Occasional Theology Constant Spirituality Williams (worse scan).pdf

ATW94.2

The Occasional Theology and ConstantSpirituality of Rowan Williams

LUKE F. FODOR*

Rowan Williams is not only Archbishop of Canterbury, but also aworld-class theologian. This essay explicates Williams's theologyby underscoring the substrate mystagogical impulse that inviteshis readers into a deeper engagement with the Christian faith. Theimpulse is explicitly present in his spiritual theology, where heencourages the reader to grow spiritually by dwelling in the place"where Christ stands," as well as in his academic theology. It is myargument that this mystagogical impulse is manifest in tlie follow-ing characteristics of Williams's theology: (1) it is embodied or in-camational; (2) it is public and political in nature; (3) it ispurgative and progressive.

It has become nearly a cHch, when characterizing Anglican the-ology, to speak of it as an occasional, contextual, and incamationalventure that is more concerned with prayer than with systematic pos-tulations. Indeed, it is often said that AngHcan theology emerges, notfrom the ivory towers of academia, but from the beU towers of thechurchyard where first-order common prayer shapes second-orderbeheving. CHchd or not, this characterization is clearly borne out inthe theological approach of AngHcanism's premier theologian andcurrent Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan WilHams.

Not only does this AngHcan character imbue his theology at adeep, unspoken level, WilHams himself expHcitly acknowledges hisdistinctively AngHcan approach in the opening words of the prologue

* Luke F Fodor is the Assistant Rector at St. John's Episcopal Church in ColdSpring Harbor, New York. He holds master's degrees from the University of Durhamand New York University, a Master of Divinity from Bexley Hall Seminary, and hascompleted coursework toward a S.TM in Christian spirituality from Trinity LutheranSeminary in Columbus, Ohio. This is the winning essay of tlie 2011 Charles HeflingStudent Essay Competition.

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264 Anglican Theological Reviewto On Christian Theology, where he broaches the question of hismethodology. He writes,

I assume that the theologian is always beginning in the middle ofthings. There is a practice of common life and language alreadythere, a practice that defines a specific shared way of interpretinghuman Hfe as lived in relationship to God. The meanings of theword "God" are to be discovered by watching what this commu-nity doesnot only when it is consciously reflecting in conceptualways, but when it is acting, educating or "inducting," imaginingand worshipping.^

As these words manifest, WiUiams's methodology is an adherence tothe maxim lex orandi lex credendi, with a deep groundedness in com-munal doxological and spiritual practices. It is perhaps his own spiri-tual and praxiological sensibihty that makes Wilhams's theologyunique and yet part of a long tradition in Anglican theology.

In this paper, which is itself an occasional treatment, I suggestthat Rowan Wilhams's theology is not primarily an academic orscholastic discourse, but rather a contemporary reworking of theancient tradition of mystagogy, that pedagogical practice which inviteddisciples to participate in the mystery of the faith and not merelyarticulate it. This pariicipation invites the reader into a relationshipand conversation with those saints who have passed on to glory andalso obliges the reader to adhere to the disciphne of that traciition;thus, one could also speak of discipleship. This suggestion is ceriainlynot an earth-shaking statement. Indeed, even those who are onlycursorily famihar with WiUiams's oeuvre will see in his devotionalbooks and manuals, such as Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom ofthe Desert, or Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin,an invitation into a deeper engagement with the Christian faith.

The argument I am maldng here is that not only does amystagogical impulse underhe all of WiUiams's theology, but histheology is a direct outworking of his own spirituahty. Throughout histheological writings, Wilhams is indeed taking occasions as theypresent themselves to wrestle theologically with thorny issues thatf^ ace the (post)modem church and individuals as they seek to follow

Rowan Williams, On Christian Theology (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000),

ROWAN WILLIAMS'S THEOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY 265

after the Risen One. However, that is not afl he is doing. WilHams usesthese occasions to demonstrate and employ his own spirituality, andHke the Apostle Paul, he seems to say, "Be imitators of me, as I am ofChrist" (1 Cor. 11:1). In this paper, I will trace his spirituality throughhis writings on spiritual theology, principally in The Wound ofKnowledge, to his "critical theology" in On Christian Theology andWrestling with Angels.^ But before we begin this joumey, we mustfirst consider the definition and characteristics of spirituaHty.

