winterbadger | an interesting thinker

I was reminded by someone the other day of Richard Holloway, retired Primus of the Anglican Church in Scotland and Bishop of Edinburgh. I knew of him through my sister Victoria, who was a friend of one of his daughters. Despite retiring from his bishopric, he is still active as a commentator and author. His view of religion and of the Christian Church is controversial and thought-provoking.

Some of his lectures:

http://homepages.which.net/~radical.faith/holloway/

[Edit]
Peter, this passage speaks to somethign you were saying just the other day in your journal, I think.

...there is something about Jesus and organised institutions that do not marry well. Let me explain.

Whenever any new vision of idea is born it requires a process to carry it through history. The process is invented to mediate the vision, to carry it through time. The great sociologist, Max Weber, called this process "the routinisation of charisma". The great, gifted, given thing, the charism, has to be embodied in a routine, whether it is a political party or a church.

Two related and unavoidable things happen in this process.

By definition, charisms cannot be perfectly routinised or institutionalised, so the very process which gives them continuing life also begins to kill them.

That is bad enough. What amplifies this process of corruption is that the people who are brought in to supervise the routine are usually more interested in the process than in the purpose or vision it is meant to serve. The process itself becomes fascinating, takes over, and you get the Church for Church's sake. So the protection and maintenance of the institution becomes the institution's primary purpose.

This happens to all institutions, but it is deeper and more tragic in the case of the Church than of other institutional compromises.

from http://homepages.which.net/~radical.faith/holloway/midrash.htm