Peter Brown on the Cult of the Saints

In the third, fourth and fifth centuries there flourished on an amazing scale the practice of revering the relics and shrines of the martyrs. The care of the dead was a visible and shocking demonstration to the pagan world of Christian belief. Traditionally, historians have accounted for this as an adoption by Christians of pagan practices. Addressing this phenomenon, Peter Brown writes in his The Cult of the Saints - Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity -

...we must remember that the Christian church had risen to prominence largely because its central ritual practices and its increasingly centralised organisation and financial administration presented the pagan world with an ideal community that had claimed to modify, to redirect, and even to delimit the bonds of the kin. The church was an artificial kin group. Its members were expected to project onto the new community a fair measure of the sense of soldarity, of the loyalties, and of the obligations that had previously been directed to the physical family. Nowhere was this made more plain than in the care of the dead. p. 31

Christians began to have their own cemetries, and to note carefully the anniversaries of the deaths of martyrs and bishops. By the time of the Constantinian turn, with the growth in Christian belief amongst the wealthy elites, this meant for the appearance en masse of endowed shrines and cemetries all over the empire. As Brown writes:

What we have seen is not the growth of new beliefs within the Christian communities, but the restructuring of old beliefs in such a way as to allow them to carry a far heavier charge of public meaning... p. 48

The continuity was not with pagan popular religion, but in fact with Christian belief of the previous eras. This was not merely a feature of popular religion either, but was encouraged and sponsored by the lay and clerical elites. Noticeably, the reverence for the martyrs outlasted the persecutions which made them: the churches were insistent that this was a self-identifying practice of utter necessity for who they were as a group.

The three martyrs of Turkey

I received this email today. Kind of puts writing a doctorate on martyrdom into perspective:

A letter to the Global Church from The Protestant Church of Smyrna
Dear friends,
This past week has been filled with much sorrow. Many of you have heard by now of our devastating loss here in an event that took place in Malatya, a Turkish province 300 miles northeast of Antioch, the city where believerswere first called Christians (Acts 11:26).On Wednesday morning, April 18, 2007, 46 year old German missionary grandfather of three Tilman Geske prepared to go to his office, kissing hiswife goodbye taking a moment to hug his son and give him the pricelessmemory, “Goodbye, son. I love you."
Tilman rented an office space from Zirve Publishing where he was preparing notes for the new Turkish Study Bible. Zirve was also the location of theMalatya Evangelist Church office. A ministry of the church, Zirve prints and distributes Christian literature to Malatya and nearby cities in Eastern Turkey . In another area of town, 35 year old Pastor Necati Aydin,father of two, said goodbye to his wife, leaving for the office as well. They had a morning Bible Study and prayer meeting that some otherbelievers in town would also be attending. Ugur Yuksel likewise made hisway to the Biblestudy.None of these three men knew that what awaited them at the Bible study wasthe ultimate testing and application of their faith, which would conclude with their entrance into glory to receive their crown of righteousness from Christ and honour from all the saints awaiting them in the Lord's presence.

On the other side of town, ten young men all under 20 years old put intoplace final arrangements for their ultimate act of faith, living out theirlove for Allah and hatred of infidels who they felt undermined Islam.On Resurrection Sunday, five of these men had been to a by-invitation-onlyevangelistic service that Pastor Necati and his men had arranged at ahotel conference room in the city. The men were known to the believers as"seekers." No one knows what happened in the hearts of those men as theylistened to the gospel. Were they touched by the Holy Spirit? Were theyconvicted of sin? Did they hear the gospel in their heart of hearts?Today we only have the beginning of their story. These young men, one of whom is the son of a mayor in the Province ofMalatya , are part of a tarikat, or a group of "faithful believers" inIslam.Tarikat membership is highly respected here; it's like a fraternity membership. In fact, it is said that no one can get into public officewithout membership in a tarikat. These young men all lived in the samedorm, all preparing for university entrance exams.The young men got guns, bread knives, ropes and towels ready for theirfinal act of service to Allah. They knew there would be a lot of blood.

