Malcolm Brown (ed.

); Anglican Social Theology (London: Church

House Publishing; 2014).

If you were to read any chapters, I would think that 1 and 6 would be
most useful to you, followed by 4 and 5.

Malcolm Brown, ‘The Case for Anglican Social Theology Today’.

On all levels, whether in the parish or in government, the Church seeks to

demonstrate God’s love and hasten the coming of the kingdom – to live out its
vocation. But the Church isn’t particularly good at providing a theological
justification for social action, which weakens it.
Our need for a social theology is a particularly modern problem, in that the
informal community support which would have been available within a stable
community has been replaced by centralised government structures and
transient communities. Religion was also seen more as a private, rather than
public, affair, which means that the church needed to work out why “pursuing
the welfare of the whole community was an authentic Christian calling”.
Drawing on the existence of specifically Catholic Social Teaching to suggest that
there is a distinctively Anglican tradition of social engagement, often prompted
by economic hardship, which is currently very strong, and therefore would
benefit from better theological articulation.
There has always been criticism from beyond the church, that “the Church’s job
is to save souls, not to alleviate poverty or seek social change that would secure
the position of the vulnerable”; simultaneously, those within the church can
suffer from compassion fatigue. Both of these issues would be impacted by a
clear theological response explaining why social action is a necessary part of
Christianity.

In the present day, the social inequality and the economic hardship caused by the
recession is a pressing concern for the Church of England, which is traditionally
socially diverse and strongly incarnational. However, decreasing congregation
sizes since WW1 has meant that the Church has focused inward, on its own
survival, “with less to say about its relationship to the society it is set within”.
John Atherton suggested the pendulum metaphor, with the Church’s emphasis
swinging between an age of atonement (inward looking, focused on saving souls
out of the world, with the state a fallen structure and therefore unable to mediate
the kingdom) and an age of incarnation (outward looking, trying to discern God
at work in the world and joining in, with the state a legitimate vehicle for the
Holy Spirit). BUT 1990s – new evangelicalism, with a profound social conscience
which is happy to work with governmental structures – age of atonement which
also embraces the age of incarnation.

Present difficulties the Church faces in articulating its role in society stems from
the Thatcher government. Faith and the City was written largely from the
understanding that government policies would change if those in power could
see how those in the inner cities were struggling. Recognised that William
Temple’s understanding of the Church of England at the heart of society was
outdated, and looked to liberation theology for a theological framework, but the
shift in context was too great to make this entirely successful – was effective in
some ways, but it was an “inadequate resource for a Church that had never really
been a church of the poor or working class in a country with a deep cultural
suspicion of ideologies, such as Marxism, perceived as ‘foreign’”.
BSR’s Perspective on Economics (1984) tried to attain balance – theologians and
economists from left and right – but consensus was impossible.

Unemployment and the Future of Work (1997) was ecumenical, and drafted by
Andrew Britton, an economic expert. But it was almost wholly without serious
theological content. Shows how the Church has found it difficult to engage
theologically with political division.
Church’s confidence that it has the theological resources to speak into the nation
has been eroded. But now the work of the academy and the church appears to be
in sync. Academic criticism of Bentham’s society of strangers, the myth of human
progress, and Liberalism’s stress on human autonomy are beginning to be
criticised by both academics, and the church and the state.

Though intellectual or theological trends may be abandoned, their influence is

never fully lost. Anglicans attempt to hold together many different influences:
the already-but-not-yet of the Kingdom of God; Scripture, Reason, and Tradition;
Catholic and Reformed. “if any party or project succeeds to the exclusion of any
of the others, the Church of England as the Church for the nation will cease to
be”: every strand has a useful and corrective influence.

Welby and Wonga: his secular background means that his speaking on matters of
economics is valued and accepted – which is a real change. Church now needs to
capitalise on this moment and make a success of credit unions if its relationship
with other social institutions is also to be positively influenced. He chooses to
engage with the state as well as the church, recognising the strengths and
limitations of both. He is aware that the whole church – not just the academy –
needs to do its theology well.

