A nation under God

ON MAY 6 the people of Scotland will go to the polls. Once again, 290 years after the Act of Union, the government of Scotland will be the responsibility of a Parliament sitting in Edinburgh. In recent weeks the Scottish press and media have been increasingly preoccupied with party political, constitutional and economic questions. Interesting as these are, however, such issues stand at some remove from the cultural and philosophical claims that have animated devolutionist and nationalist rhetoric in recent years. Those claims concern the distinctiveness and the distinction of Scotland's artistic, literary, intellectual, educational, legal and religious traditions. For the moment, media attention may have shifted from high culture to low politics but representatives of these elements of Scottish civil society are preparing themselves for the task of influencing policy and expenditure. A new profession of "parliamentary liaison officer" is about to be born.
How stands Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular on the eve of Scottish political renaissance? The country is still broadly divided between Catholicism, Presbyterianism and Episcopalianism, but the years have seen something of a reversal of fortunes. Having been smashed in the Reformation, Catholicism is now the largest worshipping denomination (thanks to immigration. principally from Ireland) with 750,000 souls, of whom a third are Sunday Mass attenders. In a country with a population of five and a half million these are significant numbers. The Kirk (the Church of Scotland), by contrast, has suffered a fairly dramatic decline though it remains a force, particularly within the older professions and the social establishment. It is important to note, however, that, unlike the Church of England, the Kirk is not an established church; rather it enjoys the lesser standing of being legally "protected". Episcopalianism is a small and largely middle-class denomination strongest in the more affluent areas —principally Edinburgh.
Leadership within the churches differs in form and tone. As befits its opposition to religious hierarchy, the Kirk elects an annual moderator of the national General Assembly and often settles upon an academic currently Dr Alan Main of the University of Aberdeen. The primus of the Episcopalian Church enjoys no special authority, being in effect the chairman of the College of Bishops. The fact is not generally appreciated and the current primus, Bishop Holloway of Edinburgh, is reported by the press as if he were the Church's authoritative leader on matters of faith and morals. Given his high public profile and advanced liberal disposition, this misperception of his standing is a regular source of embarrassment to Episcopalians. Unsurprisingly, therefore, his announcement that he would resign in order to stand for the Scottish Parliament was greeted with some relief subsequently matched by disappointment at a later change of heart, occa sioned by Holloway's fear that his departure would provide an opportunity for religious conservatives. True to form he then declared that the prospective Parliament should not begin its daily proceedings with prayers. Equally reflective of their more traditional roles and orientations the Moderator and Cardinal Winning took a different view.
Again contrary to popular belief. there is no primus in the Scottish Catholic Church, though there are two metropolitans. The sees of Edinburgh and St Andrews in the east and Glasgow in the west have long been co-equals. However, Winning is chairman of the Episcopal Conference and de facto the leader of Scottish Catholics. In a list of the "Scottish Power 100" published in The Observer on 18 April, he was ranked 11th among the most powerful figures in the country — one place ahead of Alex Salmond leader of the Scottish National Party, and the only religious figure of any denomination or faith included in the list. The hierarchy reflects the overwhelmingly Irish character of Scottish Catholicism though its most intellectual member is of Italian extraction, viz. Bishop Conti of Aberdeen.
It remains to be seen how the Church will orient itself in the new political order. Hitherto it has been associated with Labour, but of late Winning has suggested that this historical connection cannot be taken for granted, especially if New Labour is hostile to the pro-life cause and antagonistic to the continuation of statefunded Catholic schools. At the same time he has seemed to countenance the possibility of an independent Scotland and this has elicited displays of affection from the nationalists, who have traditionally been associated with Protestant Scotland and opposition to Catholic schooling.
This sort of politicking is unsurprising in the run-up to the election and can be expected to continue after it. Nor is it improper, since bishops have a responsibility to protect the moral and religious interests of their flocks. However, it falls short of providing a Christian vision for the nation as a whole. Catholics in Scotland were for many centuries an oppressed minority and Protestant hostility was combined with anxiety as economic immigrants swelled the Catholic population.
There is still anti-Catholic sentiment both vulgar (on the football terraces and in the Orange lodges) and refined (in the Georgian and Victorian terraced houses and offices of Edinburgh and Glasgow); but upward social movement, secularisation and religious indifference — the first on the part of immigrant communities, the second and third on all fronts have reduced this considerably. In consequence, so long as they proceed with delicacy, and especially with respect for the Kirk, which has been an important and often benign force in Scottish society, Catholics can hope to make a significant contribution to the development of politics and culture.
If they are to do so, however, they need to enter in more fully to the nation's higher institutions and to establish new forums of their own for the discussion of values and policies. The Royal Society of Edinburgh — Scotland's national academy — has relatively few Catholic members, and Catholic participation in the universities has to date been more at the vocational and professional end and greatest in the institutions local to the immigrant communities —principally the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde. By contrast, few Catholics study or contribute to art history, divinity, jurisprudence and philosophy in the east coast "ivy league" universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and St Andrews.
There are signs of progress. In the past few weeks St Andrews College of Education has merged with Glasgow University to form its Faculty of Education. Also in Glasgow. St Aloysius College, Scotland's leading Catholic school, hosts the annual Gonzaga Lectures on cultural and religious issues. Significantly three of its former pupils are respectively Provincial of the Jesuits (James Crampsey sr), Principal of Heythrop College, London (John McDade sr), and Master of Campion Hall, Oxford (Gerry Hughes sr); and a fourth, Jack Mahoney sr, has recently returned to Scotland to establish the Lauriston Centre for Contemporary Belief and Action in Edinburgh. The Dominicans are a significant presence in the university area of the capital with Fergus Kerr OP, editing New Blackfriars and teaching part-time at New College. Again in Edinburgh there has been an attempt to establish a Scottish branch of the Catholic Writers Guild; and there will soon be a liaison officer to the Parliament.
The role of the hierarchy in supporting and encouraging these developments is very important but there is some question about how well it does this at present, and a looming issue about the next generation of Church leaders. In any case, entering existing institutions and creating new forums is not an end in itself. The question is what ideals Catholics can offer the new Scotland. One is the concept of society as a moral community in which responsibilities stand alongside rights, in which material goods are produced with an eye to benefit as well as to profit, and in which the value of life is respected as well as its quality being promoted. Intellectual and culturally the Catholic contribution should be to challenge materialism, instrumentalism, hedonism and short term gratification, and to present in a Scottish context the central ingredients of the Catholic philosophy of culture: abstract reflection, artistic endeavour and joyous good living.
Thetiming of devolution, on the eve of a new millennium, seems providential: an opportunity and a challenge to renew the nation.
John Haldane is processor of philosophy and direor of the Centre for Philosophy and Public Affairs in the Unversity of St Andrews. He is afrequent contributor to Scottish ress and broadcasting.