They arrived in time for the Bible Study, around 10 o'clock. They arrived, and apparently the Bible Study began. Reportedly, after Necati read a chapter from the Bible the assault began. The boys tied Ugur, Necati, and Tilman's hands and feet to chairs and as they videoedtheir workon their cellphones, they tortured our brothers for almost three hours

*[Details of the torture-* Tilman was stabbed 156 times, Necati 99 times and Ugur's stabs were toonumerous to count. They were disembowelled, and their intestines sliced upin front of their eyes. They were emasculated and watched as those bodyparts were destroyed. Fingers were chopped off, their noses and mouths andes were sliced open. Possibly the worst part was watching as theirbrothers were likewise tortured. Finally, their throats were sliced fromear to ear, heads practically decapitated.]

Neighbours in workplaces near the print house said later they had heard yelling, but assumed the owners were having a domestic argument so theydid not respond.Meanwhile, another believer Gokhan and his wife had a leisurely morning.He slept in till 10, ate a long breakfast and finally around 12:30 he andhis wife arrived at the office. The door was locked from the inside, andhis key would not work. He phoned and though it had connection on his endhe did not hear the phone ringing inside. He called cell phones of hisbrothers and finally Ugur answered his phone. "We are not at the office.Go to the hotel meeting. We are there. We will come there," he saidcryptically. As Ugur spoke Gokhan heard in the telephone's backgroundweeping and a strange snarling sound.He phoned the police, and the nearest officer arrived in about fiveminutes. He pounded on the door, "Police, open up!" Initially the officerthought it was a domestic disturbance. At that point they heard anothersnarl and a gurgling moan. The police understood that sound as human suffering, prepared the clip in his gun and tried over and over again toburst through the door. One of the frightened assailants unlocked the doorfor the policeman, who entered to find a grisly scene.Tilman and Necati had been slaughtered, practically decapitated with their necks slit from ear to ear. Ugur's throat was likewise slit and he wasbarely alive.Three assailants in front of the policeman dropped their weapons.Meanwhile Gokhan heard a sound of yelling in the street. Someone hadfallen from their third story office. Running down, he found a man on theground, whom he later recognized, named Emre Gunaydin. He had massive headtrauma and, strangely, was snarling. He had tried to climb down thedrainpipe to escape, and losing his balance had plummeted to the ground.It seems that he was the main leader of the attackers. Another assailantwas found hiding on a lower balcony.

To untangle the web we need to back up six years. In April 2001, theNational Security Council of Turkey (Milli Guvenlik Kurulu) began toconsider evangelical Christians as a threat to national security, on equalfooting as Al Quaida and PKK terrorism. Statements made in the press bypolitical leaders, columnists and commentators have fueled a hatred againstmissionaries who they claim bribe young people to change their religion.After that decision in 2001, attacks and threats on churches, pastors andChristians began. Bombings, physical attacks, verbal and written abuse areonly some of the ways Christians are being targeted. Most significant isthe use of media propaganda. From December 2005, after having a long meeting regarding the Christian threat, the wife of Former Prime Minister Ecevit, historian Ilber Ortayli, Professor Hasan Unsal, Politician Ahmet Tan and writer/propogandist AytuncAltindal, each in their own profession began a campaign to bring thepublic's attention to the looming threat of Christians who sought to "buy their children's souls". Hidden cameras in churches have taken church service footage and used it sensationally to promote fear and antagonism toward Christianity.In an official televised response from Ankara, the Interior Minister of Turkey smirked as he spoke of the attacks on our brothers. Amid publicoutrage and protests against the event and in favour of freedom ofreligion and freedom of thought, media and official comments ring with thesame message, "We hope you have learned your lesson. We do not wantChristians here."It appears that this was an organized attack initiated by an unknown adult tarikat leader. As in the Hrant Dink murder in January 2007, and aCatholic priest Andrea Santoro in February 2006, minors are being used to commit religious murders because public sympathy for youth is strong and they face lower penalties than an adult convicted of the same crime. Even the parents of these children are in favour of the acts. The mother of the 16 year old boy who killed the Catholic priest Andrea Santoro looked atthe cameras as her son was going to prison and said, "he will serve timefor Allah."The young men involved in the killing are currently in custody. Today newsreported that they would be tried as terrorists, so their age would notaffect the strict penalty. Assailant Emre Gunaydin is still in intensivecare. The investigation centers around him and his contacts and they say will fall apart if he does not recover.