Welby and Williams: while it looks initially like there has been a radical change,
there is continuity. Williams was able to reframe old and calcified questions and
debates in new ways – “sought less for agreed principles than for the interplay of
imagination and intellect”. God and the Gospel made its way into his speeches on
‘secular’ issues in a way that showed that theology was intrinsically related to
the questions. Welby builds on this; moves from the intellectual and conceptual
to the practical. Credit unions: connected the big picture with modest but far-
reaching actions.
Reconciliation! Pilling report: issues are too entrenched. Similarly, it would
appear that disagreement on social issues in the wider political sphere are
widening and becoming less susceptible to rational discussion. But for Welby,
the point is not to force people to agree to something they do not believe in, but
for each to recognise the other as a fellow Christian disciple – and this can
become a model for other forms of public engagement: “this time the new
question is not so much, ‘What is right?’ but ‘How can we live together faithfully
when we disagree about what is right?’”

Therefore it is unlikely that an Anglican social theology for today will be a single,
internally coherent tradition. In a time of great cultural change, it is right that we
should look back to past attempts to create a social theology, especially in the
way that our young people are often unaware of history. The changing trends
and balances of the church are also important – the eclipse of
denominationalism, and the growth of fresh expressions, and the new emphasis
on social evangelicalism. All these things can only reach their full fruition in
dialogue with academic theologians.
 Alan M. Suggate; ‘The Temple Tradition’

Temple tradition has several hallmarks: inner and outer life of the Church closely
related; formed through continual immersion in scripture with interplay with
tradition and reason; openness to traditional wisdom of society and of different
churches; commitment to some natural theology/morality – reason key;
determination to engage with the changing nature of the modern world;
engagement with the institutions of society; teamwork of clergy and laity.

“At any point in time we are to use our current understanding of faith and life to
interpret our concrete experience of living, and we are to allow particular
experience to modify that understanding” – very Anglican interplay of scripture,
tradition, and reason

Suggate uses the Temple Tradition in relation to the interplay of the economic
and environmental debates to show that what is needed is a radical
reinterpretation of the direction of our culture – a reinterpretation of what the
world we live in actually is, and who we are as persons.

Modern liberalism and scientific rationality have combined to give the idea that
humans are machines (understanding of the soul lost -> no inherent value), and
that knowledge, rather than culminating in mystery, is part of a reaching after
power. Growth of emotivism – human culture has become shallow and
materialistic. Alasdair MacIntyre points out that most people have moral
principles which they believe all people should live by; yet, according to
emotivism, these have no basis; thus, emotivism robs our public morality of all
strength and does not enable us to make moral laws. MacIntyre suggests that
community can only be created through the acknowledgement of one set of laws
which govern people’s engagement with society.

Recent movement known as Christian communitarianism – church should

become a distinctive community – “It is a counterculture that aims to live with
the grain of God’s universe” – as opposed to the grain of secular society. Doesn’t
work with the established nature of Anglicanism – Incarnational -> need to
engage with culture. Suggate suggests drawing on the work of Ronald H. Preston
– work from a basic Christian orientation to create social principles, which can
then be used to critique society. Create broadly middle axioms for society to go
down. Need to be aware that we live in the ‘already-but-not-yet’ time before the
interim. BUT a major issue with the Temple tradition, and Preston’s use of it, is
that these middle axioms come from the intelligentsia, and therefore don’t
accurately represent the views of the grassroots.

What is needed is practical and public theologies – often localised (John

Atherton), relational and communal (Laurie Green), or recognising the full
humanity and value of persons and of the Christian faith (Elaine Graham)

Temple’s mature social theology is more complex than Christianity and Social
Order would suggest. Tension between the incarnational love of God and the
actual facts of daily experience, between the right focus of the self on God and
self-centredness. Human life set in the natural environment, and social
structures, and therefore influenced by and dependent on these things. Temple,
too, was aware of the problems of consumerism for our understanding of
personhood. He believed that the church had a duty to provide society with
guidance, and that the way it would provide good guidance was in remaining
firm in its spiritual life. In relation to this, the church needs to regain an
understanding of the relation of Christ to history. The Church is also responsible
for re-establishing unity between people’s conscious aims and their ultimate
unconscious beliefs and habits.