The Study of Spirituality and/or Spiritual TheologyIn any study of Christian spirituaHty there are various approaches

and starting points, just as there different definitions. The concept ofspirituality has developed into both a meaningful site for research andan interpretative strategy for accessing comprehensive modaHties ofbeHef/practice that are embodied within the Hved practice of individ-uals, communities, and their discourses."^ Given WilHams's constantconcern with worshipping communities, there seems to be a naturalconnection here, but spirituaHty must be approached carefully so asto resist essentializing it into some sort of perennial philosophy. Wil-Hams himself is quite suspicious of the term "spirituaHty," suggestingthat we need to maintain "a certain level of 'dymythologizing,' giventhat the word 'spiritual' has lately become strangely fashionable.'"*

One prominent scholar in the study of spirituality, Sandra Schnei-ders, defines spirituaHty as "the experience of conscious involvementin the project of Hfe-integration through self-transcendence towardthe ultimate value one perceives."^ But this definition wanders dan-gerously close to the "mythological" character that WilHams identifies.Mark Mclntosh isolates a similar concern in his study on the ultimatecohesion of theology and spirituaHty, Mystical Theology. His primary

2 The designation of "critical theology" is a self-designation and part of a tripartitetaxonomy that Williams delineates in the prologue to On Christian Theology, xii-xvi.

3 A similar approach is also embodied in ritual studies and tlie process of "ritual-ization." See Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (New York: Oxford Uni-versity Press, 1992).

* Rowan Williams, "To Stand Where Christ Stands," in An Introduction to Chris-tian Spirituality, ed. Ralph Waller and Benedicta Ward (London: SPCK, 1999), 1.

5 Sandra M. Schneiders, I.H.M., "The Study of Christian Spirituality: Contoursand Dynamics of a Disciphne," in Minding the Spirit: The Study of Christian Spiritu-ality, ed. Elizabeth A. Dreyer and Mark S. Burrows (Baltimore, Md.: Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, 2005), 7.

266 Anglican Theological Reviewcontention with Schneiders's approach is that she encourages the"distinction, at least theoretically, between spirituaHty as an inherentfeature of human existence and the particular process by which thepossibiHty moves towards fulfillment."^ This theoretical distinctionrisks a simultaneous evacuation and reification of meaning, but moreimportantly for Mclntosh, this anthropological approach perpetuates"the divorce between spirituaHty and theology" and "renders Codperipheral."^

While Mclntosh is correct in expressing grave concerns aboutSchneiders's potential displacement of God, I do not think that ananthropological approach necessarily dispatches Cod to the side. Theanthropological approach does indeed have an opposing point ofinstigationthe experience of the human subject. In making the Hvedexperience of the human subject the starting point, Schneiders is notattempting to dispense with Cod as the object of spirituaHty, butrather seeks to ameHorate what she sees as the theological tendencyto subsume the diversity of human experience into essential notionsof the human encounter with Cod. Even though she commencesfrom the human subject, Hke Mclntosh, she argues that "theology isintegral to any research in Christian spirituaHty."^

In addition to their differing starting points, I would suggest thatMclntosh and Schneiders end up speaking past one another, due tothe social locations and poHtics of their varying ecclesial contexts.^ Toclarify and potentially compensate for both unintentional propensitiesof the theological and anthropological approaches, I think a more spe-cifically defined notion of Christian spirituaHty is called for, one thatidentifies its ultimate value in the direct experience of the TrinitarianCod. Lisa Dahill reforms Schneiders's definition in specifically Chris-tian terms thusly: "Christian spirituaHty is the world-encompassingand Hfe-transforming action of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Hfeof a person or community and her/his/their experience of and response

Mark A. Mclntosh. Mystical Theology: The Integrity of Spirituality and Theol-ogy (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1998), 19.

^ Mclntosh. Mystical Theology,21.^ Sandra M. Schneiders. l.H.M.. "The Discipline of Ghristian Spirituality and

Gatholic Theology." in Exploring Christian Spirituality: Essays in Honor of SandraM. Schneiders, l.H.M., ed. Bmce H. Lescher and Elizabeth Liebert (New York: Pau-list Press. 2006). 205.

^ Mclntosh is an Episcopal priest and Schneiders is a Roman Gatholic nun.


to that action of Cod."^ In this essay, "spirituafity" wifl only refer to thisspecifically Christian definition.

Because the concept of "spirituality" is so pervasive, diaphanous,and indeed contested, the study of Christian spirituafity is necessar-ily an interdisciplinary affair, requiring multiple loci and apparatus toget at the fived experience of spirituafity. One cannot properly arrestthe process of spiritual production to vivisect the spiritual practitionerin hopes of gaining access to the interiority of her experience or con-sciousness. Spirituafity is a lived and practiced expression that requiresone to adopt an active means of getting at the subject. To this extent, itis clear that the concept of spirituality is a scholarly apparatus that cutsboth ways. As we seek to understand the subjecttiie lived and con-scious project of fife integrationour own process of life integration isalso impficated in the project. We cannot begin to ascertain the interi-ority of the subject under investigation if we ourselves are not open tothe interiority of our own spirituality. Utifizing this methodology aflowsus to study Williams and his spiritual theology whfle respecting thatmystagogical impulse inherent in his writings.

