A searing new book about the state of the Anglican Church from its most gifted right-wing enfant terrible.
Edward Norman is the scourge of the liberal establishment, which still dominates the Church of England. He has one of the sharpest minds of all the commentators on the current religious scene and he writes passionately about areas in which others fear to tread. Unfashionably, in this new book, he writes extensively about authority, the deposit of faith, and tradition.
In this book he expands further on the lecture he gave at the Lambeth Conference in 1998 when he addressed bishops on the nature of authority in the Anglican Communion. God, he argues, provided a structured order in human relationships in order to coerce his people into a condition in which moral life can be pursued.
Norman writes in the first place as an historian. He is a former Reith Lecturer, fellow of Peterhouse Cambridge and now Professor of History at the University of York. He argues vigorously against disestablishment as he has observed the terrible lessons from history of the de-consecration of the State, the public recognition that its purpose resides almost solely in relation to the material welfare of its citizens. Thus, in this new book he also pursues further themes that he set out in his previous book Secularization (Continuum 2002).
In all these current issues he sends out a clarion call against the reductionism of intellectually woolly liberals. This is a book that will delight people and enrage them in equal measure. But it will certainly be widely noticed and bought.
