Doubts and Loves: What is Left of Christianity

In conversation with a life-long friend, Dr. Eugene McAfee, I learned that a retired Episcopal bishop was identified with the parish he had served, namely, St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. His name is Richard Holloway and he is the mentor of John Shelby Spong. My friend suggested that I should read some of his writings and I chose "Doubts and Loves: What Is Left of Christianity." I hadn't even finished reading the "preface" before his observations lay hold of me. "It is tragic," he wrote, "that the religion that grew round the remembrance of Jesus of Nazareth should have become the vehicle of such hatred and intolerance." This book was written in order to contribute to "the task of constructing a new understanding of Christianity for our time." So there was no escape -- I had to read it! His contribution is potent! Holloway's determination to "rebuild the ruins" of Christianity and to express the old in new terms is helpful. Some chapter titles demonstrate what I mean. "Blaming Eve" (original sin), "Heart of Darkness" (hell), "Get Out of Jail Free" (justification) and "The Big Bang" (resurrection) are fresh interpretations of the old. But he is at his best when he constructs a new vision. He writes, "There has always been a theology of life that emphasised the goodness of creation, rather than its fallen state, and the fact that God chose to dwell in its midst and taste its bitter-sweet joys." His book calls us to courageous action against all that spoils the joy of life and the sacredness of creation. Another reviewer called this book a work of "blinding sincerity." What better way to commend this book to you than to underline that comment? Read it and profit from his insights!

It wasn't long after the Resurrection that followers of Jesus split into factions, each claiming absolute truth and demanding absolute power over religious belief. That power struggle continues and thrives today, even though it is entirely antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Bishop Holloway makes a brilliant case for putting what Jesus taught and God requires ahead of our human lust for religious dominance. What a breath of fresh air!

Richard Holloway writes a very compassionate and air-tight case for dragging Christianity kicking and screaming into the modern world. Holloway recently stood down as Bishop of Edinburgh, but he has not forgotten all that he has experienced as one of the most outspoken and best-loved figures in the modern church. I believe this book is another of his many attempts to get religion back on the right track. And, it was a natural to pick this up after reading his last book, Godless Morality.In this book, Holloway successfully argues that Christians must reclaim the spirit of Jesus that: challenges tyrannous absolutes, the angry pity and endless challenge of social hope, and the incredible capacity for forgiveness. These three elements are what remain of a Christianity that is of use to the modern human enterprise. The conclusion Holloway reaches about why he wrote this book is that: "a liberating truth underlies it. I have come to believe passionately that we should treat a belief as a 'habit of action' rather than as an accurate representation of metaphysical reality, to quote Charles Sanders Peirce." This pragmatic approach to Christianity allows for a world view that is lest dogmatic, violent, and judgmental. It is refreshing to say the least. There are, I think, many of us - Christians or other faiths or even non-believers - who will applaud Holloway's conclusion that even though it is a bit late to have discovered it, there is still time to dismantle all the judgmental and hateful words we have built for Christ and simply tried to follow him, preferably in silence. AMEN.

A sweeping generalization, but true none-the-less, is that Christians are locked in a theological view absent of metaphor. Even Christians who have chosen the cafeteria style of picking and choosing in the aisle of moral considerations are locked into fundamental beliefs vis a vis dogma, and those beliefs promote anxiety rather than life. The more-or-less progressive brethren have abandoned Creationism for evolution, but still struggle with the virgin birth, resurrection, loaves and fishes, body and blood, and etc. In "Doubts and Loves: What is Left of Christianity," Richard Holloway offers a reasoned approach that relieves dogma of the weight of institutional politics and survival, and presents a much more robust approach to Christianity. The approach isn't new, but it is presented in an intelligent, heart-felt, and easily readable style that I found quite appealing. Richard Holloway does not subvert the beauty and worth of Christianity. He preaches "orthopraxis," rather than "orthodoxy," and gives new life to faith. I recommend this book as a fresh way to approach the mysteries, and as a breath of fresh air in the musty cellars of Christian thought.

John Spong often likes to claim Richard Holloway as his mentor. Actually the two retired bishops are not even in the same league. Spong recycles ideas familiar to anyone who has studied theology; Holloway is an original thinker who is not afraid to ask new and difficult questions and feels no need to find easy answers.Holloway realizes that although God is eternal and unchanging, humans are not. We learn and grow and change, and so does the world we inhabit. The assumptions that used to drive the Christian church - that everyone was or should be Christian, that the church was essential to the life of every decent person, that all humanity must be converted to Christianity to save countless souls from the torments of hell - no longer seem tenable. Religion simply doesn't matter to the majority of the inhabitants of Europe and North America; Christianity is irrelevant. And this may be a good thing.Holloway believes that the only important contribution the Christian faith can make to our world today is to teach us how to live. A Christian is someone who dares to attempt to live like the penniless, powerless Galilean peasant who suffered and died for his God 2000 years ago. Christianity calls us to a life of risk and powerlessness, not a life of self-righteous justification. The faith will survive, but not with all its certainties intact.