Comparing and contrasting Christian belief to others

For the last two meetings of the theology reading group we discussed I believe. Help my unbelief!: Christian beliefs for a religiously pluralistic and secular world by Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen

It is a 400+ page summary of the author's five-volume systematic theology series called Constructive Christian Theology for the Church in the Pluralistic World.

The book is an ambitious and admirable project. The author not only discusses all the main topics in systematic theology but also attempts to bring each topic into dialogue with science (representing the secular world) and the major religions: Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

I am in two minds as to how much the project has succeeded. I am glad Karkkainen tried. I learnt a lot about other religions. The compare and contrast approach was done in a respectful and honest way. I think there are two problematic extremes I have noticed in comparisons of religions. One is to force similarities that actually aren't there and to ignore or minimise real differences. The opposite extreme is to deny any similarities and demonise the religion of the "other". The author avoids both extremes.

I don't know enough about other religions to know if the author's descriptions were reasonable and accurate. I did learn a lot and found them helpful. It is interesting how in Judaism there is little emphasis on heaven and eternal life. How should that affect how Christians read the Old Testament? The discussion highlighted for me how certain Christian beliefs are distinctive, such as salvation by grace and the affirmation of the goodness of God's creation. I found it ironic that Buddhism and Hinduism are dominant in communal cultures but are highly individualistic in terms of their views of "salvation" and religious life.

I found Karkkainen's engagement with science somewhat disappointing. References on scientific topics were often popular websites such as space.com. Sometimes details were garbled, such as his description of quantum entanglement (page 90). He only mentioned a few authors on this topic, and some of the references were quite old. More recent authors such as Alister McGrath, Tom McLeish, Francis Collins, Denis Alexander, Peter Harrison, Alvin Plantinga, and Rodney Holder were not mentioned.

On theology, Karkkainen models "generous orthodoxy" in the sense of affirming central orthodox Christian beliefs while graciously acknowledging differences in how those beliefs are to be interpreted and lived out. He references authors from a range of traditions, convictions, and perspectives. Although he is Lutheran, he is comfortable criticising Martin Luther!

I looked through the index and counted page references to different theologians: Jurgen Moltmann (25), Augustine (23), Aquinas (15), Barth (14), Luther (14), and Pannenberg (7). I found this interesting, but I'm not sure what to conclude from it.

My articles on theology and science

Here are links to articles that I have written over the years on theology and science.

Can Science see the End?  Case Magazine, 2003, with Greg Clarke.

Foundations of the Dialogue between the Physical Sciences and Theology, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith  (2004).

Dialectical critical realism in science and theology: Quantum Physics and Karl Barth, Science and Christian Belief (2008), with Ben Myers.

Emergence, reductionism and the stratification of reality in science and theology, Scottish Journal of Theology (2011).

Emergence: The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, Test of Faith.

Science and theology in the non-Western world, Guest Editorial, Science and Christian Belief, 2012.

Living as a Physicist and a Christian, a chapter in the book, Why Study? Exploring the Face of God in the Academy, published by Singapore FES.

Towards a Christian vision for the modern secular university: A theological contribution to competing visions of the university, IFES Word and World, 2018. What is a university for? is a long version of the published article.

Who's afraid of social science?

Case Magazine, 2019.

A Theology of Weakness,

Chapter  in Pub Theology: Where Potato Wedges and a Beer are a Eucharistic Experience

Blessed are the Meek: The Science and Theology of Humility, 

Chapter 3 in To Whom Shall We Go? Faith Responses in a Time of Crisis

Science, Humanity and Jesus, A talk at Theology on Tap Brisbane, June 2025.

Transformation in the Natural Sciences

Draft book chapter, September 2025

Karl Barth and the dialogue between theology and the sciences, Draft paper

The centrality of marginality to Christian theology and life

This month at the theology reading group, we are discussing Marginality: The Key to Multicultural Theology by Jung Young Lee.

How do we make sense of our life experience in terms of theology? How do we make sense of theology in terms of our life experience? Given our humanity (finitude and egoism), it is impossible to completely separate our theology and our experience. Will they enrich or distort one another? Previously, I have written about the challenges of contextual theology.

Jung Young Lee was born in North Korea in 1935, escaped to South Korea during the Korean War, and immigrated to the USA as an undergraduate student. He then worked as a librarian, obtained a Ph.D., taught in a secular university, became a minister in the United Methodist Church, was active in its Korean-American congregations, and became a Professor of Systematic Theology at Drew University. Over the years, he experienced racism, prejudice, and stereotyping as an Asian-American.  Not feeling he belonged in the USA, he returned to South Korea at one point with the intention of staying. However, he discovered that he felt he no longer belonged there either.

Lee makes sense of his life through three lenses: historical, sociological, and theological. He recounts the historical experience of immigrants to the USA from Japan, Korea, and China, beginning in the nineteenth century. It is a sad and disturbing history of exploitation, discrimination, and humiliation. He discusses the sociological concept of marginality that was introduced to describe the "integration" of immigrants into the American "melting pot." He contests some of these definitions as they are developed by those in the centre and assume that being on the margins is bad and that the marginalised should move towards the centre. The centre is characterised by a concern with "wealth, power, and glory." (page 31)

"Immigration is the most vivid and profound symbol of marginality for us." (page 110).

Lee claims that "Theology is autobiographical so I reflect on my praxis and context." (page 33).

Lee discusses how marginality is central to the Biblical narrative. The Tower of Babel "was the symbol of centralisation" (p. 110). 

Lee suggests that in Old Testament narratives there are three acts (p,111). 

1. God's call to be a marginal people

2. Faith

3. "The promise which includes  receiving land, becoming a powerful nation, and making a great name (Genesis 12:1-9)."

"These three acts are inseparable. The first and third acts seem to contradict one another, but they are connected in the second act. The order of these acts cannot be reversed.... Tragedies in the history of Judaism and Christianity were due to the reversal this order... The coexistence of both marginality (the first act) and centrality (the third act) is possible in faith (the second act), the connecting principle..."

There is a dialectic. It is both/and rather than either/or.

God called Moses from his marginal status to lead the Israelite slaves out of Egypt. They wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Jesus was born in a stable, the son of a teenage unwed woman, and grew up in Galilee. In the wilderness, he resisted the temptation to embrace "wealth, power, and honour." He was scorned by the centre: the local religious and political leaders. The focus of his ministry was on the marginalised: the poor, sick, ritually unclean, hungry, lame, beggars, prostitutes, and tax collectors.  Jesus' death on the cross was the ultimate symbol of marginalisation. His disciples were not drawn from the social, political, or religious elites.

