Ethnography As Christian Theology and Ethics

‘This engaging collection is a helpful foundation for exploring the use of ethnography in Christian ethics and theology. The authors provide thoughtful and probing challenges to how social scientists and theologians do our work- encouraging us to question and alter some of the basic assumptions of our work so that we do it with genuine rigor rather than with unexamined normative commitments or using the social sciences as lax sources for theological refl ection. The challenge is genuine and I encourage us to read and learn from this fi ne collection.’ Emilie M. Townes, Yale Divinity School, USA ‘Christian Scharen and Aana Marie Vigen have put together a remarkable book that fi lls many needs at once. The book surveys a wide range of ways scholars have engaged ethnography for the sake of theology and ethics. It con- solidates a conversation. It then extends that conversation with a signifi cant proposal for ethnography as theology and ethics. A series of examples begin to suggest the range and power of this vision. This book should become—imme- diately upon its publication—the generative center of one of the most important developments in contemporary theology and ethics.’ Ted A. Smith, Vanderbilt University, USA ‘The turn to practice in Christian Theology and Ethics has made engagement with the social and cultural reality of the Church an urgent concern. Many talk about ethnography but few actually do it yet it is in doing of it that the theological force of ‘practice’ gains any kind of traction. it is the focus on actually doing ethnographic research that makes his book is a timely and signifi - cant contribution to the conversation around ethics and communal practices. In the introductory section the editors introduce key elements in ethnographic research. These are then illustrated through a series of studies. The result is a major resource for any one who wants to start to do ethnography as part of Christian Theology and Ethics.’ Pete Ward, Kings College London, UK ‘A powerful affi rmation of the human lives that animate theological refl ection and practice. This timely and compelling book is a must read for all concerned with the creative interface of anthropology and theology.’ João Biehl, Princeton University, USA ‘This volume pulls back the curtain on the ethnographic method of Christian theologians and ethicists who earn their living and scholarly reputations study- ing the lives of other people and offering truth claims about those realities. The collection is path breaking in the fi eld of religion for its unfl inching scru- tiny of under-examined assumptions of white racial privilege embedded in method, careful delineation of the meaning of interdisciplinarity, as well as specifi c guidance on best practices for ethical research.’ Traci West, Drew University, USA Ethnography as Christian Theology and Ethics Ethnography as Christian Theology and Ethics Edited by Christian Scharen and Aana Marie Vigen Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX 80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038 www.continuumbooks.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. © Christian Scharen, Aana Marie Vigen, with contributors, 2011 Christian Scharen, Aana Marie Vigen and contributors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as the Author of this work. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library EISBN 978-1-441-13092-1 Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India Printed and bound in the United States of America To Nancy L. Eiesland, beloved teacher and mentor, 1964–2009, with my deep gratitude —Christian Scharen To Alison and Benjamin Gabriel, my family, for the infi nite joy and grace you embody and for keeping me grounded in the particular —Aana Marie Vigen Contents Foreword by Mary McClintock Fulkerson xi Preface: Blurring Boundaries xvii About the Contributors xxix Part One: Prolegomena Chapter 1: What is Ethnography? 3 Chapter 2: The Ethnographic Turn in Theology and Ethics 28 Chapter 3: Critiques of the Use of Social Science in Theology and Ethics 47 Chapter 4: Theological Justifi cations for Turning to Ethnography 58 Part Two: Exemplars Chapter 5: Ethnographic Research on African American Pastoral Leadership and Congregations 77 Jeffery L. Tribble, Sr Chapter 6: The Listening Church: How Ethnography Can Transform Catholic Ethics 97 Emily Reimer-Barry Chapter 7: Ethnography as Revelation: Witnessing in History, Faith, and Sin 118 Robert P. Jones Chapter 8: Theology and Morality on the Streets: An Examination of the Beliefs and Moral Formation of Street Children in Light of Christianity and African Traditional Religions 142 Melissa Browning x Contents Chapter 9: Living with Indigenous Communities in Chiapas, Mexico: The Transformative Power of Poverty and Suffering 161 Andrea Vicini, S. J. Chapter 10: Whiteness Made Visible: A Theo-Critical Ethnography in Acoliland 184 Todd W