Why is Rowan Williams suspicious of Freemasonry? For the same reason, surely, that almost everyone else is: it is a secretive society with links to mystical gobbledegook that may or may not have a whiff of Satanism. A Christian leader should be particularly careful not to be associated with such stuff, for he wants the Christian faith to seem open, accessible, reasonable – utterly distinct from such cloak-and-dagger Harry Potter stuff.
Well, yes, but there is actually another dimension to Williams' aversion, which is somewhat counter-intuitive. Freemasonry may have links with ancient magic, but it also has links with modern reason. I think that this is what Williams really dislikes about it. Not the funny handshakes and creepy initiation ceremony, but the implicit claim that the rationalist God of the Enlightenment is an improvement on the limited Christian one.
In the 18th century, Freemasonry spread among middle-class men who felt that religion should modernise; it should be about rational moral progress, and it should unite people rather than keep old divisions alive. And it especially appealed to those who felt that rationalism was in danger of looking dull, mechanical, soulless. So it needed spicing up with an aura of mystery, and some cod ancient history, and some ritual. It often had a strong anti-Catholic bent; it was a secularisation of the liberal Protestant hatred of Church power
more What Rowan Williams really dislikes about Freemasonry | Theo Hobson | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Well, yes, but there is actually another dimension to Williams' aversion, which is somewhat counter-intuitive. Freemasonry may have links with ancient magic, but it also has links with modern reason. I think that this is what Williams really dislikes about it. Not the funny handshakes and creepy initiation ceremony, but the implicit claim that the rationalist God of the Enlightenment is an improvement on the limited Christian one.
In the 18th century, Freemasonry spread among middle-class men who felt that religion should modernise; it should be about rational moral progress, and it should unite people rather than keep old divisions alive. And it especially appealed to those who felt that rationalism was in danger of looking dull, mechanical, soulless. So it needed spicing up with an aura of mystery, and some cod ancient history, and some ritual. It often had a strong anti-Catholic bent; it was a secularisation of the liberal Protestant hatred of Church power
more What Rowan Williams really dislikes about Freemasonry | Theo Hobson | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