The Church in Turkey responded in a way that honoured God as hundreds ofbelievers and dozens of pastors flew in as fast as they could to stand bythe small church of Malatya and encourage the believers, take care oflegal issues, and represent Christians to the media.When Susanne Tilman expressed her wish to bury her husband in Malatya, the Governor tried to stop it, and when he realized he could not stop it, arumor was spread that "it is a sin to dig a grave for a Christian." In theend, in an undertaking that should be remembered in Christian historyforever, the men from the church in Adana (near Tarsus), grabbed shovels and dug a grave for their slain brother in an un-tended hundred year old Armenian graveyard. Ugur was buried by his family in an Alevi Muslim ceremony in his hometownof Elazig, his believing fiance watching from the shadows as his familyand friends refused to accept in death the faith Ugur had so longprofessed and died for.Necati's funeral took place in his hometown of Izmir, the city where hecame to faith. The darkness does not understand the light. Though the churches expressed their forgiveness for the event, Christians were not to be trusted. Before they would load the coffin onto the plane from Malatya,it went through two separate xray exams to make sure it was not loadedwith explosives. This is not a usual procedure for Muslim coffins.Necati's funeral was a beautiful event. Like a glimpse of heaven,thousands of Turkish Christians and mission aries came to show their lovefor Christ, and their honor for this man chosen to die for Christ.Necati's wife Shemsa told the world, "His death was full of meaning,because he died for Christ and he lived for Christ. Necati was a gift fromGod. I feel honoured that he was in my life, I feel crowned with honour. Iwant to be worthy of that honour."Boldly the believers took their stand at Necati's funeral, facing therisks of being seen publicly and likewise becoming targets. As expected,the anti-terror police attended and videotaped everyone attending thefuneral for their future use. The service took place outside at BucaBaptist church, and he was buried in a small Christian graveyard in theoutskirts Of Izmir.Two assistant Governors of Izmir were there solemnly watching the eventfrom the front row. Dozens of news agencies were there documenting theevents with live news and photographs. Who knows the impact the funeralhad on those watching? This is the beginning of their story as well. Prayfor them.In an act that hit front pages in the largest newspapers in Turkey,Susanne Tilman in a television interview expressed her forgiveness. Shedid not want revenge, she told reporters. "Oh God, forgive them for theyknow not what they do," she said, wholeheartedly agreeing with the wordsof Christ on Calvary (Luke 23:34).In a country where blood-for-blood revenge is as normal as breathing, manymany reports have come to the attention of the church of how this commentof Susanne Tilman has changed lives. One columnist wrote of her comment,"She said in one sentence what 1000 mission aries in 1000 years couldnever do."The mission aries in Malatya will most likely move out, as their familiesand children have become publicly identified as targets to the hostilecity.The remaining 10 believers are in hiding. What will happen to this church,this light in the darkness? Most likely it will go underground. Pray forwisdom, that Turkish brothers from other cities will go to lead theleaderless church. Should we not be concerned for that great city ofMalatya, a city that does not know what it is doing? (Jonah 4:11) When our Pastor Fikret Bocek went with a brother to give a statement tothe Security Directorate on Monday they were ushered into the Anti-TerrorDepartment. On the wall was a huge chart covering the whole wall listingall the terrorist cells in Izmir, categorized. In one prominent column were listed all the evangelical churches in Izmir. The darkness does not understand the light. "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also."(Acts 17:6) Please pray for the Church in Turkey. "Don't pray against persecution, pray for perseverence," urges Pastor Fikret Bocek. The Church is better having lost our brothers; the fruit in our lives, therenewed faith, the burning desire to spread the gospel to quench moredarkness in Malatya .all these are not to be regretted. Pray that we standstrong against external opposition and especially pray that we standstrong against internal struggles with sin, our true debilitating weakness.This we know. Christ Jesus was there when our brothers were giving their lives for Him. He was there, like He was when Stephen was being stoned inthe sight of Saul of Tarsus. Someday the video of the deaths of our brothers may reveal more to us about the strength that we know Christ gave them to endure their last cross, about the peace the Spirit of God endowed them with to suffer fortheir beloved Saviour. But we know He did not leave their side. We knowtheir minds were full of Scripture strengthening them to endure, as darkness tried to subdue the unsubduable Light of the Gospel. We know, inwhatever way they were able, with a look or a word, they encouraged oneanother to stand strong. We know they knew they would soon be with Christ.We don't know the details. We don't know the kind of justice that will orwill not be served on this earth.But we pray-- and urge you to pray-- that someday at least one of thosefive boys will come to faith because of the testimony in death of Tilman Geske, who gave his life as a missionary to his beloved Turks, and the testimonies in death of Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel, the first martyrs for Christ out of the Turkish Church.

