Christian Social Engagement: background, challenges and imperatives

Transcription

1 Christian Social Engagement: background, challenges and imperatives Address at the Anglican Diocese of Willochra Synod, 6 May 2017 Rt. Rev d Professor Stephen Pickard The dangers of private religion In the West we see religion as a coherent system of obligatory beliefs, institutions and rituals, centring on a supernatural God, whose practice is essentially private and hermetically sealed off from all secular activities. In other cultures, and through the ages the idea of religion has never been reduced to beliefs and practices separated off from the rest of life. But that notion of religion is an invention of the West. The notion of religion as something separate from public life arose in the wake of the 16 th century Reformation and the so-called Wars of Religion in the 17 th century. The Englishman John Locke, gave voice to the modern Western notion of religion. Locke argued that religion was a private search and as such could not be policed by the government; in this personal quest everyone must rely on his own endeavours rather than an external authority. To mingle religion and politics was a grievous, dangerous and existential error. Locke stated: The church itself is a thing absolutely separate and distinct from the commonwealth. The boundaries on both sides are fixed and immovable. He jumbles heaven and earth together, the things most remote and opposite, who mixes two societies, which are in their original end, business, and in everything perfectly and infinitely different from each other Locke assumed that the separation of religion and politics was inherent in the nature of things. He argued that because of the violent passions it supposedly unleashed, Locke insisted that the segregation of religion from government was above all things necessary for the creation of a peaceful society. In other words, keep religion out of government. Separate the church from the state. In Locke we see the birth of the myth of religious violence that would become ingrained in the Western ethos. Society is maintained in peace when religion is kept in the private domain. The privatization of faith is part of our inheritance as Christians in Australia. On this account faith has to do with the interior life of the soul. It ought not intrude into the social, political and economic life of a nation. Even our political

2 leaders who are practicing Christians seem to be able to partition off their faith from their political life and development of policies on all manner of things that affect our society. It is interesting to note that the default to private faith is one of the reasons for such misunderstanding about religious diversity in Australia. Christians automatically expect that other religions will confine their religious life to the private domain and are therefore surprised even concerned when religion takes on a more public profile. For example, a Muslim cannot conceive of their religion not being a part of their everyday public life. Religion, political processes, social and economic life are deeply intertwined. Private Religion & Public Faith The danger of private faith gives way to a far deeper problem. It can be stated quite simply: we behave as if faith is a private matter yet the rock from which our faith is hewn is a public gospel. It is good news for the world not disembodied souls. There is a radical disconnect between our recent inheritance of private religion and the gospel of God from ancient times. Christians were not persecuted and crucified in the early days of the Church because their faith was a matter purely between God and themselves! The public dimension of Christian faith always breaks out; it cannot be enclosed and trapped within. Just like if you take a fist full of mud and try to squeeze it tight it will most surely ooze out; so too with the gospel, if you try to compress it into a private place it will most assuredly ooze out into all sorts of public places and contexts. It always has and it always will. You can t squeeze the gospel of God into a private soul faith. The Anglican Social Christian Tradition Anglicans have a long history of Christian social engagement. An incarnational faith it begins in an outhouse, a cattle trough is a faith for a public engaged Christianity. The Prologue of St John s Gospel captures the matter well: the word became flesh, pitched a tent in the world. The incarnation implies quite directly that God meddles in the world. A meddlesome God gets hands dirty, mixes with the stuff of everyday life in all its complexities, joys, dangers and violence. Such a God does not remain aloof or dwelling in some private palace. The story of Christmas provokes some fundamental questions: Does God love the world? What is God doing in the world? Where is God working in the world? What must disciples do?

