Reply to Milbank from Steven Shakespeare

[facilitate]

Common Wealth signatory Steven Shakespeare brilliantly replies to
Millbanks' critique on ABC Religion & Ethics in an article entitled
'Affirming Common Wealth - a response to Millbank'
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2010/12/10/3090394.htm?topic1=&topic2=


"Our document begins by saying that Christians in Britain today are
called to take a stand. As students march and occupy in protest
against the marketization of universities, Milbank's intervention only
confirms that call. Is the Big Society the limit of Christian
imagination? Is a suffocating, colluding Christendom where the way of
the cross leads?
If I answer "No" it is not simply because I am cynical, but because I
still have faith in a deeper affirmation. The paradox of God's "Yes"
spoken to creation in Jesus Christ is that it throws the world into a
crisis of judgement. It is spoken, not from the lofty heights of
Christendom's power, but from the depths of dereliction, a cry of
protest against all Empire.Absolute and vulnerable, God proclaims life
as a free gift. No market can buy it, no state can enlist it, no
church can own it. It is common wealth"