religion and politics - god's agents, engelke Flashcards
1
Q
what is the study focused on
A
- traces how a small group of socially committed Christians tackle the challenge of publicity within what they understand to be a largely secular culture. In the process of telling their story, he offers an insightful new way to think about the relationships between secular and religious formations: our current understanding of religion needs to be complemented by greater attention to the process of generating publicity.
2
Q
British and foreign bible society
A
The British and Foreign Bible Society = one of the most illustrious Christian charities in the UK - founded by evangelicals in the early 19th century + inspired by developments in printing technology - its goals have always been to make Bibles universally available - ‘overtime the founders of the Society wanted nothing less than to put a Bible in the hands of everyone on earth, ideally in their native tongue and ideally for a price that anyone could afford’
3
Q
counteracting of private religion
A
‘This book documents a vision of Christianity as a public religion. I explore the ways in which a group of staff at Bible Society, called the Bible Advocacy Team, worked to counteract the idea that religion ought to be, or even must be, a private affair…’
- their vision of religion refuses to keep itself to itself - “making the Bible heard” - ‘loud and clear’
- describes a television on at the “Bible House”
4
Q
god’s agents
A
- In all this they were striving to be ‘God’s agents’ - public relation agents trying to promote the image of the Bible - providing Bibles to a worldwide network of churches and missionary societies, hospitals, schools prisons
- ‘They subscribe to theologies in which waiting around is not an option’ - ‘The image of the solitary, silent reader misrepresents the evangelical approach to uptake of the Word
5
Q
point = to inspire action
A
- ‘What, in any given place and time, are the legitimate and legitimating forms of proclamation? How, in contemporary England, can and should the Good News garner publicity?’ – questions that frame this book - ask the question ‘What time is it?’
‘The point of this question is to inspire action, to move in relation to the unfolding of events, to be sensitive to the ways in which the here and now connects to the always already.’
6
Q
4 key cultural drivers
A
- they ‘had to involve engaging with what the Society recognized as the four key “cultural drivers” of modern British life: media, art, politics, and education.’ - media was the master driver - it was the public sphere and public culture that really mattered - ‘people swayed more by what they read in the media than what they hear in the pulpit’
7
Q
advocacy
A
advocacy = ‘moving people from the mind-set that the Bible is rubbish to somewhere different.’
8
Q
bible as lived
A
- the Bible should not merely be treated as a rule book - it is a story to be lived - this is why they do not take on the classic evangelical approach of knocking on doors etc. – ‘this engagement is up to the onlookers: the choice is theirs to gaze upward or continue on their way. Advocacy was always pitched as an invitation, not an insistence. Advocacy was something public and fostered publicity and yet respected privacy and choice.’
9
Q
bridge between society and culture
A
- it means to meet people where they are, forming real relationships - ‘It was Christ, as members of the Advocacy Team often put it, who first met people where they really are.’ - ‘this is what Christianity looks like with the television turned on. In the Bible House the whole point of faith was to infuse and inform society. It was to drive “the Culture.” God’s agents always wanted to get in on the act.’
10
Q
In politics
A
- ‘Since 2005 Bible Society has had a parliamentary officer whose job is to “equip and encourage” members of Parliament, peers, and others involved in and around the Palace of Westminster to make the Bible heard in their work.’ = Dave: a kingdom-seeking Christian who hates the idea of a religious party – organized religion ‘is for Dave, agonized religion, that which reveals the shortcomings of human sociality as much as it does signs of the Kingdom.’ - the church is subject to the same limitations as every other institution - it is not the Kingdom of God + so Dave supports Parliament’s state craft principle - a secular public sphere helps to ensure human freedom
- Parliament supports secularism as a state-craft principle - to accommodate for everyone - ‘The Advocacy Team’s concerns with sincerity and freedom, as they related to statecraft, were often nested within a Christian vocabulary of the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the historical constitution of Christendom… It is through the Kingdom, and the Kingdom alone, that sincerity and freedom can be cultivated and expressed.’
11
Q
links between church and state
A
- Yet - there are still links between church and state: ‘The most notable sign of establishment in this sense is the reservation for twenty-six Church of England bishops in the House of Lords.’
‘The monarch is both head of state and supreme governor of the Church of England.’ + ‘I would insist that coronations and royal weddings do a lot of political work’ - tours the houses of Parliament –‘Declarations of faith are literally incorporated into the buildings’ – can be explained in terms of the nation’s history - every morning a bishop in the House of Lords and the speaker’s chaplain in the House of Commons begin the day with prayers - ‘The evangelical narrative also includes a sense of calling, of doing what one does because God asks it’ – some MPs say they would not be MPs if they did not believe this is what God wanted of them - wants people to look at Christians in Parliament and see how Christians love each other
12
Q
against politicisation of faith
A
- against the politicisation of faith - God should not be on one side - something which has happened in America with the Republican party
- GOD IS PERSONAL BUT NEVER PRIVATE
13
Q
need to find cross oneself
A
- But you cannot lead people to the cross - they must find it themselves - ‘A good part of what CIP managed to do over the period of my research was prompt consideration about the balance of two commitments, one to the redemptive power of God, acting in history and manifesting signs of Kingdom, the other to the redemptive power of liberal democracy…’
- PROBLEM - everyone has a different idea as to what the relationship between religion and politics should look like
14
Q
theos = first report
A
THEOS = the public theology think tank- within many Christian circles it became a regular point of reference and
- hosted a debate in 2009 “Did Darwin kill God?” at Westminster Abbey - Enegelke also attended
- in 2008 began an annual lecture series - engaged with other religions and in debates with secularists and humanists
- believe that a small group of people can change and shape the entire climate of opinion - seeing itself as a heretical minority challenging secular arrangements in public life - the founder believed people were starting to give faith a second look - want to lead on shaping the secular settlement - they compare to the IEA and their impact on economic thinking in the wake of the Thatcherite revolution - but could instead compare to Weber
- an important complement to Dave Landrum in Parliament
15
Q
theos - doing god report
A
- Important report releases: “Doing God” - to set out space on which to build and setting a template for all their future work - a core argument = Christians cannot rely on God-Talk in political debate - should use a language that is open - frustrated at the way some Christians shut down public debate and discussion - makes religion seem like a conversation stopper
- religion should not be focused on the inner life - religion and politics should not be separated - jesus’ message is a political one, but not a party political one - Doing God sets out the parameters of a political theology - thought Jesus was in some way a secularist - the secular was in fact christianity’s gift to the world: denoting a public space in which public authorities should be respected but could legitimately be challenged
