Honest to God
First edition
|
|
| Author | John A. T. Robinson Bishop of Woolwich |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre |
Christian theology Christian Apologetics |
| Publisher | SCM Press |
|
Publication date
|
1963 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| OCLC | 223392783 |
Honest to God is a book written by the Anglican Bishop of Woolwich John A.T. Robinson, criticising traditional Christian theology. It aroused a storm of controversy on its original publication by SCM Press in 1963. Robinson had already achieved notoriety by his defence of the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover.
Robinson's own evaluation of Honest to God, found in his subsequent book Exploration into God (1967), stated that the chief contribution of this book was its successful synthesis of the work of seemingly opposed theologians Paul Tillich, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Rudolf Bultmann.
The dominant theory of Honest to God is that having rejected the idea of 'God up there', modern secular man needs to recognize that the idea of 'God out there' is also an outdated simplification of the nature of divinity. Rather, Christians should take their cue from the existentialist theology of Paul Tillich and consider God to be 'the ground of our being'.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's notion of religion-less Christianity is also a major theme in the book. Robinson's interpretation of this phrase is—inevitably—controversial. He claims that secular man requires a secular theology. That is, that God's continuing revelation to humanity is one brought about in culture at large, not merely within the confines of "religion" or "church."
The book also introduced the idea of situational ethics to an English speaking audience. This was a form of relativism, based on the idea that moral codes are not set in stone, but may be subject to circumstances.
The book was controversial even before its publication, as an interview about it with Robinson in The Observer bore the provocative headline "Our Image of God Must Go". Some of the letters and articles for and against Robinson's views were published by the end of the year in The Honest to God Debate. A flurry of books on the subject appeared by everyone from the Ceylon Rationalist Association to Patience Strong.
...
Wikipedia