So in studying Rowan Wilfiams's spirituafity through a reflectionof my own interiority I am opening myselfan Episcopal priest-in-training being formed in Angfican theology and pofityas a windowthrough which we see into Wilfiams's life in the faith. I wifl seek toimitate the spiritual path of Rowan Williams as he encounters thedivine revelation of the fiving and triune Cod made manifest in JesusChrist, and I invite others to join me in this itinerarium, venturingforth from their armchairs and adopting an attitude of prayer. For ifMike Higton, a leading interpreter of Wilfiams's theology, is to betrusted, it would seem that there is no other path since in Williams's"constant mixing of theology, spirituafity and pofitics" he

refuses to acknowledge sharp boundaries between these areas ofconversationconstantly showing, in fact, that there are deep andtelling connections hetween them. Another way of putting thisis to say that you are seldom safe when reading V\/iILiams' works.. . . Williams' work is constantly crossing boundaries, in the confi-dence that the Gospel has crossed them hefore ^^

^'^ Lisa E. Dahl. "Spirituality in Lutheran Perspective: Much to Offer. Much toLearn." Word and World 18. no. 1 (Winter 1998): 72.

11 Mike Higton, Difficult Gospel: The Theology of Rowan Williams (New York:Church Publishing, 2004). 9-10.

268 Anglican Theological ReviewIt is precisely this gospel, which equafly chaflenges and graces thisworld, that stands as a pubHc standard for the inner working of theSpirit in the lives of the faithful and unfaithful aHke.

Rowan Williams's Spiritual Theology

As Higton has already indicated, since WilHams refuses to estab-Hsh boundaries, it is difflcult to isolate WilHams's "spiritual theology"in any one book or essay. He tends to alternate between three distinctmodes in his theological writing, modes that he calls "celebratory,communicative and critical styles."^^ Celebratory theology is the first-order language of prayer, sermons, hymns, and theology that seeks toinspire the reader to encounter God. Communicative theology seeksto reveal more of the gospel and the human encounter with the divineby forging new metaphors and images in conversation with other en-vironments of expression (psychoanalysis, gender studies, and so on).Critical theology can either seek to radicafly revise the tradition (alongagonistic or nihiHstic Hnes) or it can serve to destabiHze ossified andhierarchical ways of thinking and affirm the "essential restlessness"at the eschatological heart of the gospel. WilHams's theology tendstoward celebratory and critical modes, but it is also communicativein nature.

As one might expect, his spiritual theology is generafly exhibitedin celebratory mode, but it is present at all levels of his theology. Intracing the form of WflHams's spiritual theology the definitive locus isThe Wound of Knowledge, his volume on Christian spirituaHty fromthe New Testament to Saint John of the Cross. But before engag-ing his interpretation of the grand tradition, I beHeve it is necessaryto frame that study through a later essay, "To Stand Where ChristStands."

In reflecting on what Hfe in the Spirit means in the Christian tra-dition, WilHams suggests that the "spiritual enterprise . . . is insepa-rable from the task of occupying a certain sort of place, grasping in acertain way where and who you are." This place, as one might imag-ine, is tied to the historical story and identity of particular people whohave continuously united around Jesus. So for WilHams, spirituaHty isabove afl embodied in our standing in the place where Christ stands:"We stand where Jesus stands as Christian beHevers and pray as Jesus

WilHams, On Christian Theology, xiii.


prays; and in standing in that place before Cod as 'Abba,' we shareequally in Jesus' directedness towards the good and the heahng of theworld."^ "^ Occupying this place means that we five into the fullness ofChrist's and our own humanity and follow his example, hving a hfemarked for others. Living in the midst of this place means eradicat-ing all boundaries that divide us and divesting ourselves of desirouscompetition or mimetic rivalry. ^^ Occupying this space, however, isnot merely a work of human volition or agency; nor is it an individual-istic and moralist project seeking to recreate Christ's perfect example.The abihty to occupy Christ's place is the work of the Spirit "drawingout of us what we did not know we desired" and directing our desiretoward Cod: "Life in the Spirit is hfe that is decisively free from theobsessions of self-justification, since the place of Jesus is the place ofthe one whom the Father has eternally said Yes to; there is no needto negotiate for space of argue for favour and privilege, as it is alwaysalready given to and through Jesus."^^

For Wilhams, spirituahty is inextricably tied to the body ofChristboth the historical life of the person Jesus and the livingchurch which constitutes his body.^ ^ For him, spirituahty or spiritualtheology is essentially "about what it is for a whole human hfe to behving in the 'place' defined by Jesus."^^ Employing the spatial con-ceptthe place defined by Christmakes it easier to discem themovements of Wilhams's spiritual theology.