Humility, service, and love are the dominant characteristics Jesus said his followers should have. The early church did this and lived on the margins. Yet, following Constantine and the rise of Christendom, the church embraced centrality and scorned marginality. It was characterised by wealth, honour, and power. Today, the church, in all its diverse forms, still aspires to centrality. It is hierarchical, bureaucratic, and exclusive. Dogma does not recognise multiple shades of grey. (p. 125) "Centralism is the cardinal sin that destroys the authentic church." (p.142)

Lee presents a radical alternative vision for the church, including for seminaries. He argues that cell groups should be the core structural element of the church. Structures should be characterised by flexibility, local autonomy, and informality.

I have sympathy for his proposals, but sometimes I find he is idealistic and overly optimistic. Some of his proposals may work for a marginalised community such as Korean-Americans (who tend to be disciplined, well-organised, and highly educated). However, for groups of people such as the homeless and those with addictions or traumatic backgrounds, it is extremely challenging for them to develop structures and leaders. Such challenges are helpfully described in an earlier post by my wife, Robin.

On a personal level, I found the book challenging and discomforting. I am a child of the centre, in terms of family background, race, education, wealth, social status, and profession. Most of my life, I have been involved in churches and ministries that value and focus on centrality and marginality. This has not involved a blatant seeking after wealth, power, and honour. It has been much more subtle and subconscious, reflecting the surrounding culture and background of the participants and leaders. Too often I have been attracted to the centre and seduced by it. Only over the last fifteen years, I have a moved to a more marginal outlook and focus, stimulated by experiences in the Majority World. Yet the pull back to the centre is there day after day, particularly towards comfort, safety, and predictability.

The orientation and main messages of the book are largely not new to me. Nevertheless, it is a message I need to keep hearing. Lee's description of the immigrant experience, both his own and his historical predecessors, increased my imagination and empathy towards the immigrants I interact with. He gives seven characteristics of the experience of marginality: rejection, humiliation, alienation, loneliness, nothingness, allness, and a vision of new life.

In Praise of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is a beautiful and fascinating country. It has incredible biological, cultural, and linguistic diversity.

The island of New Guinea has more than 18,000 described plant species, an estimated 150,000 insect species, 740 species of birds, 276 species of mammals, 641 species of amphibians and reptiles, 600 species of coral and 3,000 species of reef fish. PNG is a magnet for research biologists. A glimpse of this beautiful diversity is captured in the book, New Guinea: Nature and Culture of Earth's Grandest Island by Bruce M. Beehler and Tim Laman.

I love this video about the mating ritual of one of the iconic birds of paradise.

New Guinea has around 840 living languages, making it the most linguistically diverse country in the world. This is more than ten per cent of the world's living languages. 

Papua New Guinea (PNG, the political entity that covers the eastern half of the island) and Australia have a long and intertwined history. Australia inherited it as a colony from Britain and ruled it until 1975 when it gained independence.

Port Moresby, the capital, is only a three-hour flight from Brisbane, where I live. But, it is a different world.

I have visited PNG five times to visit my son, who works there. Next month I will be there for his wedding! 

Recent experiences and reading have increased my appreciation of PNG and of the challenges that it faces. Unfortunately, there is a lot of negative media coverage in Australia. Most focuses on problems such as crime, tribal violence, corruption, and political instability. These are real problems but should be put in the context of positive achievements, the role of outside actors, and history.

Only one hundred years ago, most people in PNG lived in villages and had not even encountered white people, let alone have any awareness of Western culture, democracy, or economies. Since becoming independent of colonial rule, PNG has maintained a parliamentary democracy, free elections, a free and independent press, an independent judiciary, and the army has not interfered in politics. PNG has not suffered from a civil war, a military coup, or political repression. This is incredibly impressive, considering how after the end of Western colonial rule, so few countries in the world have avoided such failures.

Australian actors have played a significant role in some of the challenges that PNG faces. For example, the Australian branch of the bank UBS, charged the PNG government hundreds of millions of dollars to arrange a loan for a dubious investment that led to the PNG government losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

The closest thing to a civil war has been the conflict on Bougainville Island, which seeks to become independent of PNG, something the national government is not keen to allow. Unfortunately, Australian actors helped create this problem, as it all began with the establishment of the hugePanguna mineby the Australian company Conzinc Rio Tinto . The conflict ultimately led to the Sandline affair, where the PNG tried to hire mercenaries to "resolve" the conflict.

Like many Majority World countries, PNG is plagued by corruption. This occurs at multiple scales from the small to the large. An example of the small is a government bureaucrat taking a small bribe to speed up the processing of some paperwork. An example of the large is a politician diverting millions of dollars from a government bank account into their own personal bank account in Switzerland or Panama.

Large scale corruption would not be possible without Western enablers. On Britain, The Economist, stated, based on the book Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals.

"No other country offers a comparable array of enablers; from banks and lawyers to public-relations firms and other “reputation managers”."

The rapid change of PNG is beautifully captured in the autobiography of Albert Kiki Maori, Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime. It also describes how he experienced discrimination and racism by Australians, but was empowered to have a political vision for independence from his brief time studying in Fiji.

The Embarrassed Colonialist (2016) is a helpful and short book by Sean Dorney It does not gloss over PNG's problems but emphasises how there is much to celebrate and nationals should be proud of what they have achieved since independence. 

A helpful discussion of Australia's fraught relationships with its Pacific neighbours is discussed in a podcast by Gordon Peake, Statecraftiness. 

Who is my neighbour? Surely, not "them"!

What would it be like to not have a home? To have no country. To be wanted by no country. To be constantly on the move, searching for safety, for food, for water, for stability, ... Or to be trapped in a detention centre for "illegal immigrants" with no hope of ever escaping? Or to be living in a tent in a camp for hundreds of thousands of refugees. Unfortunately, this is reality, day-to-day life, for more than eighty million people. Tragically, this number is growing and unlikely to decrease.

In 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) forecast that 1.4 million refugees would need resettlement in 2019. Yet, only 107,800 were accepted. Only, three countries in the world accepted more than 10,000.

Refugees, internally displaced people, and asylum seekers present a moral and political challenge to our time. They are vulnerable and suffering. Yet, rather than receiving empathy or practical help from wealthy Western nations, refugees too often are demonised as threats to the security, prosperity, and culture of Western nations. I am ashamed of how Australia has "led" the way in this regard, particularly with policies of detaining asylum seekers in offshore detention camps.

At the theology reading group this month we discussed Refuge Reimagined: Biblical Kinship in Global Politics, by Mark Glanville and Luke Glanville.

One of the many strengths of the book is the complementary expertise of the authors, two brothers. Mark is an Old Testament scholar who is also actively involved in helping settle refugees in Vancouver. (This is through the organisation Kinbrace that emerged through Grandview Baptist church and is also discussed in Tim Dickau's book that we recently read). Luke is a scholar of international relations and provides a global political perspective on displaced peoples. As a result, the book has depth in both theology and in political science, which is unfortunately rare in Christian books about political issues. The arguments are laced with references to the academic literature on Old Testament scholarship and on global politics, but the book is still easy to read.

