SCRIPTURAL TRACES: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE RECEPTION AND INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 2 Editors Claudia V. Camp, Texas Christian University W. J. Lyons, University of Bristol Andrew Mein, Westcott House, Cambridge Editorial Board Michael J. Gilmour, David Gunn, James Harding, Jorunn Økland Published under LIBRARY OF NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES 506 Formerly Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series Editor Mark Goodacre Editorial Board John M. G. Barclay, Craig Blomberg, R. Alan Culpepper, James D. G Dunn, Craig A. Evans, Stephen Fowl, Robert Fowler, Simon J. Gathercole, John S. Kloppenborg, Michael Labahn, Robert Wall, Steve Walton, Robert L. Webb, Catrin H. Williams HARNESSING CHAOS The Bible in English Political Discourse Since 1968 James G. Crossley LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY Bloomsbury T&T Clark An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2014 © James G. Crossley, 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. James G. Crossley has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identi¿ed as Author of this work. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-0-56765-550-9 ePDF: 978-0-56765-551-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crossley, James G. Harnessing Chaos/James G. Crossley p.cm Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 978-0-567-65550-9 (hardcover) Typeset by Forthcoming Publications Ltd (www.forthpub.com) Disclaimer Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions there may be and would be grateful if noti¿ed of any corrections that should be incorporated in future editions of this book. In memory of Callum Millard (1974–2014) CONTENTS INTRODUCTION xiii Chapter 1 ‘CHAOS IS A LADDER’: A RECEPTION HISTORY OF THE BIBLE IN ENGLISH POLITICS 1 1. Why ‘English’? 4 2. Why ‘since 1968’? 8 3. Political Receptions of the Bible since 1968 10 a. The Cultural Bible 10 b. The Liberal Bible 12 c. The Neoliberal Bible 15 d. The Radical Bible 18 4. Tony Benn and the Decline of the Radical Bible 20 5. ‘The Good Man Jesus’ 29 6. Concluding Remarks 32 Part I EXPERIENCING DEFEAT Chapter 2 CHRISTOPHER HILL’S WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 37 1. The Problem of 1968 37 2. Christopher Hill 46 3. Christopher Hill’s Bible 53 4. Experiencing Defeat: 1640s–1660s, 1960s–1980s 60 5. A Radical, English Bible 64 Chapter 3 THIS WAS ENGLAND: THE SIMILITUDES OF ENOCH POWELL 70 1. Rivers of Blood 70 2. Rethinking the Post-Imperial Nation 76 3. Church of England 79 4. Like the Roman? The Lost Gospel of Enoch 82 1 x Contents Part II THATCHERISM AND THE HARNESSING OF CHAOS Chapter 4 ‘YOUR ARMS ARE JUST TOO SHORT TO BOX WITH GOD’: MARGARET THATCHER’S NEOLIBERAL BIBLE 95 1. Margaret Thatcher: Cultural Phenomenon and Nonconformist 95 2. Thatcherite Anthropology: Thatcherism versus Communism 103 3. From the Evil Empire to the Axis of Evil 106 4. Let My People Go! Margaret Thatcher’s Bible 110 Part III CARRIERS OF CULTURAL CHANGE Chapter 5 ‘WE’RE ALL INDIVIDUALS’: WHEN LIFE OF BRIAN COLLIDED WITH THATCHERISM 129 1. Satire, Comedy, and Freedom 129 2. The Radical Figure of Jesus/Brian 129 3. He’s Not the Messiah and He’s Not the Resurrection 135 4. Jesus and Brian, Revolution, and Trade Unions 140 5. Thinking about Sex 144 6. The Multicultural Jewish Brian of History 147 7. A Brian for His Times 151 Chapter 6 SAVING MARGARET FROM THE GUILLOTINE: INDEPENDENT MUSIC IN MANCHESTER FROM THE RISE OF THATCHER TO THE RISE OF BLAIR 153 1. From Punk to Britpop: Manchester 1976–1994 153 2. ‘For EveryManc a Religion’ 158 3. Biblical Language: Joy Division and The Fall 160 4. Biblical Language: Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses 163 5. Taking the Rain out of Manchester? Cityscapes and Personalities between 1976 and 1994 169 6. Margaret’s Guillotine 174 1 Contents xi Part IV FROM THATCHER’S LEGACY TO BLAIR’S LEGACY Chapter 7 YOUR OWN PERSONAL JUDAS: THE REHABILITATION OF JEFFREY ARCHER 183 1. Thou Shalt Not Get Caught 183 2. Abel, Not Cain 188 3. First among Equals 191 4. A Matter of Honour 194 5. False Impression: Who Betrayed Whom? 197 6. Speculative Archerisms 204 7. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less 207 Chapter 8 45 MINUTES FROM DOOM! TONY BLAIR AND THE RADICAL BIBLE REBRANDED 210 1. Spiritual and Religious: The Political Theology of Tony Blair 210 2. ‘This Money and Bloodshed’ 220 3. Doing God? The Iraq War and the Apocalyptic Bible 225 4. As Is Written: Pure Democracy 234 Chapter 9 THE GOVE BIBLE VERSUS THE OCCUPY BIBLE 242 1. 