An Exercise in Contextual Theology
I hit a place this week where I needed to let all this stuff sit for a bit - too many thoughts to come together into something coherent. I think this class has had the best texts so far of any that I've taken at Biblical; the Sedmak book was excellent. The problem with talking about these sorts of things is that it's really hard to be concrete. That's the point, I suppose - local theology is by nature, well, local. Start talking about it outside of a local context - especially at the conceptual level - and it starts to become rather vague. Personally, it's something of a challenge to wrap my brain around; I'm an inductive learner by nature, so I need to get into the guts of something to really understand it.
Today, though, a few of us sat around after class to talk about our upcoming group project on contextual theology. We'd settled on tackling suburban culture in our group, and as we threw ideas around I realized again that those of us in suburban contexts in America are faced with an unbelievably challenging task. How do you live missionally in a geographically decentered world, where there simply is no space to inhabit? How do you love your neighbor when the question, "Who is my neighbor," is no longer rhetorical? How do you speak prophetically in a context where challenge is entertainment and choice is the trump card of the consumer? At some point, I began thinking that what's really needed is a local theology for the suburbs.
I think it's past time that we begin to think of living missionally in the suburbs. Suburban culture needs challenged, true - but more importantly, it needs redemption. (Right, Jared? ;) David Fitch wrote a fantastic post about this a while back that's well worth a read. Todd has written about it as well. I'd like to throw my small contribution into the mix and see if I can connect some dots with my recent string of thoughts on contextual theology.
What does Jesus say to the American suburbs?
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I just heard Breuggemann speak on this very thing. I'll have to post my notes. He spoke to the context of Rat Race...our unconscious drive to produce, consume, repeat and this being Exodus in reverse. The return to Egypt. The seductive allure of Pharaoh. We are a group of exiles who have chosen chains above freedom.
The suburb/redemption message is still viable, but it would appear to me that the subversive "cry freedom" is what we must shout from our rooftops and living rooms. My wife and I have considered the Martini Revival. Have the neighbors over for martinis, then the next morning, go door to door with coffee and say, "Hey! Guess whose yoke you took on last night? See you at church!"
Unfortunately, the Martini (while more creative) isn't much different than the "fire insurance" sermon. Back to the drawing board...sigh.
Posted by chris on March 5, 2006 10:47 AMYou most certainly should post those notes! ;) Middleton's Liberating Image has had a profound impact on the way that I think about this - there are a lot of parallels to what you're saying here. I'm going to do a full post on that one - that book is fantastic.
Redemption and freedom are, I think, two sides of the same coin here - what I'm getting at is more that it seems like a lot of folks anymore seem to want to abandon the suburbs - David's post talks about that in more depth. Yeah, there's a lot to critique, but that also means there's a whole bunch of folks in need of freedom and redemption, you know? And I don't think most churches - well, most evangelical churches, anyway, sticking to what I know - think through these things in any great degree. The American Dream is sort of the a priori - how the heck do you offer a prophetic critique when you're coming into it from that angle???
Anyway - I'm starting to ramble now. Excellent thoughts. And I'm with you on the martinis, but only if we can do smokes too. :D
Posted by ScottB on March 6, 2006 12:04 AMRight you are, Scott. I'm afraid that I don't have anything that I can contribute by way of an answer to your question, but thanks for the links to David and Todd's posts. I look forward to what you and others have to say.
Posted by Jared on March 7, 2006 11:10 AM