Atheism in England<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams' plea to take it more directly to the new atheists: Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atheism in England\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams' plea to take it more directly to the new atheists: Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-07T18:22:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-09-05T18:29:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/\",\"name\":\"Atheism in England\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-07T18:22:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-09-05T18:29:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams' plea to take it more directly to the new atheists: Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Atheism in England\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Atheism in England","description":"Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams' plea to take it more directly to the new atheists: Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Atheism in England","og_description":"Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams' plea to take it more directly to the new atheists: Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2011-09-07T18:22:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-09-05T18:29:34+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/","name":"Atheism in England","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-09-07T18:22:31+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-05T18:29:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams' plea to take it more directly to the new atheists: Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Atheism in England"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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{"id":20112,"date":"2011-09-07T13:22:31","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T18:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=20112"},"modified":"2011-09-05T13:29:34","modified_gmt":"2011-09-05T18:29:34","slug":"atheism-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Atheism in England"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Jonathan Wynne-Jones<\/strong><\/a> reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams\u2019 plea to take it more directly to the new atheists:<\/p>\n

Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in countering the arguments put forward by a more hard-line group of atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who have campaigned for a less tolerant attitude towards religion.<\/p>\n
A report endorsed by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, warns that the Church faces a battle to prevent faith being seen as \u201ca social problem\u201d and says the next five years are set to be a period of \u201cexceptional challenge\u201d.<\/p>\n
It expresses concern that Christians are facing hostility at work and says the Church could lose its place at the centre of public life unless it challenges attempts to marginalise religious belief.<\/p>\n
The rallying call comes amid fears that Christians are suffering from an increasing level of discrimination following a series of cases in which they have been punished for sharing their beliefs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
An example of which is the following, taken from Jerry Coyne\u2019s blog. Jerry Coyne, a strong atheist, on James Wood\u2019s critique of atheism<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n
\u201cJames Wood is a professor of English at Harvard who writes on literature for the\u00a0New Yorker. <\/em> I very much\u00a0like his literary criticism<\/a>, but for some reason he\u2019s obsessed with attacking New Atheism (see\u00a0 here<\/a> and\u00a0 here,<\/a>with his response to my criticisms\u00a0 here<\/a>).\u00a0 His usual plaint is that the New Atheists provide only a cartoon characterization of faith, seeing it as a form of either Christian or Islamic fundamentalism, and ignore the nuances of other beliefs. (\u201cNuances\u201d is another word that, when you see it, you should run, for faitheism or apologetics are in the offing.)\u00a0 Although I\u2019m not equipped to psychoanalyze Wood, I do note that while\u00a0 he admits he\u2019s now an atheist<\/a>, he grew up as a Biblical literalist.\u00a0 I\u2019ve often found that if you scratch an atheist who argues for the virtues of faith, you find someone who used to hold a faith.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams\u2019 plea to take it more directly to the new atheists: Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in countering the arguments put forward by a more hard-line group of atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who have campaigned for a less tolerant attitude towards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAtheism in England<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams' plea to take it more directly to the new atheists: Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atheism in England\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams' plea to take it more directly to the new atheists: Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-07T18:22:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-09-05T18:29:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/\",\"name\":\"Atheism in England\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-07T18:22:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-09-05T18:29:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams' plea to take it more directly to the new atheists: Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/07\/atheism-in-england\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Atheism in England\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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