Faith and conflict

God and War Stephen G Parker and Tom Lawson Ashgate, hb, £55.00

As the editors to this collection of essays on the response of the Church of England to armed conflict in the 20th centur y point out, the Church has enjoyed an enhanced national role during times of war and debate about war when its role as moral conscience become clearer. But, as the editors also point out, there has also been a diversity of opinions when a Church plays host to a number of views about war.

Archbishop Randall Davidson was always the diplomat, worried that an open stand against the Government would reduce his backdoor access to the corridors of power. This basic attitude coloured his response to the Boer War when he was Bishop of Winchester and his policy during World War I when he was at Canterbury.

Lang shared a similar approach. In his chapter on World War II Stephen Parker quotes an extract from Lang’s diary where he comes upon Baldwin just after the Prime Minister had taken a nap and they talk about books as well as Hitler. “God bless you and keep you,” the Archbishop tells Baldwin.

As Parker puts it, the intertwined relationship between Church and State was able to be exploited by both during World War II. The Church gave moral justification to the war and in return sought improvements in its own position, notably provisions for compulsory Religious Education in the 1944 Act. As Parker correctly points out, the Church’s role as a source of national identity during the Second World War has been overlooked by historians. He is also right to question the benefits of a ‘lowest common denominator’ curriculum for RE. Rather than enthuse pupils for Christianity it could inoculate them against it.

During the Cold War Archbishop Fisher’s instincts were initially against enrolling the Church in a struggle against communism. Guided by Herbert Waddams, he was more concerned to protect the position of Christians in Russia and Eastern Russia but Dianne Kirby, in an excellent essay, shows Lambeth being brought around to endorse the anti-communist crusade. This chapter and other parts of this book should be read in conjunction with a recent analysis of American Civil Religion since 1945 by Raymond Haberski Jnr, also called God and War. Compared with America, the Church of England had no prophetic figure to rival Reinhold Niebuhr who saw both the evils of communism and also the perils of American self-righteousness. On the other hand it also lacked figures like Billy Graham or Cardinal Spellman, ready to endorse not only the crusade against communism but also the war in Vietnam.

In the post-war years, Archbishops did not enjoy such a close relationship with Prime Ministers as Davidson and Lang although Macmillan was a practising Anglican who engaged in dialogue with Michael Ramsey on the deterrent. Matthew Grimley’s chapter on the Church and the Bomb is a brilliant summary of an important topic. CND certainly John Haden and John Ondoma taught as teachers and served as head at a school in Uganda’s remote West Nile district. Ondoma is from the area; Haden went there with the Africa Inland Mission. In Oh Uganda, May God Uphold Thee (Barny Books, The Cottage, Hough on the Hill, Grantham, Lincs, NG32 2BB, £12.99) they describe their experiences and in doing so tell the story of the Church of Uganda and the Church School they served. The book is published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Republic of Uganda.

Ian Stackhouse is the Pastoral Leader of a Baptist Church in Guildford but his new book, Primitive Piety (Paternoster), carries a warm recommendation on the cover from the well-known Dominican, Fr Timothy Radcliffe. This is a stimulating, radical, provocative book that will inspire and challenge people of every denomination as Stackhouse takes us on a journey from polite, respectable, suburban piety to the paradoxical world of biblical faith.

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the best known parts of the New Testament. In his book The Sermon on the Mount (Monarch) the distinguished preacher, RT Kendall, gives us a verse by verse exposition. Those who heard Dr Kendall preach at Westminster Chapel will know what to expect and they will not be disappointed. For those who have not come across his work before, this is an excellent chance to become familiar with a great expositor of scripture.

‘A flawed but indomitable idealist’, that is how Stephen Tomkins describes David Livingstone, the subject of his new biography David Livingstone: the Unexplored Story (Lion). This short book gives a fascinating picture of an extraordinary character making use of new evidence from letters and journals. Livingstone was an almost total failure as a missionary so he became an explorer and campaigner against the slave trade instead, hoping to help Africans that way. Tomkins, who has also written books on William Wilberforce and on the Clapham Sect and who is deputy editor of Third Way, brings a Victorian icon to life. Highly recommended.