There is a beautiful section on how to interpret the Old Testament ethically today, using a jazz metaphor (page 49). (Both authors are accomplished jazz musicians). Jazz is a rich tradition, but each performance is unique. Performers respond to the local context, creating something new, but rooted in tradition. Similarly, the Old Testament represented and shaped a rich tradition in the communal life of ancient Israel. The translation and application of this tradition to modern life in churches and secular nations is not straightforward but can be rich and beautiful. Ethics for today should respect and draw from that tradition, but adapt creatively.

In the first half of the book, Mark argues persuasively how the concept of "festive kinship" is central to the Old Testament, particularly in Deuteronomy. Kinship is not defined by bloodline or ethnicity, but rather by a community characterised by obedience to God's commands. In particular, this community enfolds the resident alien. 

A natural question is how this concept of kinship fits with the Old Testament narratives that describe how Israel is commanded by God to "devote to destruction" the Canaanites? (pages 55-59). The texts actually show that Canaanites can be Israelites (e.g., Rahab the prostitute who acknowledged the works of YHWH and in faith protected the spies) and Israelites can be Canaanites (e.g., Achan who stole devoted things from Jericho). Being Israelite (Canaanite) is not defined by bloodline but rather by obedience (disobedience) to YHWH.

Jesus further expands kinship to include those on the margins: Samaritans, prostitutes, "sinners", tax collectors, ...  He shares meals with them. In fact, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus spends more time eating than teaching! (page 78). Some do repent but this is not a pre-requisite for joining the meal (page 79).  Jesus' community is defined by its centre rather than by its boundaries (page 94). This contrasts with the Pharisees and many churches today that define themselves by who is in and who is out and by what they are against rather than what they are for.

Jesus proclaims "forgiveness of sins". There are several different Greek words that are translated into English as "forgiveness". Some actually mean "release" in the sense of release from oppression (pages 85, 86, 101).

The Deuteronomy feasting texts are characterised by a four-part movement: lament-gift-thanksgiving-inclusive justice. The purpose is to "forge and inclusive and celebrative community in light of the generosity of God." (p. 107).

"The festal call to thanksgiving with inclusive celebration highlights the importance of the distinctive life of a missional congregation." Howard Peskett and Vinoth Ramachandra note, "Mission is not primarily about going. Nor is mission primarily about doing anything. Mission is about being. It is about being a distinctive kind of people, a countercultural ... community among the nations."  (p. 110).

Careful consideration is given to a number of commonly stated fears and claims that opponents express about the impact that Western nations accepting more refugees will have on security, economics, and culture. (pp. 168-178).

The scale of the problem is daunting. There are about 45 million internally displaced people, and more than 26 million refugees. Most refugees are in poor countries such as Uganda, Bangladesh, and Lebanon. Yet, somehow these countries care for them as best they can. For example, in Lebanon schools are running double shifts as there are as many Syrian children as Lebanese needing and education! This makes a mockery of the greed and xenophobia of wealthy Western nations who are unwilling to bear the cost, risk, and inconvenience of caring for tens of thousands of refugees.

That's enough for now... 

This is a wonderful and challenging book that I pray will stimulate some significant action, particularly among Western churches.

John Dickson also has an excellent podcast episode in which he interviews the authors and a refugee. The associated webpage also has links to relevant materials.

On the subject of refugees and the value of small individual acts of kindness, Malcolm Gladwell has a powerful podcast episode.

Initiatives to alleviate poverty that empower

 Robin and I are giving a talk this evening at The Village Academy on "When Helping Hurts.." based on the book by the same name.

Here are the slides.

An appreciation of Charles Ringma on his 80th Birthday

 Last Friday evening about forty friends of  Charles Ringma gathered in Brisbane to celebrate his 80th Birthday. There was a lot of creativity and laughter in the personal tributes that were presented. Here is my tribute.

Integrity and hospitality are two words that describe what I appreciate and respect about Charles. Integrity and hospitality, in the broadest and deepest sense of both words.

Charles embodies integrity. Charles’ head, heart, and hands act in harmony and synergy. There is consistency between what Charles believes, what he says, what he writes, how he acts, and what he loves. This may be why Charles has been such an influential teacher and leader. 

Charles embodies hospitality. Charles and Rita have opened their home to diverse people over decades. But this is just one dimension of his hospitality. Charles also models intellectual and relational hospitality, including to people with different theological backgrounds and perspectives. Charles has been hospitable to me, inviting me into spaces, conversations, and initiatives.

When I read church history, over two thousand years I am struck by two things. First, how people who claim to be following Jesus do an amazing job of stuffing things up at every level: how they act, what they believe, and what they love. At such times it is hard to see how the church is the body of Christ, embodying his presence in the world. The sin of humanity abounds in breadth and creativity. Second, despite these abysmal failures, in every age and context, our merciful God raises up individuals, communities, and institutions that restore some sanity, integrity, and spirituality to the church. The church then becomes an instrument of blessing and a positive change agent for society.

Charles is a beautiful example of an individual who for his adult life, God has used in diverse contexts to be a shining light in communities and institutions to help guide them back to Jesus and the Kingdom of God. This influence may be because Charles draws from the best thought and practices from two thousand years of church history and from the global church.'

I have only known Charles since 2014. When I reflect on my own Christian pilgrimage, I am struck by two things. First, how I often mess things up, just like the church. Second, God is merciful and at crucial moments God brings me into contact with individuals, communities, and institutions that, just like the church, I need to get back on track and progress. Charles has been such a gift from God to me. Around 2010 I came across Resist the Powers, Charles devotional book, based on Jacques Ellul, and it resonated deeply with me. Hence, I was very happy when in 2013, Paul Mercer told me about a theology reading group led by Charles in his home each month. That then led to being involved in Theology on Tap, and being part of the “holy” scribblers, an eclectic writing collective.

Charles, best wishes. Thank you for your friendship, your partnership, your wisdom, and your example. I hope the LORD grants you many more birthdays.

Truth-telling, faith, and science

This week I had the opportunity to speak (virtually) at the Asian Theological Seminary (ATS) Theological Forum as part of a series on Faith and Truth-Telling in the Public Square.

My slides are here.

You can watch the video on Facebook.

How might Christians respond to poverty?

 On the one hand, the world has never been so wealthy and prosperous as it is today. On the other hand, it has never been so unequal. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Billions live on a few dollars per day. The covid-19 pandemic has made this fragile existence even more tenuous and has pushed hundreds of millions more into poverty. Poverty is not just material but also involves limited access to education, health, social networks, and political representation. There are also psychological and spiritual dimensions to poverty.

Addressing global poverty has become a massive billion-dollar "industry", for better or worse, involving governments, philanthropists, NGOs, universities, and researchers. Yet, the effectiveness of this industry in alleviating poverty is contentious.  

