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Public Theology and the Prophetic Church by John M

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Public Theology and the Prophetic Church by John M Public Theology and the Prophetic Church By John M. Hull The concept of public theology has appeared in the last thirty years or so.1 At its most straightforward, public theology is simply the opposite of private theology, i.e., whereas private theology is the theology of the gathered Christian community or of the individual Christian, public theology is the voice of the church in secular society, Christian faith proposing policies and challenging assumptions in public life. Public theology has arisen in response to two factors. The secularisation of society Under the conditions of secular modernity, a widely accepted philosophy of the liberal state argued that only those policies which could claim the agreement of all reasonable people could occupy the public square. The points of view put forward by religions were not thought to be admissible; they are unable to claim the allegiance of all reasonable people. Therefore religion must be confined to the private realm and can have no place in rational public debate. Religious belief is unable to influence public life because it can only be thought credible by a minority of religious believers.2 This philosophical argument was supported by the secularisation hypothesis, according to which religion was bound to be forced back further and further into the private realm as secular society grew stronger and stronger. Religious belief and practice, it was argued, could have no place in a society in which technical reason, the realities of economics and increased plurality were becoming more dominant.3 Indeed, many sociologists thought that religion would disappear completely, and the statistics showing decreasing church attendance and religious belief seem, at first sight, to support this view. However, the secularisation theory has lost a lot of support in more recent years. Far from disappearing, religion has remained a factor in the modern world. Worldwide, it is estimated that eight out of ten people profess some kind of religious affiliation and even in Europe, which is by far the most secular of the continents, religion continues to be a constant theme of public life. In the UK, religious plurality has provoked many public debates, and the church is seen as one of the most important elements of the Third Sector, and as an important place in ‘the Big Society’, sharing with government departments in the policies of community cohesion and welfare. As secular human rights have become more significant, the right to religious belief, to change one’s religion and to bring one’s children up in a religious tradition have also been emphasised. Typical legal controversies in the UK today have to do with the exercise of freedom of speech and the equal distribution of justice, the right to express one’s religious belief and the demand for objective public 1 services. Have Christians running a hotel the right to deny access to gay people? Should Muslim women wear the niqab when teaching in school or giving witness in court? Should the traditions of male church leadership prevail over the search for the equal ministry of both women and men? Respect for religious and cultural diversity is often in conflict with the demands for equality. The presence of more diverse forms of religion, however, does not mean that we are going to see a revival of Christendom. Christianity will continue to be one religion amongst many, and religious experiences will be expressed in diverse forms of spirituality.4 The place of religion in British society will continue to be provocative and controversial, sometimes treated with contempt (Richard Dawkins), and sometimes with respect and even admiration (Pope Francis, Make Poverty History, End Hunger Fast and the Archbishop’s attack upon loan sharks). In view of these social and political developments, the question as to the place of the church in society becomes more urgent. Does the church have the right to seek to influence the UK government on certain issues, and if the church is to evangelise the public, what possible message can evoke attention? Should statements by the church have more credibility than statements by atheists and humanists? Private theology The second factor which has led to the rise of public theology lies in the nature of Christian faith itself, which since the 16th century Reformation, has taken a mainly individualistic and private form. Each individual person, the Protestant churches emphasise, is responsible for his or her own standing before God. Everyone must read the Bible for themselves and make their own personal decision about salvation. When I first read the patristic writers of the early church, I was surprised to discover how little there was of personal religion or of warm, individual faith. Not until the Confessions of Augustine of Hippo (c. 398 AD) did this kind of interior faith become widespread, and this is one reason why St Augustine has been described as the first truly modern person. Since the 17th century, the internal and personal characteristics of Christian faith have received additional emphasis. An outstanding case is Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (1678), a great Christian classic which has inspired millions throughout the world, including myself. This book has described what it is to be a Christian and how to lead a Christian life. Reading Pilgrim’s Progress again made me realise that there are challenging questions which we today must put to John Bunyan. The pilgrim, Christian, is shown running away from the City of Destruction, putting his fingers in his ears to block out the cries of his loved ones, and running towards the entrance to the King’s highway crying out ‘Life! Life!’ But whose life? 2 The only concern displayed by Christian was for his own salvation. Never was Christian to move from the narrow road that led to the Heavenly City. When he did turn aside, it was to be locked up in Doubting Castle or to be tempted in Vanity Fair. True, Christian has friends on the way, but has no responsibility for society as a whole. There is no awareness of the church as an agent of the Kingdom of God. Why did Christian not return to the City of Destruction and work with poor people in the slums? So many church people today have inherited Bunyan’s understanding of salvation. The little songs I learnt when I was a teenage Christian come back to me today as being far too self-centred, far too narrow. I used to sing ‘Into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus’, but was never encouraged to sing ‘Into my life, come into my life, Lord Jesus’ because, as another song exhorted me: Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace. What I have found as a Christian adult today is the very opposite. Committed to Christian faith, the things of this earth—its violence, poverty and injustice—have become strangely vivid and inescapable. As the spiritual inwardness and the otherworldly forms of Christian faith are seen by many both inside and outside the church to be less and less relevant and the call of the Kingdom of God becomes more urgent, the demand for a new form of public faith arises. Christian faith today must be incarnated, the Word must become flesh again. Public theology in Britain today So far, I have outlined the two factors which lie behind the emergence of public theology: changes in society itself and in Christian faith. But what form should public theology take in Britain today? Many Christians who are dissatisfied with their faith are turning to theologians who seem to offer something more meaningful. Hence the popularity, in their day, of books like That I Can’t Believe,5 Why Christianity Must Change or Die,6 and He Never Said: Discover the Real Message of Jesus.7 It may indeed be comforting for many Christians worried about traditional doctrine to be told that they don’t have to take the miracles too literally, that belief in the Virgin Birth is non-essential and that there are other ways to consider the death of Christ. None of this, however, is very interesting to people outside the church. There may be sensational headlines when a bishop says something unusual about the Resurrection, but often Christian faith appears then to be less credible. As for evangelism, the problem is 3 rather acute. The proclamation of messages such as ‘Christ died for your sins’ or ‘God loves you’ cuts little ice and if anything adds to the feeling that Christianity is weird and possibly a bit embarrassing. Elaine Graham concludes her study of public theology by saying that Christian faith in the public square can only take the form of action. Christian discourse has become so unintelligible that meaning can only be found in deeds. But what kind of deeds? What kind of actions? I believe that the only language about Christian faith which is meaningful to people in Britain today is the language of justice and peace. The church has lost so much authority because of the scandals about child abuse and the curiously old-fashioned debates about the ordination of women and the legitimacy of gay marriage. But when people who have never given much thought about the church and find church services unattractive realise that it is their local church drawing attention to Fairtrade Fortnight, it is trainee clergy who are mocking the commercial exploitation of love at Christmas, that church people are amongst those demanding that their local city should become a ‘City of Sanctuary’ and that Christian churches are in the forefront for the demand for a fossil-free Britain, the response is often quite different.
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