Theology and the arts in Britain since 1945

The visual arts in the Church of England, 1935-56

2011-11-22T16:07:00.001Z

I'm very pleased to be able to say that my article for Studies in Church History 44 (2008) on this topic is now available online in SAS-Space. It tried to catch some of the energy of a small group of critics, artists and clergy who saw a need for renewal in religous art, and thought they knew how to make it happen. Reading it again, five years after first beginning to write it, I'm still quite pleased with it (which one doesn't always find.) As well as my regular subjects George Bell and Walter Hussey, there are appearances for Henry Moore, John Betjeman and Kenneth Clark, amongst others.

A new life of Pevsner

2011-11-01T21:04:00.000Z

This blog can't really ignore a new biography of Pevsner by Susie Harries: a figure both peripheral to its central concern, but to be found everywhere in the background. Reviews have appeared in most of the papers, including the Guardian and by Frances Spalding in the Independent. There is also an extended piece in the TLS by Stefan Collini which doesn't seem to be online as yet.

Puritanism and the ethics of representation

2011-09-08T06:12:00.009+01:00

A happy juxtaposition of two reviews in the same day. Roger Scruton reviews Martin Kemp's From Christ to Coke in Prospect. Not available online is David Hawkes' review article 'Signs of Grace', looking at four new books on the Puritans (TLS, Sept 2).
They are both interesting in different ways on the nature of the 20th century's relationship with the visual image, and both engage with the idea of iconoclasm. For Hawkes, Puritanism is at base an 'ethics of representation', opposing an idolatrous fixation on appearances and a spiritually fatal neglect of underlying essences. The Puritans are worth studying for the critique they would likely have made of contemporary culture on these grounds; and there are overtones of such a critique in Scruton's piece.

James Wood on the New Atheism

2011-09-05T14:04:00.003+01:00

James Wood has been one of the most consistently interesting critics writing about religious themes in contemporary fiction, and I note another very useful essay in the Guardian Saturday Review.

The Compassion Teepee

2011-08-29T08:32:00.006+01:00

Interesting report in the Observer about an art installation in Liverpool, in which the public can leave messages, including many relating to the recent riots. What is most interesting is where it is: in the bombed church of St Luke, destroyed in 1941 and now in the hands of the city council. The church seems to function as an unofficial war memorial, and has a memorial to the victims of the Irish famine in the grounds. I'm interested that a site of memory should be used for the current installation. See the church website for more; on bombed churches in general, see my article on the subject

How to memorialise 9/11 ?

2011-08-24T16:50:00.004+01:00

Interesting article of a few weeks back from Rowan Moore, the Observer's architecture critic, on what it is that is being built at Ground Zero. Although Moore doesn't address the issue directly, there are many artistic assumptions that have to be made if a memorial is to be intelligible; and I wonder how easy that is, in a time of very limited consensus on 'national' art forms and styles.

Church music and evangelical identity

2011-08-24T16:43:00.007+01:00

I'm very pleased to be able to say that Ian Jones' and my article on 'pop' church music and Anglican evangelical identity since 1958 is now live in SAS-Space. It was first published in Mark Smith's edited volume British Evangelical Identities: volume 1 (Paternoster, 2008), which also includes a splendid piece from John Harvey on evangelical material culture.

New miracle plays

2011-04-11T19:47:00.002+01:00

I note with interest a series of contemporary interpretations of the themes of the medieval miracle plays, all this week on Radio 3. Last night it was on the Creation; still to come, the Flood, the Exodus, David and Goliath and Samson and Delilah.

The Rainbow

2011-04-10T07:19:00.002+01:00

I note an interesting essay by Rachel Cusk on D.H. Lawrence's Women and Love and The Rainbow, around the same time as the BBC were screening an adaptation of the two novels. I'm fairly sure that religious historians are not at all finished with Lawrence's curious religion of the sensual, and his treatment of 'religious' characters.

What good are the arts ?

2011-04-05T15:36:00.008+01:00

I note an interesting debate on Radio 3's Night Waves on the history of understandings of what the arts are capable of achieving; a debate that can't entirely avoid the religious nature of that claim until at least the nineteenth century, and arguably beyond. Participants included John Carey, Edith Hall and Jude Kelly. It's available on the iPlayer service.

Another 'Catholic novel'

2011-03-23T21:04:00.000Z

What could be more Catholic than a novel set in Lourdes ? Such is Michael Arditti's latest, Jubilate, which is reviewed in the Telegraph, the Independent, and by Peter Stanford in the Guardian

Donald Bernard

2011-02-28T14:24:00.000Z

The importance of gospel in the development of post-war Christian popular music for worship has occasionally been remarked upon, but seldom documented. In this connection I notice an obituary of Donald Bernard, founding pastor of the first congregation of the New Testament Assembly in 1961; read it in the Guardian.

Romantic Moderns

2011-01-17T09:31:00.001Z

I note several reviews of this recent book by Alexandra Harris: amongst others, Kathryn Hughes in the Guardian, Simon Heffer in the Spectator and Boyd Tonkin in the Independent.

I've yet to read the book, but her tracing of another strand to the usual 'conservative English/modernist continentals' opposition is of some importance in relation to what some within the churches were attempting at the time. The murals at Berwick,, associated with George Bell, are explicitly mentioned by Daisy Hay.

Harris is on the English staff at the University of Liverpool.

Anglo-Catholicism, theology and the arts, 1918-70

2011-01-08T16:29:00.004Z

In 2008 I gave a lecture to the Anglo-Catholic History Society on this topic. Having not published it elsewhere in the meantime, it is now available in SAS-Space. It ventures a parallel interpretation of the trajectories of church engagement with music, religious drama and the visual arts; and of the place of the arts in understandings of the relationship between Christianity and British culture. Read it in SAS-Space.

Frank Kermode

2011-01-02T10:13:00.003Z

Rather belatedly, I note two obituaries of Frank Kermode in the Guardian and Independent. Both pick up on his interest in religious narrative, which issued in the The Literary Guide to the Bible (1987), co-edited with Robert Alter.

