…while Hauerwas (following Kaye) argues that the particularity of Jesus of Nazareth becomes universalised across the globe in particular and local ways, the new challenge confronting Christians is that these different particular expressions of Christianity now sit right next to each other, thanks to a virtual 24-hour news cycle. As Anthony Giddens observes, the intensification of modern trans-national relationships is such that “local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away.” Social relations are being “lifted out” out their local contexts and restructured across time and space. Thus a bishop is consecrated in New Hampshire, and immediately an Archbishop in Nigeria responds. An Episcopal election is contested in Tanzania, and bloggers across the globe instantly construct conspiracy theories. When Justin Welby announces that he won’t be attending GAFCON II because he must baptise a new heir to the throne, it quickly becomes an object of scrutiny in Florida.
This reality suggests that the calls to return to a focus on the local parish by Hauerwas and Jensen require considerable modification. When Jensen warns against Christians “talking only to each other and becoming increasingly incomprehensible to those on the outside,” we should imagine this issue not simply as being limited to the Diocese of Sydney and its local community, but recognise that it applies to a much more expansive community “on the outside.” Similarly, when Hauerwas suggests that Christians need to “learn to be where we are,” the image that should come to mind is not of some small country village, but the global village.
If the Anglican Communion is to manage – as Hauerwas (following Kaye) puts it – “to maintain catholicity without Leviathan,” it will only do so after coming to terms with the compression of space and time that has been produced by contemporary patterns of communication and travel.
Nice response. Jeff Boldt also has a sustained reply to Hauerwas/Kaye in the Pro Communion volume.