Therefore, Temple believes Christians must work out an ‘ethic of collective

action’. Based on:
- the social principles: freedom and dignity of each person (people made in
the image of God, and freedom to be found in conforming to that image –
freedom to carry out their purpose); social nature of persons (reciprocal
relationships in society); the principle of service (people are created to be
active citizens, and to work for the good of society); and the principle of
sacrifice (we have to forget ourselves BUT this was later dropped as a
principle, as it’s basically impossible for states to achieve).
- Natural order: order of redemption through faith, and the order of
creation through humanity – linked to the relationship between faith and
reason, which must work together. Builds on the Catholic understanding
of Natural Moral Law, and subsidiarity, and the distinction between ends
and means.
- Love and justice: need a theology of the Church but also a theology of the
state – both have slightly different aims, but the justice of the state is the
best we can achieve in our fallen state. The state’s attempts to create
justice will always be found wanting by the supreme standard of love.

This is a collaborative task, and is integrated with the life of the church, which
Temple sees defined as ‘the body of Christ’ and ‘fellowship’ – salvation consists
in bringing all peoples into the church, both individually and collectively.
Emphasis on his sacramental theology.

Returns back to the original dilemma of economics and environment, looking at

it through the lens of Rowan William’s Faith in the Public Square. Importance of
reciprocity – “we need a comprehensive sense of belonging in a world that is not
self-explanatory and not self-sufficient. It will need to consider what is good for
nature and what is good for humanity, holding to the conviction that the two
converge”. GNP “measures everything, in short, except that which makes our life
worthwhile” (Michael Sandel) – what we need is a new vision; it is this which will
renew our intelligence and our practice – and it is here that Christianity comes
in. Creation is the gift and sign of God, and should be treated with respect; all
humanity is valuable, and should be cared for. Sacramental.
 John Hughes, ‘After Temple? The Recent Renewal of Anglican Social
Thought’.

Occupy movements looked to the Church to represent the vision of human

flourishing which the politics and economics of the day was failing to meet. This
expectation from society is part of what has led the Church of England to
theologise anew about their social thought. The Temple tradition is no longer
relevant to a drastically different social context. The current approaches of
Anglican social thought are indebted to philosophical critiques of Enlightenment
liberalism, especially its accounts of reason and the secular; they also are
confident in the ability of the Church to embody an alternative social and
political thought to secular ideas. This thought embodies an ‘integral Christian
humanism’ – drawing on Rowan William’s engaging with the world, developed
through ecumenical dialogue with Catholicism, but also with roots which draw
on earlier Anglican social thought.

Temple Tradition: ‘conservative liberalism’ – middle-of-the-road, speaking to the

nation largely through natural reason rather than specifically Christian beliefs;
meant that their critiques of society were largely modest.

MacIntyre and Hauerwas have been at the forefront of criticising the Temple
Tradition’s basis on political liberalism. MacIntyre calls for ‘tradition-based
reasoning’; rather than there being one truth, those from different political
situations and traditions must engage in dialogue, interaction, and development.
Hauerwas builds on this to emphasise the fact that Christian ethics are one
tradition, which makes it easier to emphasise its distinctiveness, and therefore to
criticise the status quo. Hauerwas rejects the distinction between natural and
revelatory knowledge of God; similarly, he believes that the church and the
world cannot be clearly delineated.
These two thinkers together have shaped Christian ethical thought to be aware
that of the impact of context on ethical thought, and the complex relationships
between the individual and the state, and to be critical of the Liberal emphasis on
dispassionate reason and the definition of freedom as abstract choice.

Milbank and O’Donovan have brought these non-Anglican thinkers more closely
into Anglican Social Thought. Milbank (Anglo-Catholic) holds that secular liberal
politics have their own theology within them, one that is based on a combative
and individualistic sense of self-ownership. The church offers, instead, a sense of
community and care for the many, in an economic as well as a spiritual sense.
O’Donovan (Evangelical) believes that “theology is political simply by responding
to the dynamics of its own proper themes” (p.85). Both hold that the church
should work with the state. These two show that the revival of social thought is
not merely confined to one wing of the church.

Rowan Williams’ influence on bringing Anglican Social Theology out of the

academy cannot be forgotten. Faith in the Public Square gathers his political
lectures and groups them by theme. Theological integralism: no distinction
between sacred and secular reasoning; instead, everything is theological –
sacramentalist understanding of the world.
Williams draws together older strands of AST from Temple, Milibank’ and
O’Donovan’s fresh thinking, and also makes it public rather than hidden in the
academy. All these things have made AST less polemic and theoretical, and more
‘public’ and practical.

