Theo Hobson’s View of Rowan Williams

From The Guardian:

Despite his theological brilliance, Rowan Williams’ approach to the place of religion in society has been deeply flawed. In my opinion, it is this that has marred his leadership of the Church of England. I am reluctant to say this, for I greatly admire his thought, particularly his insight into the sacramental essence of Christianity. I paid close attention to his utterances as archbishop. I wrote quite a few articles on him, and even a short book about his ecclesiology. I do not expect to pay his successor such attention. I feel I ought to express gratitude that such a serious thinker has led the church this past decade. But it needs to be said: I do not think that he has been good for the Church of England. I consider him a brilliant, but flawed, theologian. And I think that the past decade has brought out his flawed side, given it great exposure, influence. I am talking about his deeply ideological view of liberalism.

To put it bluntly, he has a very low opinion of the liberal state. This is influenced by various things: the Marxist critique of liberalism as a veneer for capitalism, the communitarian idea (associated with Alasdair MacIntyre and others) that liberal values are weak, thin, illusory, and most obviously his deep preference for Catholicism and Orthodoxy over Protestantism. These factors led him to see liberalism as an essentially secular ideology that wants to “privatise” religion, push it from “the public square”. (It was ironic that the press dubbed him a liberal on account of his relative sympathy with gay rights and his leftwing politics, because he represented a militantly “post-liberal” form of theology.)