Past Perfect: Freedom from perfection in life and faith by Stephen Mitchell. Christian Alternative, (Winchester 2018). Pbk. 63 pages. £7.99.
Past Perfect comes complete with commendations from recognised SOF writers. From Tony Windross: 'The post-modern distrust of meta-narratives couldn't wish for a more persuasive advocate of the significance of what is right in front of our eyes. A book that is both challenging and affirming.' David Boulton has: 'Stephen Mitchell asks us to rethink what we mean by 'perfection', and that challenges our theology, philosophy, and notions of plain common sense. Another reader-friendly, out-of-the-box stimulant.' And Don Cupitt suggests that: 'Stephen Mitchell's lively, original and sometimes brilliant book is a sustained attack on that idea of absolute perfection. It is also part of the process by which modern Christianity is struggling to renew itself.' After such praise, no further commendation is required.
There are two projects which I would like to see further progressed. First, I hope for the untangling of the Jewish insights from the Platonic accretions in the New Testament. Second, I look forward to the realisation of Isaiah Berlin's personal aspiration for the Romantic movement: '(to) show that this revolution is the deepest and most lasting of all changes in the life of the West, no less far-reaching than the three great revolutions whose impact is not questioned – the industrial in England, the political in France, and the social and economic in Russia'. These two projects are linked and Past Perfect progresses both.
The introductory pages state Mitchell's aims clearly. 'We seem to be obsessed with perfection,' he writes. He hopes: 'to convince you that for the sake of our faith and wellbeing, we need to free ourselves from this pre-occupation.' On the very first page there is the claim that: 'There's no need to content ourselves with second-best, we can move beyond perfection, past perfect, embracing life, providing opportunities and creating a more just and secure world in which everyone can flourish.' It is the description 'more just' that gives the clue to the distinction between the Greek and Hebrew values.
The succeeding chapters gather many examples. In Beauty, we have an example of the author's integrated thinking. In two short sentences our humanity, our identity, our relations with others, together with our theology are woven together: 'Ascribing beauty is personal; it's something we do as people, it helps to define us and the things we value. To make beauty objective is to remove it from the realm where human beings can be thereby qualified.'
The thoughts gathered under the heading of World further articulate the distinction between the Greek and Hebrew. To bring about a perfect world 'demands that we have a complete knowledge of the circumstances' (emphasis added). A main thrust of the Romantic movement was to undermine the idea of such knowing.
A chapter on Humanity is given over to a comparison between our bodies as given or as technologically improved and concludes that imagining a perfect world makes no sense. The thoughts on Goodness support Berlin's understanding of the incompatibility of human goods, of value pluralism, the complexities of choice, of vagueness and uncertainty, and lead into the chapter on Love. Following a brief, though widely ranging, exploration comes: 'but talk of perfect love suggests an end to our exploration and a closure, rather than a springboard.'
The thinking centred on the idea of Place concludes with: 'We don't need blueprints for a perfect society. To do good in the world we need prophets who recognise the ills of our present actions and their future consequences. Utopian and dystopian visions, like the parables of the kingdom of God, can break through prejudice and indifference and sow in us seeds of hope.'
The earlier commendations are more than justified. Past Perfect manages to be both traditional and radical at the same time – it is both challenging and invitingly warm – I think I can hear a conference forum approaching.
David Lambourn is a former SOF Membership Secretary.