Looking through my files I realised that I had never done anything with this review I wrote over three years ago. It still seems topical so here it is!
John Atherton: Marginalization, SCM 2003, £14.99
Eric James in his review for the Church Times (15th August) says he "has read no more important book of Christian thought in the past 20 years". O course I have read less, but I would say the same. In fact Eric James tells us very little about the book beyond the headings, apart from his fears that the language is too academic for the ordinary reader. I'm not sure he's right about that. Certainly it's not an easy read, but this is at least partly, perhaps largely, because the subject matter, as Atherton sees it, is extremely complex and interconnected. The book consists of three complex and interconnected essays. Atherton eschews "grand narratives" and will have nothing to do with any approach that puts theology on a pinnacle. It must take its place with all the other 'ologies and 'isms that might have a bearing on why global economic developments that bring great benefits to so many leave so many others marginalized. There are marginalized countries and there are marginalized communities and individuals within both rich and poor countries, eg in parts of Manchester (where Atherton is based). There are marginalized churches with falling membership and in financial difficulties - facing closure like many in the Manchester Anglican diocese. Marginalized churches are often situated in marginalized communities: the "double whammy" Atherton calls it. Generally speaking, in the rich West the critical question for the Church is "can the modern person believe?, while in the poor South the question is "how can the poor be liberated from oppression?" In the marginalized communities of Manchester both questions apply. A key text is John 10:10 "I have come that they may have life, and may have it in all its fullness." Atherton's objectives are to discover causes, consequences and cures for marginalization. It is, he would have us understand, an unfinished project, using words the economist, Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) "a mine rather than a railway".
Taken by themselves, many of Atherton's observations may seem old hat or unsurprising, for example as stated above that marginalized churches are often situated in marginalized communities. But what he does best is to take some well-worn idea, expose it to the light of well-researched evidence and then either show that it is wrong or that it is right but needs to be added to the mix of other ideas. For example, he demonstrates that it is not, as so many believe, post-enlightenment scepticism that has led to falling church attendance but the other way round - that falling church attendance means loss of exposure to character-forming worship, especially hymns and sermons, and then loss of belief and Christian behaviour. And he mixes an intoxicating cocktail. His big ideas are, first, the interconnectedness and complexity of so much of modern life and thought and, second, that marginalization is not just a problem for the marginalized; it affects us all.
It is, perhaps, worthwhile before going any further to attempt draw together Atherton's main points.
1. There are similarities (in location, vulnerability, causes) between marginalized communities (relatively poor, excluded) and marginalized churches (facing threat of closure).
2. It is necessary to examine causes, situations, relationships before attempting theological analysis and prescription; so much is interconnected.
3. This study must be inter/multi disciplinary - connecting sociology, economics, politics, theology etc - and we must listen to marginalized people who may use alternative means of communication (song, storytelling and ways that engage the heart as well as the mind).
4. Praxis (interaction of experience and critical theory) should come before further theoretical analysis using the toolkits of theology and other disciplines - and then it's a continuing process: an "endless cycle of interaction between faith and life & work".
5. Global technological and economic changes should increase the resources for a better life for all peoples but have increased inequality and marginalization, by treating people and land as exploitable resources and through lack of good governance in many countries. Attention should be given to the work of the UN Human Development Reports, in particular the Human Development Index, which takes into account education, health and life expectation standards as well as income in international comparisons. This could be amplified to take account of gender-related development, human rights, inequality within nations and care for the environment.
6. Churches today are "multilayered": their members come with varying degrees of commitment; members' fellowship may be through networking rather than geographical links; Christianity is fundamentally a way of life, not a body of doctrine. But churches (especially non-fundamentalist ones) have an important role as centres of community and sources of volunteers. Worship, especially hymns and sermons, is character and behaviour forming. It is important that churches should have a pronounced "bias towards inclusivity" and that those in marginalized communities should be supported and encouraged to help build up local communities.
7. Many theologians commenting on economics are "either economically illiterate or perverse". But the fundamental economic problem of how to use scarce resources (most resources are scarce) will not go away. There is need for a renewed Christian Political Economy, connecting "engineering economics" (positive, value-free) and "ethical economics" (normative) with "performative" theology. Although pluralism means the idea of Common Good has had its day there is still value in forming middle axioms (intermediate, middle ground between general moral principles and detailed policy prescriptions). The various faiths can work together to erode marginalization, which affect them all to build overlapping consensuses. [Economists will have a few quibbles about Atherton's understandings of their subject. One example: as Lionel Robbins showed long ago, the utilitarians and the classical political economists of the 19th Century did not advocate minimal government and were very sympathetic to the claims of the poor for justice and higher wages. Another example: the appropriate comparison with the Gross National Product of Norway is not the total sales of General Motors but the net output, the value-added, the total incomes (profits and wages) of General Motors. But these quibbles don't amount to much. At least broad-minded economists (the majority), though perhaps not those not shut into their little boxes, will rejoice to read this book.]
8. Two examples of the role of religious economics ("performative theology") - the Jubilee campaign for debt relief and the development of Muslim interest-free banking - illustrate the possibilities for micro-economic policies in addition to the macro economics supporting the UN Human Development Reports.
I am conscious that the above does not do justice to the complex, many-faceted detail of the book and it may not show (a) how firmly John Atherton has his feet on the ground and (b) the breadth of his reading (over the centuries). His analysis feeds on many living examples of life in marginalized Manchester and elsewhere in Britain, Africa, Asia and South America and much economic, political and theological research, including that from feminist and non-European perspectives. Two writers he makes much use of are the economist Amartya Sen and the theologian Robin Gill. From Sen he gets his hope for a renewed ethical economics and the emphasis on human development. "Working with Gill's empirical research keeps our feet firmly on the ground of church as hymn-singing and meals on wheels." He contrasts his essentially practical approach with what he calls "the idealizing and romanticizing of a thereby essentially exclusionary church by Hauerwas" and (quoting Elaine Graham, Professor of Social and Pastoral Theology at Manchester) "the sociological fictions and fantasies (of) the post modern Christendom of Millbank, (both of) which bear no resemblance to the lived experience of Church and culture in Britain today".
This is a very important book about very important matters, not only for Christians but also for all involved in regeneration and encouragement of social enterprise in marginalized communities. But if Christians do not heed its message, the churches will very soon be ghettos for like-minded ostriches. And society and the communities within it will be much the poorer.
© Richard Hall, October 2003
Posted by Richard Hall at January 31, 2007 10:52 PM