Lots more names! The main questions are the amount of work the Church can do
with the state, or with other faiths, without compromising on faith. The work of
Christian development charities, general synod, and theo-political think-tanks
(ResPublica, Ecclesia, Theos) are also important.

Thematic summary: critique of the ‘neutrality’ of secular liberalism and a

universal rational basis for consensus, leading to a post-liberal return to the use
of tradition-based modes of reasoning. Integralist approach, meaning that the
concept of natural vs. revealed law is more questionable. Church itself is a social
ethic/culture, so AST has become more explicitly doctrinal and ecclesial, without
retreating from public debate. Questions of the relationship between the global
and the local, distribution of power, the existence of Christendom. Has also been
shaped by the growing ecumenical movement and worldwide Anglican
communion.

Contemporary and future challenges: secularism (though this isn’t a particularly

new phenomenon – TS Eliot and Temple were engaging with it in the ’30s and
‘40s). Pluralism (this is new – post-secularism means that many different
religious groups are engaging in public life unashamedly). The welfare state:
need to re-articulate its theological basis, and reduce the bureaucracy so that it is
more sustainable, and genuinely empowering. International development and
the global economy: moral and political nature of wealth, poverty, and
economics – finance and industry must serve the common good; theology of
work; questions of responsible debt; fair trade; recognition of the way that
economic growth is often bound up with other political questions – corruption or
conflict. Gender and sexuality – recognition that they’re linked to social and
political questions; advocacy for the global protection of women, children, and
those of different sexualities; recognition of the necessity of contraception but
also opposed to abortion as just another reproductive right. The environment –
questions of international development, consumption of resources, what it
means to be stewards of creation.
 Jonathan Chaplin, ‘Evangelical Contributions to the Future of
Anglican Social Theology’

Hard to map the evangelical contributions – definition of evangelicalism is

contested; it’s an trans-denominational movement; evangelicals tend to be active
rather than do theology, and when they do it’s not presented as ‘Anglican’; and
the national Church institutions tend to be sidestepped by evangelicals.

A social theology “goes beyond occasional or ad hoc justifications for particular

stances or practices and offers a larger, integrated theological vision of a
flourishing social and political order”. There isn’t really any of this in Evangelical
practice; what there is, is isolated activism – John Bird Sumner’ (ABC 1848-62)
and Thomas Chalmers’ (Church of Scotland 1780-1847) ‘parish community
ideal’; Edward Miall’s mid-18th-century radical and passionate socialist
preaching (marginalised during his life and largely forgotten after his death),
William and Catherine Booth, etc.. Work on the Biblical basis for social
engagement, which is currently a flourishing area of literature, does not count as
a social theology; it provides the basis, but leaves activists to shape their goals
and methods according to someone else’s social theology, which may not be as
Biblically based as evangelicals would desire.

Chaplin is aware of the different feeder movements which have influenced

evangelicalism as a movement today; for the purposes of this chapter he defines
evangelicalism as “a movement of spiritual renewal within orthodox
Protestantism, originating in the early eighteenth century”. He uses Bebbington’s
markers of evangelicalism: an emphasis on the Bible as the supreme and sole
necessity for understanding of the faith; centrality of the substitutionary
atonement of the cross; importance of personal conversion; and a commitment
to practical outworkings of faith.

This four markers have influenced the way that evangelicals have done theology:
scholarship has focused on Biblical studies rather than systematic theology or
ethics; crucicentrism means they have not engaged with other doctrines that can
lead to fruitful social thought (creation/incarnation/kingdom/eschatology etc.);
individualism has led to structural sin being ignored; and activism has been seen
as more important than reflection. The focus on the individual means that many
smaller ministries have been set up (which can be a source of strength: tailored
intimately to the needs of the local community/strengths and abilities of those
involved), which encourages the fragmentation of the church’s mission, leaving it
vulnerable to shifts in outlook and belief, and prevents accountability structures
from forming. There can also be a tendency toward anti-intellectualism, based on
the assumption that activism is more valuable than scholarship. Quote from the
Evangelical Alliance: “Evangelicals are not renowned for authoritative, scholarly,
sustained, theologically grounded thinking on complex social and political
questions in ways that have characterised some other traditions… Accordingly it
has not been unusual to find evangelical political engagement appearing
somewhat fragmented, inconsistent, unbalanced and consequently ineffective”.
However, there has been a change since the 1970s, as more varied scholarship is
being produced; doctrines other than the cross are being rediscovered; and
evangelicals are becoming more committed to social and political engagement. It
is important to remember that this has been important since its inception. Most,
of not all, of the new evangelical organisations which are engaging with social
change, are not Anglican in character – evangelicals tend to prize their
evangelical identity above their denominational identity. John Stott was one
evangelical who was committed to working within Church of England structures.

