Häftad, Engelska, 2024

Church, The Far Right, and The Claim to Christianity

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Beskrivning

In recent years, far-right organisations have invaded mosques across the UK with army-issued Bibles, declaring their actions a 'Christian crusade’. Others have paraded large crosses through Muslim-majority areas, and invaded 'migrant hotels,' harassing residents in their so-called crusade. Far-right appeals to ‘clean up society’, and ‘restore Christian Britain’ can be quite attractive to some Christians. However, what they may fail to appreciate is that this rhetoric may be cynically employed by those whose allegiance and values are quite contrary to Christian ones. Despite all this, the response from official church sources in the UK has been notably subdued, and resources to help churches address hate crimes or racial tensions are scarce. This book aims to fill that void. Bringing together insights from theologians, church practitioners, and leading experts, this volume examines the church's response to the rise of far-right thinking in UK society and explores how it can respond more effectively. With a foreword by David Gushee, this book offers critical and constructive perspectives for the church to confront these challenges.Blogpost: Helen Paynter on Why the church should take the rise in far right rhetoric seriously

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum: 2024-08-30
Mått: 156 x 234 x 13 mm
Vikt: 354 g
Format: Häftad
Språk: Engelska
Antal sidor: 192
Förlag: SCM Press
ISBN: 9780334065494

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Helen Paynter is Director of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence, and Coordinator of Theological Education. She is the author of numerous titles, among them and Telling Terror in Judges 19.Maria Power is a Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford where she a Senior Research Fellow in Human Dignity at the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice.

Recensioner i media

Much has been written on the use of Christian tropes by far-right extremists, from cross burnings going back decades to more recent adoption of Crusader themes by “lone wolf” terrorists. This research is vital, but usually neglects Christian responses to this ongoing appropriation. This too has a venerable history but is rarely addressed; and almost never via a scholarly framework. The Church, the Far Right, and the Claim to Christianity makes clear that churches of all denominations are not without agency in countering this cynical embrace of Christianity. Such a volume is both overdue and massively welcome, particularly in the context of a “post-Christian” Britain – one arguably still coming to terms with just what that entails.In exploring just what such Christian agency entails, and how it might motivate Christian action against far-right appropriations of Christianity, Paynter and Power take direct aim at this fraught subject with great sensitivity and insight. Across a dozen robust chapters addressing this issue, we hear from theologians and clerics, interfaith activists and peacebuilders, scholars and educators. While their findings are varied and nuanced, ranging across timely themes including interfaith collaboration and practitioner experiences, a chorus nevertheless emerges over the course of this edited collection. Its refrain is powerfully captured in the conclusion to this volume: Christians need to face up to the seriousness of this problem, engage in genuine spiritual reflection; and be both ‘bold truth-tellers, standing up unashamedly for the cause of all who are marginalized’ and ‘gracious dialogue partners’ instead of demoni[zing] those we disagree with’. These are wise words in a wise volume, which deserves a wide readership amongst Christians and, indeed, all those concerned about far-right visibility today in Britain – and beyond.

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