The Bible, from beginning to end, says a lot about poverty, wealth, inequality, injustice, and caring for the marginalised. Hence, addressing these issues should be central to the mission of the global church. But, this is a complex issue as it involves theological, political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions. 

A helpful place to begin is the book, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself, by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett. They state

one of the biggest problems in many poverty-alleviation efforts is that their design and implementation exacerbates the poverty of being of the economically rich—their god-complexes—and the poverty of being of the economically poor—their feelings of inferiority and shame.

There is also an excellent small group guide with videos that my wife and I have used with a church small group.

For those who want to go deeper, either because they are academically oriented or are practitioners, there is a "textbook".

Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development by Bryant L. Myers

Myers worked for World Vision for many years and now teaches at Fuller Seminary. It is comprehensive, balanced, easy to read, and has helpful diagrams. There are many things I like about the book.

Integral mission

"The Christian message is an embodied message, carried by living witnesses." Word, deed, and sign cannot be separated. Poverty alleviation and gospel proclamation are both acts of love that go together. Transformational development has spiritual, relational, and material dimensions. It is central to the Kingdom of God.

Bringing together theology, social science, and activism

Activism and programs need to be informed by both social sciences and by theology. Activism receives motivation and direction from theology, being informed by a Biblical worldview.  That provides a framework to understand who humans are, how they act, and how they change. The themes of creation, fall, incarnation, redemption, and re-creation are central. 

Poverty occurs in a social context. A community is "disturbed" by any outside intervention or internal initiative that aims to reduce poverty. Social sciences can be useful in understanding social structures and dynamics, including designing and evaluating the impact of any program.

A compact overview of state-of-the-art thinking and practice on development

There is a huge academic literature on development, from both Christian and secular, Western and Majority World perspectives. 

Myers provides a succinct introduction to the ideas of Jeffrey Sachs, William Easterly, Paul Collier, Banerjee and Duflo, Muhammad Yunus, Amartya Sen, ...

There are methods for planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluation of projects. These include The Logical Framework (logframe), Participatory Learning and Action, Appreciative Inquiry, and Positive Deviance. They are all introduced and critically evaluated.

Sensitive to culture and context

Most poverty alleviation programs are led and funded by WWWs (Wealthy White Westerners) but implemented in Majority World contexts that are not WEIRD (Western Educated Industrialised Rich Democratic). Given the hubris that too often goes with money, power, and education (a god-complex) it is hardly surprising that many programs fail, particularly in the long term, because of a lack of understanding and sensitivity to local culture such as social structures, values, methods of communication, ...

The modern Western worldview presupposes dichotomies between the spiritual and material. The figure below shows pairings of categories, such as religion and science, faith and reason. These pairs are assumed to be in conflict or completely independent of one another. These dichotomies are often presupposed by Western Christians. But, they are not part of a Biblical worldview.

Postmodernism does not accept these dichotomies, and rightly points out they are naive. For example, faith and reason can never be separated, either for a Christian or an atheist. Everyone starts with some presuppositions. Rationality takes place in the context of a particular tradition, as emphasised by Alisdair MacIntyre.

Myers draws on ideas from the anthropologist, Paul Hiebert, who contrasts modern and traditional worldviews, illustrated below. A key idea is that of the "excluded middle" in the modern worldview: there is no room for forces and phenomena that bridge the spiritual and seen world. 

This presents a problem for development initiatives in communities with a traditional worldview; this excluded middle that may be seen to determine health, prosperity, natural disasters, and conflicts. Hence, a community will not be receptive to technical "solutions" that are presented by Westerners.

Treats the poor with dignity  

The poor and non-poor are all made in the image of God. They are of equal value in God's eyes. Hence, the poor should be valued, respected, celebrated, enjoyed, empowered, and listened to. 

Myers reviews social science research that shows that the poor actually know a lot more than they are often given credit for. They are incredibly resilient. It is a miracle how they manage to survive and persevere. Myers describes the work of the Peruvian economist, Hernando de Soto who "demonstrated the vitality, creativity, and entrepreneurial activity of Peru's urban poor." However, this positive energy is significantly constrained because they are required to operate in the informal (underground) economy which means they do not have protections from the rule of law or the property titles that others use to access capital. 

Discussion of complexity theory and emergence

Communities are composed of many interacting units (individuals, families, businesses, churches, ...) that are embedded in an environment (e.g. a city and the global economy). For such complex systems, it is hard to predict how they will behave, including in response to a "perturbation". Hence, the concept of emergence and ideas from complexity theory can provide some insight into development.

Principles are relevant to other Majority World issues

The focus of the book is on poverty alleviation, particularly extreme poverty in the Majority World. However, most of the principles (theological and social scientific) and practices are relevant to any initiative of a Christian organisation that aims to have a transformative influence in a community. Part of my interest in the book is because it addresses many issues that we face in the IFES Logos and Cosmos Initiative.

If you want to know more about the book you can download the Table of Contents and Chapter 1. The latter provides a nice overview of the book, introducing some of the key ideas, and describing how it came to be written.

Relating Word (logos) and World (cosmos)

The last two posts reflected on the nature of the logos and the cosmos. I now consider how are the logos and cosmos to be related. 

What is the relationship between Word and World? More specifically what is the relationship between theology and the sciences? How are cosmos and logos in a university to be related? Going back to Plato there are rich and subtle philosophical issues concerning ontology [what is real] and epistemology [what is true] that are still being explored and debated in universities. Could a Christian perspective be even richer?

A place to begin is to acknowledge the central role of hermeneutics (how we read and interpret a text), not just the text of the Bible, but also how we “read” the world in which we live. To access the living Word requires engaging the text of the Bible in a manner that uses a “hermeneutical circle (or spiral)”, whereby a specific part of the text is related to its context (chapter, book, whole Bible) in an iterative manner that goes from the part to the whole and back to the whole. Any theology should also be constructed in an iterative interaction with the text. Similarly, a local context (cultural, social, political, economic, linguistic, religious) has to be “read”; this requires observation, recording, analysis, and interpretation. Too often this is done in an intuitive manner without reflection or a basis in evidence. However, this “reading” can be done in a more systematic and reflective manner, drawing from methods in the social sciences. The local context must also be related to the global context and one needs to discern the relationship between the particularity of the local context and universals that describe many contexts. 

When relating Word and world things become more complicated, challenging, and rich because these two hermeneutical practices are intertwined, perhaps more than we would like to admit. Again, perhaps the best approach is iterative, whereby both “readings” are done in parallel and allowed to influence one another in a constructive manner. Indeed, Peter Harrison has argued in detail that modern science arose in seventeenth-century Europe because the Protestant Reformation led to new ways of reading the Bible (in particular, a shift from the allegorical to the literal) that in turn led to new ways of “reading” the “book” of nature.

