Archive for the ‘Resources’ Category
Tuesday, June 1st, 2004
David Tracy writes the first essay in “Theological Literacy for the Twenty-First Century“, edited by Rodney Petersen with Nancy Rourke. In that essay, he outlines his conviction that theological education is about conversation.
Some gleanings:
“To become educated is to be freed to enter the conversation of all the living and the dead; to enter that conversation independently and critically, to be sure, but nonetheless to enter.”
The criteria of an excellent conversation? Letting go - freeing ourselves from self-consciousness to listen, allow opinions to be tested, and allow the ‘to and fro movement’ of the questions simply as they come.
Tracy places two great quotes alongside each other:
The unreflected life is not worth living (Socrates)
The unlived life is not worth reflecting upon (Buddhist)
This is to say that we’ve needlessly separated feeling and thought, form and content, theory and practice. Distinctions are helpful. Dichotomies are not.
In all this, I find again and again Tracy’s reminder that we are part of a learning community that breaks through the limits of time and space.
“We know Christ Jesus because long-extinct communities and too easily forgotten generations have alowed us to hear this judging and healing Word.”
I’m (Duncan) convinced that when we discover something about the people who write theology, we become partners in conversation with people rather than dealers in ideology. So with that in mind, here’s some biographical background to David Tracy…
David is on the faculty of University of Chicago Divinity School. His full title is “Andrew Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Distinguished Service Professor of Catholic Studies” and “Professor of Theology and of the Philosophy of Religion, the Divinity School and the Committee on Social Thought”.
Born in 1939 - that makes him 65 this year (2004). He’s a Catholic diocesan priest. He’s keen on classical studies - which explains his many references to classics in his theological writing. His books include: Analogical Imagination (1985), Plurality and Ambiguity (1994), On Naming the Present (1995), Blessed Rage for Order(1985), and Dialogue with the Other (1991).
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Monday, May 31st, 2004
McFague’s seminal approach to narrative theology was laid out in 1975 in her book, “Speaking in Parables: A Study in Metaphor and Theology“, published by Fortress Press, and has been republished by SCM Press in 2002.
McFague was until very recently Dean of the Divinity School and the Carpenter Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee. Although she’s retired, she’s become Distinguished Theologian in Residence at Vancouver School of Theology.
In “Speaking in Parables”, McFague lays out an approach for intermediary or parabolic theology: theology which relies on various literary forms – parables, stories, poems, confessions – as a way from religious experience to systematic theology. McFague brings a commitment to bringing the Word to life for ordinary people, grounded in a existential, personal and sensuous reflection on life.
McFague refers often to poetry (Gerard Manley Hopkins), stories (Tolkien) and parables (such as those written by Kavka).
McFague reminds the theologian that metaphor and symbol should be used as food for thought – contemplated, probed, reflected upon, rather than manipulated, translated and reduced. Theologians, she says, need to learn to express insights in autobiography as much as in systematic propositions.
Speaking in Parables has recently been republished by SCM, 2002, but the 1975 version is also available online at Religion Online:
Speaking in Parables: A Study in Metaphor and Theology: Online
McFague’s later books include: The Body of God: An Ecological Theology (1993), and Super, Natural Christians: How we should love nature (1997). Her most recent book is Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril (2000)
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Wednesday, May 26th, 2004
When you hear the phrase “theological reflection” it is usually applied to to theological students in the context of field education. Yet most people writing about theological reflection expect that the predominant context will be groups of people in congregational settings working together to make sense of their lives. So why do we expect the professional theologians to talk theology while everyone else just ‘does it’?
James Hopewell, before his death in 1984, challenged his peers in theological education circles to think beyond clericalism. Seminaries needed to think beyond the formation and equipping of ordained ministers. When working through the stories, symbols and meanings of ministry experience, groups should be considering not just individuals, but whole congregations.
Hopewell distributed the draft of an essay to his colleagues in 1983 - proposing that the new paradigm of theological education should be the development of the life and faith of the congregation. His research was published in more detail after his death in the book “Congregations: Stories and Structures“, edited by Barbara Wheeler in 1987. The essay was responded to by his colleagues in another book, “Beyond Clericalism: The Congregation as a Focus for Theological Education“, edited by Barbara Wheeler and Joseph Hough in 1988. Barbara Wheeler and Edward Farley continued the conversation in the collation of essays: “Shifting Boundaries: Contextual Approaches to the Structure of Theological Education“, in 1991.
Much of Hopewell’s thesis comes from the experience of beginning a new church plant with a team of lay members, each of whom helped shape the culture of a thriving church over four years. He saw the impact of narrative - shared stories - on the culture and ethos of this congregation in the same way he’d seen earlier in African villages. Context was not just something to be considered when entering strange cultures - it was a factor in the local American congregation. Also a factor in the American seminary.
The implications of Hopewell’s thesis have deepened as theologians have learnt to take the congregation seriously. Nancy Ammerman’s congregational studies are now standard texts. Alban Institute’s work on the local congregation has become a core part of our learning. Don Browning, still the academic, encourages his readers and fellow scholars to take congregational theology seriously. Theological reflection is the domain of local teams of mission agents who may or may not include ordained clergy.
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