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Honest to God II

13/8/2010

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I ought to have found Honest to God on my wavelength. I sympathise hugely with what Bishop Robinson was trying to do and why he thought it had to be done.  But I came away dissatisfied and unconvinced.  His portrayal of Jesus was one factor certainly, see my previous post, but it was more than that.

I think it is because he was seeking new ways in which to argue for the relevance of the Christianity of church doctrine, rather than going back to the scriptures from which it claims to come and from which it derives its meaning. 

He was surely right to understand ideas about God as metaphors.  He noted how 'up there' idea of God in the Bible was superseded by the 'out there' idea of God in nineteenth and earlier twentieth century theology.  He, in turn, wanted to replace that with a new metaphor based on depth. 

The first problem here is that this removes Christianity another step away from the Bible.  The less the Christianity of the theologians connects to the language of the Bible, the more abstract and unreal it becomes. So the Christianity of 'depth' which Robinson advocates, impressive though it might be, comes across as an intellectual construct of dissatisfied theologians.  It is interesting how the blunt message of God given in Jeremiah 22.15-16, which Robinson quotes with approval, contrasts with the abstractions all around it.

The second problem is that the 'up there' metaphor for God is by no means the only one found in the Bible.  In fact there are many.  It is thus misleading to present the Bible as if is is offering only one (obviously antiquated) paradigm.

If, as is surely correct, all talk about God has to be understood metaphorically, surely it is more satisfactory to work with those metaphors you have, rather than inventing new ones even further removed from the source from they ultimately originate and to which they must relate than the 'out there' idea of God that Robinson, rightly, wanted to dispose of.
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Honest to God I

12/8/2010

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I was reading John Robinson's Honest to God on the train to work today.  I confess I'd never read it as a whole before - dipped into it yes - but not started at the beginning and carried on.  It is interesting to see how much is still topical  and how much seems dated.  

Christianity is a faith founded upon Jesus of Nazareth understood as the Christ.  Otherwise it is nothing.  However, the Jesus of Honest to God is an unconvincing figure.  He appears as an empty vessel, lacking personality or any humanity, into which 'Godness' is poured.  It is a Christ as a cold, theological construct, manufactured to meet a doctrinal need. It is in fact less satisfactory than the 'Godhead veiled in flesh' of Wesley.

Of course, we all have to understand Christ and his significance using concepts with which we are familiar if we are to find meaning in his life.  So Anglo-Saxons could portray him as a warrior, Victorians as a muscular Christian, Bishop Robinson as an idealised Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and some contemporary progressive theologians as a left wing Democrat and anti-Iraq war activist. 

What matters is whether we are trying to understand Christ as he was and accepting where that leads us today, or whether we are reconstructing him, intentionally or not, to suit our own agenda. 
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    A quick look at the 'blogosphere' shows that the nature of the medium means it is all too easy for a 'blog' to convey the impression that its compiler is, at best, self-indulgent and verbose, and at worst, a narcissistic bore.  Religious blogs are by no means immune from this.

    However, while I shall try to avoid sharing my each and every passing thought with you, there is a use for a space for shorter, more ephemeral pieces of writing, and on this website, that's here.   These pieces are likely to be frequently revised, sometimes rewritten and occasionally removed.

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