Radical carols

2010-12-21T10:06:00.004Z

I note a little ripple of interest in Christmas carols and the recovery of their folk origins and occasionally radical nature. Esther Addley wrote to this effect in the Guardian, and BBC4 followed up with Howard Goodall on Sunday on their 'secret history' (available on the iPlayer for the next five days.)

The church and censorship of the theatre

2010-10-29T20:42:00.004+01:00

I'm delighted to be able to announce that an article of mine on this subject has been accepted for a forthcoming volume of Studies in Church History. There are some revisions to make, but it examines the private correspondence between the archbishops of Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain over stage plays that were received for licensing between 1909 and 1949. Dealing mostly with archbishops Davidson and Lang, it examines the grounds on which the archbishops advised for or against the licensing of plays, and situates the relationship between archbishop and Lord Chamberlain in relation to the peculiar position of Cantuar at the heart of the 'establishment'. It should appear in 2012.

The 'Catholic novel'

2010-10-20T20:00:00.003+01:00

I note a minor flurry of interest from the Guardian in 'Catholic' novelists, around the time of the Pope's visit in September. David Lodge wrote most interestingly on Muriel Spark's Memento Mori, and D.J. Taylor on the theme at large. There was also an interview with Piers Paul Read to accompany his new novel The Misogynist.

War memorials and the Church of England

2010-09-19T12:03:00.003+01:00

I'm delighted to be able to say that my article on the Church of England and war memorials after 1945 is available to read in SAS-Space. It appeared in the Forum for Modern Language Studies in 2008, but is now available on an open-access basis. It explores the debates concerning the relationship between beauty, utility and the notion of "Christian civilisation", particularly with regard to the reconstruction of bombed churches.

CFP: The Power of the Word

2010-08-12T12:08:00.003+01:00

I note an interesting conference in June next year on 'The Power of the Word: Poetry, Theology and Life' at Heythrop College, University of London. I'm thinking about offering a paper myself; deadline for abstracts is October 14th; details on the Institute of English Studies site.

Pop music and the post-war churches

2010-07-10T12:02:00.004+01:00

I'm bound to note the appearance on SAS-Space of two more of Ian and my articles on music in the post-war church. The first is our contribution to the Redefining Christian Britain volume, and the other is a more theological piece for Crucible, which is rather hard to get hold of in print.
See also an earlier post on Redefining Christian Britain.

Dorothy L. Sayers and William Temple

2010-06-17T14:18:00.001+01:00

I'm delighted to report the publication of the latest Miscellany from the Church of England Record Society, which includes my own edition of and introduction to the correspondence relating to Temple's offer of a Lambeth D.D. to Sayers, which she refused. It's a most interesting episode, which reveals much about the position of the 'Christan writer' in England, and the relationship between the Church of England and the arts.

The Michael Harper papers

2010-06-11T14:16:00.005+01:00

I note from the most recent annual review of Lambeth Palace Library that they have received the papers of Michael Harper. Once they are catalogued and released, these promise to be of interest in that Harper's wife Jeanne was co-editor of the hugely influential Sound of Living Waters song collection.

Religion in modern drama

2010-06-03T07:30:00.006+01:00

An intriguing flurry of related items in the Guardian last month. Firstly, Michael Billington drew a contrast between the animating force of religious themes in much drama in the Fifties and the lack of religious interest in plays written in more recent years. This was in part a response to Drew Pautz's play Love the Sinner (reviewed, again by Billington, here).
This elicited a response from Ian Bradley, pointing out that religious themes were alive and well in the musical.
Finally, some enterprising soul in the Guardian's research department pulled out a most intriguing archive item from 22 May 1958, on a debate in the Church of Scotland's General Assembly over the future of the Gateway Theatre, which, improbably, was actually owned by the Church.

Christ the King, Sophiatown

2010-05-24T18:34:00.003+01:00

I note an intriguing report on the consecration of a new mural in this Johannesburg church, which replaces one painted between 1938 and 1941 by an Anglican nun, of which only photos remain (Guardian, May 22nd). It seems to have been more or less unreported in Britain, despite that period seeing the beginnings of much discussion and campaigning in favour of new art in England.

Penelope Fitzgerald

2010-05-07T09:42:00.000+01:00

Rather belatedly, I note an interesting piece by Hermione Lee in the Guardian (April 3rd), in advance of her forthcoming biography. It gives tantalising glimpses, from Lee's work on Fitzgerald's library, with her engagement with religious writing, including Murder in the Cathedral and Bonhoeffer.

The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ

2010-05-05T09:48:00.007+01:00

I note an interesting response from Rowan Williams to Philip Pullman's recent offering, in the Guardian on April 3rd.

It is part of an interesting ongoing exchange between the two men: hear a podcast of the two in conversation in relation to His Dark Materials at the National Theatre in 2004, (and an edited transcript in the Telegraph) and an article by Williams on the same in the Guardian, March 10th 2004

The Church and literature

2010-04-14T14:20:00.004+01:00

There is now a provisional programme available for the Ecclesiastical History Society's conference in July, to be held at St Andrews. I mention it here for the theme, 'The Church and Literature', and for one of the plenary lectures by Crawford Gribben on rapture fiction.

The deadline for proposals for papers is very soon (tomorrow,, in fact), but there is plenty of time to book to attend. More details are available on the EHS site.

The Believers

2010-04-13T14:16:00.000+01:00

I note the broadcast last Saturday of this radio play by Frank Cottrell Boyce, about a Christian band in the Merseybeat era. I recorded it and haven't had chance to listen yet, but it is available for a few more days on the BBC iplayer service. It is trailed as a comedy, but the fact that it is a subject at all is of some interest.

Allan Wicks

2010-03-22T20:42:00.002Z

I note recent obituaries of Allan Wicks, organist of York Minster and Canterbury cathedral (from the Times and Church Times). While the writers note his championing of contemporary classical music, less well known was his openness to experimentation with pop genres for church. He contributed an article on "relevance" in church music to a special issue of Modern Churchman in October 1964, alongside articles on the new Coventry cathedral and on liturgy (by Eric James, at that time one of the more avant-garde clergy in south London, and subsequently biographer of John A.T. Robinson.)

