In amongst the discussion about The Gospel Coalition setting up institutions named after Tim Keller (when he was still alive) and Don Carson, a few people have asked whether the issue is just a problem for living people. What about the tradition of naming churches, buildings and institutions after specific people. Older, established churches will be named after apostles and saints, you have Moore College and Spurgeon’s. There’s even whole denominations, movements and theological positions named after Luther, Wesley and Calvin.
It’s worth noting that there are challenges out in the secular world too. Fascinatingly, the US would happily name warships after former Presidents, meanwhile the UK did name a carrier the Queen Elizabeth and a submarine after Winston Churchill but generally speaking there would be a reluctance to name ships after political leaders, living or dead. Imagine the outcry there would be over “HMS Thatcher” or “HMS Blair” and Suela Braverman stands no chance of getting anything named after her as things stand.
Returning to what we do as Christians I also want to remind us that whilst the names of the Keller and Carson centers were the lead/presenting issues, this isn’t all that our concerns are about. The names link to and represent a wider range of issues about how we do things.
When it comes to the specific issue of names, my personal opinion is this. First, there are perhaps specific and unique issues when a person is still alive or has recently died. There’s a temptation to polarise between two extremes, either to believe that they can do no wrong or that they can do no right. I think this was happening with Tim Keller and may well continue to be the case for some time. Some people were quick to find fault in everything he said and did. Ironically, he was often attacked from both extremes of the spectrum and accused of really belonging to the opposite camp. I guess that goes with the territory of trying to find a mediating position. On the other hand, I’ve just read a biography of Tim, it was insightful, interesting, a good and informative read but at times I wondered if it leaned to the hagiographical. There wasn’t any engagement on where he may have been wrong which is in one respect perhaps a little odd given he would have been the first to recognise that he wasn’t perfect. Maybe, it’s just too soon and too raw for that kind of evaluation and that’s perhaps the point. We need time and distance to properly evaluate contributions and it feels like decisions to name things after people shortcuts that.
However, I personally would prefer not to name places, organisations and projects after people, even the long dead. I wonder how the one who wrote about how “Some of you are of Paul and some are of Apollos” would feel to discover churches named after him. Incidentally, why don’t you tend to get any “St Apollos” churches. I also prefer to describe my theological position as Reformed rather than identifying as “Calvinist” because the latter puts too much focus on one person 500 years ago rather than on the more important person of 2000 years ago.
Sometimes names are just irrelevant, obscure and probably confusing. In Lincoln, there’s a church called the Thomas Cooper Memorial church, often shortened to TCM. Does that name really have much meaning or relevance, apart from being a mouthful.
We want names that first of all clearly tell us what something is for and what it does. Secondly and most importantly, we want names that lift our eyes upward to Christ and that remind us to keep him central. For those reasons, I would prefer us not to name things after people, living or dead.
Faithroots 