A key issue for the dialogue of logos and cosmos is the tension inherent in the Bible’s picture of the world. The cosmos is God’s creation, made through the logos (John 1:1). Christians need discernment as they live with a tension between the goodness of the creation and the fallen, rebellious nature of the world. What do we affirm and enjoy about the world? What do we deny or critique or resist or seek to redeem? Being made in the image of God, we have an incredible ability to read, analyse, and understand both the Word and the world. Yet, both these processes of observation and understanding are also corrupted by our sinful and rebellious nature. Sometimes we see what we want to see and don’t see what we don’t want to see. Pride, finitude, and self-deception diminish our understanding.

The good-bad tension is present in universities. Some of the logos about the cosmos that is presented to students and "discovered" by researchers reflect God’s truth about His amazing world and some of this knowledge reflects Kingdom values (truth, justice, human dignity, reconciliation, ...).  On the other hand, some of this so-called knowledge is false, hostile to God, or does violence to Kingdom values. Universities grew out of medieval monasteries and were centred around theology until the last century. In the monasteries, scholarship was integrated with worship, service, communal life, and virtue. Today universities aspire to be global corporations with multi-billion-dollar budgets. In the process of this transformation from God-centred institutions to powerful businesses, there is less of the good and more of the bad. 

For IFES some guidance comes from John Stott. In his book, The Contemporary Christian: An urgent plea for double listening, he discusses listening to the world and to the Word.

How can we develop a Christian mind, which is both shaped by the truths of historic, biblical Christianity, and acquainted with the realities of the contemporary world? How can we relate the Word to the world, understanding the world in the light of the Word, and even understanding the Word in the light of the world? We have to begin with a double refusal. We refuse to become either so absorbed in the Word, that we escape into it and fail to let it confront the world, or so absorbed in the world, that we conform to it and fail to subject it to the judgement of the Word. Escapism and conformity are opposite mistakes, but neither is a Christian option. 

In place of this double refusal we are called to double listening, listening both to the Word and to the world. ... We listen to the Word with humble reverence, anxious to understand it, and resolved to believe and obey what we come to understand. We listen to the world with critical alertness, anxious to understand it too, and resolved not necessarily to believe and obey it, but to sympathise with it and to seek grace to discover how the gospel relates to it. 

This is the origin of the title of the IFES journal, Word and World: Theological Conversations about the world students live in. How might we go about relating logos and cosmos? John Stott also says the framework of creation-fall-redemption-renewal is helpful for developing Christian thinking on a wide range of issues. 

Finally, I come back to the role of local context. There is not one world, but many worlds. The beauty and potential of God’s multi-faceted creation can be seen in the diversity of human cultures and local contexts. Tragically, this diversity also reflects the creativity of human rebellion and sin. 

Most discussions about science and theology are dominated by academics embedded in elite Western universities and seminaries. The discussions focus on issues associated with biological evolution, Big Bang cosmology, quantum physics, and human consciousness. Social sciences receive scant attention. It is contentious whether these Western discussions are helpful or relevant to other contexts, particularly in the Majority World.

One model for the logos-cosmos dialogue is provided by the Ph.D. program in Contextual Theology at Asian Theological Seminary in Manilla. Later I may discuss in more detail a few key elements of the philosophy of the program. These include a focus “on empowering local faith communities on empowering the faith community by giving it a language and praxis in its formation, growth, and service in the setting/s in which it finds itself”, bringing the local into dialogue with the global, and inter-disciplinarity.

Reviewing models of contextual theology

Here is a brief synopsis of three of the distinct models of contextual theology discussed by Stephen B. Bevans, in An Introduction to Theology in Global Perspective.

Bevans proposes six distinct models of contextual theology. They put different relative emphasis on the past and the present, represented by their different locations on the diagram above. Those on the left emphasise the goodness of creation (including culture created by humans) and place a higher value on general revelation than on special revelation. Those on the right emphasise the fallen nature of the creation (including culture created by humans) and the need to redeem it, and put a low value on general revelation, particularly that God can be seen to be present and working in human cultures.

In discussing each model Bevans describes the following

1. alternative names of the model

2. the basis that the model has in Scripture and in Tradition

3. presuppositions that the model has about revelation, Scripture, Tradition, and context

4. methods that practitioners of the model use

5. a horticultural analogy 

6. a "bumper sticker" catchphrase that may summarise the model

7. a positive and negative critique of the model.

Tradition may be Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Calvinist, ...

Translation model

There is a message that is independent of any context and the primary task of theology is to translate that message into specific contexts.

1. the translation is not one of "formal correspondence" but rather "functional" or "dynamical equivalence." Translation involves "adaptation" and "accommodation."

2. Pauls speech in Athens (Acts 17) is an example.

3. there is a content to Christianity that is independent of context and must, by all means, be preserved. Revelation is understood as propositional, containing a concrete message. Both the essence of the message and the Tradition of the proponent are considered to be supracontextual and complete.

4. one first finds the "essence" of the Gospel and then "clothes" it with the trappings of the local culture.

5. a grain of wheat. the husk is removed in order to find the kernel, which is then enclosed in a new husk.

6. "essence of Christianity" and "put the gospel into [new contexts]"

7. Positive: places a high value on Scripture, Tradition, and can be very respectful of different cultures. Negative: may have a naive understanding of the gospel and of the context. may be overly confident about the ability of a person from a particular culture and Tradition to understand the "essence" of the gospel and contexts and to be able to perform a faithful/accurate translation of the gospel from one context to another.

Proponents include Charles Kraft, David Hesselgrave, Tite Tienou, and Hwa Yung.

Anthropological model

This is the most "radical" model. Local cultures can reflect the goodness of God and theology needs to affirm them and be adapted to them. The primary concern is to preserve the cultural identity of a person of Christian faith.

1. "indigenisation" or "ethnographic" model. It is anthropological because the center of the theology is the human person and it makes use of anthropological methods, such as ethnography.

2. the stories of the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:21-28) and the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30) showed "how even Jesus in his full humanity needs to have his horizon expanded beyond Jewish prejudices to the realization of the full implication of his gospel message."

3. tends to approach revelation as not a set of propositions to be preserved but rather an account of God's presence in past contexts.

4.  starts where people are at.

5.  a gardener waters a dry and barren area of soil and from it come flowers and vegetables, the seeds of which were already in the soil.

6. negative: naive about the goodness of human contexts. needs to recognise the sinfulness and fallibility of humanity. does not address issues of injustice and immorality that may be endemic to a society. positive: honours people and their communities, emphasis on humility.

7. "pull the gospel out of" contexts

Examples are Leonardo Mercado, Laurenti Magesa, and Diego Irarrazava.

Praxis model

Practice and theological reflection cannot be separated. Praxis is a combination of practice, or action, and reflection on that action in a continuing spiral.

1. "liberation"model, "situational" model, or "theology of the signs of the times."

