IN RECENT YEARS, the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts has invited a number of critics of religion to speak. Writers such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have railed against faith before largely approving audiences.
Peter Florence, the festival director, confessed that the event had become a “bastion of anti-theism”, to the extent that it had established a new orthodoxy.
This year, by way of redressing the balance, he invited the “brightest and best” that religion had to offer. As part of this project, the festival hosted the presentation of the Michael Ramsey Prize for Theo logical Writing (Books, 22 May), and on the day that it did so it was possible to find someone speaking about God or faith in every time-slot.
Hay’s new openness to people of faith began with a lecture from Andrew Mottram, the director of Ecclesiastical Property Solutions, on the part played by church buildings in the community today. But the first big crowd of the day — indeed, so big that the venue was switched — went to the Archbishop of Canter bury, who discussed his book on Dostoevsky with A. N. Wilson.
Dostoevsky was a “hairy maniac”, Dr Williams said, and described himself as a “polite Anglican” in comparison. But, Dr Williams went on, despite the Russian author’s personal religious dogmatism, his novels do not “load the dice” in favour of Christianity, but give serious credence to the view that faith is unnecessary and unhelpful. “The Devil gets some good tunes” in his books, even if he is convinced that religion will always be relevant.
Mr Wilson pointed out that Dr Williams’s ability to discuss liter ature was a historical rarity among Primates. But the Archbishop went on to say that words were not always the best tool for understanding God.
When asked what the Church would look like if it took God seriously, Dr Williams expressed frustration at having to deal with “institutional fire-fighting” rather than being able to concentrate on answers. When he had time to think about it, however, he began to real ise that the Church talked too much. If it could learn the value of silence, it would be closer to “getting God right” than when it was being endlessly chatty.
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http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=76181
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