Reported by Darlene N. Bocek(24 April 2007)

Samuel Marsden - The Flogging Parson

I have long desired to explain to my non-Australian readers the derivation of the name 'The Blogging Parson'. Byron Smith suggested it to me first in an off-hand comment, and I just couldn't resist it as a blog-name.

It recalls the Rev Samuel Marsden, the second Chaplain to the colony of New South Wales, who has gone down in history as 'The Flogging Parson'. He acted as magistrate as well as Chaplain: and, according to the Irish (and Catholic) convicts, he inflicted more severe punishments on the misbehaving convicts than even other magistrates in the colony. He was not a popular figure - regarded as intolerant and argumentative even by his peers. The mythology of Marsden the monster was given further impetus by Australia's most famous (and now notorious) historian, Manning Clark, a child of the manse himself and an atheist. Clark's personal resentment of Christianity fairly oozes from his pages...

Of course, the truth is more complicated: in amongst this undoubted severity was also a great love for humankind and desire to see the gospel of grace preached. His life was in fact marked by many remarkable good works as well as the flaws. A Yorkshireman by birth, Marsden arrived in the colony in 1794 with his wife Elisabeth and their newborn daughter. He had had an early association with William Wilberforce, the anti-slave reformer. He was an extremely able - and eventually wealthy - man, and succeeded in shipping wool from Australia to England, and was reputedly the first to introduce sheep to NZ. But more importantly, he was also the first to bring the gospel to NZ, largely at his own expense. He was particularly fond of the Maori people. Interestingly he is remembered far more fondly in NZ than in Australia, where his name is used for schools and streets. You would never see that in Australia.

Let's not excuse the flaws: though I would have to say that it should be remembered that the colony of NSW was a prison camp in an alien environment, and that fear of convict mutiny must have been a daily companion, especially when the Irish rebels - ideological prisoners and not just petty thieves like the others - were sent in large numbers. But his determination to witness for Christ to the end of the earth - literally! - ought to be remembered and honoured, too.

More from Cook on Islam and Martyrdom

Cook writes:

Martyrdom in Islam is in general not a passive act on the part of the believer, but more of an active action in which the martyr seeks out the circumstances that will lead to his or her own martyrdom. One of the dominant themes, therefore, is the close relationship between martyrdom and jihad, rather than between martyrdom and missions, as in the case in other missionary religions such as Buddhism or Christianity...The fighting martyr is the type that stands out in the overall category of Muslim martyrdom. p. 166

Now this is interesting because it helps us remember how Christian martyrdom is different and to explain that this is so.

As a meta-discussion, though: what place might comparative religion have in the business of Christian theology?

Islam and the martyr's rewards

Photo: Nantes Cathedral

Frequently in media discussions of Islamic martyrdom rather shocked mention has been made of the prospect of heavenly rewards offered to those who are martyred in Islam. According to the account by David Cook called Martyrdom in Islam this description is probably not unfair: the Islamic tradition gives special prominence to the rewards reserved especially for martyrs. He writes:

The rewards for the martyr described by the Muslim jihad literature are very lurid. Althought it is popular in anti-Muslim polemic to concentrate upon the sexual rewards of the martyr - and there can be no question that these are important - it is interesting to note that probably the most frequently cited tradition listing these rewards is entirely devoid of such content...However, no one who read the jihad and martyrdom literature can avoid the frequent and graphic descriptions of the sexual delights of paradise. Although it is impossible to be certain, the fact that this material is so well attested and descriptive suggests that along with the spiritual aspects of being a martyr, there was a strong sexual pull as well. p. 37

The criticism that usually arises here is, does not the reward corrupt the very idea of martyrdom? Certainly, Augustine fought very hard against a similar tendency in Christianity (not the sexual nature of the rewards, but against the reward mentality). There is a prize that awaits us in heaven; but, our treasure is God himself. That changes everything.