Sharon Dirckx is a scientist, a lecturer in the Oxford Centre of Apologetics as well as wife and mother. ‘Written with the heart of a mother as well as the mind of a scientist, Why? is not only profound, but tender and comforting as well’ writes Os Guiness in commending the book.

According to Paul David Tripp the culture that surrounds pastors is spiritually unhealthy, an environment that actively undermines the well-being and effectiveness of church leaders. He examines this issue in Dangerous Calling (IVP). Tripp is an American but much of what he has to say applies to Britain as well.

According to Tony Campolo The Compassion Quest (SPCK) is a book ‘that was waiting to be written’. The author, Tr ystan Owain Hughes, is chaplain to the University of Cardiff and author of two previous books, Finding God and Hope and Meaning in Suffering that have been much praised. In his book he urges us to move beyond our own concerns to show compassion and love for others. We need to embrace all creation as sacred and deserving of our care and attention. appealed to many Anglicans but for most multilateralism was more attractive (although they were not uncritical multilateralists). In the end the debate was overtaken by events although those who opposed the bomb continue to be troubled by the American alliance, the ‘war on terror’ and the use of drones (issues not covered in this book).

This is a book that sheds light on a number of topics and raises many questions. There is an interesting chapter on the Christendom Group by Philip Coupland that suggests parallels between their thinking and fascism. Might these parallels flow not from direct influence but from the fact that both movements were influenced by common sources in their attempt to find a middle way between capitalism and communism? In any case, how sincere was fascism in attempting to move beyond capitalism?

One chapter in particular is marred by a number of errors. Hugh Montefiore was Bishop of Kingston, not Southwark; Geoffrey Paul, not Geoffrey Hull, was Bishop of Hull; and Lord Soper was not a ‘Wesleyan Bishop’. Fortunately the same chapter gets the most important issue it discusses — Runcie’s magnificent sermon at the Falklands service — completely right. In this case an Archbishop did not pull punches in public to safeguard private access.

Mrs Thatcher, who knew Runcie at Oxford, was ‘spitting blood’ according to her husband but she kept quiet in public. When asked why there was so little about the Church in her memoirs, she replied ‘there were no great church things in my time’.

IPaul Richardson Have stick – Will travel: Mainly South American Journeys By Bishop David Evans Available at £6 (including postage) from TW Printing and Copying Ltd, Unit 4b St Mary’s Road, Sydenham Industrial Estate, Royal Leamington Spa, CV31 1PP. info@twprinting.co.uk n 146 pages and 21 easily digestible chapters, Bishop David Evans recounts journeys he undertook as a worker among students in Argentina, then Bishop of Peru and finally General Secretary of the late lamented South American Missionary Society.

Each chapter reflects something of the life and witness of Christians throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia whom David met on his own journeys that were sometimes highly risky, with hugely frustrating delays, and in spectacular scenery. You will never complain about the train being five minutes late again.

The Church of England House of Bishops has regularly contained Bishops with extensive overseas experience: one thinks of Manchester, Salisbury, Winchester, St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, Coventry, Leicester, Southwark and Rochester as Sees where within the last 50 years such bishops have served. Winchester, Reading and now to some extent Canterbury continue that very important tradition. For in the role of bishop a senior Christian leader can keep before the Church of England the nature and presence of Anglican churches around the world and the rich contribution they bring of the picture of Jesus in other cultures.

And Bishop David, who led the Diocese of Bradford in the transition between two former bishops gives contemporary reality to that tradition by bringing to life the reality of his many journeys.

The climax of Bishop Evans’ travelogue from his earliest days in Tanzania is the visit to the Beagle Channel at the tip of Latin America to the site of the death of the founder of the South American Missionary Society, Captain Allen Gardiner, commemorated by a simple plaque. David Evans reflects: “As we sat there (in the cave) 150 years later, I realised that my understanding of the rock image of God would have to change. It was not a question of God being a rock under one’s feet to give stability. It was God being totally enveloping.”

Chris Sugden