1611 after 2008: The Bible in an Age of Coalition 242 2. Surviving Cynicism and the Noble Big Other 254 3. Surviving Postcolonialism 259 4. What Ever Happened to the Radical Bible? 266 5. Same-sex Marriage or Subversive Love? The Case of Peter Tatchell 271 CONCLUSION: WHY DO POLITICIANS BOTHER WITH THE BIBLE? 277 Bibliography 283 Index of References 303 Index of Authors 305 1 INTRODUCTION As Nick Spencer has shown, there should be no doubt that the Bible has deeply embedded itself in English parliamentary politics over the centuries.1 The Bible even has a physical presence of sorts in the Houses of Parliament, including the Latin text of Psalm 127.1 on the Àoor of the Central Lobby and the texts of 1 Peter 2.17 and Proverbs 11.14 on the Àoor of the Commons Lobby.2 Spencer noted, however, that a certain appreciation of the Bible had changed by the end of the nineteenth century. Unlike the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Bible was no longer an authoritative document which could (theoretically) decide political debates. Instead, the Bible was becoming a document which informed arguments, inspired individuals and provided rhetorical force. But in addition to no longer commanding universal deference, awareness of the contents of the Bible was changing: Evangelicals…also recognised that the level of biblical knowledge among their peers, particularly in parliament, could not now be assumed. When the Quaker MP John Bright spoke in favour of Gladstone’s Reform Bill in 1866, accusing an opponent ‘into what may be called his political cave of Adullam’, many members of the House did not know where or what the cave of Adullam was. That would not have happened in Cromwell’s time.3 This loss of biblical knowledge also echoes a wider debate, and one that will be touched upon in this book, about the apparent ‘decline’ in biblical literacy, that is biblical literacy as de¿ned in a quasi-Protestant sense as knowledge of the speci¿c details of a range of biblical passages and an 1. N. Spencer, Freedom and Order: History, Politics and the English Bible (Kindle edition; London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2011). On the history of Christian- ity across contemporary party politics see e.g. M.H.M. Steven, Christianity and Party Politics: Keeping the Faith (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011), pp. 45-64. 2. Spencer, Freedom and Order, Introduction. 3. Spencer, Freedom and Order, Chapter 8. xiv Introduction awareness of a range of biblical characters.4 That there is a loss of knowledge about the details of the biblical texts is clear enough yet if the emergence of reception history has taught us anything it is that the Bible undeniably remains widely present in contemporary culture. In this book, I want to change the emphasis from a quasi-Protestant notion of biblical literacy and look at what interpreters, primarily English politicians, think the Bible ‘really means’ or how it might be used rhetorically, and particularly in its public presentation rather than any hidden motives, irrespective of whether there is an awareness of obscure biblical passages and characters, irrespective of whether a given political position can actually be found in the Bible, and irrespective of whether any given political interpretation would hold up to scholarly exegetical scrutiny. In other words, I want to look at the broad public hermeneutical assump- tions among roughly contemporary politicians and how they interact with wider cultural and historical change. Chapter 1 will give an overview of ways in which we might approach the interaction between historical change and understandings of the Bible. It will provide an explanation of the choice of post-1960s English political culture with particular emphasis on the importance of the emergence of Thatcherism and neoliberalism. It will then discuss major politicised understandings of what the Bible ‘really means’ and rhetorical uses (the Cultural Bible, the Liberal Bible, the Neoliberal Bible, and the Radical Bible) which will form the basis for the rest of the book and how different political ¿gures and trends interact with these understandings. Some attention will initially be given to Tony Benn and his politically radical biblical interpretation because he represented a dwindling understanding of a once popular tradition in parliamentary politics.