2. old Testament prophets (e.g. Isaiah 1:15-16 and Micah 6:7-8)

3. "Not only are women and men of God called to be friends of God; they are called to be partners as well." Revelation is a concrete model, that invites relationship and action, particularly to join God in his liberating and saving activity within history.

4. Action, reflection, action, reflection, .... Reflection involves an analysis of the context using social sciences and a rereading of the Tradition in light of the action. The entire process is the doing of theology.

5. Tending a garden involves an ongoing process of hoeing, sowing, weeding, and watering.

6. Positive: the fullest knowledge is not just intellectual but also through experience and reflection on that experience. Negative: liberation theology is sometimes too influenced by Marxist ideology. 

7. "To know Christ is to follow him." (Jon Sobrino)

Gustavo Guitterez (Peru), Jean-Marc Ela (Cameroon), and Aloysius Pieris (Sri Lanka) are examples.

In a later post, I will discuss the other three models.

Synthetic model

There are strengths and weaknesses of all these models and so one tries to take the good things from all the models.

Countercultural model

Without Christ, cultures are fallen and stand against Christ. They need to be changed.

Transcendental model

The focus in on the subject, the person. Revelation must be experienced. In ones context, one experiences God.

Alternative models of contextual theology

Christian theology is a discussion that aims to apprehend and understand the triune God; the God that is claimed to be revealed by the Bible and the accounts therein of God's action in history.

But this discussion of God always occurs in a particular context: social, economic, political, cultural, linguistic, historical, and intellectual. Furthermore, the discussion is always conducted by groups of individuals who all have their own personalities and life experiences. Yet, the God of the Bible is so much greater than these contexts and individuals. 

Hence, I agree with the claim that "all theology is contextual". To me, this is almost stating the obvious. Contexts matter. However, to some, this claim is contentious and they may see it as a slippery slope towards relativism (all views are equally valid) and/or towards syncretism where the radical counter-cultural message of the Gospel is compromised and absorbed into a local culture. But, to me, this claim is more a position of humility and a desire to understand others and their context, and be willing to learn from them. It can help me explore how my own theology (both implicit and explicit) and the theology of those that I interact with, has been influenced, for better or worse, by our contexts.

Key questions I would like to explore include the following.

How does one define a context? 

What elements of a context are key to understanding how they influence the development of a particular theology?

How does one discern what should be normative in any contextual theology?

Behind the last question is a general philosophical problem that reflects the is-ought problem, the fact-value distinction, and the relationship between descriptive and prescriptive statements. Just because we observe something is, does not mean that is the way it should be. For example, someone observes that "teenagers are disrepectful," or "boys will be boys," or "there will always be poor people." That does not mean that the behaviour is morally correct, that one should not seek to change it, or that it is impossible to change.

There are many contextual theologies: liberation theology, Dalit theology, Catholic theology, Reformed theology, ... The fact that we observe them, describe them, and try to understand their relationship with the context from which they emerged does not mean that they are "true", appropriate, useful, or should not be changed.

A widely used text is by Stephen B. Bevans, Models of Contextual Theology. Laurie Green has a helpful dot-point summary of the book.  Bevans's more recent book, An Introduction to Theology in Global Perspective  has a nice summary including the figures below.

This frames how contextual theology can be viewed as critical dialogue between the experience of the past (embodied in Scripture and Tradition) and the experience of the present. There are several reading and interpretation exercises (hermeneutics) going on. The Bible must be read and interpreted. A specific context must be read and interpreted. There is a hermeneutical circle for the Bible and for the context. The parts must be interpreted in light of the whole and the whole must be interpreted in light of the parts. Contextual theology will also involve a hermeneutical circle. The context is interpreted in light of the Bible and the Bible is interpreted in light of the context.

Bevans proposes six distinct models of contextual theology. They put different relative emphasis on the past and the present, leading to their different locations on the diagram above. Those on the left emphasise the goodness of creation and have a higher value of general revelation than special revelation. Those on the right emphasise the fallen nature of the creation and the need to redeem it, and put a low value on general revelation.

The names of the six models are given below.

Anthropological model

Local cultures can reflect the goodness of God and theology needs to affirm them and be adapted to them.

Praxis model

Practice and theological reflection cannot be separated.

Synthetic model

There are strengths and weaknesses of all these models and so one tries to take the good things from all the models.

Translation model

There is a message that is independent of any context and the primary task of theology is to translate that message into that context.

Countercultural model

Without Christ, cultures are fallen and stand against Christ. They need to be changed.

Transcendental model

The focus in on the subject, the person. Revelation must be experienced. In ones context, one experiences God.

In another post, I will discuss these models in more detail. Before, doing so I would state again that "all models are wrong, but some are useful." Bevans makes several pertinent observations about models. 

Models are a kind of pattern or template that offers a way of performing a task... Models... are streamlined, artificially constructed ways of thinking... like symbols... they should be taken "seriously, but not literally."...

Models may be either exclusive or complementary.

Models of something [that people have done] might also be models for something [that people might do].

Later I will also explore how some of these ideas may be relevant (or not) to considering science-theology interactions in different contexts.

Following Jesus the Radical

Jesus was a radical in many senses. His teaching is radical, particularly when it comes to money, power, violence, leadership, and service. If someone wants to follow Jesus and his teaching today what might that look like?

What is Christian spirituality? This has always seemed a nebulous concept to me, particularly in the manner that many people talk about it. Yet, I believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Jesus gave clear teaching about how he sent the Holy Spirit to be with his followers.

What is the role and place of different church traditions today, for better or for worse?

Due to the Reformation in sixteenth-century Europe, several well-defined church traditions emerged: Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed (Calvin), and Anabaptist. Each provides a distinct interpretation of the Bible and a concrete institutional (communal) expression of what it means to follow Jesus. Given that all this happened five hundred years ago, to what extent are these traditions relevant and/or helpful today, particularly in the diverse contexts present in the global church? To what extent today are these traditions faithful to their origins? And should they be?

What should be the relationship between church and state?

You can see I like asking questions!

In the theology reading group this month we read and discussed a book that does address these questions from an Anabaptist perspective, Life Together in the Spirit: A Radical Spirituality for the Twenty-First Century, by John Driver. It was selected to be part of the Global Anabaptist-Mennonite Shelf of Literature, an initiative of the Mennonite World Conference. The book was written in a Latin American context, and originally published in Spanish, as Convivencia radical: espiritualidad para el siglo 21  The English edition is enhanced by short responses from Mennonite leaders from D.R. Congo, Zimbabwe, India, Taiwan, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Ecuador. Each reflects on the relevance of the book to their own context. At the end of each chapter there are discussion questions.

I found the book refreshing, informative, and challenging. Before reading it I knew very little about Anabaptism. Here are a few choice sections.

Anabaptist spirituality is not abstract, but rather concrete. It does not embrace reductionism or dualism, but rather has an integrated (holistic) world view.

