in conflict with the demands for equality.

The presence of more diverse forms of religion, however, does not mean that we are going to see a revival of Christendom. will continue to be one religion amongst many, and religious experiences will be expressed in diverse forms of spirituality.4 The place of religion in British society will continue to be provocative and controversial, sometimes treated with contempt (Richard Dawkins), and sometimes with respect and even admiration (Pope Francis, Make Poverty History, End Hunger Fast and the Archbishop’s attack upon loan sharks).

In view of these social and political developments, the question as to the place of the church in society becomes more urgent. Does the church have the right to seek to influence the UK government on certain issues, and if the church is to evangelise the public, what possible message can evoke attention? Should statements by the church have more credibility than statements by atheists and humanists?

Private theology

The second factor which has led to the rise of public theology lies in the nature of Christian faith itself, which since the 16th century , has taken a mainly individualistic and private form. Each individual person, the Protestant churches emphasise, is responsible for his or her own standing before . Everyone must read the Bible for themselves and make their own personal decision about salvation. When I first read the patristic writers of the early church, I was surprised to discover how little there was of personal religion or of warm, individual faith. Not until the Confessions of Augustine of Hippo (c. 398 AD) did this kind of interior faith become widespread, and this is one reason why St Augustine has been described as the first truly modern person.

Since the 17th century, the internal and personal characteristics of Christian faith have received additional emphasis. An outstanding case is Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (1678), a great Christian classic which has inspired millions throughout the world, including myself. This book has described what it is to be a Christian and how to lead a Christian life. Reading Pilgrim’s Progress again made me realise that there are challenging questions which we today must put to John Bunyan. The pilgrim, Christian, is shown running away from the City of Destruction, putting his fingers in his ears to block out the cries of his loved ones, and running towards the entrance to the King’s highway crying out ‘Life! Life!’ But whose life?

2

The only concern displayed by Christian was for his own salvation. Never was Christian to move from the narrow road that led to the Heavenly City. When he did turn aside, it was to be locked up in Doubting Castle or to be tempted in Vanity Fair. True, Christian has friends on the way, but has no responsibility for society as a whole. There is no awareness of the church as an agent of the Kingdom of God. Why did Christian not return to the City of Destruction and work with poor people in the slums? So many church people today have inherited Bunyan’s understanding of salvation.

The little songs I learnt when I was a teenage Christian come back to me today as being far too self-centred, far too narrow. I used to sing ‘Into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus’, but was never encouraged to sing ‘Into my life, come into my life, Lord Jesus’ because, as another song exhorted me:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace.

What I have found as a Christian adult today is the very opposite. Committed to Christian faith, the things of this earth—its violence, poverty and injustice—have become strangely vivid and inescapable. As the spiritual inwardness and the otherworldly forms of Christian faith are seen by many both inside and outside the church to be less and less relevant and the call of the Kingdom of God becomes more urgent, the demand for a new form of public faith arises. Christian faith today must be incarnated, the Word must become flesh again.

Public theology in Britain today

So far, I have outlined the two factors which lie behind the emergence of public theology: changes in society itself and in Christian faith. But what form should public theology take in Britain today? Many Christians who are dissatisfied with their faith are turning to theologians who seem to offer something more meaningful. Hence the popularity, in their day, of books like That I Can’t Believe,5 Why Christianity Must Change or Die,6 and He Never Said: Discover the Real Message of Jesus.7 It may indeed be comforting for many Christians worried about traditional doctrine to be told that they don’t have to take the miracles too literally, that belief in the Virgin Birth is non-essential and that there are other ways to consider the death of Christ.

None of this, however, is very interesting to people outside the church. There may be sensational headlines when a bishop says something unusual about the Resurrection, but often Christian faith appears then to be less credible. As for evangelism, the problem is

3

rather acute. The proclamation of messages such as ‘Christ died for your ’ or ‘God loves you’ cuts little ice and if anything adds to the feeling that Christianity is weird and possibly a bit embarrassing.