In elucidating what he means by "standing in the place of Christ,"Wilhams makes constant reference to other spiritual thinkers and con-templatives in the Christian tradition. Both in this fragmentary essayand in the larger survey. The Wound of Knowledge, as well as in hisTeresa of Avila, Williams's spiritual theology emerges in conversationwith the Cappadocians, Saint Augustine, the scholastics, and the re-formers, among many others. Ruperi Shortt underscores this same

13 Williams, "To Stand Where Ghrist Stands," 2.I"* See Rowan WiUiams, "Girard on Violence, Society and the Sacred," in Rowan

Williams, Wrestling with Angels: Conversations in Modem Theology, ed. Mike Hig-ton (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2007), 171-185.

15 Williams, "To Stand Where Ghrist Stands," 2-3.1^ It is vitally important to Williams that these two manifestations of Ghrist's body

be kept distinct so that the church does not usurp the agency of Jesus^who bodilyascended. See "Between the Gherubim: The Empty Tomb and the Empty Throne,"in On Christian Theology, 183-196.

" Williams, "To Stand Where Ghrist Stands," 3.

270 Anglican Theological Reviewpoint in his biography of WilHams when he writes, "The Desert Fa-thers, Meister Eckhart, St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Crossspeak not only to him, but for him."^^ Indeed, we gain insight into bothWilHams's spiritual theology and his own spirituaHty by foflowing theseconversations. At times it is difficult to discem whose theology is beingexpHcated. Are we reading about Bemard of Clairvaux's theology orWilHams's? Luther's or WilHams's? The answer, of course, is yes.

By attending to the motif of the locus of Christ, I propose, we areable to tease out three characterizations of WilHams's spiritual theol-ogy: (1) it is embodied or incamational; (2) it is pubHc and political innature; (3) it is purgative and progressive. As we might expect, thesethree characterizations are interconnected and flow from the samefountainheadthe Hfe of Christ Jesus. Despite their interconnected-ness I shafl treat them separately in seriatim.

(1) Theology that is embodied or incamationalThe very title of his book The Wound of Knowledge expresses Wfl-

Hams's understanding of spirituaHty as an embodied and incamationalpractice. The title underscores the woundedness that is manifest inChrist's body and secondarily in those who foflow after him and seekto know Christ, "sharing of his suffering by becoming Hke him in hisdeath" (Phil. 3:10). Accordingly, WilHams avers that the call to Chris-tian discipleship is unique in its "readiness to be questioned, judged,stripped naked and left speechless by that which Hes at the center offaith."^^ As Christians, each of us is called to risk afl of our incamateselves. As such, spiritual theology must pay attention to the body ofknowledge Hved out through the coundess saints who have gone onbefore, generation after generation, afl the way back to first-centuryPalestine. And yet, Christian spirituaHty does not "rest on past achieve-ment of vision, understanding, or knowledge" but is necessarily "ori-ented to the future . . . a 'future' that has appeared already." The past"future" that we are called to is, of course, instantiated and only madepossible "by the initiative of God in Hving out the typos of human Hfeoffering himself as a perfected gift and symbol of fleshly Hfe."^"

1^ Rupert Shortt, Rowan's Rule: The Biography of the Archbishop of Canterbury(Crand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2008), 151.

1^ Rowan WUliams, The Wound of Knowledge, second edition (Cambridge, Mass.:Cowley Publications, 1991), 11.

20 Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 31.


As indicated, this spiritual knowledge of Cod is only attainablethrough the biography of Jesus and discernable through our ownhistory and biography. In conversation with Paul, Ignatius, andIrenaeus, WilHams affirms that each "in their diverse ways, opens thepath to the sense of 'Christian biography,' the theological evaluationof how the work of Cod has united with human variety and contingencyin particular Hves."^ ^ In a sense, what WilHams is suggesting is thatspiritual knowledge and understanding come from placing our ownpersonal particular "biography" in the place of Christ's particular"biography." Thus, understanding is notfiing other than a standingunder the figure of Christ.

