Guardian contributor Theo Hobson appeals for a more theatrical Protestantism:
My feelings towards the dead nun’s bones are mixed. I am a liberal Protestant Christian, somewhat opposed to Roman Catholicism. Traditionally, liberal Protestants respond to such cultic excitement by crying “superstition”. Of course this is the secularist response: Simon Jenkins offered a wry version, and Minette Marrin an indignant version of this cry. I dread to think what Dawkins is saying.
But this is not my response. Echoing rationalist sceptics is exactly what Protestantism has been getting wrong for centuries. When it accuses Catholicism of superstition, on account of its colourful cultic accretions, it fall into a fatal trap. It starts suspecting all the ritual and theatrical side of religion of idolatry, and veers either towards a puritanical biblical fundamentalism or a post-Christian rationalism, or a bit of both. Luther knew this, by the way: he was adamant that the eucharist should not be rationalised, that the Protestant version should retain the theatrical magic of the mass. But most subsequent Protestants did not heed his warning.
Continue reading ” The Protestant drama deficit” here.