This article was first published online by firstthings.com and is republished with permission.
Buckingham Palace has updated the official description of the monarch’s role vis-à-vis the Church of England. No longer is the king the ‘Defender of the Faith’; rather, ‘His Majesty is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and protects the space for Faith within the multi-faith nation.’ The description is inspiring in rhetoric but rather empty of dogmatic content.
This shift in language is not a minor drafting choice. It points to a deeper problem at the heart of English culture. Not only does the new formula repudiate the idea that any form of robust Christianity played a positive role in English history; it also reveals that English culture now lacks the tools to negotiate the country’s current religious spectrum except through relativistic pieties of multiculturalism – pieties that the other religions of significance, most notably Islam, reject.
The king’s ambition for his role should be no surprise. It is consonant with his long-held convictions. For many years, then-Prince Charles made it clear that when he succeeded his mother as the British head of state, he would reinterpret ‘Defender of the Faith’ as ‘Defender of Faith’ or, to make the point explicit, ‘Defender of Faiths.’
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