Spiritual theology avows that tme knowledge is never merelyintellectual or noetic but blended with the passions and the body.Citing the Alexandrian tradition embodied by Clement and Origen,WilHams underscores the eternal quaHty of Jesus' personhood as thedivine Logos. As the incarnate Word, Jesus became a physicalstatement of the divine word of love. The Spirit constantly beckons usto join in this divine word of love and to Hve "a Hfe that simply reflectsback to Cod with love Cod's own supremely active and unified naturein a harmony of love."^^ Another way of speaking of this is through thedoctrine of theosisJesus became human to enlarge humanity wideenough that Cod might enter, while simultaneously expandinghumanity and allowing it to enter into the divine perichoresis of theTriune Cod. Quoting Origen, WilHams locates the start of thisdivinization in "the inner wound of love."^'' This "wound of love" is aspark that sets our souls aHght and desiring after Cod. ThroughAugustine's spiritual autobiography. Confessions, WilHams shows howthis desire for Cod alone is able to provide and vouchsafe anymeaningful knowledge for humanity. He writes, "The confidence ofthe beHever never rests upon his intellectual grasp or his intellectualcontrol of his experience, but on the fideHty of the heart's longing towhat has been revealed as the only satisfying object of its desire."^ Itis only through Hfe in the Spirit that individuals find their knowledgeand rest in Cod.

21 Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 4 1 .22 Williams. "To Stand W h e r e Ghrist Stands," 4.23 Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 48.2^ Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 84.

272 Anglican Theological Review(2) Theology that is public and political in natureBiography is not only a means of coming to embodied knowledge

of God, it is also a means of making spirituafity pubhc and political.Against modem conceptuafizations of spirituafity as essentiafly a sub-jective, quietistic, and apolitical practice, Wilfiams argues that spiri-tuality is intrinsically political and pubfic. If spirituality is to occupythe place where Ghrist stands, it is necessarily pofitical, for Williamsconcludes, "where Christ is, must be where authority is to be found."^^The fife and death of Christ bear witness to the pofitical nature of histeaching and ministry. Crucified as a political dissident, Jesus' fife be-comes a model through which Christians bear witness with their ownlives to his authority.^^ Martyrdom is then emblematic of the place ofChrist, as it pubficly conveys his judgment upon the status quo of hu-man power relations where the first are first and the last are last. How-ever, citing the case of Ignatius and his own ecclesiological agenda toestabhsh the threefold order of ministry, Williams admits that this actcan itself be co-opted as part of a pofitical strategy. Nonetheless, thistoo is part of embodied faith that is lived out pubficly in the midst ofhuman sinfulness and contingency, but "a task perfected in grace."^^Because spirituafity is pubfic, it is always open to attestation and exami-nation. It serves to offer Cod's judgment on the world and to be judgedby the world. In other words, although authority resides where Christis and although we strive to be in the place where Christ is, humanity isessentially "where he [Christ] is not."^^ The hope and struggle of life inthe Spirit is paradoxical, for as Wilfiams concludes, "that place wherehe is not is also the place where he is bound to be as the lover or spouseof the created self "^ ^ Like a loving life-partner, Christ constantly sur-prises us and challenges us to grow into our full stature, purging thelesser parts of ourselves.

As the third-century persecution by the state waned, Christiansfound other ways to perform spiritual acts of revolt, but none more sig-nificant than the fiourishing of monasticism. Sacrificiafly withdrawing

25 Williams. "To Stand W h e r e Christ Stands." 8.2^ See Jacques Derrida 's interest ing discussion of tes t imony as mar tyrdom or au-

tobiographical sacrifice in Demeure: Fiction and Testimony (Stanford. CaBf.: Stan-ford University Press . 2000). Williams touches on the issue of test imony and trialin. among o ther places, Christ on Trial: How the Gospel Unsettles Our Judgement(Grand Rapids, Mich.: E e r d m a n s . 2003).

^'' Williams. The Wound of Knowledge, 30.28 Williams. "To Stand W h e r e Ghrist Stands." 9.29 Williams. "To Stand W h e r e Ghrist Stands," 9 -10 .


from the social order and their famihes, those who embraced thevowed Hfe of faith estabHshed discipHned soHtary and communitarianexpressions of Hfe in the Spirit. Submitting themselves to a mle of Hfededicated to prayer and poverty, these monastics sought to performthe same action enshrined in martyrdom. They denounced the state'ssuggestion that it could secure the place of Christ and faciHtate hisfollowers to occupy it. Their retreat from society was not retreat atall, but rather an attempt to "destroy the illusions" of self-sufficiencyapart from God.^ As such, Hke Jesus led into the wilderness, theycould not embark on their spiritual quest apart from the promptingof the Spirit.

