REVIEW: Here’s one to pack in your suitcase
Added about 4 months ago by Sacristy Press
Are you frustrated—even angered sometimes—by the way Christian leaders are portrayed in the media? Discover the perfect antidote in this review of Archdeacon Grantly Walks Again from the Methodist Recorder.
Clergy in the media are either anodyne, anaemic, simpering souls who spend their lives drinking tea with their flock, or wild-eyed, fiery, Bible-thumping evangelists who hypocritically denounce others for the sins they themselves are secretly committing..
Stereotypes like these have been a feature of literature for many centuries and the works of Anthony Trollope are no exception! In Archdeacon Grantly Walks Again by Michael Higgins (Sacristy Press, £12.99) we have comprehensive character descriptions of a dozen of Trollope’s Anglican clergymen—and we see them huge warts and all!
Qualified
Michael Higgins is well qualified to write this book. He served as a parish priest for a quarter of a century; he also served at Church House, Westminster and at Ely Cathedral.
Add this to a love of literature and a lifetime’s curiosity about human nature, plus much time to reflect during the Covid lockdown and you have the genesis of this book.
Trollope’s clergy—with the exception of the saintly Septimus Harding—are often very deeply flawed characters: self-serving, obsessed with preferment, snobbish, vain, elitist, avaricious … yet even the worst have some redeeming features, which are clearly indicated in the author’s summaries.
The 12 chapter headings refer to one distinctive feature of the clergyman’s character and outlook and they are often negative: “The Snob”, “The Time Server”, “The Climber”, “The Man of Power”. Others are perhaps more sympathetic but still hint at, if not character deficiencies, then an unbalanced approach to ministry: “The Man of the World”, “The Scholar”, “The Wise Old Bird”.
The author successfully and vividly brings these characters to life, while supplying a full narrative context; you do not have to have read any Trollope to appreciate them. The book may indeed be a strong incentive to begin reading “Barchester Towers” and other Trollopian works.
Since, in the novels, the clergy weave in and out of each others’ lives, there is a fair amount of repetition and cross-referencing.
However, there is far more to this volume than indicated so far—and this is where the book becomes truly innovative.
Contemporary
For each delineation of a clergy character is immediately followed by a fictional (we are assured!) account of a contemporary counterpart. Since these are updates of 19th century characters, there are no women priests or Nonconformists and for those who find the gradations of the Anglican hierarchy a mystery and who have trouble distinguishing between archdeacons, deans, canons and the like, there may be, let us say, a modicum of confusion.
In these supplementary sections a number of present-day problems are presented along with the universal, timeless difficulties church leaders face: the desire for promotion, the powerful influence of an ambitious and strong-minded spouse, the temptation to seek out the company of the influential, the clash between Low and High Church approaches, the lack of fulfilment in a particular post, controversies over same-sex marriage and women priests, frivolous and spurious safeguarding allegations which unnecessarily cause a great deal of personal anguish—they are all thrown in together.
So there is a lot to like about this entertaining and highly original book.
One flaw is that we do not really get to know the present-day equivalents of Trollope’s clergy in the relatively few pages allocated to them, although at least we are afforded insights into their conversions and subsequent faith journeys.
Also, a pertinent question could be: who exactly is this book for?
In depicting some (admittedly fictional) clergy as greedy, power-hungry, prone to social climbing and the like, would such a book be an obstacle to the seeker for truth from finding it in the Christian Gospel, or—by humanising Christian leadership down the generations—could it have the opposite effect?
Appropriate
Perhaps it could be an appropriate present for one seeking ordination, or for someone reasonably secure in their faith who is both devoted to literature and fascinated by the psychology of human behaviour.
Or perhaps it’s the kind of entertaining, insightful, often comedic book you would think of taking to the beach this summer! Whatever the case, Michael Higgins is to be commended for his highly original approach. Definitely worth a read—why not pack it in your suitcase?
The Rev Geoff Floyd is a supernumerary minister in the North Wiltshire circuit. This review was first published in the Methodist Recorder and is reproduced with permission.
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