Rector’s Reflections
Thursday 14th November 2024
Thy Kingdom Come, O God
Apologies that this didn’t go out yesterday.
On Tuesday I considered the argument that considers the whole concept of the “kingdom of God” to be outdated in today’s world. In the modern world, we usually look to the State as the main provider of effective and efficient interventions in areas of social need – which assumes, of course, that we are living in a country which has a functioning and well-resourced State bureaucracy. Not every country enjoys this blessing.
There is a further feature of the modern world which raises questions about the wider validity of the “Kingdom of God”. Our modern world is multi-cultural and multi-faith. Why should a Christian concept such as the “Kingdom of God” be allowed to inhabit the public sphere? Why should the adherents of one particular religion or culture tell other people what they should be doing and why they should be doing it?
There are two aspects to this position. The first is the religious aspect. In the days when most people in a country were Christian, and when the State itself was officially Christian, it could be argued that it made sense to talk about the Kingdom of God. This is sometimes called the era of Christendom, which, as far as Europe was concerned, began in the 4th century AD and lasted until approximately the 18th and 19th centuries. We are no longer in the era of Christendom. In our country, there are a few curious leftovers from the era of Christendom, such as the Established nature of the Church of England, but the whole idea that Christians should be ordering everyone around is a relic from a bygone age. For that is what the concept of the Kingdom of God might well look like to a non-Christian or to an Atheist. Why should a Christian have the right to impose their own ideology on non-Christians?
The second aspect is a cultural one. The concept and application of “the Kingdom of God” is full of cultural assumptions. For example, if one believes that it is right for females to have full access to education and opportunities to work outside the home (and personally, I do believe this is right), then work to promote equal equality can be considered to be work promoting the Kingdom of God. But what if one starts with a different cultural assumption about the role of women in society?
I should also add that while it is very easy to talk about “poverty” and “injustice”, it is hard if not impossible to come up with a universally agreed definition of what “poverty” is or what precisely constitutes “injustice”. So much depends on our assumptions about how things ought to be, and our own assumptions in turn tend to depend on our own experiences and our thoughts and feelings about what is culturally appropriate.
I should add that abstract concepts such as “poverty” and “injustice” can be used by those with power to control and even exploit the less powerful. For example, it is very easy for a highly trained, and well paid, middle class professional to talk about serving the needs of the “poor” and about seeking to eradicate “the scourge of poverty”, without any meaningful engagement with at least some of the diverse individuals who make up “the poor”. The use of general words such as “poverty” and “injustice” can be helpful, but it can also lead to a failure to recognise that every individual is unique and every situation is different.
So there would be those who would argue that the concept of the Kingdom of God just isn’t appropriate for a post Christendom age. Our society is multi-cultural and multi-faith, so why should Christians be telling non-Christians how they should live their lives?
Of course, Christians might argue that there is nothing wrong in sharing Christian perspectives with non-Christians. If we believe that the fulness of truth lies in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, what’s wrong with sharing some of this truth with others? And after all, the Kingdom of God is all about trying to make our world a better place, and surely this is a goal on which everyone would agree. The issues faced by our world are complex, and so we need a diversity of approaches and perspectives. Surely, even in this post Christendom world, there must be an opportunity for Christians to share their particular thoughts and wisdom?
What do you think? Does the language of the Kingdom of God still make sense, or does it sound old-fashioned and arrogant in our modern world?