Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Public theology in
a post-secular age
Elaine Graham
SCM Press £55
(978-0-334-04598-4)
Church Times Bookshop £49.50 (Use code
CT639 )
Using the Bible in Practical Theology: Historical
and contemporary perspectives
Zoë Bennett
Ashgate £55
(978-1-4094-3792-5)
Church Times Bookshop £49.50 (Use code
CT639 )
FOR John Ruskin, the heart of the Bible was about justice and
servanthood, and the farewell discourses in St John's Gospel were
"the most useless nonsense I have ever read". Readers of Zoë
Bennett's fine book will be left in no doubt about her strong
personal affinity with Ruskin (though not necessarily his views on
the Fourth Gospel), partly because both moved away from a strongly
Evangelical upbringing while retaining a commitment to engaging
with the Bible. Such biographical detail is central rather than
incidental in a work championing the importance of self-reflexivity
anda "turn to the subject" in biblical exegesis.
Bennett teaches pastoral theology in Cambridge, and Elaine
Graham is Professor of Practical Theology at the University of
Chester. Their rather different but overlapping books offer a
magisterial exploration and account of the state of practical and
public theology today. It is a sign of our times that "theology"
now needs qualifiers to make clear that it is of more than
"academic" interest. As Ellen Charry has pointed out, for much of
Christian history it would have been assumed that the purpose of
theology was "practical" and "public" in enabling human
flourishing.
The relative brevity of Using the Bible is a
consequence of Bennett's precise, spare, and yet impassioned use of
language. Few words are wasted as she sets out to demonstrate both
the revelatory power of the Bible to show us the truth about
ourselves, others, the world, and God, and the need to ask radical
unsettling questions, while living with doubt and complexity. At
times she is unapologetically autobiographical. Her exemplar is
John Ruskin, who daily read the Bible in Greek, and used this
engagement to address and persuade his audience in the public
square.
For him, the key thing was to see clearly, and tell what he saw
- and the heart of Bennett's book is three short chapters on seeing
clearly, seeing with the heart, and prophetic
seeing. She uses her work on Ruskin to explore the tension that
she has identified in the opening part ofher book between those who
insist that the first requirement of a proper hermeneutics is
reflection on the "text of life", and those who insist on the
priority of the biblical text.
The final part of Bennett's book discusses two deliberately
contrasting contemporary examples of "seeing" and "telling": Canon
Giles Fraser's interview with The Guardian after
his resignation from St Paul's Cathedral (pointing out that this
was over the potential use of violence to clear the Occupy
protesters, not the cathedral's relation to the financial
industry), and the Palestinian Kairos document. These, for
all their inevitable imperfections, are both texts that do useful
work in the public square.
While Bennett is a practical theologian, seeing the theologian
as both reflector and actor, she wishes to "claim the public nature
of most practical theology . . . and the practical nature of most
public theology". Graham, arguably the finest exponent of public
theology we have, would agree with this. Her excellent book, which
has the feel of an instant classic, focuses on the future of public
theology, both in theory and in practice.
She considers our current context to be characterised by the
extraordinary convergence of two apparently contradictory trends:
increased secularisation, and a new visibility of religion in
politics and public affairs. Her title reflects the need that she
identifies to negotiate between the "rock" of religious revival and
the "hard place" of secularism.
Graham is not persuaded by those who see nurturing a "pristine
ecclesial identity" as the way forward, but is, none the less,
alert to the difficulty of finding a theological language that is
both publicly accessible and yet authentically distinctive. She
proposes an "imaginative apologetics" that is notso much a
straightforward appeal to "believe" certain propositionsas, rather,
an invitation to embracea transformative view of theworld.
Graham wants to see an "apologetics of presence", in which
Christians contribute both in word and action in the public square
(not just in relation to the arts and sciences, but also the media,
politics, economics, and civil society), particularly in a
commitment to the marginalised. Her book makes a powerfully
persuasive case that the imperative to "give an account of the hope
which is within you" must continue to "underpin the vocation of the
public Church as it is called to speak truth to power and seekthe
welfare of the city, and as its people venture into the contested
spaces of public deliberation as articulate and faithful
ambassadors for Christ".
Whether or not we accept Ruskin's conclusion that the farewell
discourses in John's Gospel are "useless", Ruskin is one with
Bennett and Graham in seeing that hermeneutics and theology must be
active and "useful" - in enabling Christian disciples to see
clearly, to speak of what they see in the public square, and to act
for the world's transformation.
It is a great shame that boththese books are so expensive; for
they deserve a wide audience. I can only urge Ashgate to bring out
a soft-cover version of Bennett's book, and SCM Press to consider
how it can possibly charge £55 for a (however well-produced)
paperback.
Canon Anthony Cane is the Chancellor of Chichester
Cathedral.