(3) Theology that is purgative and progressiveAs the example of monasticism presents, Christians are called to

poHtical action through the renunciation of the world and its systemof valuation. To occupy the place where Christ stands, the Christianinitiates a Hfe that is attuned to a progressive process of purgation thatendeavors to bear the mark of Christ. According to WilHams, Hfe inthe Spirit takes as its end goal the knowledge of God "in conformity toGod," which is enacted by sharing God's own experience through "theexercise of crucifying compassion."'^ ^ This can be portrayed as the pro-cess of kenotic divestment of the self. WilHams writes, "The 'unselfing'involved in union with Christ's death is made real in the pubHc and so-cial world; the displacing of the ego becomes a giving 'place' to others,as God has given 'place' to all in his Son."''^ This process of "unselfing"is active purgation not only of "fleshly" comforts and conceits, but alsoof the temptation for willful, prideful control. Purgation plays an op-erative role: "growth cannot occur without the stripping of iflusion."-^ '^It is important to reaHze that this purgation does not simply clear theground so that grov^^h can occur, but rather it is a vehicle for spiritualgrowth itself. As WilHams affirms, "Knowledge of God is found onlythrough the practice of self-cmcifying service, in imitation of Christ."The spiritual quest for God is not satiated by some static understand-ing of God, but only through the continual participating in "what Godd ' ^

30 Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 105.31 Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 23 .32 Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 23.33 Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 108.3" Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 6 2 - 6 3 .

274 Anglican Theological ReviewPartners in the Conversation

Throughout The Wound of Knowledge and its historical study of"classical spirituahty," Williams brings to the table many saintly con-versation partners, each of whom embodies what it means to five inthe life of the Spirit and occupy the place the Christ occupies. Ulti-mately, Williams decides to conclude his survey with Saint John ofthe Cross, not because he is the last worthy conversation partner,but because his contribution to spiritual theology resists closure andpresents the wounded knowledge of God that Williams has been ad-vocating. In Saint John, the seeker finds himself contorted and con-formed the more he knows Cod. As WiUiams describes this process,"knowledge unifies; knowledge is participation, in which the knoweris molded to take the form of what is known." Accordingly, knowingspiritually is itself purgationa movement comprised by "strippingand simphfication."''^ For Williams, this stripping, unselfing, or self-forgetting is itself a participation in the divine act of a kenotic Cod,who is forever withdrawing in the divine self-giving. Purgation is amirroring of Cod's ovm purgation: "The nature of our participation inthe hfe of Cod is a participation in Cod's self-forgetting bUss."^^

Indicating why he closes the book with John of the Cross, Wil-hams underscores John's significant and poignant awareness "of theway in which spirituahty can be made an escape from Christ."^^ Whenspirituahty becomes a codified expression or experience it is ossifiedinto a veil that hides the presence of Christ. The quest of Cod re-quires constant purgationa continual dark night of the soul. Life inthe Spirit does not have, properly speaking, an endthe end is always"not yet" and the painful and "fmstrated longing for homecoming, thejoumey's end is, unavoidable." And yet, it is through this "fmstrated"longing that we are perfected and formed in Cod's self-giving nature.As Williams suggests, "in the middle of the fire we are healed andrestoredthough never taken out of it.""'*

35 Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 176.^ Rowan Williams, "Greation, Greativity and Greatureliness: The Wisdom of Fi-

nite Existence," lecture given at the St. Theosevia Gentre for Ghristian Spirituality,Oxford, on April 23, 2005; http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2106/creation-creativity-and-creatureliness-the-wisdom-of-finite-existence.

3^ Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 189.38 Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 190-191.


Although he concludes The Wound of Knowledge with Saint John,he could have more fully included Teresa of Avila, who positively re-fracts this dark night into the language of friendship. Perhaps that iswhy WilHams found it necessary to engage Teresa in a book-lengthstudy, in which he encourages us to follow Teresa's example:

We must, in Teresa's language, simultaneously learn friendshipwith God and each other; and that process involves becomingstrangers to ourselves or ourselves as we have conceived and con-structed ourselves. We must become strangers to the tyranniesof honour and dignity: the ascetic life in a community of equalsinitiates this process, and teaches us a new solidarity with the dis-possessed and powerless.^^

Teresa's reminder of the importance of community is essential. Life inthe Spirit is never a private joumey, but one Hved out in community.Participation in the self-giving of the Triune God is a cafl to self-givingin community. The purging that Teresa describes happens within thechurch, for "the church is the place where selfless service is learned,in the daily mb of communal Hfe."^"

As I have presented WilHams's spiritual theology, three princi-ples characterize the Ghristian's endeavor to stand in the place whereChrist stands: (1) it is embodied or incamational; (2) it is pubHc andpoHtical in nature; (3) it is purgative and progressive. Occupying thisplace necessitates a pubHc/poHtical outworldng of an incamationaland embodied indwelHng of the Spirit in the Hfe of the beHever that isprogressively refined and purged to better reflect the loving exampleof Jesus Christ. These same three principles characterize his techni-cal and academic theology. I wifl now present several examples whereWilHams embraces these spiritual traits in the course of his academicarguments, which are in themselves an outworking of his own spiritu-ality and love for God.

