Rowan’s Rule, to a Catholic like me, suggests something monastic. Indeed, there are several instances where Williams, despite being married and the leading Anglican primate, does seem monk-like, with his devotion to a structured prayer life, a love of study and simplicity. But both the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion have been extremely unruly during his time at the top.
Some of the most interesting material is in Shortt’s account of Williams’s life before Canterbury. As a child, he was prodigiously clever, studious and pious. His parents were Nonconformists but when the 11-year-old Rowan discovered the High Anglican church of All Saints, Oystermouth, above Swansea where they had moved, he persuaded them to forsake their background for the Book of Common Prayer and the Catholic strand of the Church of England. This is not to say he was without the hint of fun and humour which his many friends attest. Nevertheless, he retained an appetite for solitude. He made his way through Cambridge and Oxford as both student and academic, finishing in 1986 as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford, before embarking upon an episcopal career first in Monmouth and later as archbishop of Wales. This account highlights early incidents where Williams seemed too kindly to deal toughly with those causing conflict. Those traits have not helped in Canterbury. Indeed, his seeming ability to see both sides of an argument has sometimes led both parties in a row to think he agrees with them.
Having read Rowan’s Rule a couple of months ago, I would say this is a pretty fair review of a helpful book. I would commend it to those who are determined to fit the ABC into their set of categories and pigeon-holes, because what is clear from the book is that +Rowan cannot be fitted into any of them without a significant distortion of the person that he is.
I found the review a dreary and vague one, avoiding as it did the question of the nature and coherence of its subject’s doctrinal and moral views. But, then, *The Tablet* is the epitome of bien-pensant Liberal Catholicism, and for its acolytes the AbC is probably their beau ideal of a Catholic bishop and pope.
Rowan Williams can understand and communicate with incredible skill. His contribution for example to the work Thomas Merton and Hesychasm “Bread in the Wilderness” was scholarship at its best and also revealed a lot about the the Christ in Dr. Williams. The questions that continually arise for me are his personality and his suitability to lead the Anglican Communion at this time. When he wants to communicate, no one can be more precise. His communications as a leader however for me have been vague and confusing. It is hard for me to say that some of this is perhaps intentional.
No coincidence that the Anglican Communion has been “extremely unruly during his time at the top.”
Williams has neither provided the requisite leadership nor permitted the other Instruments of Unity to do so.
Rowan’s Rule? There are no rules to Anglicanism.