Anglican reactions to pop church music

2009-12-01T08:36:00.000Z

I'm very pleased to note that the full text of the article by Ian and me on this subject, from Studies in Church History 42 (2006), is now available as part of SAS-Space. It follows the reactions of the Anglican church-musical "establishment" to the experimentation with church pop from the late fifties until the early nineties, with a particular focus on reactions to Geoffrey Beaumont's Folk Mass.

See also an earlier post on Beaumont.

The Children's Book

2009-11-30T09:28:00.006Z

I am about half-way through A.S. Byatt's latest, the Booker-shortlisted The Children's Book. It touches on the nature of art in several ways; perhaps most interesting for this blog is the portrayal of the potter Benedict Fludd, who (it has been suggested) bears some resemblance to Eric Gill.

It has attracted a good few reviews, helpfully listed at www.complete-review.com. The review by James Wood in the LRB I found most interesting.

Letters of T.S. Eliot

2009-11-25T16:34:00.007Z

I note the recent appearance of the second volume in the correspondence of T.S. Eliot, covering the period 1923-25. Although Eliot was writing little new poetry in this period, there appears to be much there on more general questions of learned publishing, the circulation of ideas and Eliot's view of what The Criterion was to do. Several reviews have appeared, the most extended of which is by Stefan Collini in the Guardian. Collini has of course written on Eliot in his Absent Minds. Michael Wood in the LRB draws out some traces of Eliot's emerging religious thinking on the importance of suffering and sacrifice.

Ruth Duckworth

2009-11-16T15:14:00.001Z

I note a recent obituary of the sculptor Ruth Duckworth, in the Guardian. There is some useful biographical and catalogue information here.

Of most interest for this blog are her Stations of the Cross, for St. Joseph's Church, New Malden (R.C.). There is a very full set of photos at the church's own site.

C.S. Lewis and the planets

2009-11-02T13:26:00.001Z

There is an interesting and very favourable review by Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, in a recent TLS of Planet Narnia, a new book on C.S.Lewis, and in particular the symbolism of the planets embedded in the Narnia series. It argues that themes that are explicit in The Discarded Image and That Hideous Strength can be used as a method of understanding the seven books of the Narnia series.
The author, Michael Ward, has put together a website dedicated to the book. It is available online (to subscribers) at Oxford Scholarship Online.

Peter Boorman

2009-10-28T08:18:00.006Z

I spot a recent obituary of Peter Boorman, organist of St Davids. It is of chief interest here for the fact that Boorman was perhaps the first organist to introduce girls' voices into a cathedral choir, in an emergency in 1963, and on a permanent basis from 1966. He seems also to have had some involvement in developments that were eventually to issue in Songs of Praise.

The Pope and the artist

2009-10-22T14:25:00.001+01:00

I note with interest the recent appeal of the Pope for a new relationship with artists, beginning with an event at the Vatican in November, although it isn't clear what the agenda for that meeting is. (See the National Catholic Reporter of Sept 11th.) This seems to pick up some of the themes of John Paul II's Letter to Artists of 1999.

Myfanwy Piper

2009-09-29T16:00:00.002+01:00

I note a recent piece by Frances Spalding on Myfanwy Piper in the Guardian, in advance of her forthcoming OUP book on the two Pipers. More information on Spalding may be found on her pages at Newcastle University, including further references on Piper and Coventry Cathedral.

Antonio Pacitti

2009-09-25T12:36:00.004+01:00

I note obituaries of the sculptor Antonio Pacitti in the Times and the Church Times. He is of note here for a number of religious works, including a Madonna and Child for the new church of St Thomas More in Patcham, East Sussex, in 1964. Helpful lists of his works and exhibitions are available at churchart.co.uk

Leonie Cohn

2009-09-20T13:25:00.001+01:00

I note another obituary, this time of the radio producer Leonie Cohn, who worked on numerous programmes on the arts for the Third Programme in the Fifties and Sixties.

Noel Vincent

2009-09-12T13:19:00.002+01:00

I note a recent obituary of Canon Noel Vincent: he was of most interest for the purposes of this blog in his work as producer of Songs of Praise, from the mid 1970s until his retirement.

Rowan Williams on George Bell

2009-08-20T10:55:00.008+01:00

Rather belatedly, I find the text of the Archbishop's lecture on Bell, given last year at Chichester as part of the anniversary events. It strikes me as a most useful and important piece, relating Bell's concern with the arts with his stance on ecumenism and international relations. It also makes specific mention of the Canterbury plays, in one of which I am myself particularly interested (see earlier post on John Masefield.)

Muriel Spark

2009-08-11T17:04:00.000+01:00

I note several reviews of Martin Stannard's new Life of Spark, including Jonathan Bate in the Telegraph and John Carey in the Sunday Times. Most of the reviewers give space to the importance of her conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1954.
Stannard himself is based at the University of Leicester and has also published extensively on that other 'Catholic novelist', Evelyn Waugh.

God and Mystery in Words - Review

2009-08-03T14:17:00.001+01:00

David Brown
God & Mystery in Words. Experience through Metaphor and Drama
Oxford, OUP, 2008: 978-0-19-923183-6

[A review first published in Anvil 26;2 (2009). It is republished here by kind permission of the Reviews Editor.]

Natural and revealed theology, argues David Brown, are in a state of crisis, and the only way out of that crisis is to pay greater attention to the cultural embeddedness of both. The volume under review is the third in a series which examines religious experience as mediated by culture in general, and by the arts in particular. God and Enchantment of Place (2004) considered the ways in which religious experience has been found in religious architecture, in the urban built environment and in gardens. God and Grace of Body (2007) continued the investigation, and the present volume concludes the series with metaphor and drama. Brown notes the tendency in recent religious history towards a narrowing of the spheres in which religious experience might be found, and advances ample historical evidence that it was not always so.

