Integrity: one of those words most of us use as if we know what it means and how it applies to us, but which is much more rarely reflected upon. Simon Robinson has therefore done a very important service to the churches and potentially to a much wider constituency, with this thoughtful, extensive and measured study. As the title makes clear, the theme is the concept of integrity within Christian churches, and Robinson draws his examples and case studies from that source. But the way he frames the concept of integrity as essentially a dialogic practice should lead anyone who deploys the word to think of its meaning and applications afresh.

Robinson’s understanding of integrity, not surprisingly, locates it clearly as an aspect of identity. But then he unpacks identity, not as an essentially individualistic quality but as something formed through open and reflective dialogue. Integrity, then, whether for persons or institutions, always challenges fixed or established identities and emerges from the kind of openness to other, diverse narratives which is made possible when fear of the other and self-sufficient constructions of one’s own virtue are overcome.

Whilst Robinson is clear about the particular tendency for Christians and churches to see integrity as their personal possession, erecting barriers to insights from other traditions or institutions, little in his analysis will be irrelevant to other social contexts. True, as a theologian he is not shy of bringing God into the kind of open-ended conversation he envisages. He writes of the ‘three-way agapeic relationship’ between God, the church and the world (p. 25) as the theological foundation for the dialogic exploration of integrity and elsewhere of the Incarnation as a key doctrinal motif underpinning his approach. But this is not a simplistic world-affirming incarnational theology, for he also stresses the centrality of metanoia – the openness to and desire for radical change. The theological reader is therefore invited to consider the concept and the practices of integrity through a well-balanced understanding of the tensions in Christian doctrine.

All this suggests ways for Christians and churches to pursue integrity both dialogically and theologically, but Robinson’s overall approach is itself so thoughtfully open and the dialogic principle so persuasive, that the explicit theology should not, in principle, prevent the book being a source of wisdom and constructive relevance well beyond religious circles. This is not surprising, given Robinson’s long career as a Christian ethicist working in partnership with other disciplines, professions and cultures. Much of the wisdom gleaned from those connections is apparent in his handling of his material. The idea that mutual accountability and shared responsibility are crucial practices, not only within traditions and institutions but between them, conjures a vision of a church which is rather different from how most churches present themselves to the world and to their members.

Having established his approach to the concept of integrity, Robinson goes on to explore how this has and has not been exemplified by analysing a series of case studies. He examines, in helpful detail, the Roman Catholic church’s crisis over clerical sexual abuse, Desmond Tutu’s extraordinary work of reconciliation in South Africa and the travails of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion over human sexuality. Each of these studies involves a deep dive into the complex history of each issue, and this is valuable in itself as the processes of time reduce complex events to excessively simplified stories. Robinson is not merely chronicling events but using the stories to both illustrate and advance his arguments. Along with the case studies are helpful sections on integrity in leadership, in prophecy (another much-misused word which gains hugely from Robinson’s analysis and exploration here), in therapy, mission and worship. This all comes together in a picture which enthuses through its manifest faithfulness and attractiveness but which also depresses one when reflecting on how very far churches have fallen from what they are called to be, especially when their pursuit of integrity turns inward and defensive. There is, indeed, much to be depressed about in the ways that churches have gone about their business, but Robinson’s aim is not (or not merely) to condemn but to point to the dialogic approach to integrity as a perpetually unfinished piece of business, with greater integrity being discovered in the processes of its pursuit and not as a fully realisable end. ‘Integrity then does not reside in perfection or the assertion of identity against the other but in the ongoing learning about the self, God and the world, all of which are complex and paradoxical’. (p. 223) This came, for me, as a helpful reminder. Because the problems under discussion lie within churches, I was beginning to feel some unease that potential dialogue partners were being presented as uniformly helpful in the churches’ work of exploring its integrity, as if the world beyond the church were largely free of the same limitations under which Christians labour. Just because churches have often been paranoid about perceived attacks from the secular world does not mean that some secularists are not out to get us. But a rereading puts this into a better perspective – taking full account of his wider theological perspective, Robinson is acquitted of such naivety.

Nor does Robinson present ‘the church’ as one thing or a single set of problems. He offers us a recognisably diverse church, each of its manifestations open to the traps that follow from a closed understanding of identity, captured in the following insightful and, in the widest sense, ecumenical critique:

Those words could profitably be reflected upon before every sitting of the Church of England’s General Synod, for example – but the analysis is transferable to numerous institutional contexts.

That is not to say that the book is above criticism. Robinson’s explorations of concrete cases are backed by extensive references to many sources and demonstrate his reasoning to be firmly grounded in the stuff of real life in all its complexity. So it is problematic to find that, on a subject with which I was intimately involved for many years, he repeats a significant misrepresentation of the facts. In the discussion of the Church of England and same-sex marriage, he notes that:

Now the reality is almost diametrically opposite to this. The Church of England is governed by Canon Law, which may not deviate from Statute Law. Without a specific clause introduced into the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, the church would have been prevented from ‘working through different possibilities’ as other churches could and, unlike other churches, would have been forced to implement Parliament’s will regardless of the range of views held among Christians. Whether that legal provision for the church to make up its own mind ‘blocked creative dialogue’ is a very moot point. The extended debate that followed may have been uncreative, but that can be traced to numerous causes. Robinson’s sole source here is a newspaper article by a campaigning MP who had been fully briefed on the reasoning behind the clause but chose to represent it differently in public.

A small point, perhaps, of interest only to Establishment nerds and one which has no impact on Robinson’s overall arguments. But a work on integrity surely demands a very high standard in the way it represents the position of people and institutions, and it may be a contribution to greater integrity to set the record straight.

The greatest disappointment, however, is the price of this book, pitched so high that it places the work effectively out of the reach of the kind of practitioners who could most benefit from it and apply its insights. And for their money, those who do buy it could have expected better copy editing. But we must be thankful that Robinson’s important work is firmly in the public domain. It is a major theological and practical study which should be widely read despite not being an ‘easy read’. A deep engagement with this text will surely be a benefit to everyone concerned for integrity in churches, other institutions and for themselves.