Ricoeur on 'distanciation'

Paul Ricoeur, whose thought looms large in Rowan Williams' recent lecture on Scripture, offers this on hermeneutics:

A work of discourse, as a work of art, is an autonomous object at a distance from the authorial intention, from its initial situation.. and from its primitive audience. For this very reason it is open to an infinite range of interpretations. There is room for interpretation because the recovery of the initial event of discourse takes the form of a reconstruction starting from the structure and the inner organisation of the specific modes of discourse. In other words, if hermeneutics is always an attempt to overcome a distance, it has to use distanciation as both the obstacle and the instrument in order to reenact the initial event of discourse in a new event of discourse that will claim to be both faithful and creative.

So, this process, of both using and overcoming the hermeneutical gap, is generative of the new event of discourse, namely interpretation: which of itself, for Ricoeur (as for Williams), is potentially revelatory.

Just War and Atonement?

Over at Faith and Theology there has been a vigorous discussion after Ben invited nominations for the 'Worst Theological Invention Ever'. Everyone loves a gripe, me included!

Several of the contributors nominated Just War theory, with one of them actually noting a link between those who hold JW and those who hold to Penal Substitution.

This is just tendentious, and a bad reading of even the pacificist tradition. As Miroslav Volf points out in Exclusion and Embrace, many of the strongest pacificists in Christianity - in the early church and in the radical reformation - have also held to a vigorous account of the divine wrath against sin and sinners, and the need for a substitionary sin-bearer. It is precisely this account that enables there to be a meaningful pacificism.

Which leads me to a further observation: there are two types of pacificism. There is the one I have just described, which, though I think it has weaknesses, is orthodox and ancient (though it is a minority report). The other rests on a doctrine of God that is frankly novel, reading out of an ontology of God's peace that is exegetically and theologically unconvincing (in my opinion), owing more to Foucault than anything. Or at least, to put it less combatitively, if pacificism rests on such a doctrine of God then there are really two very different conceptions of the nature of God at play.

Christendom has also come under attack (again!), as if one could make meaningfully sweeping generalisations about a millenia of thought about this era in the history of the church! Christendom had its bad fruit, certainly, as it had its wonderful benefits for humankind and for the gospel; and I am not yet urging a return to it (as if I could) out of some Christian nostalgia: but the flaw was not in the idea of Christendom itself - at least not as it properly and accurately described.

Contra Hauerwas and others, martyrdom is not merely a stance of eternal dissidence; it is a witness to the rule of God in Christ. For Oliver O’Donovan:

…since true martyrdom is a powerful force and its resistance to Antichrist effective, the church must be prepared to welcome the homage of the kings when it is offered to the Lord of the martyrs.

What this means is that the churches of the martyrs could approach the moment of peace without necessarily losing its identity, deeply rooted as it was in the cross of Christ. As long as they remembered thier own testimony to the manner of the enthronement of the Prince of peace, it could regard the temporal ruler as diakonos soi eis to agathon. As long as they remembered that the authorization of human power on the earth by God included the authority given to the disciples of Jesus for their evangelical mission, then it need not remain in an attitude of defiance.
[1] O'Donovan, The Desire of the Nations - Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology, p. 215

I have some doubts about Hart...

