Book Review:
Spirituality and Christian Belief:
Life-Affirming Christianity for Inquiring People
By Keith Ward
Keith Ward has spent a lifetime writing on philosophy and religion from a Christian perspective, and is a renowned expert in this field. In his many works, he has demonstrated an ability to make accessible to lay people with inquiring minds, philosophical and theological concepts and textual interpretations, which have often been the preserve of specialists. In his latest offering, he once again displays this ability, not least by ending each chapter with a succinct and helpful summary of what has gone before. In a little over one hundred pages, he covers a range of topics that theologians and philosophers of religion have often grappled with, when interpreting the meaning and significance of the Judeo-Christian tradition. These include: ‘Religion and Spirituality’, ‘Jesus and the Abrahamic Tradition’, ‘The Bible’, ‘Christian Claims about Jesus’, ‘The Trinity’, ‘Atonement’, ‘The Return of Christ’, ‘Universal Salvation’, ‘God as Cosmic Mind’, ‘Thoughts about The Spiritual Realm’, ‘Cosmotheology’, and ‘God as Creative and Rational’, as well as an impressive concluding chapter on Ward’s thoughts about ‘God and Creativity’.
Ward is a theologian who interprets the Bible in a way that he describes as ‘liberal’. By liberal, he means, ‘to be open to new ideas, to be free to criticize all ideas, but to be absolutely committed to truth, beauty, and goodness, and always to be generous and tolerant and fair when dealing with others’ (p. 3). He is keen to distinguish his liberal approach from one that he describes as, ‘wishy-washy indifference to the Bible and to the traditional Christian teachings’ (p. 3). On the contrary, he asserts that his approach is one that is firmly, ‘rooted in Scripture, tradition and in reason’ (p. 3). As such, it is one that embodies a deep regard for biblical hermeneutics and ecclesiology, whilst also being, ‘informed by welcome developments in science and philosophy’ (p. 3).
One example of Ward’s liberal approach, is the pluralist perspective he takes towards other religious traditions, seeing Christianity as one among many spiritual paths, and believing that Christians should, ‘look for disclosures of Spirit in many different forms throughout the world’ (p. 6). When reading this, I was reminded of the pluralist thinking of John Hick (1), a liberal theologian who has done much to develop out this kind of thinking, and one whom I think Ward might find some favour with.
Ward rejects the view that the Bible is inerrant. He argues that the gospels are to be seen as a collection of texts that offer interpretations of what may have happened back then, and that Christians believe paint a reliable ‘general picture of Jesus’ (p. 15). His interpretation of the resurrection is that it happened in history; however, in some ways similar to the interpretation offered by biblical scholar, Luke Timothy Johnson, (2) he does not think of it as a bodily resuscitation; rather, he believes that - after the crucifixion of Jesus - the disciples, ‘experienced an inner spiritual power, which they identified with the Sacred Spirit of Jesus’ (p. 16). This is an example of why Ward’s perspective on the resurrection might be seen by some Evangelical theologians as being ‘liberal’, when contrasted with their interpretations, which tend to place more weight on the empty tomb narrative and its significance, when interpreting the resurrection accounts. (3) However, in classical Christian theology, the resurrection is not seen as ‘bodily resuscitation’, and so I would argue that Ward’s perspective is the more orthodox one.
Ward offers an interpretation of God as being, ‘[a] cosmic mind, having thoughts, feelings and intentions’ (p. 92). By this he means a God ‘that both includes and transcends our universe of spacetime’ (p. 92); this is in contrast to how some, liberal theologians, have placed more emphasis on God’s immanence than on His transcendence, in their interpretation of God. (4) However, Ward does not believe that by holding to this interpretation of God, Christians should, ‘ignore new scientific truths about the world’ (p.100). On the contrary, Christians should be open to new ways of understanding the world and all that it comprises, including when scientific discoveries might have implications for how they have come to think of the Divine.
Ward also engages with the well-trodden path that Christian theologians and philosophers of religion have often walked, when attempting to explain the presence of natural suffering in the world (that is, human suffering caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and firestorms). For many thinkers, (5) natural suffering is incompatible with a Christian interpretation of God as being all powerful, all knowing, omnipresent and benevolent. Why would a God with these characteristics create so much evil in the world? Ward states: ‘The general biblical attitude is that humans (or angels) are responsible for this evil, not God’ (p. 64). Further, he draws our attention to how the biblical story of Israel is, ‘a story of the disobedience of humanity, and the just punishment of God (p. 64), this being one, Christian attempt at explaining why there is natural suffering in the world. However, Ward also points to how: ‘Jesus taught that we should forgive and love without limit (Matthew 18. 21), and that God cannot do less than that’ (p. 66). For some, the Christian belief in redemption as a path to salvation, will be sufficient to reconcile these statements. However, my reading of Ward’s take on natural suffering in the world, is that he is uncomfortable with an interpretation that is suggestive of it being caused by God, as some form of ‘collective punishment’ for the sins of humanity, albeit with the promise of salvation via repentance, either in this life or in the afterlife. In my opinion, Ward is unable to provide an adequate explanation for the existence of natural suffering in the world, as, from a Christian perspective, there isn’t one. Perhaps the best explanation a Christian can offer, is that a God that is capable of loving without limit, is a God that is not all powerful, and thus one that is not in control of all events.
It should be clear from this review, that I think Ward’s latest book provides a useful educational resource for inquiring people to engage with, whether they are coming to Christian faith for the first time, or have left their faith behind, perhaps believing that modern science has eroded any intellectually credible basis for holding to a belief in a creator God (especially one that is immanent and transcendent and thus beyond purely scientific explanations). As someone who holds to a liberal Catholic interpretation of the Christian tradition, I unhesitatingly welcome this book. At a time when Christianity is in decline in the West, I am of the view that it will enable those who want to share their liberal Christian faith with others, to go about that task with greater confidence and intellectual assurity.
Notes
(1) See J. Hick, God of Many Names: Britain’s New Religious Pluralism (London: Palgrave Macmillan,1980).
(2) See L.T. Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament: Third Edition (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010).
(3) See W.L. Craig, The Son Rises: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus (Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers; Reprint Edition, May, 2001).
(4) For example, John Selby Spong does not believe that God is, in any way, transcendent. See J.S. Spong, A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith is Dying & How a New Faith is Being Born (California: HarperOne, 2009).
(5) See M. Voltaire, Candide, 1759 (Delhi: Grapevine India, 2022).
Author/copyright permissions
Dr Joseph Forde is Honorary Research Fellow in Historical Theology at the Urban Theology Union, Sheffield. He is the author of: ‘Before and Beyond the ‘Big Society’: John Milbank and the Church of England’s Approach to Welfare (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 2022). |
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Book Review |