On my way to Swanwick to speak to the Southwark Diocesan Clergy Conference on the wonders and delights of blogging for fun and profit (actually, the use of blogging for pastoral care and education). Shall I tell them that London Diocese has positioned tanks on Tower Bridge?

… and by the man who wrote the blurb on the back of the book, no less!

…in this calm summer time one of the good things which happens to me is that I get sent new books from church publishers for review or even with the invitation to write commending comments on the back cover.

One such recently was called ‘If you meet George Herbert on the way – be sure to assassinate him’. George Herbert was a courtier, priest and poet in the Seventeenth Century who wrote a classic handbook for the local pastorally-minded clergyperson called ‘A priest to the temple’. We need to revisit priesthood but I did not take to this book and wrote a few grudging lines for the back page full of double meaning for the reader to interpret. The publishers just edited them so that they read like a glowing commendation! Just like the theatre billboards which read Astonishing, Ground breaking or Sensational – but which could equally be code for Challenging, Awful or Unbelievable.

I really have made it. I’m being denounced from pulpits.¹

<stewie griffin voice>How thrilling!</stewie griffin voice>

1. and did you like the endearing way he forgot the title of the book, to boot! [↩]

… this time from Portsmouth Cathedral’s Newsletter.

If you buy books purely for their title, this is irresistible. Justin Lewis-Anthony delivers a brisk demolition of the George Herbert myth, before launching into an assessment of what modern ministry needs.

His initial thesis, occupying one-third of his volume, is that most George Herbert propaganda is inaccurate and what remains is irrelevant to today’s ministerial milieu. The true subject lies in his sub-title Radically rethinking priestly ministry. So this is less a book about George Herbert than about the challenges facing the priest in today’s Church. The author proposes three images of the priest; as Witness, Watchman and Weaver, before developing his methodology, expressed as five pillars in support of  self-knowledge, parish-knowledge and skills-knowledge.

Arguing skilfully, Justin Lewis-Anthony plumbs a plethora of sources, frequently featuring Michael Ramsey, John Howard Yoder, Rowan Williams and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and deploys anecdotal evidence to pleasing effect. If you meet George Herbert on the Road, Kill Him is supported by foot-notes, an extensive bibliography and comprehensive index. Justin Lewis-Anthony entitles his final chapter ‘Standing by Herbert’s Grave’, but stops short of dancing on it.

At a friend’s ordination recently, the preacher beatified Bemerton’s brightest; dare we recommend this book to our friend?

If You Meet George Herbert on the Road, Kill Him received its first journal review today, in the Catholic Herald. Along with some very kind words, Jonathan Wright (my new best friend) has given an excellent summary, of both the book and what I am trying to achieve by writing it.

Under the headline The Cult of Nice, Wright says:

Fear not. Despite his book’s eye-catching title, Lewis-Anthony doesn’t hate George Herbert. He’s actually quite fond of him, especially his poems. What he detests is the way in which Herbert’s legacy has been abused over the past 350 years in order to cultivate a paradigm of ministry that has long since become redundant. Some Church of England vicars still try to live up to the romanticised (historically exaggerated) image of Herbert as the beloved, conscientious minister, living in a bucolic idyll, being all things to all men. It is this phantom Herbert that Lewis-Anthony wants to slay. I’d be happy to join the execution squad.

I’m glad that my true attitude to George Herbert (the person) has come over so clearly. That has not always been the reaction to the speaking and writing I have done on the subject in the past year (some of the comments in Thinking Anglicans were particularly unthoughtful in that regard).

Modesty forbids me from quoting the adjectives in Wright’s review (oh well, if you insist: “compelling”, “wonderful”, “apt”, “witty”, “well-intentioned”, “sophisticated”), but my son especially like the way the review finishes:

…the Church of England is fortunate to have such a bold, idol-smashing thinker within its ranks.

Ahem! <embarrassed cough>

Please go and read it all.

And the prize for the most unexpected news item, goes to BBC News online for the stunning revelation that Jerusalem is quite old.

Ancient wall found in Jerusalem.

I gave up trying to blog the experiences of Greenbelt as I was experiencing them… there was just too much going on, and too many people (friends old and new) to meet.

However, I will try to summarise my experiences in a post later this week, when I am no longer sitting in a field in Gloucestershire. In the meantime, you might be interested to learn that Being Human with Hieronymus Bosch is available as an MP3 download from the Talks Shop (proceeds to the support of Greenbelt).