Smarmy Old Guy Visits VTS I Get Picture

Yeah, so a couple of weeks back--for some reason that I still can't quite figure out--VTS was host to Lord Richard Harries, Baron of Pentregarth and recently retired Bishop of Oxford. He met with about 20 or so of us after lunch (we had chili and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch that day--he didn't know quite what to make of it I think, I tried not to laugh).

He had a question for us and we spent the whole hour of his time with us discussing the three part question:

What is the theological starting point for speaking into the public domain--both specific and general starting points; and what language does one use from the pulpit, "Christ language" or public-reasoning language?

In the end I don't think we ever really answered his question straight on. However he did have some interesting points. Here is one set of logic he expounded to us...

The kingdom of God impacts directly into both our public and private lives. In fact, the kingdom of God still bears on every aspect of life and our Christian understanding...children of light and children of darkness. We are made in the image of God, but are also capable of God's "great image". We are made in the image of Christ, but also are the cruicifiers of Christ. "Love our crooked neighbors with all our crooked hearts"--W.H. Auden. I've done a poor job of paraphrasing so it makes sense...but you get the general idea.

So that was fun. In the end he was very down-to-earth, loves Reinhold Niebuhr somethin' fierce and was generally good fun. I would have enjoyed hearing him preach, bet he would have been "the whip".