Bishop Robinson Honest To God
In addition it articulated the anxieties of a generation who saw these traditional fundamentals as no longer acceptable or necessarily credible.
Bishop robinson honest to god. Robinson criticising traditional christian theology. Bishop john robinson s honest to god 1963 may be judged as a bombshell that blew the roof off the church not because it introduced original thinking but because it brought to unsuspecting. Robinson s own evaluation of honest to god found in his subsequent book exploration into god stated that the chief contribution of this book was its successful synthesis of the work. Originally published in 1963 honest to god ignited passionate debate about the nature of christian belief and doctrine in the white heat of a secular revolution.
Honest to god is the work that catapulted bishop john a. As bishop of woolwich robinson soon discovered that the church of england had been marginalized in post war britain. Robinson had already achieved notoriety by his defence of the publication of lady chatterley s lover. The death of god.
November 7 2012 in this extract from honest to god pages 119 121 we can see the similarities between robinson s views in honest to god and fletcher s views in situation ethics. It aroused a storm of controversy on its original publication by scm press in 1963. In honest to god robinson presented god as that which is the ground of our being coining paul tillich s phrase. Honest to god is a book written by the anglican bishop of woolwich john a t.
John robinson challenges us again to be bold and honest in confronting the forces of fear and reaction that have hijacked religion in our day. 32 quotes robinson approvingly on the place of tradition in ethics to make the point that situation ethics doesn t despise tradition. Robinson from the ranks of obscure anglican scholar to theological fame in great britain and throughout the anglican communion. Bishop john robinson s honest to god 1963 may be judged as a bombshell that blew the roof off the church not because it introduced original thinking but because it brought to unsuspecting people in the pews some knowledge of the developments that had been taking place for quite some time in academic.
However the work of robinson in honest to god provided a departure point which would be followed up in the writings of the radical theologians don cupitt and john shelby spong and in the 1977 symposium the myth of god incarnate edited by john hick. The gulf between the church and the secular world has widened considerably since honest to god first appeared in 1963.