hitmore Chapter 11: The Cost of Virtue: What Power in the Open Door Community Might Speak to Virtue Ethics 207 Peter R. Gathje Part Three: Method Chapter 12: Benedictions: For Those Willing to Give Ethnography a Try 227 Bibliography 239 Index 253 Foreword So which part of the life of a Christian community is “theological” or theologically ethical? Is it the talk? The sermon? Or the recital of creeds? Is it the counseling done by the minister? Does “theological” only refer to certain things said in church space? If so, where does that leave those who do not understand Trinitarian dogma? Or those who live on the streets—whose major vocation is survival? What have the color of bodies and the status accorded different bodies in our cultures to do with “theology”? Unfortu- nately many expert defi nitions of “theological” do not offer ways to read these other spaces, practices and lives. Or they construe the dilemmas raised by these other spaces and lives as secondary “issues,” not primary to normative theology. Given the continued prominence of such views I give thanks for the work of these authors for an alternative vision of the “theological.” By inter- preting the practices of ethnography as “theology and ethics” these worldly realities, in all their complexity, difference and messiness, are thereby granted status as places where the divine presence can and must be discerned and as central to real theology. In short, the claim that ethnography can be understood as Christian theology and ethics is deeply important and timely, as well as provocative. It is deeply important for many reasons. Common sense tells us that attention to lived faith, or the lived situations of human beings everywhere is basic to Christian faith. What is the point of such faith if it is not about or relevant to life in all its complexity? How can theology matter if its content is not able to take seriously all the difference, ambiguity, beauty, horror and tragedy of created life? Chris- tian theology and ethics must have some grasp of these messy realities, and participant observation is a marvelous way to initiate access to them. A second, more explicitly theological rationale for ethnographic work is, as the authors insist, the incarnational nature of Christianity. While differently narrated over the centuries such a defi ning theme as incarnation at its very minimum affi rms the immanence of God, of the Divine—an immanence that requires the hon- oring of the fi nitely good creation, in all its ambiguity, brokenness and poten- tial redemption. There is, as these authors make clear, no other place to look for God than as mediated through the messy place that is the world. xii Foreword Ethnography and sustained participant observation are thus of enormous importance for those of us doing academic work in the fi elds designated as theology and ethics. And this project, the authors remind us, is not the fi rst case to be made for research that attends to lived existence. Liberationist theologies have long argued for the context-driven character of all theology. Latin American liberationists, feminist, black, womanist, Latina/Mujerista, and, more recently, queer and disability theologies have argued not simply that theology is historically contextual, but that specifi c forms of social brokenness should be privileged as the generative sites of theological praxis/refl ection. And for them “context” always entails not simply the cultural shaping of a theological worldview, but its embeddedness in (typically unacknowledged) power dynamics and social interests, insights that have been complicated further by postcolonial theories. Practical theology, while not one single thing,1 has also operated with the general assumption that all theological refl ection is practical, or about lived faith.2 Although not explicitly theological, congregational studies is obviously relevant, as is virtue theory for ethics as it provides another frame for attend- ing to lived faith in theological thinking. Virtue theory’s reappearance in the twentieth century, especially in the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, has impacted a shift to practices in theological ethics, a shift that has been enhanced for some through the works of Pierre Bourdieu and Michael de Certeau, which highlight the role of bodily habituations. What makes Ethnography as Christian Theology and Ethics particularly timely, however, is not just that it provides further development of these important trajectories. In addition, this project helps us to imagine alternatives to the false dichot- omies that continue to plague the academy. Understanding how ethnography can be construed as theological provides a way to take seriously a thicker description of the realities of marginalized groups and do so without the con- straints of the false opposition of the (ostensibly “secular”) empirical research 1 See Bonnie J.

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