English tacit atheism
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The Elizabethan courtier John Lyly claimed that the English were God’s chosen and peculiar people. Well, if we are, this was certainly a rather peculiar choice on the Almighty’s part, as we are probably the least religious people on Earth.
So says cultural ethnologist Kate Fox in her book “Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behavior.” I’ve wondered about English religious adherence — or the lack thereof — for years. That’s just more of my troublesome Anglophilia acting up again, but then again maybe not. John Mark Reynolds, for one, is of the opinion that America still mirrors English culture, with a time delay of about 50 years.
So it might be portentious that “… In surveys, up to 88 per cent of English people tick the box saying that they ‘belong’ to one or another of the Christian denominations — usually the Church of England — but in practice only about 15 per cent of these ‘Christians’ actually go to church on a regular basis.”
And she lays a share of the blame on the C of E:
It is hard to find anyone who takes the Church of England seriously — even among its own ranks. In 1991, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Carey, said: ‘I see it as an elderly lady, who mutters away to herself in a corner, ignored most of the time’. And this typically Eeyorish comment was in an interview immediately following his appointment to the most exalted position in this Church. If the Archbishop of Canterbury himself likens his church to an irrelevant, senile old biddy, it is hardly surprising that the rest of us feel free to ignore it. Sure enough, in a sermon almost a decade later, he bemoaned the fact that ‘A tacit atheism prevails’. Well, really — what did he expect?
Interesting comment, I thought. This is the problem I have with people wanting only the “nice” Church, the “non-confrontational” Church that stays on the safe side of every argument and out of the way of the political-correctness police. In less time than it takes to say “be ye not conformed,” the Church that has stayed out of the way has begun to make herself comfortable in that nice rocking chair in the corner.
Related posts:
- If England were Orthodox …
- The dishonesty of atheism
- Churches and computer games
- What they think I want to hear
- Fr. Romanides: Imperfect ideological systems
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You know, I wonder if the bankruptcy of the COE (for lack of better term) goes back to the Reformation. As you know, I read a lot of Historical Fiction and recently reading about the Tudors has made me really contemplate how the reformation and how what was unleashed by it really undermined religious belief, and I have to the think the damage was never repaired.
Respectfully, I don’t think you (Mimi) go back far enough. I contend that the Synod of Whitby was where Christians in England (and their progeny) began to go astray.
Father, bless,
That is a very good point. And, the Lollard movement.
Actually, Father, would you expand on why you would argue that the Synod of Whitby would have lead the English astray? Because they came under the orbit of Rome? But, I think that the English strain of resistance to the church is different than others who are in the Roman orbit — Italy or France, for example.
I’d still place the Lollard movement in the line, though, and that definitely predates the Tudor times.
(my first comment was before I really started to think about it)
Ah, yes indeed (– Grace says, trying to appear intelligent while madly bringing up Wikipedia in another window. “Lollard” “Whitby” … you know, I only went to public school!)