Tom Wright is doubtless a clever fellow and a respected theologian; like many theologians, though, when it comes to politics he exhibits a characteristic naivety:
The one thing we must not do is try to rebuild the modern ‘home’ in the same form. The Western economic systems have provided riches for the few and poverty for the many, locally and especially globally. Governments that can bale out rich banks and businesses are refusing to do the same for entire nations that have been rendered poor, and often homeless, by the systems which have made us rich in the first place. The usual excuses against debt remission (‘they were irresponsible; they must learn to pay their bills; they were led by corrupt fraudsters’) are now laughably hollow. Our western institutions have behaved no better.
Tom obviously doesn’t think much of capitalism; he appears to want to throw it out and start again. Western economic systems are suffering the consequences of having the underpinning ethical principles of Christianity ripped from under them. This is the real cause of our current financial crisis: self-interest unmolested by any sense of right and wrong. Contrary to what Tom Wright claims, Western economic systems are the only ones that have consistently produced wealth for all who are a part of them. If the bishop of Durham really wants to help, he could start by persuading his friend Rowan to stand up for the truth of the Gospel instead of joining him in whining about how naughty the banks have been.
Banks are run by people; Jer. 17:9 (The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?) applies to bankers just as it does to everyone else; Jesus came to free us from such wickedness. It’s a bishop’s job to remind us of that not to reform institutions; making more Christian bankers is a better bet for a bishop than this compulsive diagnosing of problems in areas where he has no expertise.
The utopia that Tom appears to be seeking is one that will only arrive with the eschaton; all human attempts to establish an early version have resulted in an earthly hell. I doubt that the efforts of this politician-manqué would fare much better.
Tom, if you want things to improve, forget the politics and get on with the really important job of making disciples.
May I suggest that Tom Wright’s theology was actually informing his Politics and that his Politics is all about making disciples and living the Gospel of Jesus.
It is a Secularist that argues that theology should not speak into the world of Politics. It was Jesus whom spoke from day one of his Ministry into the world of Politics and anyone who has read Tom Wright’s work would know that in his study of history and of Jesus he has demonstrated that Jesus was a Political figure. So if Jesus was shouldn’t Christians be?
Stephen,
Yes, I think Tom Wright does see it as his theology informing his politics. However, to define politics as making disciples and living the Gospel of Jesus is, I think, way off the mark.
Politics is about the exercise of earthly power, something that Jesus specifically refused to do. It is a temptation that bishops seem to have a harder time resisting.
While I think it is legitimate for clergy – just as anyone else – to comment on social issues, the implication that a particular political slant naturally flows from a Christian perspective is quite wrong. If it were not, all Christians would have the same politics, and obviously they don’t. After all, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are – or were – all Christians.