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Tuesday, 15 November 2016

Jesus: The Theology of Justin Welby

This post was originally written for SPCK, my employer, but I've tweaked and extended it for my personal blog. Bear it in mind - and that links to books will take you to the SPCK site, so you may like to ignore them. The original can be found here.


Justin Welby, as most people will know, is a wonderfully humble, eloquent and gifted leader who presently serves the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. As a part of the Church in England, but not a member of the Church of England, I'm always interested in what he has to say, and have been listening to him before he was even enthroned. The first time I heard him speak, live, at the Church we were part of in Nottingham, instilled in me a deep sense that this was a man who was very much consumed with a passion for Jesus and an emphasis on proclaiming Christ. I wrote about that, back in 2013, and some of my thoughts made the front page of a Christian newspaper.

Welby is someone who was not particularly well-known, even in church or 'theology' circles, before his translation to Canterbury. Since then, he has tried to tread a nuanced path, on issues around sexuality, and managed to say intelligent things about faith and prayer, even being quoted in the Daily Mail. One thing he hasn't done - probably because is incredibly busy - is, in a written, traditional way, start articulating his theology in a technical sense. I don't personally think this is a problem - he is, after all, the leader of a denomination that has been writing things down for a rather long time - but some people do. 

It is with that in mind that I reproduce, in slightly edited form, something I wrote for work. I work in Digital Marketing for SPCK, the UK's oldest Christian Publisher. What follows was first 'published' there on the 11th of November 2016, and is used with permission. I hope it can be seen as a sustained, if short, reflection on the shape of the theology of Justin Welby, a theology shaped by. and looking a lot like, Jesus.




Recently, a fascinating conversation has been taking place between the Very Revd Professor Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and Dr Adrian Hilton, editor of the blog 'Archbishop Cranmer'. One of the central points of disagreement seems to be in the way that Justin Welby 'does' theology, with an emphasis on 'interesting' things he has said about God.

While there are many ways to measure what someone is doing, as a 'theologian' or not, publishing books of substantive and original content, or contributing  chapters to books, is an important part of that. I enjoy working for SPCK, which is the publisher of choice for both the current and former Archbishop of Canterbury. Justin Welby was effusive in the praise of his predecessor Rowan Williams' Being Disciples, calling it "Quite the most beautiful writing on discipleship I know". At the risk of over-interpreting an endorsement, perhaps Justin is being profoundly influenced by his predecessor, aware of the challenges and opportunities his role affords. It is also worth noting that among the endorsements of that book are Nicky Gumbel of HTB, and Eleanor Mumford of the Vineyard movement, two people/movements that have impacted the present Archbishop of Canterbury in tangible ways, and are (despite their faults) very focused on Jesus, and the urgency of evangelism. I'll probably need to read and review Being Disciples at some point, to see what the fuss is all about.

Previously, in On Rock or Sand? Firm Foundations for Britain's Future, edited by the Archbishop of York John Sentamu, Justin offered some reflections on 'Building the Common Good', drawing on the Christian challenge that we humans are made in the Image of God, and reflecting influences as diverse as Papal Encyclicals by Benedict XVI, Online Business articles, William Temple, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and the parable of the vineyard in Matthew 20:6-7. In the close of his contribution, Justin writes:

"the parable calls us to recognise that the solidarity springs from the Lord of the Vineyard, God, and is experienced and tangible in the person of Jesus Christ, who breaks all barriers between human beings."

This is a profound theological statement about God in Christ. With my personal theological hat on, this is a wonderful expression of the Kingdom of God, a future where barriers are broken by King Jesus. The theology of the Kingdom of God is a hallmark of the Vineyard movement - but has real expression and influence beyond it, including in the Church of England. Naturally, the influence flows two ways.

Founded as a Mission agency of the Church of England, SPCK is rooted in Anglicanism, and a healthy respect for  Scripture and tradition should continue to be a key part of that. Two of the newest books, both publishing later this month, contain contributions by Justin Welby. Both of these, in different ways, offer a theological hint as to the motivation and mission of the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. Those who read my post back in 2013, or my piece for Evangelicals Now, will know that this is a man who is focused on Jesus, not in some abstract way, but in a way that calls the Church outwards and onwards.

In A Good Year, edited by Mark Oakley, Canon of St Pauls Cathedral, Justin contributes a chapter 'on a good Lent'. Here, starting from a personal experience of 'ashing' in a war zone; where the air was thick with "ash without hope, ash without change, ash rising in clouds to call all who saw it to acknowledge human evil but not to promise anything better...", Welby goes on to reflect on the core of the Pastoral Rule of Gregory the Great. This chapter on Lent is deeply Christological, personally spiritual, and focused on an active faith that moves out of reflection and into action. As Justin puts it so well;

"A good Lent starts within us... It comes into the Church and it must be so generously experienced that it overflows into society. We will not really have a good Lent until that chain is complete, and for that we pray, 'may your kingdom come'"

Justin draws together scripture and Spirit, contemplation and action, in a tightly argued and beautifully written chapter. The location of 'a good Lent' amongst the wider contributions of A Good Year is fascinating - and those of us aware of Justin's other passions will note the subtle (or not so subtle!) nod towards the Kingdom Come Prayer initiative that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York are spearheading.

The second piece of writing that Justin has contributed to an SPCK book can be found in Wrestling with the Word: Preaching Tricky Texts, edited by Kate Bruce and Jamie Harrison. In an edited version of a sermon preached by Welby on Ascension Day in 2015, we read a brief homily, again ending with a stirring invitation, that is also a clear theological statement:

"Jesus brought us God - but not as we know it. Our challenge is not to make Jesus fit the God we know, but to realize that God is the Jesus we see"

This is a complex statement - but also a timely articulation of the Incarnation. This is central to the present Archbishop of Canterbury's task, the proclamation and presentation of Jesus, not as we might pretend to know God, but to realize and be obedient to the truth of who Jesus is.

From these three pieces of writing, in different seasons and with different emphases, readers can start to appreciate something of the theology of Justin Welby. The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England make much of the person of Christ, and it is clear to this observer that in Justin Welby we have an Archbishop of Canterbury committed to Article II:

"THE Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took Man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men."

As someone with a deep respect for historic, orthodox Anglicanism, it is deeply encouraging to see Justin standing up for this understanding of Jesus. It is good to see, too, as I will explore briefly in closing, that this is not unrelated to the wider themes of Christian theology, and in particular the ongoing need for that theology to be articulated and moved from word into deed.

In On Rock or Sand, Justin's theological understanding of the Common Good is rooted in Jesus, the perfect image of the invisible God. In A Good Year, focused on Lent and shaped by experience and ashing, Justin's understanding of Christ is shaped in line with the articles, a theological conviction that "Each of us, in Christ, is slaved from slavery to sin and the condemnation that goes with it". Finally, in Wrestling with the Word, through a brief homily on the Ascension (which, as a snapshot of theological practice, is a wonderfully Anglican, tradition-shaped and Scripturally-informed vignette) we see the triumph of the Gospel writ large in an unexpected way.

Justin Welby is gradually articulating an outward-looking, Jesus-focused, prayer-filled theological vision. And he is not doing it alone, but in the company of the wider church, a unity expressed across streams within and without the Church of England, and with the saints who have gone before.

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