Community theologians and theological community

Talking recently with a group of folk about ministry, community and how theology is an important element in a community's identity. I don't mean the hard edged, brand name, logo-protected kinds of theology like Reformed, Evangelical, Liberation, Charismatic-Pentecostal, Feminist and Womanist. I mean the theology that is this community's own self-articulation of what God in Christ, by the Spirit, is doing amongst them, and what they are now doing and planning together in response to what God is already doing. I'm thinking of how a community has come to think of God, of themeselves, of their reason for being who they are, where they are, together, and what that means for their coninuing life and health as a community of Christ.

We began to wonder about each community having community theologians, perhaps each Christian community coming to see itself as a community of theologians. I posted earlier about every believer a theologian - I passionately believe that. So what I'm thinking about is not THE person in the community who does theology, reflects theologically, gives the theological lead; not THE person who is the professionally trained, academically best resourced, and whose theological education exudes an unearned authority. Forget that - theological reflection and conversation is at its best when it is an open shared conversation by a group of people who worship together, read and think about the Bible together, experience God and take that experience seriously - (and the togetherness is part of the experience) - try to serve God and love each other according to the Gospel, and have their own theological take on what God is about.

But most times someone needs to encourage such conversation; and yes someone needs to resource it with teaching, to accompany it in friendship and listening love. Such a community theologian is one whose gift is to interpret the community's experience of God, of each other and of what is happening to them, in a way that enables each of us to see and trust God not only with MY life, but equally with our life together; and then to interpret that experience in the light of the Bible, the Gospel story, the call of the Prophets. And it will be a symbiotic relationship of each enriching the other, interpreting together the shared experience of people committed to each other in the risks of love, acknowledging that the theology of a community is not shaped, or directed, or conformed, to any one mind or style. The community theologian is the enabler of spiritual reflection, modelling but never monopolising theological thinking, praying with the heart and mind while in conversation with sisters and brothers, and together interpreting the life of the Spirit, the grace of the Son and the love of the Father as revealed in Scripture and experienced and enacted amongst us.

In any such community there will always be prophets who see clearly and speak bluntly, sages who think wisely and speak hesitantly, pragmatists who think strategically and speak practically, initiators enthused by the new and conservators who value the way it is. Community theologians are in that sense the ones who take on all of this and more, and encourage theological conversation about who we are, why we are, what is God saying through the life we are living; how do we align ourselves with the movement of the Spirit in the culture and world around us; what is happening in this church, in this city, in the church in other places, that tells us what the Spirit is up to, and what is expected of us if we are to go on living faithfully to God's call?

Obedience is about listening and responding - the first presupposes the second. Who are the listeners amongst us, the ones who see trends, discern movement, imagine possibilities, and voice these not as an agenda to impose or pursue, but as a way of inviting further trustful conversation into a shared future?  A community of theologians, reflecting on God in Christ active in the Spirit, builds in a set of constraining and enabling criteria that test the blunt words of the prophet, respect the hesitant caution of the sage, stay alert to the persuasive strategies of the pragmatist, and are neither pushed around by the impatience of the initiators nor demotivated by the cautions of the conservators. Because what makes community theologians so important for us is the shared recognition that we are a community of God - and the two things we should know something about is God (Theology!) and each other (Community!). Anyway, that's the thinking so far..........hmmmm.

Comments

[Jason Goroncy]

Jim. I love this encouraging and challenging post. It is great to be reminded that theology is neither the trust of individuals or of the academy (Lord, forgive us!) but of the Church itself ... and of the Church not as some abstract idealistic thing 'out there' but of the 'ordinary' folk who come together because they love the Lord who has called them and gathered them to himself and to each other, and desires to speak (of himself) to and through a particular part of his body. Oh that the theological task and responsibility might rest afresh on the local church and under its authority as it finds its own legitimate and quickening authority under that one gospel which created the Church catholic and all its parts.

