Category Archives: Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams deconstructs Narnia

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Rowan Williams, when asked his thoughts on C. S. Lewis’s Narnia books, declared that he finds Aslan to be “on the knife-edge of the erotic.”

One wonders what C. S. Lewis would make of Rowan Williams and his ideas; Williams himself provides a clue in the same interview: “”Lewis thought most theologians were gutless liberals who didn’t care about the truth enough.”

And Aslan would almost certainly say: “Oh, Adam’s son, how cleverly you defend yourself against all that might do you good!”

From here:

On C S Lewis and theology: “Lewis thought most theologians were gutless liberals who didn’t care about the truth enough.”

On the sensuousness of Aslan the lion: “on the knife-edge of the erotic.”

On the Aslan resurrection scene in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: “I think it is such an obvious parallel. The more interesting thing is how does Lewis convey a sense of what the religious climate, the religious sensibility might be in another world? That is the teasing thing.”

On his first response to C S Lewis’ Narnia books: “When you’re 14 or 15, as I was when I read some of those books, you think, wow, we’ve got a clever man on our side! Isn’t that good!”

Of a pagan who gets to heaven: “Here is someone with total courage, passion and generosity who’s giving all that to a mistaken target. But the heavenly postman knows better and delivers it to the right address.”

Rowan Williams badly misjudges attempt at compromise; in other news, sun rose in the East this morning

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The tenure of Rowan Williams has been notable for the failure of his unceasing efforts to find an Hegelian synthesis or middle ground in every either/or conundrum with which he has been faced. It didn’t work with the battle over actively homosexual priests and bishops, with the blessing of same-sex unions or with the mushy Anglican Covenant, but Williams thought he’d give it another go with the division over women bishops in the Church of England.

It didn’t work.

He seems to suffer from a congenital inability to take a side: even his private opinions about homosexual marriage are at odds with the official view his position compels him to maintain. The resulting theological schizophrenia seems to have spilled over into his entire ministry creating the boggy quagmire from which only his retirement can extricate him – but not his church – at the end of this year.

From here:

The Archbishop of Canterbury made a humiliating apology to the Church of England yesterday for the latest fiasco over women bishops.

Dr Rowan Williams spoke of ‘penitence’ as the bishops asked the Church’s parliament, the General Synod, for another three months to make up their minds over how to draw up a new law about the place of women.

It would allow women priests to be promoted for the first time to the leadership ranks of the bishops. It has already taken the CofE 12 years of agonising to get to the brink of consecrating its first woman bishop.

But yesterday the Synod voted for another delay after Dr Williams admitted that, together with his fellow bishops, he had badly misjudged an attempt at a compromise.

Supporters of women bishops were so angry that they were poised to vote down the new Church law.

The other Rowan Williams

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TEC, the  organisation that will tolerate anything except disagreement, is disciplining bishops for saying what they think, the Archbishop of Canterbury has declared that the Church of England is looking into the abyss, gay priests are out and transgendered priests are in, but the real Anglican news of the week is that there are two Rowan Williams (or should that be Rowan Williamses or Rowans Williams?).

The gender variant needs to work on those eyebrows if she expects anyone to take her seriously.

 

From here:

Meanwhile, Dr Williams has been revealed to have a female namesake. She is the Reverend Rowan Williams, who is chaplain at the University of York.

She was photographed chatting to General Synod members yesterday as they gathered in the grounds of the university.

 

Rowan Williams tells the Queen what she needs to be saved from

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Corporate greed, environmental contamination, the fear of strangers, contempt for the unsuccessful and “many more things”, except hell, of course.

And what will do the saving? Nothing supernatural, just “a whole community rejoicing together – being glad of each other’s happiness and safety”.

I can’t understand why Rowan, while he had the attention of such an august audience, didn’t make the most of it and deliver a lecture on the merits of Sharia law; he’s going soft.

From here:

He said: ‘Moralists, including Archbishops, can thunder away as much as they like; but they’ll make no difference unless and until people see that there is something transforming and exhilarating about the prospect of a whole community rejoicing together – being glad of each other’s happiness and safety.

‘This alone is what will save us from the traps of ludicrous financial greed, of environmental recklessness, of collective fear of strangers and collective contempt for the unsuccessful and marginal – and many more things that we see far too much of, around us and within us.’

 

Rowan Williams on how to assert yourself

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Wear a veil!

In preparation for his new job as Master of Magdalene College Cambridge, Rowan Williams continues to hone his prodigious talent for saying daft things by declaring that wearing a veil helps Muslim women assert themselves. As everyone knows, Muslim men delight in having assertive wives; that’s why they force them to wear a veil.

From here:

THE OUTGOING Archbishop of Canterbury has shown he will not leave quietly after he reopened the debate over the veil by insisting that the controversial garment can help Muslim women “assert themselves”.

Dr Rowan Williams has questioned the view that women hide behind their veils and warned against “what we sometimes think of wrongly as stereotypes”.

 

Is Rowan Williams making marginally more sense after his retirement announcement?

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From here:

Is Rowan Williams doing a George Carey? It’s been noticeable how Dr Carey obviously felt more able to speak his mind on controversial issues once he had retired. Since Rowan announced his retirement last week, he too has lost no time in addressing matters in public life more firmly and certainly with more clarity than usual. In fact, in the space of a week, this self-confessed “hairy Lefty” seems to have ditched many of the Left’s shibboleths and prejudices – “diversity,” for one.