3 Anglicans can trace their commitment to social engagement in recent history to the early nineteenth century in England. This was the period of the industrial revolution. This was a period of significant expansion and empire building. It is almost impossible for us 150 years later to grasp the enormity of the change industrialization had on society; the emergence of the great industrial centres; the shift from rural, agricultural life to new cities; primitive working conditions, unemployment, disease; increasing tensions between employer/industrialist bourgeois and workers. And all this happening in the shadow of the French Revolution not many decades before across the Channel. For the most part the Church of England was aligned with the ruling aristocratic powers. It s support base was in the middle to upper classes of society. But the inherited social and economic arrangements were under strain in the wake of an expanding empire, trade, merchant and entrepreneurial classes alongside growing squalor and poverty of the new industrial cities and transportation of the undesirables to another place. It was a time of political, social and economic tension and unrest. The old order was passing; something new was emerging and in places extremely ugly. Industrialization and mechanization threatened the coherence and unity of the social and political fabric of society. It remains a fundamental matter for our contemporary world. Where the god of the world is economics there will always be major collateral damage. Key leaders in the Church of England at this time spoke out about the emerging conditions for workers and families; they worked hard to pressure for change; they were instrumental in the formation of new organizations to raise educational standards and provide environments for social reform. Perhaps the key person at the origins of this Christian response to the challenges of industrialization was Frederick Denison Maurice ( ). Foundational for Maurice s Christianity was a conviction that Christ was the centre of everything and the great point of unity. Through the incarnation, life death and passion of Jesus Christ God embraced the whole of humanity. This for Maurice was the great universal truth. In this sense for Maurice Christianity was the true revolutionary ideology. He could state: A Baptism of the Spirit and of fire is needed, as much for the physical as for the moral regeneration of the earth and of man In daring to say we have a gospel to the poor, we affirm that there is nothing in His creation so low but He designs to raise it. People needed to discover this great reality. The Kingdom of Christ had brought all things, all peoples into one great fellowship of humankind in the world. If this was foundation for the constitution of the world, then there was

4 nothing that had not been claimed by Christ for the Kingdom of God. The corollary of this was simple: there was nothing that lay beyond the reach or legitimate concern of God. This universal conception of the kingdom of Christ in the world was embedded in Maurice s understanding of the Church. As described somewhat negatively by a recent interpreter Maurice was a one-city theology; there was no room for Augustine s two cities (earthly and heavenly) just the one city won by Christ. The Church was the agent through which this good news that all humanity belonged in God was to be made known and practiced. Fellowship or communion with one another and with God was the deepest reality of all life. The Maurice line flowed into late nineteenth century Anglican theology in the persons of Brookes Foss Westcott, Charles Gore and Scott Holland. Westcott ( ), the famous Bishop of Durham, theologian, biblical scholar, was a key advocate for the northern miners and President of the Christian Social Union (CSU). Wescott stated: The one denial of Christ is to leave him out of any sphere of life. In the mid twentieth century William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave voice to this Christian social voice. It was Temple who said famously: the church is the only institution that exists for non-members. In Australia the tradition of Anglican social engagement captured the hearts and energies of many people, both lay and clerical. In my own diocese of Canberra and Goulburn the name Ernest Burgmann ( ) looms large. Certainly his was a prophetic and often controversial voice during his episcopate and before during the depression years when he was Warden of St John s College Morpeth giving public support for the unemployed. Burgmann was never simply a social critic whether it was capitalism, war, social and economic inequalities, education, the condition of the workers. He was an inveterate builder of new things. He was criticized both in the Church and in the wider society. He earned the tag, the red bishop. One politician called him that meddlesome priest. Burgmann challenged all and sundry. He once said in relation to the church s failure to engage with a particular issue, the church is not yet Christian. Questions on the Current Agenda In 2017 what do we need to be engaged in for the sake of God s Gospel for the world? We do so remembering that the prevailing values of contemporary society are driven by self-interest. This runs counter to the gospel of self giving. The Church is often called to exercise a prophetic role; a counter cultural role.

5 It will inevitably be a costly discipleship as it travels up a hill to Calvary. Is it any wonder that a private faith is so attractive! What does a public faith mean today in the Diocese of Willochra? What ought the Church of Jesus Christ be embracing in the world? To whom ought the Church s doors be open? To whom ought disciples go? What s on the list? What are the particular social issues for this diocese? Can we identify and prioritize? How might a fresh public engagement offer a genuinely hospitable and welcoming Church? I briefly name a few issues and invite you to consider what social issues are on the agenda of the diocese in your own context: (a) The plight of refugees and asylum seekers (b) The challenge of climate change with a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy The Church s welcome of gay and lesbian people. I commend the recently published report of the Public Issues Commission of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn. Its title is revealing: Being the Body of Christ: samesex relationships, marriage and the church. (d) Inter-religious dialogue (e) Reconciliation with the First People s of Australia These five issues alone will necessarily have political implications regarding laws and policies. This is unavoidable. But the purpose of such engagements is to discern where God s light is shining revealing darkness. Christian social engagement is an imperative of the Gospel. And as a result it is an imperative of the Church and accordingly an imperative of the discipleship.