Of Kings: Three? Or two? Or one?
(For Brett, who asked for Epiphany poems beyond Eliot) Why do you look for poems About us? Kings? Oh, you are generous, Friend; words are elastic, Yes, but that one will not stretch to Us. Say we are governors, courtiers, Retainers, perhaps. Not Prince Hamlet, but Attendant lords. Honoured enough in our own land (Though careful of those above us) We found ourselves strangers, outsiders, Aliens, perhaps When we reached the place we sought. There a king (or, at least, A man on a throne) Summoned us, instructed us, and Dismissed us. No welcome there; we were wrong—our Faces, clothes, accents, our Diets, our customs, our Assumptions. There is honesty in the streets ‘Ere, Mister! You look Funny—you sound funny— You dress funny—Mister, You smell funny!’ In the halls of the Palace … courteous Lies to our faces; behind Our backs? Careful cuts, Plausibly deniable; Perspicuous; Deadly. ‘Good chaps, of course … but … Not the right sort. Not Clubbable, if you know what I Mean? Something I can’t Put my finger on is Wrong…’ If you asked, you could put your finger on My skin. Discover That it feels as yours, if A different shade. But to Ask would be to Admit. They sighed, no doubt, in Relief when we left for The town we were told of. ‘Satisfactory’? Perhaps For those expecting … less Than we had once known. But we had discovered our Disqualifications. Gentiles (Persians!). Pagans. Sorcerers By calling. Uncircumcised. Unchosen. Uncalled. Unwanted. Travel will Teach you such Truths if you let it. Like the refugee Brain surgeon who Mops your floors, friend, We left our status behind. But we knew when to kneel. Gifts given, we chose (Aided by an angel) To confirm their suspicions And disobey their ‘king’. ‘I told you, unreliable, not The right sort. Should never have Trusted. Left with a Mess.’ ‘Send the army to deal, Quietly of course.’ While we Return east, to places, That know us, places We no longer Belong. And the family flees west, To a land strange to them As theirs was to us. But all lands are his. But no land will ever Welcome...
Read MoreChurch growth and decline in the UK 2: Is church decline due to ‘progressive ideology’?
John Hayward’s second claim is that the patterns of growth and decline he maps can be explained by the extent to which the various denominations have embraced/capitulated to something he calls ‘progressive ideology’. He unfortunately offers no evidence (beyond a claim that it is obvious to all) for the existence or nature of this ideology…
Read MoreChurch growth and decline in the UK 1: Are UK denominations headed for extinction?
John Hayward has recently attracted a lot of attention with a couple of blog posts claiming extinction for many UK denominations, and that church decline followed an embrace of progressive ideology. This post addresses the extinction point.
Read MoreThoughts on Theology and Theory
Three or four chance conversations over the past few weeks have raised the subject of ‘Theory’, or critical theory, in ways that have made me think about how I do theology. I’m going to argue here that there are good gospel reasons for theologians to be open to theory, and that these are particularly compelling for B/baptist theologians.
Read More‘Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus’
I stopped blogging here regularly about six years ago, when I was asked to be Head of School here in St Andrews. I’ve posted a few pieces since, mostly where I wanted a space to say something that seemed like it mattered urgently, as during lockdown. I’ve now stepped down from being Head of School, and have a bit more leisure to let my thoughts and interests wander, which was always the occasion for the (infrequent) blog posts I put up here. So it’s back. I don’t know if it will last–that depends on the worth I find in it, and the worth I see others finding in it.
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