Dr Williams said yesterday that “identity” has become a “slippery” word. He added, “Identity politics, whether it is the politics of feminism, whether it is the politics of ethnic minorities or the politics of sexual minorities, has been a very important part of the last ten or twenty years.”

He now thinks, “We are beginning to see the pendulum swinging back… and we have to have some way of putting it all back together and discovering what is good for all of us.”

Rowan may say the opposite next week, of course and he is still sticking by his pronouncement that “adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion” in the UK, so one shouldn’t set one’s hopes too high.

Another heartfelt response to Rowan Williams’ retirement

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From here:

Good riddance to Dr Williams.

So the Archbishop of Canterbury, has finally announced his resignation. I believe the operative word is “Hallelujah”. I have long felt that the incumbent of this illustrious office has been what we nowadays call a “waste of space”. An airy-fairy academic out of touch with the feelings of common folk and a spouter of politically correct twaddle, a man of zero leadership qualities at a time when we require strong direction from the head of this country’s official religious establishment. Under Dr Rowan Williams’ watch the British have been in danger of utterly devaluing their ancient Judaeo-Christian tradition, which would have been tragic for both the religious and secular alike.

Poor Rowan Williams: he tried to please everyone – or, perhaps more accurately, tried to upset no-one, and, in doing so, earned almost universal opprobrium. Those who said kind things about his efforts, did so because they are his friends and even they struggled to find something good to say about Dr. Williams’ ten year quest to find unity through incoherent indaba babbling.

From a Canadian perspective, not only did he not protest at the deposing of one of the world’s most respected evangelical theologians, Dr. J. I. Packer, but his refusal to grant even a sliver of recognition to ACNA and ANiC effectively scuttled any attempt by ANiC parishioners to hang on to their buildings. The legal argument that crushed ANiC’s chances went along these lines:

  • Anglican church buildings are held in trust for Anglicans to use as places of worship.
  • The Anglican Church of Canada has strayed from being Anglican as defined by the Solemn Declaration of 1893.
  • ANiC members hold to the Anglicanism of the Solemn Declaration and, therefore, are the true Anglicans for which the buildings are intended.

Counter argument:

  • Anglican theology is not static.
  • The Anglican Church of Canada is the only recognised Anglican organisation in Canada – recognised by Lambeth and the Archbishop of Canterbury, that is.
  • The Anglican Church of Canada must, therefore, define what is “Anglican”.
  • The Anglican Church of Canada gets the buildings because the buildings are for the use of Anglicans.

Admittedly, those of us in ANiC, including the lawyers – especially the lawyers, perhaps – who thought it might have gone otherwise exhibited a superficially charming other-world naïvety, but, ultimately, it was Rowan Williams who delivered the coup de grâce to any possibility of success.

Good riddance.

Rowan Williams admits he is “not always very good with words”

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Who knew?

To reinforce the point, he went on to note that when he met Richard Dawkins in the recent debate at the Sheldonian, it was “the same sort of experience [as] last October when I went to meet President Mugabe.”

I’m sure Robert Mugabe will be cut to the quick by this comparison.

From here:

Dr Rowan Williams said that he struggled with nerves before squaring up to the man nicknamed the “high priest of atheism” over the existence of God and asked friends and supporters to pray for him during the encounter.

He added that, despite having a grasp of 11 languages, been an Oxford professor and the leader of 77 million Anglicans worldwide, he was “not always very good with words”.

Speaking during a visit to Springfield Church in Wallington Surrey on Sunday he was asked about his recent debate at Oxford University with Prof Dawkins about the origins of life which captured attention around the world.

“I was quite nervous about hat really because I never feel I’m at my best in debates, you have to be quick on your feet and clever and slick and I always feel anxious about that.

“I want to think about what I say and I’m not always very good with words.”

He added: “I had the same sort of experience last October when I went to meet President Mugabe.

 

 

Rowan Williams discusses his retirement

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It seems that he stands by what he said about sharia law; the real problem is not that sharia law is inherently barbaric, but that the word “sharia” is very “emotive”. And it doesn’t mean what a judge in Saudi Arabia thinks it means, apparently: obviously, in the UK, “sharia law” means what the Archbishop of Canterbury thinks it means.

Rowan Williams to resign in 2012

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From here:

The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is to resign and return to academia as master of Magdalene college, Cambridge.

Williams, 61, will leave at the end of December in time to start his new role next January.

His time in office has been marked by a slowly growing schism in the worldwide Anglican church, which he has failed to heal. Williams has been attacked by conservatives for his liberal views on homosexuality and by liberals for failing to live up to these principles.

It’s hard to see Rowan Williams’ tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury as anything other than an unmitigated disaster: from unproductive indaba groups to foolish remarks about sharia law and now to the failed Anglican Covenant it has all been confusion and chaos. The archbishop’s attempts to find middle ground on the issues tearing the communion apart – similar to the middle ground that he has had to find between his personal beliefs and those his office requires of him – were doomed to failure from the start because there is no middle ground.

We can only hope that his successor has what it takes to stand up for what is right and good in Anglicanism; even if he does, I fear it may be too late to undo the damage that has been wrought over the last nine years.