Rowan Williams
Encyclopedia : R : RO : ROW : Rowan Williams
The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Rowan Douglas Williams, FBA (born 14 June 1950) is the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All-England and head of the Anglican Communion. Williams is also a theologian, poet and lecturer.
Contents
- 1 Biography
- 2 Career
- 3 Reaction to Appointment as Archbishop
- 4 Involvement in Issues
- 4.1 Views on Orthodox Christianity
- 4.2 Druidry
- 4.3 Phillip Pullman
- 4.4 Homosexuality
- 4.5 Criticism of Television
- 4.6 The Iraq war
- 4.7 Immigration and Crime
- 4.8 The Roman Catholic Church
- 4.9 Criticism from within the Anglican Church
- 4.10 Creationism
- 5 Works
- 6 See also
- 7 External links
Biography
Rowan Williams was born in Swansea, Wales, into a Welsh-speaking family. He was educated at Dynevor School, Swansea, at Christ's College, Cambridge and at Christ Church and Wadham College, Oxford where he obtained his doctorate. He has taught theology at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, where he was also Dean of Clare College.
He married Jane Paul, a lecturer in Theology in 1981. They have two children, Rhiannon (born 1988) and Pip (born 1996).
Dr Williams' summer residence is in the Oxfordshire town of Charlbury and when resident on Sundays he worships at the local church.
Career
In 1991 he was elected Bishop of Monmouth and in 1999 he was made Archbishop of Wales. In 2002 he was announced as the successor to George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England and, therefore, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion. Williams was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to be appointed from outside the Church of England. (Instead he was a member of the non-established Anglican body in Wales). He was enthroned on 27 February 2003 as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury. In December 2005 he was inaugurated as the first Chancellor of Canterbury Christ Church University.In 2006 the University of Cambridge conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity on Rowan Williams.
Dr Williams is a noted poet and translator of poetry. His collection The Poems of Rowan Williams, published by Perpetua Press, was longlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award in 2004. Beside his own poems, which have a strong spiritual and landscape flavour, the collection contains several fluent translations from Welsh poets.
Reaction to Appointment as Archbishop
Williams's selection as Archbishop prompted divergent reactions. Many commentators welcomed his evident intellectual gifts and regarded him as a figure who could make Christianity credible to the intelligent unbeliever. On the other hand some Evangelical and conservative Anglicans were troubled by his opinions on the ordination of women as bishops and on homosexuality. The clergy of St Helen's (London) resigned their church salaries in protest of Williams's views on homosexuality. Some also regarded as unorthodox his views on central doctrinal issues such as revelation, sin, and salvation, though this attracted less popular attention. Williams was a patron of Affirming Catholicism. Despite his comparatively liberal views, many gay Anglicans feel Williams has become less vocal and more conciliatory to conservatives in his approach to the issue since becoming Archbishop of Cantebury.Involvement in Issues
Views on Orthodox Christianity
While still Archbishop of Wales, he [responded] to 12 theses for a new Reformation by John Spong, then-Episcopalian bishop of Newark, New Jersey. Characteristically charitable, Williams went on to articulate a very clear exposition of orthodox Christianity. He is a highly respected scholar of the Church Fathers, as well as a historian of Christian spirituality, and his deep engagement with the classical sources of the Church is quite clear throughout his books and sermons. He did his doctoral work on Vladimir Lossky, the famous Russian Orthodox theologian of the early-mid 20th century, and is currently patron of the [Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius], an ecumenical forum for Orthodox and Western - primarily Anglican - theologians.Druidry
He courted controversy in August 2002 when he was inducted into the Gorsedd of Bards, a pseudo-ancient Welsh honorary order which involves "druidic" ceremonies but which is not explicitly religious.Phillip Pullman
In March 2004, in a speech at Downing Street and in an article published in The Guardian, he praised Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials, which was described by the Association of Christian Teachers as "shameless blasphemy" and by the Catholic Herald as "fit for the bonfire". Williams' view was that the proper Christian response to Pullman's novel was an intelligent critique that recognised the book's considerable literary merits, rather than a simple condemnation.Homosexuality
2003 saw Williams' views on homosexuality among the clergy in the spotlight, with the issue of the proposed ordination of gay priest Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading. Following protest from Anglican bishops in the developing world, Williams asked John to withdraw his candidacy, and then appointed him dean of St Albans, site of the first English martyr.Criticism of Television
In March 2004 he criticised the ITV television series Footballers' Wives for representing what he saw as the immorality of much contemporary British life, claiming that it reflected "a world in which charity and fairness, generosity, a sense of perspective about yourself are all swept aside". However, he praised The Simpsons for its modern Christian values.The Iraq war
On 30 June 2004, together with the Archbishop of York, David Hope, and on behalf of all 114 Church of England bishops, he wrote to Tony Blair, expressing deep concern about UK government policy and criticising the coalition troops' conduct in Iraq. The letter cited the abuse of Iraqi detainees, which was described as having been "deeply damaging" - and stated that the government's apparent double standards "diminish the credibility of western governments". [(BBC)] [(The Scotsman)]Immigration and Crime
On 31 March 2005, he voiced disquiet in a Newsnight interview regarding the use of fear tactics and negativity about issues such as immigration and crime by the various parties campaigning in the British elections.The Roman Catholic Church
He attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II, the first Archbishop of Canterbury to attend a funeral of a Pope since the break under King Henry VIII. He also attended the installation of Pope Benedict XVI.
