INAUGURAL ISSUE - AUGUST 2003

ISSN 1448 - 6326

It may be well to start this review of this very readable paperback (250 pages) by refering to some of the accolades given to the text of the former Scottish Episcopal Church bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway, which appear as a tantalising recommendation for prospective readers.

Raymond Carr, from the London Spectator writes that it is "a work of blinding sincerity and high intelligence." Jeanette Winterson from The Times states that the book "will appeal to all of us who continue to be interested in the moral challenge of our times... For Holloway, the moral challenge is not who should be excluded, but how to include the whole world." More impressively, Karen Armstrong, the author of A History of God and The Battle for God endorses Doubts and Loves in this glowing tribute: "This is a sensitive, brave and inspiring book, which responds honestly and with great intelligence to the religious dilemma of our times." Finally, the words of the Scottish writer A.L. Kennedy state that the text is a "thoughtful, playful, courageous and deeply altruistic book... a fine companion for anyone who wishes to live a life of any depth, offering the voice of an intelligent, compassionate friend in a bewildering universe of pain, joy and absurdity."

As an author of twenty-two prior books on theology, religious reflection, spirituality, and ethics, Richard Holloway is an accomplished wordsmith, well-deserving the praise given to him. Doubts and Loves is a "rescue attempt - a heartfelt and passionately argued presentation of the challenge of Jesus, which reveals the essence of his teachings and shows why they are revolutionary, humane, and of immense contemporary importance." More in the tradition of John Shelby Spong and John Robinson, the author confronts the reader with the perlexing problem of how Christianity can be made relevant, vital and meaningful for the contemporary world. This can only be done by a "radical rethinking of Christianity" in order that a practical ethic - a new orthopraxis - can emerge that will give a new direction to contemporary Western spirituality.

Holloway's critique of the present state of Christian theology sees it too often immersed within a mythos that is no longer relevant to either the historical actions of Jesus nor the present state of the Christian churches. The ecclesial emphasis on orthodoxy and the teaching of traditional doctrine on such issues as orginal sin, the possibility of eternal damnation, the inerrancy of the scriptures, has robbed the institutional religion of its central meaning: to be a religion which gives new life to faith.

Holloway sees much of the inflexibility of the established Christian churches to meet the emerging needs of pluralism and tolerance, particularly in relation to the status of women in the church, its inability to recognised the status of the sexually marginalised, its inability to see Christianity as a "theology of life" rather than a theology of death and after-life. He calls for a paradigm shift which deemphasises mere ecclesial lip-service, institutional self-importance and self-protection that hide behind fundamental dogmatic beliefs. Rather he calls for a new morality of action based on reclaiming the ethic of Jesus which is personally and communally transformative. "In the past, religion, like everything else was dealt with in an authoritative way. We were told, for our own good, what to think and what to look at; and we were told, for our own good, what not to think and what not to look at." But today there are no universally accepted answers and the world of secular post-modernity with its flattening of hierarchies poses a releevant challenge to the churches who too often "are so identified with the values of a previous culture that they are incapable of adapting to its successor."

This then becomes a challenge for contemporary Christianity: Is it possible to be a post-modern Christian, be a supporter of ecclesial change, support the rights of feminism, acknowledge the rights of sexual minorities, in spite of the witness of Christian tradition? Holloway examines past paradigms of understanding Self and Church, and recognises that previous conceptual paradigms were only valid in their time and in their place, and must make way for new re-appraisals and new points of view. Consequently he deconstructs important aspects of Christian doctrine seeing the "real task for Christianity today as not to go on interpreting the world in the old way, but to start disturbing it with renewed power."

To do this, Holloway starts with a basic foundational fundamental - the Christian vision is one of self-acceptance and the love and acceptance of others as they are, and the acknowledgement that the nature of faith is constantly changing. In the past, "there has been much in Christianity that has been damaging to humanity; too often it has allowed itself to become the vehicle of intolerance and led by the cruelty and indifference of the powerful." That dynamic pity is released when we realise how "racist, sexist or homophobic," how fearful or deeply prejudiced we can be, by a process of inner conversion, an epiphany of inner change. It is a moment of realisation that one is accepted and conjoined to God rather than separated from God's love. Holloway speaks of this moment as it is described in St. Paul's conversion experience, "In the picture of Jesus as the Christ, which appeared to him at the moment of his greatest separation from other men, from himself and God, he found himself accepted in spite of his being rejected. And when he found that he was accepted, he was able to accept himself and to be reconciled to others."

Using the work of poets, political theorists, and philosophers, Holloway weaves a complex reappraisal of ancient Christian myths reinterpreting them in the context of pluralism, multiculturalism, and current political events. The resurrection becomes tangible for him in the example of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela following the dismantling of apartheid and the establishment of the South African Truth Commission. He expresses it this way, "resurrection is the refusal to be imprisoned any longer by history and its long hatreds; it is the determination to take the first step out of the tomb... resurrection is the possibility of transformed lives, transformed attitudes and transformed societies."

For Holloway, the emphasis in Christianity should be a switch from belief to practice, from Orthodoxy to Orthopraxis, from believing things about Jesus to the imitation of Jesus. It would constitute a practice system rather than a belief system. It is not that he is anti-establishment, but rather recognises that institutional religion by its very nature is self protective and self-propagating. "If institutions are to endure they have to place a higher value on their own endurance than on loyalty to individuals, no matter how attractive or charismatic they may be." This presents a paradox to have any institution representing the authentic Christ or extending his presence in history; the paradox "is that we have heard of Jesus through an institution that has not experienced worldlessness for a very long time." After all, Jesus must be identified with worldlessness and powerlessness; he quotes Dominic Crossan's version of the Beatitudes:

Only the destitute are innocent, only those who have no bread who have no fault, only the wretched are guiltless, only the despised are blameless.

In its 2000 year history the institutional church often aligned itself with the political and cultural interests of its secular 'masters' establishing a long partnership with the world of political power. The grandeur and triumphalism of the church made it almost impossible to recognise the prophetic voice of Jesus of Nazareth who again now becomes more visible as the "political and theological structures of Christendom crash down before our eyes.... What is left of Christianity should be the practice of the kind of love that subverts the selfishness of power, whether it is the subtle power of spiritual or brutal power of political institutions."

Holloway believes that metanoia is too often mistranslated as personal repentance; rather, the appropriate meaning indicates a deep switch in thinking where transformation takes place in the painful process of radical re-appraisal. It is this transformational action that is needed, individually and institutionally, to combat racism, mysogyny, and homophobia, as well as a new consciousness that we need Christianity to re-evaluate its approach towards issues of ecology, global power and economic shared responsibilities. In imitation of Christ, a starting point is the practice of genuine heartfelt forgiveness to break the cycle of sorrow and pain, for the healing of both the forgiver and the forgiven. The "centrality of forgiveness, in the teaching of Jesus, and the new beginning it constantly affords us is his most liberating gift to humanity."

The answers that Holloway offers are not always easy to accept; his text follows much of the thinking proposed by such theologians as Matthew Fox, and particularly John Shelby Spong. Nevertheless, his poetic, eloquent and gentle writing style will have great appeal to those that see the need for personal, spiritual relevance and ecclesial reform. He engagingly emphasises the central elements of authentic Christian faith in a way that highlights the spiritual power of the gospel. It is a reflective text that all Christians will find timely, extending a sense of spiritual hope to many who feel that the institutional Church has lost its way.

Yuri Koszarycz is a senior lecturer with the School of Theology at McAuley Campus, Australian Catholic University. He lectures in ethics and moral theology.