Guardian, UK: "Is Henry VIII in Hell?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/may/16/religion-rowan-williams-henry-totalitarianism

Is Henry VIII in hell?

Rowan Williams wonders whether Henry VIII is in hell now, and talks about the Christian reaction to the triumphs of tyranny

   

Rowan Williams gave a lovely sermon last week, on the Carthusian martyrs, fourteen Catholic monks tortured to death under Henry VIII for their refusal to submit to him after his breach with Rome. He suggested in the course of it that Henry might be in hell now, an unusual proposition for an Archbishop of Canterbury, but one which no fair-minded person will dismiss out of hand.

 

This is germane, too, because it implies an argument that while Christian rulers may aspire to totalitarianism, as perhaps Henry did, Christianity will always resist this because it is on the side of the tortured. Of course you might object that hell is the ultimate totalitarianism, but that's rather the Christian point. Hell is under the management of the other side.

In any case here are the central paragraphs.

The God who has, it seems, been vanquished, is yet a God who cannot be abolished. In many ages and many places, authorities even more appalling than Henry VIII have believed that they could abolish God and the cross of God; and they have had to discover that while they may vanquish, they cannot destroy. That which is the last hope, the last longing of the condemned and tortured, remains. The cross stands while the world turns. And whatever human power and human injustice can achieve and effect, the hanged God, the failed God, remains a sign forever.

        
 For more, see: 
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/may/16/religion-rowan-williams-henry-totalitarianism