Systematically Spiritual

Among the nearly twenty essays that comprise On Christian The-ology, the topic of the Spirit and spirituaHty occur frequently, which isnot particularly surprising, as any doctrinal account of theology ought

39 Rowan Williams, Teresa of Avila (London: Continuum, 1991), 207."0 Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 26.

276 Anglican Theological Reviewto reflect on the third member of tlie Trinity and its activity in the Hfeof the church. Civen that, as WilHams himself indicates, systematictheology is "properly inseparable" from spirituaHty, the reader shouldexpect his pneumatological procHvities.'*^ What is particularly illumi-nating in WilHams's academic essays is the manner in which he opensroom for the Spirit and even encourages the reader to join him inwhat he would call "celebratory theology." He "solves" complex theo-logical problems by reminding us that theology is a spiritual practice.As I have suggested, this movement is part of WilHams's own spiritu-aHty and part of his substrate mystagogical project. In what follows, Iwill underscore these movements by citing instances where WiUiamsemploys those three manifestations of his spiritual theology.

In perhaps a paradigmatically self-effacing movement, WilHamsis careful not to overplay the themes of incarnation or embodiment inthis theology, even though they are at its core. He is careful because"AngHcan tlieology, with its long-standing enthusiasm about the incar-national principle, has often risked [using] . . . the image of incarna-tion, the fusion of heaven and earth, the spiritualizing of matter . . .[as a] wonderfully resourceful tool for making sense of a sacramentalcommunity with a social conscience and a cultural homeland."^^ Thisideological employment of the incarnational theme threatens to ob-scure the true message of Cod's incarnation in Jesus Christ, which,for WilHams, is the paschal mystery. It is the mystery of a Cod whois wilHng to risk ultimate vulnerabiHty that secures meaning for ourown embodied nature, or as WilHams frames it, Jesus is the "meaningof meaning": "He is vulnerable, says the story, in spirit and flesh tothe ways in which human beings Hke you and me betray and kill eachother in spirit and flesh."^"'

For WilHams, the embodiment of our faith and spirituaHty isthe embodiment of Jesus. Who we are as a species is tied up in whoJesus is as a person. This understanding is communicated throughthe sacraments and rooted in Christ's own embodiment: "Jesus, bap-tized, tempted, forgiving and heaHng, offering himself as the meansof a new covenant, is himself'sacrament.'" WilHams uses this under-standing to redirect "weary controversies" in sacramental theology,suggesting that it does not matter "what Cod does" or "what we do"

"1 Williams. The Wound of Knowledge, 189."2 Williams. On Christian Theology, 85."3 Williams. On Christian Theology, 93. 90.


in sacramental actions. He reminds us that the sacraments are per-formed in obedience to Jesus Christ, "by those already caught up inCod's work," actively opening themselves up to receive.^

In this meditation on the sacramental nature of Christ's incarna-tion and our own embodiment in relationship to it, WilHams is ableto underscore the sacramental nature of creation. WilHams's spiritualsensibiHties are able to take complex theological concems and remindus that ultimately the "Spirit is active where broken flesh and shedblood become the sign and promise of human wholeness and unionwith the Father."^^ As we encounter the sacraments in the church orrefracted in creation, we encounter Christ and the mystery of our em-bodiment. Specificafly in the Eucharist, we receive Jesus' own bodybroken for us; we receive it and it redeems our own embodied andbroken existence. Through the sacraments we stand in the place thatChrist standsin our human frailty exhibiting the divine vulnerabil-ity. In being united with Christ, we are united with Cod and the pro-cess of divinization continues.

This embodied existence, Christian Hfe, and activity of thechurchas an extension of Jesus' own Hfe and messageis intrin-sically pubHc and poHtical. In WilHams's theology, this dimension isframed around the central metaphor of judgment, which containsmany registers and connotations but is chiefly reflective of the humanpropensity to evaluate concrete and particular situations, discem thegood, and conduct transformative action. In other words, judgment isabove all a means of conversation"a complex process of interaction"that leads to conversion and transformation.^^ The transformative goalof judgment is the reaHzation that the human community finds its trueidentity in Hght of the Hfe and ministry of Jesus Christ. Judgment isnot about condemnation, but rather the acceptance of our creaturelyvulnerabiHty and the progressive rvaluation of human notions ofpower. In accepting judgmentin accepting our vulnerabiHty^weparticipate in the divine Hfe-giving, self-giving expression of abundantHfe manifest in Christ Jesus. As Paul wrote, "But God chose what isfooHsh in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in theworld to shame the strong" (1 Cor. 1:27). Ultimately, WilHams sug-gests that the Christian message requires an expression of openness:

Williams, On Christian Theology, 204-205.Wilhams, On Christian Theology, 124.Wilhams, On Christian Theology, 32.

