Now for the deeper comment – Responding to the dominant media narrative that Occupy LSX is a “disaster” for the Church as a result of the troubles at St Paul’s Cathedral, Simon Barrow, co-director of the Christian think-tank Ekklesia, has said, and two English lecturers in theology and politics have written reflective articles on the situation.
Simon Barrow said “Actually, Occupy LSX has also presented an unprecedented (some would say God-given) opportunity for the established Church radically to reconsider its mission and message in a plural society.
“The church needs to seize the chance to move from failing attempts at top-down control based on historic patronage, towards dynamic engagement with those at the grassroots and on the margins of an unequal and uneasy social order.
“The core Christian message is that, in Jesus Christ, God pitched a tent among human beings for the purposes of bringing about radical personal and social change based on love and justice. The ‘vertical church’ of Christendom, emblemized by the remote, patronising and hierarchical response of the St Paul’s management to a flowering of creative protest, is no longer ‘fit for purpose’ in a post-Christendom situation.
“By contrast, Occupy, with its energy and imagination, is modelling a different possibility for the church. The institutions of Christianity need to be remade from the edges inwards. They need to be turned inside out.”
John Milbank is Professor of Religion, Politics and Ethics at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of many books, including the highly influential Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason (Wiley-Blackwell, 2nd edition, 2005) and The Future of Love: Essays in Political Theology (Cascade Books, 2009). He comments at:
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/11/02/3354567.htm
Dr Luke Bretherton is Reader in Theology & Politics and convenor of the Faith and Public Policy Forum at King’s College London. His most recent book is Christianity & Contemporary Politics: The Conditions & Possibilities of Faithful Witness (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), and he is currently writing a book on Christianity, community organizing and democratic citizenship. His comments are on this major evangelical web site:
http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/page.cfm?ID=669