booklogging

What attracted me to this book was that it wrestles with an issue of why the church is so often inhumane, it promised to look at notions of original sin and to draw on some basic theological perspectives of Irenaeus of Lyons. The fact that is is also by my wife's pastoral tutor was also influential in that it brought the book's existence to my attention.

So what about the arguments and all that? Dr Bartlett starts with a consideration of how the church looks to outsiders and, no surprises here, it's not a pretty sight. The author is a historian and obviously well-read in literature and it shows as he uses literary sources to exemplify how Christianity is seen by its cultured despisers. He diagnoses the causes of inhumane Christianity as: [1] denial of the proper goodness of creation and within that of the real goodnesses of human living and createdness; [2] seeing pride as the cardinal aspect of fallenness and sin; [3] collusion with unjust social orders; [4] institutional church becoming master rather than servant; [5] uncritical supernaturalism. Most of these, he asserts, flow from a de facto Christological heresy of a form of monophysitism or even loose gnosticism which devalues the real humanity of Christ.

I think that one of the most important aspects of the exploration in this book of how these causes of inhumanity work out into anti-life practice is the consideration of original sin, particularly the Augustinian/Calvinistic strands and particularly in how they provide backdrop and justification for disciplinary practices and mentalities that are oppressive. and tend towards devaluing human being. Dr Bartlett commends Irenaeus of Lyons as an alternative approach to issue of humanity and sin which are less likely to incur the entailment of inhumanity that the Augustine-Calvin axis is capable of generating. Linked to this there is a strong questioning of the idea that pride is the cardinal sin. I only missed in this part of the arguments a reference to Alistair McFadyen's treatment of the same topic making a similar point in Bound to sin. The doctrines of total depravity and the concepts behind the TULIP acronym also get rough treatment, and rightly so. This is a nice rebuttal of the excesses of the Reformed theological position whilst remaining Anglican, I think.

The chapter on sexuality manages to avoid the most pressing controversies and I ay that not to criticise for to have made a clear commitment to one side or the other would have been to lose what needs to be heard probably on both sides of current debates. I felt that the treatment of celibacy was particular interesting The chapter on busyness which ends up dealing with issues of self-righteousness is important and deserves to have a wide readership.

One of the things I valued in this book is that it is a kind of exemplar of what it preaches. So it is steeped in pastoral concerns and life-situations and not simply an abstract considering of doctrines and history. I found helpful also the reflections on the rule of Benedict in its sitz-im-leben and of the example of St.Francis of Assisi. The only thing that really grated with me was the several-times used description of humanity as the pinnacle of God's creation. I think this grated because it seems to me that such descriptions lie too close to the [admittedly largely spurious] claims made for human dominion which result in abuse of the rest of the creation with which we interact and have responsibility for. Perhaps 'pinnacle' connotes to me power without responsibility. It would be good to see further exploration of this topic in relation to the humane theme as I actually think that they are very compatible.

I found the Dr Bartlett's evident appreciation of Anglican divines such as Hooker and Taylor to be one of those pleasant deiscoveries that things that one has held dear and come to believe have not arrived de novo but have a history and a context that provides avenues of further exploration.

Overall I don't think that there is any particularly new theological ground broken here. However what is stated is a comprehensible and coherant set of arguments which commend a humane vision of Christian faith and show how other visions are simply missing the central concerns of Christian revelation and reflection over the centuries. You won't find a blueptint or manifesto for particular reforms here, you do find a gently passionate plea for a theology and ecclesiology that reflects the love of God for the creation and particularly the human 'pinnacle' of that creation. It is a warm comendation of the kind of 'open' evangelicalism that I, for one, think needs positive restatement and this book does that.