278 Anglican Theological Review"Cood doctrine teaches silence, watchfulness and the expectation ofthe Spirit's drastic appearance in judgment, recognition, conversion,for us and for the whole world."^^

Being open to the judgment of the "world" is one way in whichthose who find their ultimate meaning in Jesus begin the process ofpurgation. WilHams is also keenly attuned to the means through whichtheology, Hke any human discourse, is prone to ideological co-optationand political maneuvering. In his view the role of the theologian istwofold: (1) to be judged by the gospel and the tradition that emergesfrom it, and (2) to judge the tradition. Therefore the theological en-terprise requires a posture of opennessopenness to criticism of thegospel, the self, and the other WilHams uses the practice of contem-plation to illustrate this posture: "Contemplation . . . is a deeper ap-propriation of the vulnerabiHty of the self in the midst of the languageand transactions of the world; it identifies the real damaging patholo-gies of human Hfe, our violent obsessions with privilege, control andachievement, as arising from the refusal to know and love oneself asa creature, a body."^^ Such openness in systematic theology is quitedistinct. Ceoffrey Wainwright lauds Williams for his innovative ap-proach to systematic theology, calHng him an advocate of an "opensystem," suggesting that WilHams is "happier vidth narrative than withsystem."^^ While this is one way of characterizing his theology, if de-cidedly intellectual in orientation, I beHeve that it is better to speak ofWilHams's resistance to closure as a manifestation of his spiritual andtheological suppori of purgation.

As we have already indicated, the study of spirituaHty throughWilHams's theology requires our self-impHcation in the task. So theideological purgation of the theological enterprise is also a personalpurgation. WilHams affirms the role that purgation plays in freeing usto encounter Cod: "There is indeed a sense in which we meet Cod inemptiness and silence, in the void of Cood Friday and Holy Saturday,in the darkening of sense and spirit in prayer" Yet he holds this senti-ment in tension vwth our embodied encounter with the divine: "Butwe should not allow the weighty and important language of 'Cod atwork in nothingness' to deceive us into thinking that Cood Friday is

*'' Williams. On Christian Theology, 43."s Williams. On Christian Theology, 12.^^ Geoffrey Wainwright. "Rowan Williams on Ghristian Doctrine," Scottish Jour-

nal of Theology 56. no. 1 (2003): 73.


not history or that the soul in the night of contemplation ceases to bebound up in its material creaturehood."^^ And in this tensionor per-haps juxtaposition^we have a picture of WilHams's spiritual theologyHved out, never ceasing to be critical of human motivation for self-deception, and yet rejoicing in Cod's self-forgetting and self-effacingwork in redeeming incarnate and creaturely existence by becomingvulnerable with it.

And with that, we witness the dance of WilHams's mystagogy:from embodiment to judgment to purgation. Like the dance of theTrinity, WilHams's spiritual theology beckons us to join the dance topurge ourselves of our own self-interests, to embrace our own vulner-able creatureHness, and to open ourselves to the judgment of the gos-pel. At the Spirit's behest, this continual movement flnds us occupyingthe place where Christ resides.

Conclusion

In my engagement with the theology of Rowan WilHams, I havebeen making one overarching point: in the various topics and differ-ing styles of his theology, WilHams is forever inviting and enticing thereader to stand more fufly in the place where Christ stands. As hehimself engages in conversation with the saints Hving and those whohave gone on before, WilHams invites us to converseto enter theconversation not only at an intellectual level, but with our Hves. Inhis preface to Love's Redeeming Work, the magnificent genealogy ofAngHcan theology and discourse WilHams edited with Geoffrey Row-ell and Kenneth Stevenson, WilHams vwites: "The hope of the edi-tors is that this book will be not only a tool for study but what earHerChristian generations called an encheiridiona handbook for faith-ful Hving, a resource for vwsdom in leading an intelHgent, humble,and grateful Hfe of discipleship."^^ I would suggest that we let thisstatement speak for all of WilHams's theology. May we, following theexample of Rowan WilHams and afl of God's saints, flnd our desire forGod kindled and be moved to seek "the knowledge of God throughthe practice of self-cmcifying service, in imitation of Christ."^^

5" Williams, On Christian Theology, 207.51 Ceoffrey RoweU, Kenneth Stevenson, and Rowan Williams, Love's Redeeming

Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001),xiii.

52 Wilhams, The Wound of Knowledge, 62.

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