Photo: In Nantes Cathedral

Some further thoughts on DB Hart:

Hart mounts a defence of the ‘beauty to whose persuasive power the Christian rhetoric of evangelism appeals’[1] against the charge from contemporary philosophy that this Christian rhetoric of peace is in fact inescapably violent. As Hart writes:

Christ is a persuasion, a form of evoking desire, and the whole force of the gospel depends upon the assumption that this persuasion is also peace: that the desire awakened by the shape of Christ and his church is one truly reborn as agape, rather than merely the way in which a lesser force succumbs to a great, as an episode in the endless epic of power.[2]

If the gospel is merely an iron fist, even if placed in a velvet glove, then the Nietzchean/postmodern charge – and the Tempter’s charge against Thomas – is sustained. Hart closes his book with a chapter entitled ‘The Gift of Martyrs’, in which he shows well that the Christian practice of authority contrasts markedly in form from the exercise of governmentality (to use Foucault’s term) because it is different in nature:

...theology has no choice but to cling to its own peculiar practice of persuasion, in order to resist the temptations of power (and in a history governed by sin, these temptations inhabit every moment); Christianity can only return to its understanding of peace, its unique style of rhetoric, as the sole source of accord; it must always obey the form of Christ, its persuasion must always assume the shape of the gift he is, it must practice its rhetoric under the only aspect it may wear if it is indeed Christian at all: martyrdom…Theology must, because of what its particular story is, have the form of martyrdom, witness, a peaceful offer that has already suffered rejection and must be prepared for rejection as a consequence.[3]

Through its imitation of Christ’s manner of rule – which the martyrs exemplify – the Christian community shows itself to be ruled by such a servant Lord. Hart’s emphasis on the ‘renunciation of violence’ as the core meaning of the crucifixion to be imitated in the practices of the church takes the place that rightly belongs to ‘sacrificial love’.[4] However, what he rightly shows is that, in the very ‘clinging’ of the disciples of Christ to that mode of speech and life which is the only one consonant with the message of the gospel Christians are commissioned to preach, the ubiquitous temptations of power are to be evaded.

[1] Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth, p. 1
[2] Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth, p. 3
[3] Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth, p. 441
[4] I would further complain here that Hart’s language of ‘theology must…’ is a dangerous abstraction which contrasts with the concrete experience of martyrs. Who is this 'theology'?

Martyrdom post-Christendom

Photo: where we had coffee in Nantes and it cost us 19 Euros.

One of the glaring questions for a discussion of martyrdom is something of the lines of 'what are we to do with those who died in sectarian violence between Christians?' That is: what of those who were executed for being Catholic/Protestant/Anabaptist? In what sense are they martyrs?

There are two obvious ways to analyse this question. First, you could take the traditional view and say that only the martyrs to my particular cause were truly martyrs because only they were dying for the truth. And, in addition, you might seek to take the high moral ground (as Foxe does) and show that Catholics burnt far more heretics than Protestants ever did. As Augustine said, not the suffering but the cause makes the martyr. He wouldn't have the Donatists as martyrs, and was quite happy to set the soldiers on them.

Or, second, you could take the view that in some sense martyrs of every hue were (at least potentially) true martyrs. Now to do this, you have to theorise that both Cranmer and Thomas More were in some sense witnessing to Christ - perhaps imperfectly, but equally validly. This isn't an easy route to follow, because you have clashing beliefs in force.

What won't do is to see the martyrs as merely witnessing against crown/church practices of execution. That is not what the martyrs saw themselves as doing! Take Cranmer for example - I don't think he would have denied Mary the right to execute heretics by burning, even if he would have disputed her criteria for selecting victims. He was quite happy to burn those he thought were heretics after all! Even the more radical reformers (say, the Dutch Mennonites) did not see themselves as dying for some principle like non-violence. They thought they were testifying to Christ.

I guess a third, and more secular, strategy would be to say that the whole martyrdom idea is dangerous when applied to this period because all it does is bolster sectarianism and its potential for violent conflict.

Hmm..

Bernd Wannenwetsch on the martyrs and violence

It is always good to read your own supervisor's work! So, I found this nice comment in Bernd Wannenwetsch's book Political Worship:

...it was actually the Church in the form of the martyrs, who refused to submit to the power of those who were stronger, which gave what was perhaps the most forceful political thrust towards the dissolution of the Roman Empire, as people withdrew from the political worship of the Empire. The effect of the Christian martyrs must, of course, not be interpreted to mean that the principle of non-violence proved superior to Roman violence. Their impact was not based on any ontological ascendancy of non-violence over violence. It was due to the fact that the refusal to go along with the worship of the gods of war, who represent the imperial claim to rule, pointed to the question about the authorization or empowerment for such action. If Christians found this empowerment in their worship, that worship did not merely reflect the impossibility of joining in the worship of Roman tyranny; it also showed the possibility of seeing this risky refusal through. Even today, the decisive constructive question of political ethics is the question about the formation of power. p. 113-4.

