Shortly before Easter I was interviewed by Radio Oxford for a short programme they were making about the retirement of Bishop Richard Harries. One of the questions the interviewer asked me, was about the Bishop's reputation as a liberal and a reformer. This made me think quite hard, because over the years I have got to know the Bishop as a man, and no longer think of him in terms of labels of this sort. The implication of the question appeared to be that the Bishop's reputation was controversial, and I might be expected to take sides for or against his liberalism.
It seems to me that it is one of the great tragedies of the Christian Church, that the word "liberal" has come to be a bad word for so many people. Why should this be? The origins of the word have to do with freedom, and many of its uses connote generosity, expansiveness, openness. Why is it then, that in religion it carries the meaning: "holding opinions less traditional than those accepted as orthodox"?
For many people to whom faith is a central part of their lives, tradition and orthodoxy are important, and anything that calls them into question is deeply troubling. C. S. Lewis has a passage in The Great Divorce in which a "Liberal" bishop is allowed a probationary visit to heaven, but learns that in order to stay there he must abandon his intellectual approach to questions about God. All his life he was so "open-minded" that he denied every single truth of orthodox belief. Abstract concepts such as Reason and the spirit of free inquiry were more important to him than the reality of the God who is. In the end he decides to return to Hell, where he has agreed to give a paper that evening to a little theological society of which he is a member! The demands of Reality are too much for him, and he prefers the selfish independence of his own opinions and mental habits.
It's an amusing satire, of course, and a warning against a particular kind of ivory-tower intellectualism. But it's a million miles away from the kind of liberal approach to truth that Bishop Richard has followed. The Church of England has always taught that the authority for what we believe and teach is threefold: it resides in Scripture, Tradition and Reason. The Bible is always the first of these, both in time and importance. But because Scripture is always interpreted by human readers (and anyone who claims that what they say the Bible teaches is not an interpretation, is deceiving themselves as well as you), it has to be weighed against what other Christians have said about it, especially in the early centuries of Christian history (Tradition) and puzzled over in the light of human experience and the very best efforts of our thought processes (Reason).
In all matters of Christian faith and inquiry, the wisdom of Anglicanism reminds us that we are not called to be either orthodox or liberal. We need to strive to be both, at the same time. Thus, our inquiry must be a genuine search for answers, unlike C. S. Lewis' imaginary bishop who virtually denied the possibility of answers. But when we have found answers, we also need to revisit and re-examine them all the time, to make sure that they are still true to what the combined authority of Scripture, Tradition and Reason teaches us. Some of those who claim to be orthodox and despise liberals, seem like those fictional detectives on the TV, who are so anxious to solve a crime that they will pin it on anyone, regardless of whether or not they are really guilty. Are we so desperate for certainty, and for answers about God, that we will seize upon any answers that some convincing teacher or preacher gives us, even if they don't match up with what our experience and reason tell us? This is not being a faithful follower of Jesus, who challenges his followers to seek and to know the truth, because that is what will make them free.
Towards the end of the Easter season we look towards Whit Sunday or Pentecost, the great feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples that the Spirit he would give them would be another Counsellor who would lead them into all truth. In other words, we who have the Holy Spirit can and must always expect to be learning more about God, as we go on living our faith in the world. The answers of the past are vitally important; but no less so are the answers of the present and the future.
Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit; lead us, as you have promised, into all truth about God, about the world, about ourselves. May we never fear or hide from the truths we discover, but boldly proclaim them in our generation. Amen.
Published in the Marston Times, May 2006