Criticism from within the Anglican Church
In a November 2005 [letter] to Williams, a number of prominent theologically conservative primates of the Anglican Communion sharply questioned his leadership. Responding to a concilatory speech he had delivered the previous month to a largely conservative gathering of Anglicans from the "global south", the letter, signed by 14 of the communion's 38 primates worldwide, acknowledged his eloquence but strongly criticized his reluctance to take sides in the communion's theological crisis ("We are troubled by your reluctance to use your moral authority to challenge the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada") and urged him to make explicit threats to those more liberal churches. Presumably by coincidence, this letter arrived and was made public the very day that Williams was delivering a [speech] to the newly-elected 2005 General Synod of the Church of England including further concilatory pleas [(Guardian Online)]. Questions about the letter's provenance emerged the following day, as one of the signatory primates (Clive Handford, Primate of Jerusalem) denounced its publication, saying that he had never given permission for his name to be used [link]. Several other primates decried the letter [link], including its being made public before it had been delivered to Williams, and denied their affiliation with it.Creationism
In March 2006, in an interview in The Guardian, Williams expressed the view that creationism should not be taught in schools as an alternative to evolution.[link] When asked if he was comfortable with teaching creationism, he said "I think creationism is, in a sense, a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory like other theories ... so if creationism is presented as a stark alternative theory alongside other theories, I think there's - there's just been a jar of categories, it's not what it's about." When the interviewer said "So it shouldn't be taught?" he responded "I don't think it should, actually. No, no. And that's different from saying – different from discussing, teaching about what creation means. For that matter, it's not even the same as saying that Darwinism is – is the only thing that ought to be taught. My worry is creationism can end up reducing the doctrine of creation rather than enhancing it." ([full transcript])|- style="text-align: center;" |- style="text-align: center;" |- style="text-align: center;"
|- style="text-align: center;"
Works
- Grace and Necessity: Reflections on Art and Love (2005)
- Why Study the Past? (2005)
- Anglican Identities (2004) ISBN 1561012548
- Arius: Heresy and Tradition (2nd ed. 2001) ISBN 0334028507
- After Silent Centuries (1994)
- Christ on Trial (2000) ISBN 0007107919
- Christianity and the Ideal of Detatchment (1989)
- Darkness Yielding (2004)ISBN 1870652363
- The Dwelling of the Light (2003)
- Eucharistic Sacrifice: The Roots of a Metaphor (1982)
- Faith and Experience in Early Monasticism (2002)
- Faith in the University (1989)
- Lost Icons: Essays on Cultural Bereavement (2003)
- On Christian Theology (2000)
- Open to Judgement: Sermons and Addresses (1984)
- Peacemaking Theology (1984)
- The Poems of Rowan Williams (2002)
- Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel (2nd ed. 2002) ISBN 0232515468
- Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert (2003) ISBN 0745951708
- Teresa of Avila (2003) ISBN 0225665794
- The Wound of Knowledge (2nd ed 1990) ISBN 0232514259
See also
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
[media]
- [Archbishop of Canterbury official site]
- [The Anglican Communion's official website]
- [Canterbury Cathedral official site]
- [Criticisms of the Archbishop's theology]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.