Elaine Graham concludes her study of public theology by saying that Christian faith in the public square can only take the form of action. Christian discourse has become so unintelligible that meaning can only be found in deeds. But what kind of deeds? What kind of actions? I believe that the only language about Christian faith which is meaningful to people in Britain today is the language of justice and peace. The church has lost so much authority because of the scandals about child abuse and the curiously old-fashioned debates about the ordination of women and the legitimacy of gay marriage. But when people who have never given much thought about the church and find church services unattractive realise that it is their local church drawing attention to Fairtrade Fortnight, it is trainee clergy who are mocking the commercial exploitation of love at Christmas, that church people are amongst those demanding that their local city should become a ‘City of Sanctuary’ and that Christian churches are in the forefront for the demand for a fossil-free Britain, the response is often quite different. Of course, there are people who do not believe in Fairtrade, but the demand that trade should be fair is at least arguable.

When a group of students from the Queen’s Foundation were planning to blockade the gates of the Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde in Scotland, a group of young people from a nearby university asked if they could come with us: ‘There is a problem you see, because we are atheists.’ I assured them that this was no problem at all and they would be most welcome. I warned them that they would have to sit through a certain amount of singing and praying but they said, ‘Is it okay if we just stand on the edges and watch? We will be respectful observers.’ We all travelled together and the young people were surprised when they discovered that the rest of the party was made up of theological students. On another occasion during a direct action training day sponsored by the Quakers, one or two people were surprised when we said that one of our contributions would be to read passages about from our Bible: ‘I didn’t know there were things like that in the Bible!’

Social justice in the Queen’s Foundation

In the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, we have taken this so seriously that we encourage everyone training for ordained public ministry to gain experience in social justice leadership. This may take one of several forms. Although such actions must spring from worship in chapel, it cannot be confined to chapel either. We train students to see that what takes place outside the walls of the church building is just as important, if not more so, than what takes place inside. If people will not come to us then we must go to them. Some find church boring but they certainly are not bored when they

4

see our banners carried down New Street as we lament the loss of life in the Iraq War, or when dressed up as Robin Hood, Maid Marion, Friar Tuck and Will Scarlett, or when our students proclaim the need for the Robin Hood Tax. Often when asked by members of the public, ‘Who are you then? And why are you doing this?’, we reply that we are training to become priests and ministers, or that we are church members and that we are doing this for justice and peace, many are often impressed and sometimes interested. There is no doubt that public witness of this kind opens up a new and powerful means of evangelism. A student returning from such an event said to me, ‘Oh! I wish I had taken a pocketful of little copies of the Gospel of John! So many people asked us what we believed!’ The use of moving verses from the Lamentations of Jeremiah or from Amos opens a new frontier between the public and the Bible.

In preparation for the 2015-16 intake of new students, we already have a number of social justice subgroups with their conveners and committees. These include Amnesty International, human trafficking, housing and homelessness, Birmingham Citizens, City of Sanctuary, climate change, sexual equality, domestic violence, refugees and asylum seekers, and the campaign against the making of military drones in the UAV Engine Factory in Lynn Lane, Shenstone. This last is one of our most successful operations. We joined the Christian vigils at Shenstone when Pax Christi and Friends of Sabeel UK were already protesting about the use of drones by the Israeli army over Gaza. We describe our visits to Shenstone as acts of public worship. We read from the Scriptures, pray, shout out a litany of anger, and stand in silence. Students learn to conduct church worship in the open air and gain invaluable experience in creating the order of service. We describe these services as ‘worship in anger’ because unless we feel anger about the perversion of scientific skill and horror at the way innocent men, women and children are killed from the skies, we would not be there at all. Moreover, there is good biblical precedence for worship in anger: in the Psalms, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Revelation of St John.

