Theo Hobson’s Fictional Church of England Future
by David Virtue, VOL:
British theologian Theo Hobson believes the Church of England’s future can be saved if it can recover its liberal Anglo-Catholicism.
He writes; “It is liberal in the sense that it affirms the liberal state and rejects a reactionary response to modern culture. It is Anglo-Catholic in the sense that it has confidence in ritual tradition, and is wary of simplistic emotional piety and bossy legalism. It prefers mystery, difficulty, open-mindedness. This is, in my humble opinion, the best Christian tradition, and in fact the best tradition in all of human culture. So why does it have all the self-confidence of a pimply teenager?”
Hobson has no use for evangelicals who he says should be treated “with a bit less respect.” He accuses evangelicals, who for decades have “unbalanced the Church by drawing relatively big (and affluent) crowds with a style that grates on most Anglican sensibilities. Its simplistic idea of mission has dominated all recent attempts at innovation, which have been heavily backed by the archbishops, leading to discontent in the parishes.” John Stott would profoundly disagree with that assessment.
He goes on to besmirch the newish Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell for “promoting an uncritical embrace of the evangelical model of mission, with its grim middle-management diagrams and cheery facile slogans. Evangelicalism remains ebullient as ever, but thankfully its reputation for trend-bucking success is now fading: a recent report showed that its latest church-planting efforts were largely fruitless. This makes it easier to put it back in its box.” Oh, the snobbery.
On homosexuality, Hobson says it is time to end the dispute over homosexuality. “It won’t be solved overnight, or over-year, but the solution is clear enough. Diversity must be allowed: liberal parishes must be free to conduct gay weddings, evangelical parishes must be allowed to refuse to. The Church allowed such diversity over the ordination of women; there is no reason that this compromise should not be repeated.”
Hobson’s loose cannon approach to church divisions is pure scattergun — fire enough rounds and you might hit something.
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