Both parts of the book employ the same approach: to begin with a broad historical examination of metaphor or drama, and to proceed to an examination of their use in specific contexts of worship. Part One, on metaphor, seeks to recover the potential of language to function sacramentally. Part of the legacy of the confrontation between ‘science’ and biblical criticism in the last two centuries has been to force much theology into a defensive reduction of language to its literal descriptive function. Brown would like to see the church recover the power of verbal image to point beyond itself, and lead us to further reflection. Water, for instance (68-9) can be symbolic of cleansing, but also of inundation and destruction, or of refreshment and the quenching of thirst. There is much to be lost in the flattening-out of metaphor, and in the rush to premature closure. Along the way, Brown has stimulating and at times trenchant things to say to hymn writers; to those charged with revising hymn texts; to preachers; and to biblical translators. Brown is however careful to stress that such an acknowledgment of the ‘inexhaustibility’ of metaphor need not necessarily be mere obfuscation; a cloak behind which to avoid doctrinal commitment.

Part Two proceeds in similar manner to examine drama. Brown argues for regarding church music not only as a vehicle for words, but as having an important dramatic and structural function in liturgy in its own right. Liturgical dress and movement, church architecture and internal ordering are all considered, reinforcing Brown’s plea that these all be allowed the space in worship to function sacramentally. The impulse to explain and define ought not to be allowed to force an important minority of potential worshippers to seek a sense of the numinous almost anywhere but in church.

In sum, this volume handsomely repays attentive reading, being elegantly written, lucid and admirably concise. Specialist historians of worship or language are unlikely to be surprised in matters of detail; however, the range of material employed, across genres, periods and countries is dazzling and some highly suggestive historical insights are offered. Brown is scrupulously even-handed in his treatment of different artistic styles, and there is no trace of any particular churchmanship being brought to bear. For this reviewer, it suggested questions about how to understand the work of the Spirit through created things; questions sometimes sidelined through distrust of an over-powerful natural theology and for fear of possible idolatry or creeping immanentism. Although Brown does not address the work of the Spirit directly, he provides a fascinating basis on which to begin doing so.

David Mellor

2009-07-29T16:08:00.002+01:00

Slightly belated, I note this obituary of the designer David Mellor. He is interesting in this connection as one with affinities with Arts and Crafts thinking on the right integration of work, art and life. He was also married to Fiona MacCarthy, biographer of William Morris and Eric Gill, amonst others. He was also something of a cult figure amongst a certain type of Sheffielder in my time there.

'Jim' Cadbury-Brown

2009-07-20T16:22:00.002+01:00

I note this obituary of the architect H.T. Cadbury-Brown. He is of note here as the architect trusted by Benjamin Britten to work for him at Aldeburgh, also building there a house for Imogen Holst.

John Masefield's 'The Coming of Christ'

2009-07-07T15:15:00.008+01:00

I am bound to note the appearance, on the School of Advanced Study's institutional repository SAS-Space, a post-print text of my article on this play by John Masefield. Commissioned by George Bell for performance in Canterbury Cathedral in 1928 (one of Bell's last acts as Dean before his appointment as Bishop of Chichester), it is often (incorrectly) described as the first play to be staged in an English cathedral since the Reformation. The article explores what precedents there were for such a performance; examines the controversy provoked by the play, on theological, moral and aesthetic grounds; and locates it in the development of Bell's own thinking with regard to the relationship between the Church of England and the arts.

The article is to be published in Humanitas. The Journal of the George Bell Institute later this year. I am extremely grateful to the Editor for permission to publish this version at this time. It was originally given at a conference under the auspices of the Institute last year.

Westminster Abbey

2009-07-01T12:04:00.005+01:00

Some early reactions to the proposals made by the Dean of Westminster to add a corona to the Abbey, in connection with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2013; see the Times report, and material on the Abbey's own site.

So far the reactions have been predictable: that money shouldn't be spent on frivolities while anyone is still homeless (see comment on the Times article); that it should be left as it is (editorials and columns in the Guardian and the Evening Standard.) I anticipate further wrangles about style when the competition to design it begins.

More on T. S. Eliot

2009-06-23T15:48:00.000+01:00

I note the recent launch of a major new project, editing Eliot's prose and poetry, co-ordinated by the Institute of English Studies (University of London).

The Art Instinct

2009-06-11T13:30:00.001+01:00

I note two reviews of this new study by Denis Dutton on the evolutionary biology behind our instinctual appreciation of the arts: they are by Roger Kimball in the TLS and Nigel Warburton in Prospect.

Kimball notes Dutton's avoidance of the gleeful '"existential deflation" which might be expected when such stringent naturalistic terms are applied to concepts such as "beauty"; it remains however still "perforce a coming-down-to-earth" for aesthetics. Kimball also detects a thinness in Dutton's treatment of the religion-art relationship, and notes a continued "craving for transcendence" in much contemporary discourse.

T.S. Eliot

2009-05-04T20:53:00.003+01:00

I note that Fulcrum are to re-publish a section from the Cambridge Companion to T.S. Eliot.

It is: Cleo McNelly Kearns, ‘Religion, literature and society in the work of T. S. Eliot’ from A. David Moody (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to T. S. Eliot (Cambridge: CUP, 2002), pp. 77-93.

Delius's 'A Mass of Life'

2009-05-01T09:13:00.002+01:00

The Bach Choir are currently preparing a performance of this piece, and a friend made an intriguing observation, to the effect that the piece has an almost cult status in secularist musical circles as one of the very few choral works without an explicitly religious text. It set me thinking about how this might have played out in the piece's critical reception. It also made me wonder about what influence this might have had in its (very limited) performance history. I should be very grateful for any observations anyone might have on this. I don't really know the literature on Delius at all; his own belief position seems quite well documented, but I don't know about his reputation more widely.

Further details of the performance in the Royal Festival Hall on May 21st at the Bach Choir site. The Mass seems to have attracted relatively few recordings, to judge from the discography on the Delius Society site.

