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Church, The Far Right, and The Claim to Christianity

Church, The Far Right, and The Claim to Christianity

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Paperback / softback

£25.00

Publisher: SCM Press
ISBN: 9780334065494
Number of Pages: 192
Published: 30/08/2024
Width: 15.6 cm
Height: 23.4 cm

In 2015 the United Kingdom Independence Party published a ‘Christian Manifesto’ in preparation for the general elections, with the title Valuing our Christian Heritage. In 2014, the far-right organisation Britain First invaded mosques across the UK with army-issued Bibles. The intruders called it a ‘Christian crusade’. More recently they have released a film of themselves invading so-called ‘migrant hotels’ to hassle the residents there. In recent years in the UK the public resistance offered to far-right rhetoric from official church sources has been rather wan. Likewise, there is a dearth of resources offering constructive ways for the church to respond to hate crime or racial tension in their area. This book seeks to step into this gap. This volume brings together perspectives from theologians, church practitioners, and leading voices to respond to reflect on how the church has responded to the rise in far right thinking in UK society, and to ask how it could respond better. With a foreword by David Gushee

Foreword – David Gushee Introduction – Helen Paynter From the coal-face 1 A Norwegian perspective Steinar Ims 2 From prejudice to pride - towards an organized anti racist community Henrik Frykberg 3 Putting the Semantic Struggle into Practice: A Response to Steinar Ims and Henrik Frykberg. Hannah Strømmen and Ulrich Schmiedel The Interfaith perspective 4 A Lebanese Perspective on Religion-Inspired Political Extremism. Martin Accad 5 Beyond the Far Right: 'Respectable racism' and British Muslims Shenaz Bunglawara 6 Contextualizing the Claim to Christianity: A Response to Martin Accad and Shenaz Bunglawala Hannah Strømmen and Ulrich Schmiedel Politics of the Far Right and the Church 7 Encountering and Countering the Far Right in Britain Today James Crossley 8 ‘Stop waving crosses around and making them a symbol of hate’: Localised Christian Responses to the Populist Radical Right in the UK William Allchorn 9 Probing Challenges and Chances in UK Politics: A Response to James Crossley and William Allchorn Hannah Strømmen and Ulrich Schmiedel Christian Theologians Respond 10 The ‘semantic struggle’ against the Christian Far Right: Learning from the Good Samaritan Nick Spencer 11 Challenging Far Right Claims to Christianity: A Northern Irish Perspective Chris Wilson 12 Taking Theology out of the Trap: A Response to Nick Spencer and Chris Wilson. Hannah Strømmen and Ulrich Schmiedel Conclusion The church, the far right, and the claim to Christianity: Towards some recommendations. Helen Paynter Afterword: Lived Theology. Hannah Strømmen and Ulrich Schmiedel

Helen Paynter, Maria Power

Helen Paynter is Director of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence, and Coordinator of Theological Education. She is the author of numerous titles, among them and Telling Terror in Judges 19. Maria Power is a Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford where she a Senior Research Fellow in Human Dignity at the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice. 

Much has been written on the use of Christian tropes by far-right extremists, from cross burnings going back decades to more recent adoption of Crusader themes by “lone wolf” terrorists. This research is vital, but usually neglects Christian responses to this ongoing appropriation. This too has a venerable history but is rarely addressed; and almost never via a scholarly framework. The Church, the Far Right, and the Claim to Christianity makes clear that churches of all denominations are not without agency in countering this cynical embrace of Christianity. Such a volume is both overdue and massively welcome, particularly in the context of a “post-Christian” Britain – one arguably still coming to terms with just what that entails. In exploring just what such Christian agency entails, and how it might motivate Christian action against far-right appropriations of Christianity, Paynter and Power take direct aim at this fraught subject with great sensitivity and insight. Across a dozen robust chapters addressing this issue, we hear from theologians and clerics, interfaith activists and peacebuilders, scholars and educators. While their findings are varied and nuanced, ranging across timely themes including interfaith collaboration and practitioner experiences, a chorus nevertheless emerges over the course of this edited collection. Its refrain is powerfully captured in the conclusion to this volume: Christians need to face up to the seriousness of this problem, engage in genuine spiritual reflection; and be both ‘bold truth-tellers, standing up unashamedly for the cause of all who are marginalized’ and ‘gracious dialogue partners’ instead of demoni[zing] those we disagree with’. These are wise words in a wise volume, which deserves a wide readership amongst Christians and, indeed, all those concerned about far-right visibility today in Britain – and beyond. -- Matthew Feldman

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