[Jason Goroncy]

'Theology is under the Church's protection because what safeguards theology's truthfulness is not the exercise of critical scruple but the fear of the one who is the Church's Lord.' John Webster, Holiness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 3.

[Jason Goroncy]

Another wee point: For all of Forsyth's insistence that ministers undergo rigorous theological training, and that the local church has a responsibility to 'do' theology, both ministers and the local church are to consciously 'do' theology out of a humble and exciting awareness that the theological task is one that the whole church (and not merely its 'professional' theologians) is to be engaged in. The local church exists therefore under a an imperative to 'do theology' not merely for its own life and witness, but also for that of the wider Christian community: 'Theology ... does not belong to the individual but to something more universal, to the Church. It is not the product or the property of any single person, nor even of any single sect or communion. It belongs to the Church as a whole, and for that Church it is a necessity. It is the intelligent counterpart of its practical organization. It is a living product of the corporate self–consciousness of the whole community of Christian faith. A divided Church will always have a theology weak enough to justify even its own neglect of it–a neglect none the less fatal because just. As to individuals, it does not matter much what their form of theology is. With private members of a Church it does not much matter whether they have a theology or not, so long as they are respectful to those who do. It does not matter whether Messrs. X, Y, or Z have a theology or not–except in so far as they may cease to be merely Messrs. X, Y, or Z, and become teachers of the Church, use its prestige, and voice its Gospel. It is a matter that concerns the Church as a whole, and by consequence the public representatives and teachers of the Church in the degree in which they are its representative teachers, and not freelances tilting amid spectators, or amateurs indulging a taste. A great theology is the rational and necessary expression of the spiritual content of a great Church. Without it the Church has no spiritual volume, whatever be the piety of individuals. And such a Church can make no spiritual impression on a whole age. Contempt for theology is the badge of a limited culture. And not only so; its real source is poverty of religion; and within the Church it may indicate more spiritual fluency than Christian faith'. - Principle of Authority, 214-5.

[Jason Goroncy]

Jim. Just wondering what suggestions you might offer for how church leaders might encourage/facilitate such theologising. In other words, what might the role of the 'community theologian' look like in specifics?

[Rebecca Maccini]

Great post, Jim. For our state conference this month, we are required to read a book entitled "Unbinding the Gospel." The author, Martha Reese, studied evangelism in mainline churches in the USA. She found that the strongest, most vital churches were ones that were creative and complex, messy, not over sentimental but also not 'damn the torpedoes--full steam ahead.' I read between the lines in her interviews with lay people but it seemed obvious that people in these church communities were thinking theologically in their daily lives, and as a corporate body.

[jim gordon]

Jason, this is P T Forsyth at his astringent best. Thanks for the quote, part of which I repeat for emphasis!!!
"A great theology is the rational and necessary expression of the spiritual content of a great Church. Without it the Church has no spiritual volume, whatever be the piety of individuals. And such a Church can make no spiritual impression on a whole age. Contempt for theology is the badge of a limited culture."
As to how the community theologian encourages and models theological reflection so that the community is given confidence in its own experience of Christ and the theological expression of its life, I want to think on that a bit longer. I think words like mutual, one another, reciprocal, are important; as are phrases like 'a heart with a gift for listening','vulnerable openness', and not pushing it too far but I think kenosis in the sense of being willing to have personal opinion and insight, give way to give space to the words, thoughts, prayers and insights of others. And then to translate these to the rest of the community.
Hi Becky - good to hear from you and glad you are still monitoring the meanderings of this Scottish blogger!

[Jason Goroncy]

Jim. I think the answer must include the kinds of words you note, but must extend further less the theological conversation and attendant 'discoveries' or, better yet 'revelations' become reduced to no more than a life-sapping circularity in which the belief and practises of the particular community are only ever affirmed and never really challenged - leaving that local body unreformable and closed off to the prophetic and corrective word of Scripture and unaccountable to the wider body whose tradition and future it shares. Great challenges though, and worthy of life-long pursuit for any community of faith.