Christian Worship Worldwide - Review

2009-04-20T12:19:00.001+01:00

Charles E. Farhadian (ed.),
Christian Worship Worldwide. Expanding Horizons, Deepening Practices
Grand Rapids/Cambridge, Eerdmans, 2007: ISBN 978-0-8028-2853-8

[A review, first published in Anvil 25;4 (2008), 330-1, and reproduced by kind permission of the Reviews Editor]

This collection of essays, part of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies Series, is one of many questions and few answers, but arguably none the worse for it. Its central concern is with the exchange of worship practices between cultures, both historically (from the west to the rest) and in the present, when the flow has gone into reverse. Charles Farhadian’s introduction (1-24) identifies the central issue: how may Christians distinguish between elements of worship that may be transcultural and thus fixed (say, the general shape of the Eucharist), and those that may be contextual, and determined by local custom. In addition, which practices may be transferred in their original form, without adaptation (the cross-cultural) and which are counter-cultural, standing out against the receiving culture, and enabling us to examine our own distinctions between what is fundamental and those things to which we are merely accustomed.
All these are useful questions, and particularly so, as Farhadian shows, as the centre of gravity of world Christianity shifts southwards. Yet this is not simply an exercise in cultural relativism, part of the wider analysis of globalisation; rather it is an attempt to relativise those elements that are culturally particular, in order better to isolate those that are genuinely common. The temptation is great to make one’s own worship practice normative for others, and a barometer of spiritual health.

So much for the questions, here usefully framed. Next is a series of case studies of worship from around the world: in the Mar Thoma church in Kerala, India; among Apostles and Zionists in Zimbabwe; amongst Pentecostals in South America, and several others. These studies are by turns stimulating and startling and several stand as the most comprehensive accounts of their subject available. There are along the way useful materials for the historian of Western mission. What is often missing, despite the best efforts of the editor in the short prefaces to each, is much analysis of the question the collection is intended to address; the reader is often required to make many of the broader connections himself.

Part III concludes the book, with essays by C. Michael Hawn, Bryan D. Spinks and Lamin Sanneh, each circling around the analysis that the introduction suggests. Again, there is much suggestive and useful material here, and very little that can actually be faulted, but often also a sense of bets being hedged. Hawn comes closest to nailing colours to the mast, in a most useful examination of how a western congregation might approach using elements of worship from the worldwide church. He suggests an exploratory set of criteria to apply: does this dance/song/ritual draw attention to itself, or does it fit into the progression of the liturgy ? Does it give a voice to the otherwise voiceless ? Does it unify the body ? Does it provoke prayer for the worldwide church ? The challenge presented by this collection is to order our worship in such a way that our relationship with fellow Christians worldwide can be made more immediate, alongside the (hitherto dominant) visible continuity of worship with that of the saints who preceded us. Christian Worship Worldwide, without providing any blueprints, succeeds splendidly in posing the questions that need answering as we begin.

Roger Scruton on beauty

2009-04-15T11:13:00.003+01:00

I note some reviews of Roger Scruton's recent On Beauty (OUP). Jonathan Ree reviews it in Prospect (March 2009), noting the tendency in Scruton's work towards the jeremiad concerning contemporary culture, in which there is an implicit historical narrative of decline.

A review has also appeared in the Observer, and an extract in the Times, dealing with the 'kitschification' of religious art in particular. See also Scruton on the 'flight from beauty' in Axess

See also an earlier post on his Culture Counts

Church music and evangelical identity

2009-04-07T11:56:00.000+01:00

I'm bound to note the appearance of Ian and my article on this subject, published as part of British Evangelical Identities (Paternoster, 2009, edited by Mark Smith). It explores the way in which, over the period between c.1958 and 1991, the use of 'new' or 'pop' church music functioned as part of evangelical identity in the Church of England, focussing on perceptions amongst those outside the constituency.

It is also usefully read alongside our other articles on the topic of 'pop' church music in the twentieth century Church of England - see earlier posts here and here.

Andrew Motion on the Bible

2009-04-01T11:46:00.002+01:00

Two recent things of note from Andrew Motion:

The first was a piece in the Guardian Education supplement, on the centrality of the Bible to understanding English literature. His comments, from a professed atheist, will set heads nodding among those who have tried to teach religious history, even in a university context.
It provoked a number of responses, including that of Andrew Brown, also in the Guardian.

The second thing was another Guardian piece, this time reflecting on the role of Poet Laureate, which Motion is about to relinquish after ten years.

Witness: Five Plays from the Gospel of Luke

2009-03-31T15:15:00.005+01:00

I note the current re-run of a series of plays by Nick Warburton on the life of Christ as given in Luke's gospel: see the Radio 4 site. I believe there are three left, with one available on the iPlayer service.

Youth Culture in Modern Britain

2009-03-26T16:11:00.004Z

I note Ian's new review of David Fowler's new study, published today in Reviews in History. Issues relating to the relationships between generations and the growing cultural prominence of youth are never far away when considering 'pop' church music, and this study provides valuable background.

See also another review, in the Times Higher. Fowler himself appeared on Radio 4's Thinking Allowed programme in February.

St Peter's College, Cardross

2009-03-18T11:00:00.003Z

A fascinating piece on 'the spaceship', the remarkable seminary, designed after Le Corbusier in the 1960s by architects Isi Metzstein and Andrew MacMillan. Brian Dillon visits the now derelict structure for the Guardian, 14th February. See also an older article from Jonathan Glancey in the Guardian, which discusses in passing the building's sudden obsolescence in post-Council Catholic Scotland.

The film director Murray Grigor filmed the interior in 1972 and has revisited it to remake his original film; it is to be screened later this year.

More on the credit crunch

2009-03-16T14:32:00.000Z

By way of a footnote to an earlier post, Robert McCrum on the possible effects on publishing and writing, and David Smith on Waiting for Godot as a play de nos jours, both in the Observer.

Spender's Jewish roots

2009-03-10T16:50:00.002Z

I note an interesting recent piece in the TLS (25th February) on the Jewish background to the work of Stephen Spender.

The Triumph of Music

2009-03-04T15:04:00.003Z

Tim Blanning's new book has attracted a good deal of review attention. Amongst the most interesting:
(i) a joint interview with Blanning and Ian Bostridge in Standpoint
(ii) Simon Heffer in the Telegraph - very critical of the book, particularly its apparent neglect of 20th century English music, and its 'navel-gazing expatiations' on John Coltrane or Eric Clapton.
(iii) James Penrose in The New Criterion
(iv) further reviews in the Guardian and Independent

G. K. Chesterton

2009-02-25T16:54:00.002Z

I note a review by A. N. Wilson of a new study of Chesterton by William Oddie, in the TLS, 28th Jan. It is also reviewed by Christopher Howse in the Tablet.

