Friday, September 11, 2009

Archbishop of Canterbury laments loss of Christian knowledge


I was watching the Jeopardy College Championship the other night and noticed the last category picked was "Bible" and only one question was answered correctly.

From The London Times-

The Archbishop of Canterbury has blamed education and pluralism for Britain's loss of Christian culture. He said the Church does still have its foot in the door but the foot is being 'squashed very painfully'. Writers in the past such as PG Wodehouse could assume knowledge in the reader of the Bible and Hymns Ancient & Modern. No longer. 'It's all gone, gone because of shifting patterns of education not just religious education, it's gone because of a much more anxious awareness of a plural society and not wanting to privilege one religious tradition over another. What to do about it? I'm not sure I have a quick answer. The good side of it is that if not everybody knows it the story isn't necessarily boringly familiar.'


The Archbishop was speaking at a Christian 'gathering', a new form of community meeting that seems to be gaining ascendancy. There was one such last Friday at Canterbury, where the sell-out event was Private Eye editor Ian Hislop in conversation with Dr Williams.

More here-

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2009/09/rowan-williams-and-ian-hislop.html

No comments: