One of the most holy, if often misunderstood figures in the 20th Century Church of England was Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury. The biography by Owen Chadwick is characteristically elegant, sharply and humanely observed, and a good example of theology being done through biography, faith lived in the lapidary tumbling of relationships, circumstances and human activity, that eventually give shape and definition to who we are.
As a student Ramsey wanted to buy a couple of pictures to give some interest to the bare walls of his undergraduate room. He bought a print of the crucifixion by Perugino. The significance that print took on with passing years is described in a moving paragraph that shows Anglican spirituality at its best - theologically sensitive, sanctifying the ordinary, at ease with contemplative wonder in the presence of Christ incarnate, crucified, risen. Here is Chadwick's gently observed comment on the private devotion of an Archbishop for whom time and again, prayer took precedence over politics:
'He hung the reproduction over the mantle-piece in his room at Magdalene. Slowly it came to be something more than an ornament. It hung in the same central position in every house or apartment where he lived; so that it hung during his life on nineteen different walls, but never, so to speak, changed its place. 'At the time of purchase', he said,'I thought it a "nice picture". It soon came to be the centre of theology, doxa.' 'It is for me a great picture, because it wonderfullyshows a large part of what christianity means. christ is seen suffering, suffering terribly, and yet in it there is triumph; because love is transforming it all'.
Owen Chadwick, Michael Ramsey. A Life, (Oxford:OUP, 1990), 369.
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