A scary crucifix

2009-02-12T16:52:00.001Z

The Church Times reports a West Sussex church removing a crucifix figure from above the church door, partly because the figure has been scaring children, and partly because of a perceived inappropriateness of a crucifix as opposed to an empty cross. I feel sure that there is more to the issue than this, not least questions of style; the figure is by Edward Bainbridge Copnall, and dates from 1963.

Pinter in Poets' Corner ?

2009-01-12T12:02:00.002Z

I note a recent exchange, related to the suggestion (impossible by custom, as it turns out) that Harold Pinter be commemorated in Poet's Corner. The suggestion is made by the Conservative MP Ed Vaizey on his blog, and subsequently objected to, by at least one newspaper letter-writer, on grounds of Pinter's expressed views on Christianity. (Times 8/1/09)

Art, culture and the credit crunch

2009-01-11T11:39:00.002Z

I note a recent spate of articles dwelling on what effects the credit crunch might have on the arts, particularly in connection with the recent BBC adaptation of Little Dorrit. They are all interesting in their various ways for the views they take of the relation between art/culture and the economic 'base', as it were, as well as for their various takes on the virtuousness of thrift more generally. See:
(i) a Guardian review article by Colin Burrow, on the idea of indebtedness in literature from Milton to Martin Amis
(ii) George Walden in the TLS - After the credit crunch - the arts crunch ?.
(iii) A.S. Byatt on Little Dorrit, also in the Guardian.

Reassessing T.S. Eliot

2009-01-01T19:19:00.003Z

I note an interesting piece on Eliot by Jeanette Winterson in the Guardian, connected with the current series of Eliot's plays at the Donmar Warehouse. See also a review of the series in the TLS, 10/12/2008, with some discussion of Murder in the Cathedral.

Bernard Feilden

2008-11-30T20:39:00.002Z

I note the passing of Sir Bernard Feilden, architect with much significant church conservation to his name, including at Norwich cathedral and York Minster. He was also Surveyor of the Fabric of St Paul's, and a member of the Cathedrals Fabric Commission (1990-95). See the obituary in the Guardian

The Language of Things

2008-11-20T15:12:00.007Z

I note the appearance of a new study of design in the twentieth century by Deyan Sudjic, director ot the Design Museum. From the reviews, it looks to contain all sorts of interesting material on changing ideas of permanent value, design obsolescence and the contemporary love affair with shiny things; all of which issues have significant quasi-religious contexts to consider.
It is reviewed by Fiona MacCarthy in the Guardian and by Stephen Bayley in Building Design.

Chagall

2008-11-10T15:04:00.002Z

I note the appearance of a new study of Chagall by Jackie Wullschlager; it is reviewed by Andrew Motion in the Guardian, and Alex Danchev in the Independent.

Rowan Williams on Dostoevsky

2008-10-10T14:21:00.004+01:00

For information, some of the early reactions to Rowan Williams' new book on Dostoevsky. The Guardian reviewer finds much interesting thinking in it, but wonders whether it contains "the worst prose ever written by a poet." A.N. Wilson is rather more engaged in the TLS, as is Salley Vickers in the Times. Williams has given interviews to the Guardian and the Telegraph (A.N. Wilson again).

Gregory Bateson

2008-09-30T20:45:00.000+01:00

An interesting recent Guardian article by Tim Parks on the anthropologist Gregory Bateson and his view of the arts and their possible effect on social life; I know nothing at all of Bateson, but his views are an interesting part of the background noise about what the arts might be made to do in mid-twentieth century Britain.

Auden's prose

2008-09-26T20:36:00.005+01:00

Following on from an earlier post, another review of the third volume of Edward Mendelson's edition of Auden's prose, this time by Sean O'Brien, reflecting on the cultural distance now evident between Auden and our contemporary life.

Dallas Sweetman

2008-09-23T14:38:00.009+01:00

I note the premiere this week of this new play by Sebastian Barry, reviving the commissioning of new plays by Canterbury Cathedral. The heyday of the Canterbury plays was between 1928 and the years immediately after the war; my own article on the first of these, John Masefield's The Coming of Christ, is forthcoming in Humanitas. The Journal of the George Bell Institute.
A preview has appeared in the Telegraph.
[October 10th: reviews in the Times, Observer, Guardian and Telegraph; overall conclusion: nice building, difficult acoustics.]

The Golden Generation

2008-09-10T18:15:00.004+01:00

I note a new exhibition at the British Library on the abolition of the Lord Chamberlain's powers of theatre censorship in 1968; it is due to run until the end of November.
There was also a conference to coincide with the exhibition, marking the end of an AHRC-funded research project, details of which are available on the project website.

The Lady Chatterley trial

2008-08-27T13:19:00.008+01:00

Have recently read a splendid article by Mark Roodhouse on the Anglican involvement in the Chatterley trial of 1960, and in particular the role of Mirfield father and literary critic Martin Jarrett-Kerr. It is particularly interesting on the tensions between Christian emphasis on the integrity of the creative act and the perceived need for censorship to avoid harm or scandal both within the church and in wider society. Jarrett-Kerr's 'peculiar vocation' to the literary world, in the eyes of some, forced him to negotiate between the literary reputation of Lawrence and the welfare of souls, as one colleague put it.
It's in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 59; 3 (July 2008), 475-500 (available online, by subscription.).

The Word made art

2008-08-07T11:30:00.003+01:00

I note an interesting-looking event in London on November 1st: a series of three lectures by Neil McGregor (director of the British Museum) on artistic responses to themes related to the social implications of the Incarnation. Details on the Scott Holland Trust site.

Literature and religion

2008-07-22T20:30:00.002+01:00

I note from a week or two ago a report in the Guardian Review (July 4th) on an interesting exchange at a University of Manchester event between Martin Amis, the theologian Graham Ward and the critic James Wood.

Charles Williams

2008-07-09T09:27:00.003+01:00

I note in passing a review by Rowan Williams of a new book on Charles Williams by Gavin Ashenden, from the TLS; the subject is described as "a deeply serious critic, a poet unafraid of major risks, and a theologian of rare creativity". Ashenden is chaplain to the University of Sussex.