Evangelical history is short – there isn’t a history of social theology to draw upon.
However, what evangelical Anglicans can offer to AST is more rootedness in
biblical teaching – which will also attract more evangelicals to activism in the
causes which AST responds to. OT social ethics and the work of the Jubilee
Centre; NT social ethics and NT Wright’s emphasis on the Kingdom of God (KoG)
being at the heart of Christ’s teachings. All of this depends on the hermeneutic
used, and there is increasing evangelical awareness that the Bible is interpreted
every time it is read.

Low evangelical ecclesiology typically leads to high levels of inward-directed

mutual commitment; and from there to outward-directed energy. In the C19th,
this led to the growth of voluntary associations. Often the basis behind their
engagement was based on the assumption that personal sin was behind societal
evil, which meant that their solution was often personal conversion. They could
be “more punitive in ambition – curbing sin rather than pushing for structural
change”. However, it did provide a specifically Christian contribution to social
problems, which should be appreciated. This movement – from a supportive
local church community, to support for the wider community, to church
partnerships, and then even into national campaigns – is still visible today.

What Evangelical Anglicans can offer specifically is an emphasis on an

authentically Christian understanding of civil society. This is based on a strong
understanding of personal agency and responsibility, a recognition of the
incarnational nature of the gospel, and a suspicion of centralised bureaucratic
states and unregulated markets. What is worth bearing in mind is the
relationship between evangelical social engagement and the campaigns being
fought to protect civil liberties. Similarly, the relationship between the emphasis
on small and local initiatives in juxtaposition with increasing globalisation also
requires thought; the worldwide injustices which we are more aware of are
impacted by our everyday choices, and this requires theologising.
Ends with a call to evangelicals to engage deliberately in theology, rather than
just activism.
Anna Rowlands – ‘Fraternal Traditions: Anglican Social Theology and
Catholic Social Teaching in a British Context’

Does Catholic and Anglican social theology share content rather than form? CST
has official statements, whereas AST has been more a matter of local practice.
AST concerned with the relationship between the national community and the
state, given the way that the CofE is bound to the nation. By contrast, CST has
more of a global focus, and has engaged with the issues brought up by
globalisation.

Church has lost the ability to speak and be respected in the public realm in the
last 50 years – need to renew this: “such a fundamental task of renewal will
require nothing less than the rethinking and re-weaving the basic covenant
between church and nation and local community; it will also require a
willingness to work in more genuinely collaborative ways within the respublica”.
Rowlands emphasises that this is a brief summary, and so can’t cover everything
of note.
Draws attention to the way that the beliefs of the laity on social matters have
become separate from the Church’s public statements.

Jonathan Chaplin: there is an identifiable core of normative Anglican social

commitments – in Temple, and Rowan Williams – “the dignity, freedom and
rights of the human person, the embeddedness of the person in a fabric of social
obligations, relations and communities, and the purpose of the state to promote
justice and the common good”. Not unique claims to the Church of England, but
their combination and interpretation is. AST and CST would both agree to these.
Anglicans would say that the paternalism of CST is questionable. Similarly, both
mainstream AST and CST tend towards gradual reformism rather than
revolution, the validity of which should be questioned. Not all social theology has
been life-giving, but this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make the attempt to repent
of sin and continue to build anew - “social theology is necessarily open and
endlessly creative because history is not yet finished with us”.