What he highlights here is that martyrdom was a question primarily of worship and not one of merely displaying a kind of action transferrable to perhaps different ideological settings.

Rowan Williams on Scripture

A few days ago Rowan Williams gave an intriguing lecture on Scripture in Canada. In the middle of the lecture he made an intriguing comment about Romans 1, the text at the centre of debates about homosexuality and the church:

Paul in the first chapter of Romans famously uses same-sex relationships as an illustration of human depravity – along with other ‘unnatural’ behaviours such as scandal, disobedience to parents and lack of pity. It is, for the majority of modern readers the most important single text in Scripture on the subject of homosexuality, and has understandably been the focus of an enormous amount of exegetical attention.
What is Paul’s argument? And, once again, what is the movement that the text seeks to facilitate? The answer is in the opening of chapter 2: we have been listing examples of the barefaced perversity of those who cannot see the requirements of the natural order in front of their noses; well, it is precisely the same perversity that affects those who have received the revelation of God and persist in self-seeking and self-deceit. The change envisaged is from confidence in having received divine revelation to an awareness of universal sinfulness and need. Once again, there is a paradox in reading Romans 1 as a foundation for identifying in others a level of sin that is not found in the chosen community.
Now this gives little comfort to either party in the current culture wars in the Church. It is not helpful for a ‘liberal’ or revisionist case, since the whole point of Paul’s rhetorical gambit is that everyone in his imagined readership agrees in thinking the same-sex relations of the culture around them to be as obviously immoral as idol-worship or disobedience to parents. It is not very helpful to the conservative either, though, because Paul insists on shifting the focus away from the objects of moral disapprobation in chapter 1 to the reading /hearing subject who has been up to this point happily identifying with Paul’s castigation of someone else. The complex and interesting argument of chapter 1 about certain forms of sin beginning by the ‘exchange’ of true for false perception and natural for unnatural desire stands, but now has to be applied not to the pagan world alone but to the ‘insiders’ of the chosen community. Paul is making a primary point not about homosexuality but about the delusions of the supposedly law-abiding.

The intriguing thing for me is that he is absolutely right - but that no-one taking the conservative position would ever deny that he was right. Of course Paul's rhetorical point in Rom 1 and 2 is meant to ambush the self-righteous. But as Williams himself appears to concede here, there is no question but that Paul and his readers would have agreed that same-sex sex was part of the distortion of the created order in the same way that idolatry and disobedience to parents is. The question is I suppose: what authority has that agreement between Paul and his readers? Can we really just sift it out as a mistake - and still claim any semblance of orthodoxy? Honestly now?

Goldingay and the OT

I have been reading John Goldingay's Old Testament Theology: Israel's Gospel which is the first of three volumes in a planned OT Theology. To my mind, every Christian theologian of whatever stripe ought to at least have OT theology as a hobby - bearing in mind that OT Theologies as such have only been written in the last century or so. And 'OT theology' is a far more fruitful and interesting approach to the OT than reading commentaries on individual books. For one thing, it shows just what a complex - and rich - entity the Hebrew scriptures are.

Anyhow, Goldingay writes a very interesting appendix to his first volume, on the matter of history and criticism. As he puts it:

Modern historical study has presupposed that we are in a better position to determine where the facts lie than the authors of premodern narratives were, as well as having the motivation to do that. The trouble is that the resuts of a historical approach to the First Testament narratives are disappointing... First, in the 2000s we know much less than we knew in 1900 or 1950 about the origin of most of the narratives. p. 866

Speculation, as Goldingay shows, has repeatedly become confident assertion in one generation only to be exposed and overthrown in the next. And the real business - of asking 'what are these texts actually saying?' becomes further obscured. Gerhard von Rad's work is an interesting example: I find his interpretations and insights almost always fascinating and helpful and he writes with rare power. But you have to pass over or take with some grains of salt his source-critical and historical material which has not stood the test of time.