In marked contrast to many traditional spiritualities, the Bible does not allow the distinctions we often make between the inner and the outer, or between the spiritual and the material, or between believing and doing.

Rather than emphasizing the highly contemplative life of meditation and prayer, common among the Catholic orders, or focusing on right doctrine, as mainstream Protestants have tended to do, Anabaptists asked, “How can we be obedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ?” 

Although medieval monasticism and Anabaptism held much in common, their different understandings of the Christian community, or the church, resulted in different spiritualities. Instead of an abstract or otherworldly mysticism, the Anabaptists emphasized the practice of obedience, active love, and the integration of faith and works. Their focus was not so much on cultivating a common spiritual life through contemplation, as it was practicing a life of prayer, peace, integrity, and humility in the context of radical communal social relationships.  (page 30)

Anabaptists have an "understanding of discipleship as participation in the very nature of Jesus". This means "taking up your cross daily." (Aside: This may have some similarities to ideas about Pauline spirituality discussed in detail by Michael Gorman.)

This “spirituality of discipleship” assigned great importance to biblical teachings such as the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7) and the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:13– 26),  (page 50)

Can different traditions learn from one another? Driver is not sectarian or presenting Anabaptism as superior. Radicalism has its weaknesses.

John Howard Yoder... observed that radical reform movements tend to take on the mirror image of the very deficiencies that they have identified as in need of reform in the established churches.

For example, in a context where the church defined itself as a “sacramental communion,” the radicals tended to eliminate the sacramental dimension from their ecclesiology in the hopes of recovering a dynamic vision and practice more relevant to their historical setting. Thus, in their reaction against an “idolatrous” liturgy, sixteenth-century Anabaptist worship deprived itself of some of the rich symbolism through which God’s grace and love are communicated.

However, in this desire to respond more faithfully to the gospel, the Anabaptists have not been the only ones in the history of the church whose spirituality has been impoverished. Roland Bainton, a renowned twentieth-century church historian, once suggested that Martin Luther’s greatest tragedy consisted in not having Anabaptists nearby with whom to engage in meaningful dialogue. At the same time, in their reaction against Luther’s resolute emphasis on “justification by faith alone, without works” – and the almost inevitable lowering of ethical standards such an emphasis entailed – some Anabaptist groups emphasized obedience to the teachings of Christ so strongly, indeed almost exclusively, that they sometimes became victims of a sort of moral paralysis or legalism. This tension has lasted for many generations among some Anabaptist congregations.

In the sixteenth century, Christians generally held the conviction that there was only one truth, and that this, of necessity, was to be found in only one tradition. For that reason, the established churches – who believed that they were the custodians of this truth – persecuted and even executed those in the reform movements who dared to question their authority. Yet ironic as it may seem, once they had consolidated their existence and established their identity, these same reform movements tended to assume a similar attitude toward their adversaries. (pages 65-66)

Some of these tragic failures and dramatic hypocrisies are chronicled by Tom Holland in Dominion. 

Unfortunately, Yoder himself and his Anabaptist denomination also experienced significant moral failures.

What is authentic Christian theology? It is not just an intellectual exercise but something that is lived out.

Authentic theology expresses truths that are lived out in practice, so that we may understand and live them more faithfully and communicate them more clearly in our missional witness. (page 71).

Theology on the street

 Life can be messy, painful, difficult, and disorienting. No one is immune from the breakdown of relationships, health, or finances. This is true even for upper-middle-class Australians such as myself, who have access to significant resources (social networks, education, wealth, stable government, ...). If a person wants to follow Jesus how do they make sense of their life and find the spiritual resources to keep going? What role does theology play? And how might one connect the messiness of life to theology, to what might be taught (and modeled) at church, the Bible, and different Christian traditions?

Answering such questions is some of what Theology on Tap Brisbane is about. A  book, Pub Theology, recently published; each of the twenty-two chapters is based on a presentation by the author at Theology on Tap. The common theme is that each speaker was requested to reflect on their life experience in light of scripture and their own theological tradition. Most speakers are "lay" people, i.e. they are not clergy, academic theologians, or doing full-time paid work in Christian organisations. They have spent most of their working lives in the "real" world. Many have a Ph.D.

The book has received very positive reviews and endorsements from diverse reviewers. See for example, a review by Tim Dickau. 

Hard copies are available at Book Depository and Amazon sells a Kindle version.

This week for our theology reading group we discussed the book. Most members of the reading group also have a chapter in the book. Mine is based on a talk Theology of Weakness, that I gave in March 2019.

What are my reflections on the book? 

It was great to read the chapters, both those based on talks I had heard and talks that I missed because I was overseas at the time (pre-covid).

There is an emotional "rawness" in many chapters. Authors are honest and vulnerable about their own personal failures and struggles. There is depth, both intellectual and spiritual, to the theological reflections on the authors' own life narratives. There is a sincere and earnest struggle to connect their story to God's story. 

Life can be tragic, confusing, messy, and painful. There are no simple answers and solutions, theological or practical, to the complex questions and problems that life throws up.  Authors do not resort to platitudes, escapism, denial, relativism, despair, nihilism, cynicism, or bitterness. 

In some sense, the book presents neither a modernist or postmodernist perspective on the Christian life. Modernists will focus on certitude,  doctrine, reason. Little room is given for diversity of perspective and experience. Postmodernists will focus on ambiguity, diversity, and experience. the "validity" of each person's version of their story and affirm whatever interpretation they wish to put on that story. As a whole, the book affirms individuals' stories and experiences while putting those stories in dialogue with a specific normative narrative, that of the Bible and the work and presence of the Triune God in the world.

The book is powerful testimony that theology is relevant to all of life. Theology is not owned and defined by academics, pastors, or denominations. Theology is not just private or spiritual. Theology is and should be public. It has something to say about big issues such as the immigrant experience, family life, climate change, mental health, poverty, trauma, indigenous issues, and social justice. 

In life, some of the authors have been "activists" who have constructively engaged with our broken world in a way that is driven by their theology. But, their theology has also been modified or reconstructed based on the experience of their activism. I found those chapters particularly inspiring. They include those working with reconciliation following the Rwandan genocide, living in a slum in South Asia, care for children dying of cancer (and their families), indigenous health, ...

Life experiences are a powerful force, for better or worse, in shaping people's theology. This book is testimony to that and for me stimulates me to think more about the relationship between experience, tradition, scripture, and reason. One way of relating them is the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, Another is the tricycle promoted by Richard Rohr. I hope to come back to the complexities of this issue later.

Converting the presentations into book chapters does miss one significant dimension to the live presentations. A book is static, not dynamic. After each presentation, small groups discuss the presentation and compose written questions for the presenter. The presenter then responds to these questions. This element of processing and dialogue is obviously missing from the book. I wonder if it might be captured by a short response from another author and then a final word from the author.