Rowlands then compares the reports ‘The Churches survey their Task’ (1937)
and ‘Quadragesimo Anno’ (1931). TCSTT was a report from the ecumenical
Oxford Conference on Church, Community and State, though no RC’s attended.
Church’s relationship with the state was a key concern. QA was issued by Pius XI
– meant to celebrate and complete the work of Rerum Novarum, addressing
misunderstandings of the earlier text and address the spiritual roots of social
disorder (NB: this is seen as a distinction between AST and CST: CST interprets
social, economic and political crises as spiritual rather than just moral.
TCSTT emphasised the 2-way responsibility between the church and the state.
Luther’s 2 kingdoms theology – State uses coercion; church uses grace, and the
free operation of love. Roles of the church and the state are different, but also
overlap in certain areas, which can lead to conflict. Necessity for the church to
engage in critical self-reflection if it is to have input into wider society.
State provides both service and protection; it is “the instrument of solidarity but
crucially not always the substance of that solidarity” – the local church and other
first-level communities provide the substance. QA: neither church nor state
knows what the common good is – need to consult with all parts of society.
Emphasis on the importance of subsidiarity – which isn’t just pushing decisions
down the social/political order, but also upwards – decisions should be made by
whoever is most equipped to make the right choice. Redistributive role of the
state; also attempts to create social cohesion.
Temple: building blocks of society = family, associations, nation, family of
nations: part of his understanding of community.
The question that still stands today is what counts as a nation – physical border?
Culture? Language? Etc.
Post-war AST influenced by the liberal/liberationalist Faith in the City – more
radical, post-secular social theology. Both continuity with what came before
(character of the national community, critique of the state, and the impersonal
nature of public welfare), and new (separation of theology and politics, belief
that they’re still speaking to a Christian nation but not doing theology in the
report). Strengths and weaknesses, mentioned more fully in earlier chapters.

Emerging post-liberal traditions: hybrid political-theological movements, in

which the laity are moving faster than the clergy. Rowan Williams builds on
Barth’s political theology to push AST in a new direction, while leaving loose
ends for other theologians to build on. What is crucial in a nation state is the
“irreducibility of negotiation, tension and diversity” – lawful democracy and
democratic institutions as the marker of a nation, rather than ethnic identity.
State as the community of communities.
For Williams, Barth sees political faith as a participation in the judgement of
Christ – both resistance and engagement with the state may be part of
conforming ourselves to Christ’s judgement: politics is both necessary and
provisional, which implies limits to the grounds for war, and emphasises
Christian kinship across national boundaries.
Williams then goes beyond Barth in saying that Christian politics must recognise
and honour difference, be willing to consider the dispossession of narrow
practices of self-assertion, and be committed to ongoing negotiation of goods and
right order in community. For Barth, the state is functional; it is meant to get
things done – working toward right order and the common good. How it does it
doesn’t matter, which provides Christians with a level of detachment as well as
ongoing commitment. For Williams, though, there must be more understanding
of a Christian basis for practical involvement in the state.

The official traditions of both CST and AST seem to be largely uninfluenced by
the voices of women, despite their practical involvement in the field. However,
there are voices which should be heard.
Elaine Graham – largely practical, incarnational, public theology. Importance of
doing social ethics from the local and placed context.
Linda Woodhead – studies the sociology of religion, mapping the changing
patterns of religious belief in the UK, and bringing the voices of ordinary
religious people into consideration through the use of interviews and surveys.
Part of the founding team of the Westminster Faith Debates.
Both are strongly feminist and post-Marxian, suspicious of the paternalism and
authoritarianism of AST and CST. Emphasis on the ‘prophetic ordinary’, rather
than polemical. Influenced by the growth of pluralism and how this will impact
AST.

CONCLUSION
Renewal in both AST and CST is needed. Though there may not be complete
agreement on the role of the church in society between the traditions, what
should be focused on is that which they do agree on. Need to be conscious that
the gospel is (arguably) more radical than the contextual social reflection than
both traditions.
What is needed now within AST is a renewed political apologetic, to encourage
the church to engage with secular culture; a consideration of the impact of post-
liberal politics and globalisation – nation, state, and political community are
intimately connected with economic life; a reconsideration of the report TCSTT –
political theology is more than the defence of religious freedom, the rights and
responsibilities of establishment need to be reconsidered, along with the church’
and state’s overlapping areas of concern.
However, we also need to recognise that “the primary character of the Church is
to be found in the more proximate living of her own rhythm of word, sacrament
and transformative social relations and in her commitment to the embodied
encounter to human persons” – “the transformative power of faith lies less in the
issuing of statements (which nonetheless I would argue can have their limited
place) and more in constructing communities of ordinary, prophetic practice…”.
Necessity of lay understanding of and participation in the Church’s political
vocation – especially in terms of official church teachings, both on personal
morality and political theology. This either means better formation of the laity in
the doctrine of the hierarchy, or that the hierarchy needs to listen more to the
grassroots. Similarly, better mapping of the beliefs of the laity in relation to the
hierarchy needs to happen.
Rowlands notes that it is the pastoral parts of Pope Francis’ papacy which have
had the most impact on the laity and those outside the Catholic church. This
would suggest that the renewal of faith comes from pastoral action rather than
speeches or encyclicals from the top.
 Malcolm Brown ‘Anglican Social Theology Tomorrow’

