ESL #2: Freedom

During my ESL I've begun catching up on some reading. I have a whole stack of books I've been looking forward to getting stuck into and one of them is Bound to be Free: The Paradox of Freedom by Graham Tomlin. Last summer I spent a very enjoyable day with Graham at Lord's watching the England v South Africa Test Match and he told me something about the latest book he was writing and it resonated with some of my own thinking on the subject of freedom. Here's a video in which Graham describes something of his reflections and introduces the content of the book. At a time when the word freedom is bandied around by so many in the political sphere it's important to reflect on what freedom means for the Christian.
Freedom - Graham Tomlin from St Mellitus College on Vimeo.

Ditching the Redeemer

Yesterday I attended the Consecration of John Wraw as Bishop of Bradwell and Tim Dakin as Bishop of Winchester at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was a great service with a powerful and challenging sermon from Stephen Cottrell the Bishop of Chelmsford. The hymns were traditional and predictable but I didn’t have a problem until it came to the offertory hymn Crown Him With Many Crowns. As we sang the last verse things didn’t seem quite right and my mate Graham Tomlin standing next to me identified the problem; the words of the last verse had been changed. Here’s the original:

Crown Him the Lord of years, the Potentate of time,
Creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime.
All hail, Redeemer, hail! For Thou has died for me;
Thy praise and glory shall not fail throughout eternity.

And here is what replaced it in the service:

Crown Him the Lord of years, the Potentate of time,
Creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime.
Glassed in a sea of light, Where everlasting waves
Reflect his throne – the Infinite! Who lives – and loves – and saves.

So why have we ditched the Redeemer? I can only assume its because the original words smack of an atonement theology the cathedral authorities or whoever drew up the service feel uncomfortable with. If that’s the case then why did we keep the opening verse?

Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne.
Hark! How the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who died for thee,
And hail Him as thy matchless King through all eternity.

I’m getting a bit fed up of all the tinkering going on with hymns at various services I attend. Our own cathedral in Chelmsford changes the lines of In Christ Alone because of the unease with the ‘Wrath of God’ in the original. Apart from it probably being a copyright infringement I can’t help wondering why we sing it if people are uncomfortable with the lyrics.

Looking at the new ending for Crown Him I'm really not sure what it means. The original speaks of Christ being praised for eternity because of all that he has done for us. The new version sounds like a discarded Beatles song from their LSD phase.

Anyway, I’m praying for our new bishop John Wraw and for Tim Dakin as he takes up his ministry in Winchester and I’ll carry on praising the Redeemer and leave others to wallow in the everlasting waves.



Update: I am grateful to the Archdruid for doing some research for me (see comments). It turns out that the last verse we sang is the original version of that verse which has since been amended over the years. The song has a long history, coloured by a bit of catholic / protestant rivalry and there is a brief summary posted here. I still think this version is bordering on the nonsensical and don't know why it was chosen over the much more familiar and I would suggest theologically accessible 'redeemer' version.

the narnia code

I finally managed to watch The Narnia Code which has been sitting on my digibox hard drive since it was broadcast by the BBC in April. The Narnia Code is a fascinating story of the quest to discover a hidden layer of meaning behind C. S. Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles. I found the argument presented very convincing and there is a wonderful elegance to Michael Ward’s thesis that each of the Narnia books corresponds to one of the seven planets in medieval cosmology.

The documentary not only explores the thesis presented in Ward’s book Planet Narnia, but gives a short and insightful biography of Lewis. One of the most interesting aspects of the documentary was the reminder of the breadth and depth of Lewis’ interests and knowledge, as well as his extraordinary intellect. I was left with the conviction that our lives are impoverished by an ignorance of the wide range of sources which informed Lewis’ writings including the Bible and the Classics.

I agree with my friend and colleague Graham Tomlin that this was very good TV and there was something very important identified in the reminder that the why of cosmology is as important as the how.

good God, bad God?

Conference on apologetics and theodicy at St Paul's Hammersmith on 9th May. Speakers include Graham Tomlin and Mike Lloyd two of my colleagues at St. Mellitus College and Alister McGrath who is a visiting professor of the college.

the golden bull

This extraordinary photo was taken on 29th October in Wall Street. It features a goup of people praying for the stock market as they lay hands on the Wall Street golden bull (OK it's really bronze). Now I'm sure I read somewhere in the Old Testament that people praying around such objects was not a good idea (Exodus 32). You can find an explanation for this extraordinary activity here.

For a more considered reflection on the present financial crisis check out the following:
Bishop John Gladwin: 3rd November House of Lords debate.
Revd Dr Graham Tomlin: Thoughts on the financial crisis.