RADICAL CHRISTIAN VOICES AND PRACTICE This page intentionally left blank RADICAL CHRISTIAN VOICES AND PRACTICE Essays in Honour of Christopher Rowland Edited by ZOË BENNETT AND DAVID B. GOWLER 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #OxfordUniversityPress2012 ScripturequotationsarefromtheNewRevisedStandardVersionoftheBible #1989bytheNationalCounciloftheChurchesofChristintheUSA. Usedbypermission.Allrightsreserved. Themoralrightsoftheauthorshavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2012 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby MPGBooksGroup,BodminandKing’sLynn ISBN 978–0–19–959977–6 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Foreword Alan Kreider Action and all—these words are often missing in academy and church. Scholars privilege thought, for that is their métier; church leaders craft words, necessary for public worship. Pondering and polishing, both scholars and church leaders tend to defer action, or urge others to act or not to act. Actionisoptional.Theydevotetheirattentiontothefewwhoareimportant, buttheyexpectlittlefromtheall,towhomtheyoftenpaylittleattention. Christopher Rowland as scholar and churchman repudiates these tenden- cies.God’sSpirit,Chrisinsists,empowersallChristiansforactivediscipleship of Jesus. So the witness of all Christians—especially groups that have been diminished and marginalized—is valuable testimony to the voice of God. Chriswantstolistentothem,learnfromthem,andjointheminaction. How did Chris arrive at these views? Perhaps through coming from Don- caster, a working-class city in the north of England. Possibly through strug- gling with deafness, which has given him the experience of marginalization. Certainly through his academic researches into apocalyptic—through which hecametoseethewrithingworldunveiled,andalsotolongforaworldmade new. Definitely through repeated visits to Brazil and inner-city England, where he encountered liberation theologians and urban practitioners. And not least through his deep sensitivity to the mediated insights of artists, musicians,andpoets. As Dean Ireland’s Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at Oxford University,Chrishasdevelopedhisinsightsandexploredthemwithstudents. His academic horizons have kept broadening, as he has explored new dis- ciplines and encountered radical individuals and groups that most scholars find uninteresting—first-century Jewish mystics, John the Revelator, six- teenth-century Anabaptists, Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers, William Blake,thePanaceaSociety.AshisstudentsseeChrisengagingtheseunimpor- tant people as kindred spirits, they also observe thatit is possible to read the biblical texts from the point of view of marginalized people—demoniacs, women,lepers.InhisaudaciousInauguralLectureasDeanIreland’sProfessor in1992,ChrisjoinedJesusinrejoicingthatGodhas‘hiddenthesethingsfrom the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants’ (Matt. 11:25;Rowland, 1993), and in his teaching he invites his students to have the same mind. StudentsfindthatChrislistenstothemcarefully,pushesthemintounexplored terrain, urges them to find their own voices, and invites them to collaborate vi Foreword with him in learning and even at times in writing. A surprising number of Chris’sstudentshavebecomehisfriends.Severaloftheseareamongtheseven scholarswhohaveco-authoredbookswithChris. Committed to action, Chris has struggled with institutions. He has been critical of university and church, intensely aware that both need a ‘change of heart and practice’ (Rowland, 1999). But he has been restlessly patient with both,servingonfacultyboardsanddiocesanmissioncommittees,andpresid- ing at eight-o’clock Sunday Eucharists in his parish. His action has involved him in a variety of campaigns, and led him to assign royalties to Christian Aid. His concern for good listening has also led him to train himself and othersinmediationtechniquessothattheconflictsthatinevitablyarisecanbe productive. MyownencounterwithChrisillustrateshiswayofworking.Almosttwenty- five years ago, Chris phoned the London Mennonite Centre, of which I was then director; he wanted to learn about the Anabaptists. This surprised us. After all, historian G. R. Elton had recently stated that Anabaptists ‘appeal to ... the intellectually unenterprising’ (1973, p. 856)—but Chris wanted to talk, stayed for hours, and left with a stack ofbooks. Later we invited him to preachatoursmallMennonitechurch,andheenthralleduswiththerelevance ofapocalyptic.Aftertheservice,heandhiswifeCatherinejoinedusforlunch, and we found it impossible to persuade him not to wash the dishes! We watched as Chris used a story from the Anabaptist Martyrs Mirror in his inaugural, and were grateful as he pointed the nascent Anabaptist Network towardsstory-tellingratherthanprinciplesasitsmodusoperandi(2000).Chris and Catherine became friends of my wife Eleanor and myself, supporting us throughtimesbothtroubledandgood,sharinginsightaswellassolidarity.We haveenjoyedthestuffoffriendship:rambles,mountainphotography,football, andJ.S.Bach.ThroughusChrismetHansDenck,anAnabaptisttheologian whogavehimthephrase‘NoonecantrulyknowChristunlesshefollowhim withhislife’(Denck,1991,p.113).ThroughChriswegainedinsightintothe witnessofothermarginalgroupsandtheweaknessesinherentinourattimes rule-riddenapproachtotheChristianlife.