{"id":114190,"date":"2022-07-27T17:36:27","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T21:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=114190"},"modified":"2022-07-27T18:39:08","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T22:39:08","slug":"psephizo-should-the-church-of-england-disestablish-an-interview-with-jonathan-chaplin-author-of-beyond-establishment-resetting-church-state-relations-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=114190","title":{"rendered":"(Psephizo) Should the Church of England disestablish? An interview with Jonathan Chaplin, author of Beyond Establishment: Resetting Church State Relations in England"},"content":{"rendered":"

IP: I really enjoyed this book\u2014your crisp and clear style, extremely well researched and informed, and with some nice touches of dry humour. But as you say, you are not the first person to make this argument. You make particular note of Colin Buchanan\u2019s Cut the Connection\u2014but I am not sure he persuaded many people. Why will the case you make do better?<\/strong><\/p>\n

JC: Thank you. There\u2019s no knowing whether it will do any better at all (there\u2019s a short summary here). And Buchanan was a bishop whereas I\u2019m a mere lay academic. But you yourself well understand how important it is to keep making arguments you are convinced are true and good for the Church even when you change few minds! Buchanan\u2019s book appeared in 1994 and is still eminently worth reading, but let me note two ways I think mine goes beyond it. <\/p>\n

One of my core arguments is also central to Cut the Connection, namely that even the surviving remnants of Establishment amount to distracting curtailments on the spiritual autonomy of the Church. I echo Buchanan\u2019s call for the Church to become more aware of its remaining captivity to improper constitutional ties to the state. But I couple that with a wider argument from political theology for a religiously impartial state, and I derive both from a New Testament theology of \u2018church and state\u2019, spelled out in detail in Chapter 2 (\u2018A Theology of Disestablishment\u2019). Buchanan\u2019s book does not purport to offer any extended theological arguments, so I think mine complements his in this regard. I hope Anglicans can still be persuaded by theological arguments, or at least provoked to try to rebut them theologically and not only pragmatically. There certainly are pro-Establishment theologians who could give these core arguments a good going over, and I hope they will.<\/p>\n

The other way in which I think my book goes beyond Buchanan\u2019s is that I devote two chapters (5 and 6) to disputing the three arguments most frequently wheeled out in defence of Establishment. The first is the \u2018concession to secularism\u2019 argument (picked up below). The second is the \u2018anti-neutrality\u2019 argument: that disestablishment would only usher in some less desirable, privileged public worldview, such as secular liberalism. I argue that one can maintain a religiously impartial state without necessarily allowing any other worldview to rush in to fill the supposed vacuum.<\/p>\n

The third is that disestablishment would amount to an abandonment of the Church\u2019s historic \u2018national mission\u2019. This comes in two parts. The first warns of a retreat from the Church\u2019s pastoral openness to all comers, and a (further) lapse into \u2018congregationalism\u2019 and \u2018sectarianism\u2019. I deconstruct these loaded, polemical and frankly partisan terms and show that disestablishment need not feed either of them (or, if it does, it\u2019s no business of state law to prevent that). Disestablishment would not prevent the Church from remaining as pastorally open to all comers as it wished, but only secure elements of its spiritual autonomy that current arrangements compromise. <\/p>\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Cannot recommend reading Jonathan Chaplin enough. He\u2019s like a Tim Keller & NT Wright all wrapped up in one – he teaches at Cambridge- one of the best conversations ever had on God, church & the moment we find ourselves in – his clarity of thought is brilliant pic.twitter.com\/FFUyaXCsJo<\/a><\/p>\n

— Bob Roberts Jr. \u0646 (@bobrobertsjr) July 10, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n