Unknowing God – Towards a Post-abusive Theology

Keith Ward's endorsement of this joint series of essays rings true to me: 'a hard hitting, immensely readable, mind expanding plea for a less negative, timid, and oppressive form of religious faith, which should be read by all believers.' This radical book is also endorsed by other distinguished theologians such as Ian Torrance. I am writing this review on the day after the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury following the publication of an independent report on abuse in the Church of England, also a major issue within Catholicism (Harvey is a former Catholic monk). The two essays on this topic are entitled See No Evil (LW) and Safeguarding What? (NPH). The institutional tendency is to close ranks to protect the abusers; Linda writes that 'the same themes are repeated over and over: abuse, disclosure by a few victims and supporters, brush off, cover-up, silence. (p. 73) She refers to the case of Bishop Peter Ball as an example of whistleblowers becoming non-persons. The Church is more concerned with reputational damage, and to lose their self-image as good and holy is to lose their identity. Speaking truth to power is perilous.

Harvey notes that in spite of dramatic changes of direction over sexual abuse, the existing prior structure and its accompanying habits of mind are left in place, along with the expectation of following the norms of the organisational culture of the Church: 'What we have in the church is an abusive power structure, not just particular acts of abuse and cover-up. This is what is so intractable.' (p. 80) It is the same power structure that enforces orthodoxy and conformity by insisting on 'a divinely validated, trans-historical, and universally applicable truth (where there is) a heavy price to pay in terms of repression, exclusion, and denial of personal responsibility.' The authors note that faith 'has nothing to do with passive reception of a set of propositions and rules: it is trust in awareness.' They are therefore suspicious of traditional concepts like an 'omni-god' that gives rise to theodicy and reflects an attempt to tidy up the divine, also by denying the validity of experience. They quote Wilfred Cantwell Smith as saying that 'Faith lies beyond theology, in the hearts of men. Truth lies beyond faith, in the heart of God.' Nor, they point out, has there ever been a Christian consensus on moral matters. The essays as a whole call for a shake-up in theological and philosophical thinking – they ask what still holds up and what has to be discarded - and deserve a wide readership.