Rowan Williams and the Meaning of Life

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The Anglican Church's answer to Gandalf was in Cardiff at the weekend to give a talk on the global economy. When asked what life was "for" he referenced the Westminster Confession but continued:

I would say we are made to be artists... We are made to make a difference to our environment - not to be just passive, but to make something communicable, beautiful, compelling about where we are and who we are. Second, we are made to be politicians. I don’t mean we are all designed by God to stand for parliament... We’re made to work creatively at our society, to make it reflect more fully that pattern of interdependence, interrelation, which God willed for us. And thirdly, we are made to be what I call contemplatives. We are made, that is, to be capable of reflecting, digesting, absorbing the richness of reality, without immediately asking ‘What use is it?’ I think these three things suggest a fairly robust, I would say rather joyful, picture of what humanity might be. For me, they are anchored absolutely in my religious commitments, but I don’t think they are wholly alien to people who wouldn’t necessarily share them.

One of my favourite writers on religion, Paul Elie, has an excellent essay on Williams in the Atlantic. And as for his views on the world economy, click here...