What might be ways forward that build on this book?

Theology of Tap is characterised by hospitality. It is an open space that aims to be welcoming and neutral. It is not sectarian, as reflected in the diverse backgrounds and perspectives of both presenters and attendees. Can there be more room for dialogue, debate, and constructive criticism, including with non-Christians?

Most presenters, attendees, and authors are in the demographic of fifty to eighty years old. There is a lot of life experience and hard-earned wisdom. How can this be passed on to the younger? And what can the elders learn from the younger?

Does our life experience shape our views on money and material wealth?

Money and material wealth are a big issue that society and churches, particularly in the Western world, need to grapple with. This is a significant issue for me personally as from a global perspective my wife and I are in the top one to ten percent, as are many of our friends in Australia and the USA. Many of our friends in the Majority World are in the majority, i.e. the lower 80 percent!

It is amazing how much Jesus talked about money. He talked about it as much as heaven and certainly more than about sex! Yet, there is not much open and honest discussion about the issue in churches, except for fundraising for (mostly) local budgets. As an aside, I acknowledge that in churches that promote Prosperity Theology (which I think is very dubious) money is talked about a lot.

I was very happy that the book for next month to be discussed in the theology reading group is Money Matters: Faith, Life, and Wealth by R. Paul Stevens and Clive Lim. I asked my wife to read it with me since I think it is so important for us.

In the first two chapters, each of the authors introduces themselves, describing their Christian journey, particularly as it relates to money. I am not normally a fan of such introductions. Sometimes they are a prelude to a book that largely reflects views that are solely shaped by the author's own experiences. Experience is used to interpret Scripture, rather than Scripture used to interpret experience. But, these stories are not just fascinating, honest, and vulnerable. They illustrate an important point.  We need to consider our own stories when we consider a Christian perspective on money and wealth. The two stories are also interesting because they are quite different: one is from the East and one from the West. One grew up in a Christian family and the other did not. Moreover, one grew up in a very poor family and eventually became quite wealthy. The other grew up quite wealthy and through following Jesus ended up with little money (by affluent Western standards). Why does this matter? Before telling his own story, Stevens states

Clive and I are telling our money stories because our attitude toward money is formed through many influences, not least our family education, our experience growing up and the influence of our culture. Sometimes the teaching of the church on money, whenever it happens, usually pales in significance before the overwhelming influence of the media, the culture and the family in which we grew up. There is precious little church teaching on the subject even though the Bible is chock full of it (except of course the teaching to give one tenth to the church). But we also saw in Clive’s story how our experience with money reveals a lot about ourselves. We get to know ourselves partly through our handling of money. What was also evident as Clive told his story is this: our relationship with God is partially shaped by our handling of money. And the reverse is also true: our faith influences our approach to money, especially our view of the kingdom of God.

Perhaps these reflections on the influence of our life experiences is also key to understanding our views on other issues such as sex, family life, church, and politics. Our experiences, and those of others, are influential, perhaps beyond more than we would like to acknowledge, but they should not be taken to be determinative.

Hopefully, this post will be the first of several that engage with separate chapters of the book. 

Other books I am keen to read and be in dialogue with include 

Missions as Money: Affluence as a Missionary Problem by Jonathon Bonk.

WHEN MONEY GOES ON MISSION: FUNDRAISING AND GIVING IN THE 21ST CENTURY Rob Martin

The offence and challenge to Christian's of a simple life-style.

 Last Christmas, I read a biography, Basic Christian: The Inside Story of John Stott, by Roger Steer. I found it helpful, encouraging and challenging. Stott was someone who loved Jesus, loved the Bible, was a humble leader of integrity, and had a particular concern for the Majority World.

One small piece that stood out is the paragraph below concerning the 1974 Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation. The meeting issued a Covenant, which was largely written by John Stott. An excellent exposition of the Covenant is in a book by Stott, and subsequently updated by Chris Wright, Christian Mission in the Modern World.

The Covenant covers 15 topics with a paragraph on each. There is much that the 2,300 leaders from 150 countries could have disagreed about. However, the most contentious sentence was the following.

Those of us who live in affluent circumstances accept our duty to develop a simple life-style in order to contribute more generously to both relief and evangelism.

This led to a consultation in 1980 which produced a detailed paper, some of which is here.

What is Religion? What is Science? How might they be related?

Peter Harrison has beautifully demonstrated that answers to these questions have changed significantly over the past few hundred years in the Western world, with reference to Christianity and the natural sciences. Harrison’s book, The Territories of Science and Religion, based on his Gifford lectures, has generated considerable interest. 

 

Similar issues of ambiguity and Western bias become even greater in South Asian contexts. This is nicely summarised below by Darren Duerksen and William Dyrness in a recent book, 

Seeking Church: Emerging Witnesses to the Kingdom, which builds on field research by Duerksen, and engages concepts of emergence from the social sciences, that I will also discuss below. The quote is long but I include it because it highlights such a fundamental issue.

 

Defining religion is similar to the proverbial problem of defining time—it seems self-evident until one actually tries to put words to it. But for all the various definitions of religion—and there are many—there are at least two things upon which contemporary scholars agree. The first, as scholars such as Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Clifford Geertz, and J. Z. Smith have suggested, is the idea that religion was, and to some degree continues to be, a concept that comes from outside of religions themselves and does not adequately describe various religious traditions. As Richard King has noted, early Greco-Roman uses of the concept referred to ritual practices and paying homage to the gods. With the rise of Christianity, however, it was redefined as “a matter of adherence to particular doctrines or beliefs rather than allegiance to ancient ritual practices.” This model tends to emphasize a theistic belief and a “fundamental dualism between the human world and the transcendent world.” Such conceptions reflected particular ways of understanding the Christian religion in the West but did not and do not always adequately describe the religions of other contexts.

The second area of agreement is that the idea of “world religions” is also largely a Western concept born out of the Enlightenment and responds to the need to make sense of a changing world. As Tomoko Masuzawa demonstrates in her influential book The Invention of World Religions, until the mid-nineteenth century Europeans and North Americans typically described the world as made up of Christians, Jews, Muhammadans (Muslims), and the rest. Western affinities for taxonomy began to be more specific about “the rest” in subsequent decades, …

What this required, however, was to somehow define and order in Western and Christian terms that which often defied categorization. An important example is the “religion” of Hinduism. As H. L. Richard and others have shown, historically the non-Muslims of the Indian continent did not understand themselves as sharing a common set of beliefs and practices known as Hinduism, much less call themselves Hindus. In the eighteenth century onward, however, and particularly through interaction with British Christian colonialists and missionaries, Britons and then Indians started to categorize the widely ranging traditions of the subcontinent as an identifiable religion.

This signals an important point that we intend to explore in this book— that from a social science perspective the category of religion itself is an elastic concept and is not as self-evident as is often assumed.