The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali seen here speaking at GAFCON in Jerusalem, 24 June 2008
(Reuters)
The values that underpin a flourishing society can only have true meaning if they are rooted in Jesus Christ, says the Bishop of Rochester.
“I have been trying to remind this nation of how all that is of worth in it is based on Christianity,” said the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali at CWR’s “Jesus in a Plural World” event on Thursday.
“The result of amnesia in this respect would be absolutely disastrous” for Britain, he added.
The Bishop argued that values like tolerance and respect had become what he called “thin values”, values that appeal to the lowest common denominator but are not specific enough for people to truly live by.
“In fact, the values we need to live by need to be ‘thick’ values,” he said.
Values such as human dignity, equality and liberty were ‘thick’, he said, because they are rooted in Christianity and can not be detached from the biblical teaching that all human beings are made in the image of God.
“There is an appeal to a transcendental principle from the Bible that we are made in the image of God. That must be the basis for thinking about human dignity. There can be no other basis upon which we can think about human dignity,” said the Bishop.
He added, “It becomes a Christological issue because we cannot know the image of God without looking at Jesus.”
Bishop Nazir-Ali urged Christians not to bend to the latest cultural trends.
“Christianity should not be swayed by the Hazel Blears philosophy that all religions are the same,” he said, referring to the Communities Secretary, a practising Christian who rejected the Bishop’s claim earlier in the year that Islamic extremism is turning parts of Britain into no-go areas.
Anglicans were guilty in particular, he said, at compromising on their faith before society.
“There is an inherent tendency in Anglicanism to capitulate to culture and we need to correct it,” he said.
“However we relate to culture we cannot compromise God’s purpose as He has revealed it for this His world.”
Part of maintaining Christ’s uniqueness in a plural world lies in understanding sacrifice and the atonement, he said, referring to scholarly studies that profess a belief in sacrifice as a means to restore harmony in times of social disarray.
“When we think of Jesus and His work, we have to think of this sacrifice as a necessary sacrifice by God for the restoration of that harmony, that peace that has been broken and lost. Jesus Christ understood His work in these terms,” he said.
Turning to the debate among Christians on penal substitution, Bishop Nazir-Ali said that Christians needed “robustly objective” views of the atonement to truly understand its significance.
“Was a father abusing his child? That is not the point at all. The point is that Jesus by standing in our place turns away God’s anger at man’s sinfulness,” he argued.
Bishop Nazir-Ali remained optimistic about the prospects for mission, saying that society had not lost its respect for the teachings of Jesus.
“There is a kind of vague sense about Jesus even with people hostile to Christianity and the church. There is a sense that He said something valuable even for us today.”
He ended his address by reminding Christians of the continuous work of the Holy Spirit around the world in bringing people to salvation in Christ.
“God has hope in them just He has in us,” he said. “The Good News can make sense for them just as it has for us.”