‘Theletterkills,’thundersChris,oris itPaul(2Cor.3:6)? Action is the life of all wonderfully demonstrates the fruits of Chris’s thoughtandthestrengthsofhisrelationships.Iamsurethateverycontributor has stories like mine, reflecting ways they have learned from him and colla- boratedwithhim.Withhimtheyhavediscoverednewtruthsonthemargins and new understandings of the God who is impatient with talk. The authors andChris,Ibelieve,wouldjoinmeinfindingthatDorothyDay,thefounder of the Catholic Worker, both sums up this book and unsettles its readers: ‘Ihavelongsincecometobelievethatpeoplenevermeanhalfofwhattheysay, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions’ (1952, p.107). Foreword vii REFERENCES Day,D.,1952.Thelongloneliness.NewYork:Harper. Denck, H., 1991. Whether God is the cause of evil. In: C. Bauman, ed. The spiritual legacyofHansDenck.Leiden:Brill,pp.78–117. Elton,G.R.,1973.ReviewofC.-P.Clasen,Anabaptism:Asocialhistory,andI.Horst, TheRadicalBrethren.EnglishHistoricalReview88,pp.853–6. Rowland, C., 1993. ‘Open thy mouth for the dumb’: A task for the exegete of Holy Scripture.BiblicalInterpretation1(2),pp.228–45. Rowland, C., 1999. Introduction. In: C. Rowland, ed. The Cambridge companion to liberationtheology.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,pp.1–16. Rowland, C., 2000. The return of an Anabaptist voice: Listening to the stories. In: A.KreiderandS.Murray,eds.Cominghome:StoriesofAnabaptistsinBritainand Ireland.Kitchener,ON:Pandora,pp.145–56. Preface Zoë Bennett and David B. Gowler IthasbeenaprivilegeandadelighttoeditthisbookinhonourofChristopher Rowland. We hope that it not only honours him, but is in its own way a witnesstowhathemostdeeplybelieves,andistherebyapocketofresistance againstreligiontoomuchateasewithitself.Itisagifttohim,notonlyfromus theeditors,butfromeverypersonwhohascontributed.Wethankthem—for theirinstantreadyandjoyfulacceptanceofthechancetohonouramananda scholar they love and admire—and more latterly for their good-hearted enduringofeditorialpersecution. We also thank Chris for being the catalyst for the editors to have worked togetheronthisproject.Wedidnotknoweachotherbeforethis,and,todate, havenotyetmetinperson,buthavegrownasfriendsandcolleaguesthrough thepasttwoyearsofcountlessemailsandlengthySkypecallsaswecreatedthe vision for this volume, deliberated over ‘minute details and particulars’, and worked diligently—but with much joy and laughter—to bring this volume togethertohonourChrisappropriately. TorecallourfirstmeetingswithChrisallowsustocelebratewhataspecial teacher,scholar,friend,andhumanbeingheis. ‘ItaughtSpottowhistle’,readsthecartooninmy(Zoë’s)study.‘Buthecan’t whistle!’‘Ididn’tsayhe’dlearned, Isaid Itaughthim.’ Bycontrast, fromthe Study Day for Anglican Lay Readers at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, in the late 1980swhenIfirstencounteredChris—tohissupervisionofmyMPhildisser- tation—and his later colleagueship and collaboration in academic projects, Chris has been unfailingly more interested in what I—and a thousand others—have learnt, than in his own self-aggrandizement as a teacher. What wehavelearnthasoftenchangedourlives.ThroughhimIhavediscoveredthe liberating power of the radical gospel to the marginalized; and through him Ihaveexperiencedtheexhilaratingfreedomofimaginationengagedwiththe Bible. These things have shaped and transformed my teaching, my research, andmypracticeoffaith. I (David) remember standing nervously outside Chris’s office door for the firsttimeatJesusCollege,Cambridge,inOctober1987.Thatdoorwaywasto beaportalformeinmanyways—averylongwayfrommymiddle-classroots inruralIllinoisintheUnitedStates.Theworkduringmyfewmonthsstudying withChriseventuallywaspublished,aptlyenough,inmybookthatfocusedon hospitality.WhatbetterwaytodescribehowChrisimmediatelymademefeel Preface ix athomeandhowheembodiedwhatitmeanttobeateacher,notonlyduring ourtutorialsbutalsointhewayhehostedtheweeklylunchesforhisdoctoral students.ACambridgedonmakingandservingmeteaandofferingmepartof hislunch?Hetaught,andIindeedlearnedfromhisintellectualbrillianceand from his kind and generous heart. In the years since our first meeting, Chris hasbecomemorethanateacherandmentortome;hehasbecomeacolleague; andhe,aswellasCatherine,dearfriends. We thank you, Chris, for your generous friendship. May this book, which comes with love and honour from all who have contributed, be a source of delightandhopetoyou,always.