Bob Dylan and 60s religion

2008-07-02T12:40:00.003+01:00

After listening on Saturday morning to a Radio 4 programme considering the importance of Bob Dylan, I'm reminded of Hugh McLeod's recent observation on the quasi-prophetic status given to Dylan, in his recent book on the religious crisis of the Sixties. He only raises the point briefly, but there is much work to be done on the gradual widening of the sphere of 'religiously significant' music to include pop.
See my review of McLeod's book, in Reviews in History.

Henry Chadwick

2008-06-23T11:21:00.006+01:00

The 20th June edition of the Church Times carries the obituary of Henry Chadwick, one of the 20th Century's leading historians of early Christianity. Many undergraduate students of theology or church history will be familiar with his book 'The Early Church'. Less known to the wider public was that Chadwick was an influential figure in church music: a member of the editorial committee of Hymns Ancient and Modern and chair of the committee that produced Common Praise. The Church Times obituary includes a nice tribute from Lionel Dakers who recalls, amongst other things, how Henry Chadwick, an accomplished pianist, once had Zoltan Kodaly turn the pages for him!

[Peter adds]
See also other obituaries: Rowan Williams in the Guardian, and another in the Telegraph. The Telegraph author makes the following waspish but apposite observation:
"After religion, the great passion of Chadwick's life was music. Unlike those Anglicans who persist in confusing aesthetic sensation with religious experience, however, Chadwick never raised his musical interests to the level of dogma. It was a civilised entertainment shared, happily, by his wife Peggy, whom he married in 1945. "

The visual arts in the Church of England, 1935-56

2008-06-22T10:57:00.006+01:00

I'm bound to draw attention to a new article of mine in the new Studies in Church History (volume 44, 2008). It examines the attempts made by an informal but determined coalition of clergy, artists and critics to revive the connection between church patronage and the contemporary arts. The two most prominent clergy were George Bell (Bishop of Chichester), and Walter Hussey,(St Matthew Northampton and Dean of Chichester.)

Sunday theatre

2008-06-04T12:42:00.008+01:00

Yesterday's Guardian carried a short note about the National Theatre's decision to begin performances on Sundays. It's interesting that the theatres have been the last of the artistic institutions to bow to the pressure of Sunday opening.
See also Michael Billington in the Guardian, who welcomes the change, and his interview with Nicholas Hytner two years ago, who saw the main barrier as the theatre unions, rather than any lingering Sabbatarianism.

See also the report in the Telegraph.

James Macmillan

2008-06-01T10:57:00.002+01:00

Rather belated, but I note various things related to Macmillan's recent setting of the Passion, premiered at the Barbican at the end of April. The piece is interesting since it is one of the very few attempts to write an English language passion setting for a hundred years or more.
It was reviewed in the Times and Telegraph. Macmillan himself published a set of programme notes on the LSO site, and elsewhere, a diary of its composition, beginning in 2005.

John Dillenberger

2008-05-26T16:57:00.002+01:00

I note the recent death of John Dillenberger, prominent theologian of the arts. Obituaries have appeared in the Times and the Boston Globe. A tribute also appeared from the Graduate Theological Union, of which he was founding President.

Mary Berry

2008-05-18T13:40:00.001+01:00

I note the passing of musicologist and champion of plainsong Mary Berry - see an obituary in the Times. It notes the impetus given to preservation by the liturgical changes within the Catholic church during the 1960s and early 1970s.

Contemporary Church Music

2008-05-13T16:34:00.003+01:00

I note the current London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, happening at St Pancras' church on Euston Road in London. An annual event, it has commissioned new work from many of the most prominent British composers, and there are several premieres this time. Full programme details are available from the festival site, and Radio 3 will be broadcasting a Festival Eucharist on Sunday, at 4pm.

Sacred Music

2008-05-02T12:51:00.002+01:00

I've recently been following the BBC4 series on sacred music, presented by Simon Russell Beale. The series, whilst not quite being a 'history' as such, spent time on Perotin, Palestrina, Byrd, Tallis and Bach. Russell Beale presented most engagingly, with an enthusiasm hard to resist, and the performances from The Sixteen were splendid, as usual.
The series has been trenchantly criticised by Peter Phillips in the Spectator, and many of his criticisms of it are justified, although, with a later letter writer (23rd April, not on the website), I rather doubt the appeal of his proposed TV music history, with lots of straight-to-camera discussion of musicological detail from a group of experts, after Ken Burns.
Most interesting for me was the near-constant urge, never quite indulged, to say something theological about the music itself. In many places the music was described as 'spiritual' (whatever that means, really), and the final sign-off was (quoting from memory) to the effect that when this music is performed "it's as if someone is listening." It is symptomatic of the general vagueness in our public discussion about the nature of sacred music, and testament to the degree to which most theological discussion of the problem has never really been communicated outside the academy.

The poetics of Nonconformity

2008-04-24T13:16:00.002+01:00

I note a couple of recent items in connection with Tom Paulin, and the relationship between English Nonconformity and its poetic results. Paulin touches on it in a review of the recent edition of the letters of Ted Hughes, in which it is Hughes' religious background which allows him to write in a "spontaneous, direct, unforced and unflinching manner." See also a review of Paulin's own work in the Dublin Review of Books, and most recently, Terry Eagleton on Paulin, the "Puritan at play", and its political subtexts, in the Guardian Review.
I should be very interested to learn of any work that has tried to explore such a relation more generally, as I'm not aware of much to date. It could have interesting implications for thinking about religious poetry, but also more broadly about liturgical change and other religio-cultural issues. That a connection between background and poetic output can be made is evident from a recent article on George Barker.

See also an earlier post on William Empson.

Pentecost Festival

2008-04-22T13:18:00.002+01:00

I note in passing some events relating to the arts as part of this Festival in London, on the weekend of May 9th-11th. There is a day event on 'Sacred Spaces', focussing on the new interior of St Martin-in-the-Fields. There is also the grand final of the Hope Academy competition (a Christianised Fame Academy) and Luv Esther, which is described as a pop opera.

