BOOK REVIEW : The Naked God by Vincent Strudwick

The Naked God by Vincent Strudwick was published by Darton, Longman & Todd in 2017

Part autobiography and part theological history, this book by Vincent Strudwick explores questions around the future direction of the Church of England from a historical context, drawing on the author’s long career as a priest, theologian and teacher and his experience working closely with Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Communion. 

In doing so, like all good autobiographies of well read people, the book has introduced me to a long list of other fascinating texts to investigate and made connections between the few things I do know! Having some links to South Africa I was interested to read about Strudwick’s meeting with Dr Beyers Naude in the 1960’s. Naude was a reforming Moderator of the Dutch Reformed Church who was thrown out for his rejection of apartheid. I was also pleased that the book introduced me to the writings of Esther (Etty) Hillesum. 

 

The title “The Naked God” is derived from the writings of Meister Eckhart. Strudwick sets himself and others who share his outlook as “wrestlers” seeking to cast off the clothes that have been wrapped around our conception of God across the ages, to rediscover the Naked God - like the first disciples who experienced Christ’s life and death at first hand. This allows us to reclothe God in the culture of our own day. Therein, he suggests, lies the calling of the Church.

 

This inherently incarnational approach is what Eckhart described as ‘usbruch’ - the release of God into the every day. The life-blood of this approach to Christian living is God’s grace, which Strudwick describes as “The theoplasm received by those faithfully wrestling and imagining Christ in their lives; whether they recognise his presence as a gift or not.” (p44)

 

Strudwick begins his overview of the history of Christianity by drawing on the writing of the Catholic theologian Christopher Dawson, who has said that each of the six “ages” of the church can be defined by critical moments in the relationship between church and culture. Towards the end of each age there is a rise in those who wish to freeze the church within the social, economic and cultural setting of the time. It is only thanks to the wrestlers of those times that the church is able to break free and reset itself for a new age. Strudwick sees that struggle as being needed again now. 

 

We start with the experience and revelation of Christ to the first disciples and progress through the Roman era when Emperor Constantine’s wish for an orderly and governable society meant sacred texts and creeds became dominant over an experiential basis for the Christian faith. 

 

Strudwick, an expert on Hooker, sees him as a fellow wrestler; Hooker’s writings ensured the Church of England embraced change by ensuring scripture is read alongside reason and tradition; with the Bishops of the church tasked with holding these in tension. 

 

The hugely influential advances of the Victorian Age, whilst ending over one hundred years ago, forms the extent of what Strudwick describes as the “living memory” of the church. The growth of capitalism, individualism and the influence of the market state are still felt today. 

 

It is in this age that some declared “God is dead”. Strudwick points us to Thomas Hardy’s poem “God’s funeral” (set out and analysed in this excellent blog post by John Welford)  as an example of the beginnings of the confusion, void of confidence and lack of direction which still plagues many today;

 

“Too often, Christian faith is presented as believing the impossible in order to practise the unknowable for a goal that is fantasy.” (p20) 

 

The Kingdom theology of William Temple is seen as formative in reverting to a more experiential, incarnational approach to faith - the rebirth of Eckharts ‘usbruch’. Temple and his successors believed the church should be interested and engaged in all aspects of life because God is interested (and alive in) the whole of Creation. With contributions from T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, John Robinson’s ‘Honest to God’, the Faith in the City Report and the foundation of the Church Urban Fund, Strudwick brings us to the Lambeth Conference of 1998 and his take on the breakdown of the Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexuality. 

 

He laments the failure of the Windsor Report on ‘Communion’ published in 2004; noting that many of its recommendations were based on the writings of Hooker, who repeatedly stated that “adiaphora” (those things that are not fundamental to the faith) should not form the basis of schism within fellowship.

 

Finally, Strudwick concludes that a schism is not only necessary but urgent; noting that both sides are at fault in bringing the church to this point. 

 

In contrast to what he describes as the increasing centralisation of the Roman Catholic Church after Vatican II, Strudwick calls for a renewal of localism in the Church of England - seeing hope for renewal within deinstitutionalised structures; and that it is only in a Eucharistic (perhaps rather than denominational) fellowship that we can answer the question “what is the church?” 

 

We need courage, like the first disciples, to launch out into something new; strengthened by our experience of the living God who we need to rediscover afresh in each age. Then we can create the common good we seek. No more “presenting the impossible in order to practise the unknowable for a goal that is fantasy”, but striving towards a possible impossibility. Like Jesus’s parable about taking the camel through the eye of a needle (where the Needle’s Eye is commonly thought to be the name of one of the gates into Jerusalem) (p166).

 

The church can become more kingdom shaped by being “aware of its embodied presence beyond our institutions ans expectations and build bridges of

hope.” (p213)

 

The Naked God by Vincent Strudwick was published by Darton, Longman and Todd I. 2017. I picked up a second hand copy at the excellent Skoob Books in Bloomsbury. 

 

The book inspired the focus of this Start:Stop reflection for Feast of St Alban.