Alisdair MacIntyre: “Traditions, when vital, embody continuities of conflict” –

CofE shows this admirably. Within the wider and contested context of
Anglicanism, there is a discernable and robust tradition of social theology.
However, the continuing health of this tradition depends upon the willingness to
build upon and renew this tradition with new strands of thought, especially
through ecumenical work. The evangelical strand of social action will help in this,
given the way that evangelical identity is not based first and foremost on
denomination.
It is possible that the theologising on social action becomes detached from the
grassroots action being done across the country, focusing more on governmental
participation. Alternatively, grassroots activists may become more aware of a
need for theological reflection on why their actions are justifiable and even
necessary. It may be likely that evangelical social theology becomes a separate
stream from AST, though it is likely that the two will be closely linked, as the
whole history of AST has never been a distinct tradition in the image of CST.
However, AST is distinct enough to be a conversation partner with CST, and it is
likely that the two will continue to work together harmoniously.
Introduction of gay marriage has made a mockery of all churches’ tendencies to
view the personal and political as separate spheres. Churches’ main argument to
government was that “the government had failed to reflect the contested nature
of concepts of equality and had thereby ignored the deep social implications
their proposal to extend marriage to same-sex couples might entail” – question
of the common good of all parties and citizens. The question that remained was
‘what happens when there are different concepts of equality which do not align?’.
The official argument of the churches was not expressed by grassroots resistance
to the bill (ie, Coalition for Marriage), which was seen by opponents as proof that
Christian opinion was impervious to argument.
What is becoming more clear, however, is that the Gay Marriage debate is only
symptomatic of a gulf which has opened up between a Christian world view, and
the moral universe of most of the populations of the developed world. Jessica
Martin’s theological prologue to the Pilling report: questions of sex and sexuality
based on a tendency to commodify humanity and relationships – growth of
commercialism. Question for the church is how to remind people that humanity,
worth, and value is based on more than one’s ecomonic value. However, if even
this has to be retaught, how can the church provide a credible social theology for
those outside? “It is a shift from the given to the chosen, from empathy with the
other to realisation of the self and from the unity of a life well lived to the
ephemeral measurements of wealth and celebrity”.
Church of England’s tradition: recognise that all human goods are never
absolute, but that they must be moderated by tension with other and opposing
goods. The individual is important, but they live in the middle of a community.
The church has always (nb: tried to!) acted as the challenge to the ‘truth’ of the
society it finds itself in, always drawing society back from the brink. The
question now is what the church can do if the reference points that it uses to
provide this role are no longer recognised by the rest of society. Link between
church and society not entirely gone: enshrined in the law was that no religious
body could be forced to act in ways contrary to its beliefs. However, work to link
the two again and to reduce the idea that faith is solely private is desperately
needed.
Sexuality not the only dilemma which is important to the world – the churches’
input on issues of the environment and sustainability could be valuable.
Emphasis on the common good also brings up questions of ecclesiology –
understanding of the life of the church as intrinsic to the commitment to the
common good is at the heart of being part of the Church of England.
“In a fallen world touched by God’s grace, most social questions are best
approached by seeking a balance between opposing extremes” = Church of
England’s via media. Presence of neo-liberalism and ultra-individualism, but also
extreme collectivism, suggests that the understanding of personhood, identity,
and society is a fruitful area for the church to get involved - similarly, the
relationship between state and civil society.
“The test of AST is whether it will in the end make the claims of Christ, the vision
of Scripture and the rich Christian understanding of being human within
community audible to the world at large”.