Letting God be GodA few years ago Churches Together in England published a fascinating book entitled "Such a Feast". Through a series of short descriptions and personal testimonies it explored the diverse spirituality of English church life, and more than lived up to its title as it introduced a rich bill of fare to any less than fully informed reader.
But for the member of the United Reformed Church who turned to see what had been said about their own tradition, there was likely to be disappointment. Spiritual nourishment, we learned, came from Sunday worship and Bible study; and while there was reference to pastoral care and sound doctrine, there was little sense of our holding anything distinctive that might be recognised as a Reformed Spirituality.
It is likely that the vision at CTE will be broadened now as they welcome their new General Secretary: for just as he has laid down that same post in our own Church, David Cornick has published "Letting God be God", the latest volume in the DLT "Traditions of Christian Spirituality" series.
For any of us who wait to be convinced that spirituality is not just a slippery word to cover up the confusion of our contemporary scene, there is a helpful and challenging introductory section which stresses, not surprisingly, that the investigation that follows takes place within an ecumenical context. On the one hand, "the Reformed are inherently suspicious of human experience as a proper starting place for the theological enterprise" (and we are reminded of the minister who tells his younger colleague "Stop worrying about the state of your soul, and get on with the job God's given you to do"), while on the other hand two of the most influential Christian communities of the past century, Iona and Taizé, were founded by Reformed ministers.
The first chapter proper gives the kind of historical sweep that we value in David Cornick's writings: how long are we going to wait for a reprint of "Under God's Good Hand", one of the most useful books ever published about our own Church? This scene setting leads naturally into an exploration of the part traditionally played by worship and private prayer in nurturing the spirituality of the Reformed, as a listening people living with a speaking God. We are reminded of the richness of our heritage through references to earlier writers such as P T Forsyth and H H Farmer, as well as to Walter Brueggemann today. But we also discover that this is not just a historical excursus: "A measure of the Reformed's commitment to the Bible is the extent to which they disagree about it." More of that follows, allowing us to reflect on the author's insight that "It is all too easy to dismiss mere words, without realising that words shape everything, even in a visual age."
Those in our synod who heard David Cornick's presentation in the Contemporary Spirituality series of evenings (sadly he was unable to be with us in person) will have been amused by the confused New England Assembly resolutions of 1640 which he also quotes in the third chapter of the book:
Calvin, we are assured, would never have made such a mistake; but even Reformed writers like Isaac Watts could be confused by election. Valuable as this chapter is as a succinct summary of a fiendishly difficult doctrine, I began to wonder at this stage if I was still reading a book about spirituality. Indeed, the insight that election is a liberation from spiritual striving, and may therefore have led to that traditional Reformed suspicion of spiritual exercises, is bound to leave the Reformed reader, rather as in the case of the CTE book, wondering if spirituality is not what someone else does.
That this is not really the case becomes apparent in the next chapter, entitled "A Holy God and a Worldly People". Some of us have had the good fortune in one place or another to hear some of David Cornick's work in progress over recent years; and we may feel disappointment over what has been omitted in the final editing. His swansong to Mission Council in March 2008 gave a masterly overview of Rembrandt's work, leaving us with the teasing assertion that the Dutch painter is perhaps the greatest ever Reformed theologian. The few pages on Rembrandt and van Gogh we are given here are a shadow of what might have been - but maybe we should look forward to another book.
In the meantime, this is a book that is full of good things, rich with cross references and allusions; and for this reader at least it will bear re-reading more than once.
There are surprising omissions. Apart from a short section on George Matheson, only one hymn is given any careful reading: When I survey, which is considered in a way very remniscent of Bernard Lord Manning. From the metrical psalms of Geneva to the hymnody of Kaan, Micklem and Wren, there is surely something distinctly Reformed in our contribution to this increasingly ecumenical treasury. And if the eye of Rembrandt is a surprising and challenging addition to the perception of a listening people, surely we should not overlook the music that reinforces and adds a dimension to the Word that is received? Those of us who have ministered in "Messiah" country know that there is a depth of spiritual nourishment at work here too.
I commend this book most warmly to my friends and colleagues in the Synod: there is much here to enrich us all.
John Durell
David Cornick: Letting God be God - The Reformed Tradition.
Darton, Longman and Todd. Price: £9.95 ISBN: 52722 9 Pages: 176