Our Shenstone acts of worship have been successful in several ways. First, participating has changed the outlook of many ordinands. Second, we have provoked the factory owners into various responses: they have erected formidable metal railings to protect their factory, although for our part they need no protection. We are entirely peaceful both in our minds and in our actions, although admittedly we do sometimes shout and ring bells. We have tried to deliver a letter explaining why we are there but they have not accepted our offers. Third, we have made Shenstone the focus of national interest so that several other groups now come to protest. We always discuss our proposed actions with the police before the event. We take the view that it is the duty of the police to protect us as we peacefully exercise our right of public assembly and free speech, and have always found the police to be friendly and even sympathetic. When we are worshiping in public in this way, we dress neatly; graduates wear their academic dress, gowns and hoods and clergy and religious

5

wear their outfits. As a result, we are changing the face of protest in Britain. People going past in their cars no longer shout out, ‘Get a job’. We have also had excellent and not unfavourable mention in The Lichfield Mercury and the national church press, and the local base of support in Shenstone and the nearby city of Lichfield is expanding.

Resources for the prophetic church

We find resources in the Christian tradition and particularly in the Bible. These actions on behalf of the justice of God bring new life from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and we are challenged by the life and witness of Jesus. It is tragic that the churches of Europe, having been associated with imperial power for several centuries, have largely forgotten this great prophetic tradition.8

The Christian faith is much more than a movement for social justice, but it is at least that. Without that element, its power as an agent of the Kingdom of God would be weakened. A church that is interested in its own growth rather than in using its resources and energy on behalf of the poor and the victims of oppression and greed will not earn the respect of the community. Of course church growth is important; without churches there would be no Christian witness to justice. But church growth without social justice will simply lead to an even more enclosed and self-satisfied church.

Every local church can begin to walk the prophetic way.9 If you have a Traidcraft stall, then expand into a concern for Fairtrade in your High Street. If you already give to Christian Aid, do more than give! Take part in the campaigns which Christian Aid is leading every month. You may be supporting a food bank. Ask yourself why food banks are necessary, and as you do so you will cross the border from works of mercy into works of justice. Befriend an asylum seeker, and you will be performing an act of mercy. Discover how it comes about that the asylum seeker is destitute, and you open up a door for an act of justice. Start a Justice Mail list in your congregation. This simple technique for transforming your congregation encourages church members to take an interest in the national and international campaigns on justice issues and to do so from their computers. It is the easiest way to start campaigning.10 Take part in a public demonstration or a parliamentary lobby in favour of a fossil-free Britain, and you will find new friends and new hope.

Holy Spirit, you who spoke through the prophets, do not neglect your ministry now, O Most Holy Dove! But with wings outspread, hover over your church today bringing out of its depth a passion for the justice and love of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Founder and Finisher of Faith. Amen.

6

References

1 For the background and current thinking, see Elaine Graham, Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Public Theology in a Post-secular Age (London: SCM Press, 2013).

2 This philosophy of society was expressed most powerfully by John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972).

3 For a general introduction to secularisation theory, see David Martin, A General Theory of Secularization (Oxford: Blackwell, 1978), and for a vigorous, more recent statement of the theory, Callum Brown, The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularisation, 1800- 2000 (London: Routledge, 2001).

4 Grace Davie, Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead, Predicting Religion: Christian, Secular and Alternative Futures (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), and more recently Grace Davie, The Sociology of Religion: A Critical Agenda (London: Sage, 2013).

5 John A. T. Robinson (London: Collins Fontana, 1967).

6 John Shelby Spong (New York: Harper San Francisco, 1998).

7 Steve Chalke (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2000).

8 John M. Hull, Towards the Prophetic Church: A Study in Christian Mission (London: SCM Press, 2014).

9 For contemporary British examples, see Chris Howson, The Just Church: 21st Century Liberation Theology in Action (London: Continuum, 2011); Keith Hebden, Seeking Justice: The Radical Compassion of Jesus (Winchester: Circle Books, 2013); Helen Cameron, Just Mission: Practical Politics for Local Churches (London: SCM Press, 2015); and Christian Aid, The Prophetic Church (London: Christian Aid, 2014—pamphlet obtainable free of church from Christian Aid).

10 www.justicemail.org.uk.

John M Hull is honorary Professor of in the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education and Emeritus Professor of Religious Education in the University of Birmingham

18 June 2015

Note: This paper is based upon a presentation to the AGM of Churches Together in Lichfield on 7 June 2015. 7