[BXVI and Archbishop Williams] United by Postmodern Critical Augustinianism

[SedesDomi]

Communion-oriented Anglicans should be hoping that press officers in both the Vatican and Lambeth Palace stumbled across an interview given by Anglican theologian — and inspiration for the “Radical Orthodoxy” school – John Milbank to Asia News, concerning Pope Benedict and Archbishop Rowan Williams. “I think it is important that the two leaders take the opportunity to show that their agreements are far more profound than their differences,” Milbank said ahead of the forthcoming papal visit to the United Kingdom. “For they espouse a similar sort of theology: rooted in the legacy of Augustine and the recovery of authentic patristic and high medieval tradition.”

Archbishop Williams’s Augustinianism is a matter of record: Rupert Shortt’s biography describes St. Augustine as “Rowan’s single greatest influence.” Referring to the archbishop’s first meeting with Benedict as pontiff, he notes that “both are steeped in Augustine.”

Roman Catholic theologian Tracy Rowland endorses this same analysis in Ratzinger’s Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict’s Augustinianism is hardly a secret, as his encyclicals testify. His first encyclical, Deus Caritas est, reflects on the Church as a “community of love” in light of Augustine’s insight that “if you see charity, you see the Trinity”

 

[The_Old_Medic]

They may both admire St. Augustine, but their theology does not reflect this at all.

Rowan Williams is following a self-destructive course with the Anglican Church because he does NOT follow the precepts of St. Augustine at all. Quite the opposite in fact. He makes little effort to prevent schism in the Anglican Church, and he accepts changes that are totally destructive to any concept of collegiality.

John Milbank literally knows not what he speaks about, if he thinks that Pope Benedict XVI and Rowan Williams have even remotely similar theological principles. Their basic theology is at odds with each other, and with the many extensive liberal changes that have occurred under Anglicanism, they are further apart than ever.

If Rowan Williams were actually driven by the precepts of St. Augustine, he would stand up and say, “The Anglican Church has totally lost its way, it has lost its roots and it is floundering because of the influence of the devil. There is no way in which female Priests and Bishops can be justified under either the Bible, or the traditional teachings of the Anglican Church. Unless the Anglican Church returns to its historic roots, and once again becomes a part of the Catholic faith, then I must denounce it and leave it behind me.”

Of course, he won’t do that, because he does NOT follow the teachings of St. Augustine. And, I suspect, he is far too happy with the trappings of office, and has lost sight of God in the process.

 

[wisdomseeker]

I am sure he is happy being the pope of the anglican community.

 

[Greg27]

They may both admire St. Augustine, but their theology does not reflect this at all.

Rowan Williams is following a self-destructive course with the Anglican Church because he does NOT follow the precepts of St. Augustine at all. Quite the opposite in fact. He makes little effort to prevent schism in the Anglican Church, and he accepts changes that are totally destructive to any concept of collegiality.

John Milbank literally knows not what he speaks about, if he thinks that Pope Benedict XVI and Rowan Williams have even remotely similar theological principles. Their basic theology is at odds with each other, and with the many extensive liberal changes that have occurred under Anglicanism, they are further apart than ever.

If Rowan Williams were actually driven by the precepts of St. Augustine, he would stand up and say, “The Anglican Church has totally lost its way, it has lost its roots and it is floundering because of the influence of the devil. There is no way in which female Priests and Bishops can be justified under either the Bible, or the traditional teachings of the Anglican Church. Unless the Anglican Church returns to its historic roots, and once again becomes a part of the Catholic faith, then I must denounce it and leave it behind me.”

Of course, he won’t do that, because he does NOT follow the teachings of St. Augustine. And, I suspect, he is far too happy with the trappings of office, and has lost sight of God in the process.

Even if RW did these things, the way the Anglican communion is governed and structured is not such RW can make a decree that is binding on all churches in the communion. Anglican dioceses are largely autonomous and have wide latitude to decide things from liturgy as to whether women should be ordained or not. The Anglican communion is hardly a unified body in terms of beliefs and RW cannot impose order and unity by decree because he doesn’t have the power to do so. The Anglicans face a number of problems, but so does every church - but the solution is hardly to impose a ‘top-down’ solution in an act of ecclesial tyranny. I would definitely leave the Anglican communion if RW started to become a more rigid figure to appease hardline conservatives and fundamentalists in the communion, much as the recent Popes in Roman Catholicism decided to reinstate conservatism and traditionalism. Trapping the church in the past does not solve the problems of the present.

 

[Hesychios]

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