Search results
grief when confronted by concentration camps and nuclear weapons. Instead McCabe argues that the biblical view is that though we cannot now write a history of humankind we must live in the hope that in the end such a history can be written (112–13). However fragmented the human race may be, a people have been called into the world to sustain the hope for a common destiny (113).32 The Bible, at least after the first eleven chapters of Genesis, does not try to be a history of humankind, but rather tells the story of a people whose history is a sacrament of the history of
day of the first Parliament thereafter, or at the coronation, that he was a faithful Protestant – a measure designed to ensure that no Roman Catholic could come to the throne. The precise terminology of the oath was as follows: I doe solemnely and sincerely in the presence of God professe testifie and declare that I do believe that in the sacrament of the Lords Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever; and that the invocation or
return of the nation to God’ with daily prayers, attendance at church on Sunday and encouragement of displays of ‘Christian witness’ in everyday life. ‘At a time when the Church was reasserting its marriage laws with some vehemence, the Archbishop might be required to administer the sacrament of holy communion to a man, married, or about to be married to a person who had twice divorced her husband, such a surrender would shake the foundations of the Church’s influence and teaching’ (Lockhart 1949: 397–8, 410). Not only would the new King’s personal behaviour offend the
interests or promote particular faith-based agendas, such actions are generally very much subordinate to their goal of preaching the gospel, celebrating the sacraments, encouraging prayer and spirituality, and generally caring for the ‘spiritual needs’ of their flock. From this perspective, the form of government is largely secondary so long as it does not impinge upon the ‘free exercise’ of religious belief and practice, though most Christian churches in the ‘West’ have come to recognise that democracy in some shape or form provides the best conditions for their survival
. Believing itself to be the unique means of human salvation, it must insist on its right to teach, proselytise and administer its sacraments. The exact nature of the temporal regime in any one country remains secondary to these basic objectives. 7 Whilst this in theory allowed the Church to adapt to any political regime, prior to 1945 the predominant regime type in the world was authoritarian, so religious organisations in general, and the Catholic Church in particular, found themselves siding with such regimes despite occasional challenges from