Friday 10 December 2010

CWs' Steven Shakespeare replies to Milbank

Common Wealth signatory Steven Shakespeare brilliantly replies to Millbanks' critique on ABC Religion & Ethics in an article entitled 'Affirming Common Wealth - a response to Millbank'


Our document begins by saying that Christians in Britain today are called to take a stand. As students march and occupy in protest against the marketization of universities, Milbank's intervention only confirms that call. Is the Big Society the limit of Christian imagination? Is a suffocating, colluding Christendom where the way of the cross leads?
If I answer "No" it is not simply because I am cynical, but because I still have faith in a deeper affirmation. The paradox of God's "Yes" spoken to creation in Jesus Christ is that it throws the world into a crisis of judgement. It is spoken, not from the lofty heights of Christendom's power, but from the depths of dereliction, a cry of protest against all Empire.
Absolute and vulnerable, God proclaims life as a free gift. No market can buy it, no state can enlist it, no church can own it. It is common wealth