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One of the things that Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is known for, is a passion (and considerable expertise) for Dostoevsky. The author was actually the subject of his sabattical studies, and his fascination with the Russian novelist drew an article from Andrew Brown at the Guardian. I was particularly taken by the following quote, given the current power struggles and pain in the Anglican synod (last week, for example, saw a rather dirty attempted power-grab attempt from the Evangelical grouping Reform over the issue of women bishops).
The Inquisitor upbraids Christ for refusing all three of the temptations that Satan (“The terrible and wise spirit”) offered him in the wilderness: the power to make bread from stones; the power to perform miracles at will; and simple, political power.
In this, it seems to me that Rowan Williams is genuinely a follower of Dostoevsky’s Christ. Christ does not, after all, abolish these powers merely because he refuses them for themselves. They remain in the world. Science, as Dostoevsky says explicitly, performs the miracles. The powers that Christ refused are exercised by everyone today by modern science, by political bodies, and by most Christian bodies. Just like the Grand Inquisitor, they all think Jesus was wrong to refuse the devil’s offer.
The Anglican Communion contains a majority of primates who take a Grand Inquisitor’s view of politics; and some who would be happy to hand over heretics or at least homosexuals to the secular arm for punishment; some who encourage the belief that they can perform miracles, more or less, when their people need it; and plenty who use or threaten to use the power of money and modern science to expand their client base.
Rowan Williams, like Christ, renounces these powers; but when an Archbishop renounces powers he does not abolish them, he hands them to his enemies. Like Christ in the parable, Rowan’s response to the Grand Inquisitors of the world is to kiss them on their bloodless lips and then slip out into darkness and obscurity through the door they have held open for him. When Christ kisses him, the inquisitor is touched in his heart but his beliefs and his actions do not change. Fresh heretics will burn when morning comes.
I think, amongst many other of his excellent characteristics, it is this knowledge of the nature and dangers of power that makes the Archbishop such an excellent leader for the current crisis.
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