George Bell, Bishop of Chichester

2008-04-19T15:16:00.003+01:00

2008 sees the fiftieth anniverary of Bell's death, and there are two strands of academic events dealing with his legacy, which includes his work as patron of the arts. Chichester Cathedral are to hold a series of lectures, including one by Sir Christopher Frayling on the arts.
There is also to be a major conference in June, also in Chichester, organised by the George Bell Institute and the University of Chichester. I myself will be speaking at that event, on Bell's work in religious drama, and in particular on The Coming of Christ, the 1928 play that Bell commissioned from John Masefield for Canterbury Cathedral.

Conference on twentieth century stained glass

2008-04-16T14:00:00.004+01:00

I note this conference, due to happen in London in July/August this year - details available on the site of the British Society of Master Glass Painters. I would be particularly interested to hear the contribution from Patrick Reyntiens.

Post-1945 war memorials

2008-04-14T07:32:00.002+01:00

I'm bound to draw attention here to my own article on the Church of England and war memorials after 1945, which is now available online (to subscribing libraries), ahead of print publication in the Forum for Modern Language Studies. I've tried to explore the debates that took place between planners, artists, architects and clergy between 1940 and 1947, and the differing emphases on beauty and utility. Despite the relatively small number of new memorials that were actually built, there seems to have been a much livelier debate than was often supposed; the question was not at all settled in favour of new village halls or social clubs, and against new lumps of 'useless' carved stone. It also in passing suggests that the war had not been a straight-forwardly 'secularising' influence on elite discourse.

The next stage in the enquiry is to conduct some local research into the processes by which the advice coming from the 'establishment' is received and enacted or ignored at a local level. I shall be presenting some initial findings from Sussex to the IHR Locality and Region seminar at the beginning of May.

Auden's religion

2008-04-04T07:49:00.003+01:00

A couple of interesting recent items on Auden. The first is the Guardian's decision to ask Rowan Williams, a poet himself, to write a preface to the Auden booklet in their recent series. The second thing is the recent publication of the third volume of Edward Mendelson's edition of Auden's prose (1949-55), which covers some of the most interesting of Auden's theological writing. It was reviewed by Frank Kermode in the LRB (subscription needed for full article)

Ralph Beyer

2008-03-17T10:13:00.002Z

I note an obituary of Ralph Beyer, the inscription carver whose work features in Coventry Cathedral. Basil Spence, the architect of the cathedral, praised Beyer's work very fulsomely in his Phoenix at Coventry.

Being the son of a German art historian, and coming to England at the age of 16, he is another of the surprisingly large number of 'refugee artists' who made significant contributions to church art in the years after the war. Another name that springs to mind is Hans Feibusch. For more see the exhibition catalogue Art and Migration, edited by Jennifer Powell and Jutta Vinzent (George Bell Institute, Humanitas subsidia series, 2, 2005).
There has of course also been some recent general interest in the influence of migrants on a receiving culture: see Daniel Snowman, The Hitler Emigres, and, more recently, Lesley Chamberlain's The Philosophy Steamer.

Larry Norman

2008-03-12T10:04:00.002Z

I note the recent death of Larry Norman, one of the pioneer figures in Christian rock music in the 1970s. Obituaries have appeared in the Guardian, Times, New York Times and Christianity Today. There's also been some blogging activity concerning his importance.

Barenboim's Beethoven

2008-03-07T10:31:00.003Z

Some interesting examples of quasi-religious language creeping into some of the discussions of the recent Barenboim Beethoven sonata cycle. A Guardian reviewer thought that ‘something akin to a canonisation’ was taking place (Erica Jeal, 8th Feb.); Martin Kettle has asserted a ‘moral and even religious element to the ritual’ (Prospect, February 2008), and the performances have been accompanied by debates on the ‘Artist as Leader’ (see Anthony Holden in the Guardian, 3rd Feb). It’s not clear what this means (religiously), but Kettle has enlarged on his view of the enduring worth of the music elsewhere (Guardian 16th Feb)

Fantasy and C.S. Lewis

2008-03-04T19:35:00.003Z

A fascinating three-part documentary on fantasy fiction is under way on BBC4. The first part on Wednesday dealt with children’s fiction in particular. I was interested by the pasting dished out to C.S Lewis, a proponent of ‘bullying Anglicanism’ (surely a contradiction in terms); a propagandist and ‘warper of children’s minds’ who purveyed a brutal and cruel creed quite unlike that of the Jesus of the Gospels. Will Self thought the Christian allegory the thing that made the novels interesting, but Philip Pullman thought them not Christianity but something quite different: a ‘high-minded exclusion’ of normal children from salvation.
The open season on Lewis was in contrast to the lengthy treatment afforded to Philip Pullman and the notions of ‘dust’, sin and experience in the His Dark Materials trilogy. I’m bound to note Bernice Martin’s article in Redefining Christian Britain on Pullman’s religion.
The series continues tomorrow night with the epic tradition, including Tolkien and Lewis.

John Hester

2008-02-27T10:29:00.002Z

A recent obituary in the Telegraph of Canon John Hester of Chichester Cathedral. He is of interest here on account of his involvement with drama and the theatre: he was from 1963 to 1975 senior chaplain of the Actors' Church Union, an intriguing and under-documented group who acted as chaplains and advocates on behalf of those in the theatrical business. Hester was at the same time rector of Soho, and thus on the doorstep of the West End theatres. (St Anne's Soho had previously had as a churchwarden one Dorothy L. Sayers, incidentally).
He also was connected with the Religious Drama Society (on which I've been doing a little work recently) editing their journal Christian Drama. His later connection with Chichester, and with the Chichester Festival Theatre, connects his story obliquely with another figure, Walter Hussey, former Dean, who was in close touch with the Festival Theatre in its early years (although their tenures at the cathedral did not overlap.)

Rob Warner on worship

2008-02-20T11:52:00.005Z

I note some recent blog discussion of Rob Warner's recent book on Reinventing English Evangelicalism, 1966-2001, particularly his views on the changes in church music. It reflects significant reservations about much that has happened in the last twenty years.
I'm bound to draw attention here to Ian and my own forthcoming article on music and evangelical identity, and the relationship between charismatics and evangelicals in the Church of England to 1991, soon to appear in Mark Smith (ed.), British Evangelical Identities.

Further information on Warner, including further publications, and reviews of this book, at his web page at Lampeter.