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Ecclesiology and Ethnography: an Unresolved Relationship

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Ecclesiology and Ethnography: an Unresolved Relationship ecclesiology 14 (2018) 322-337 ECCLESIOLOGY brill.com/ecso Ecclesiology and Ethnography: An Unresolved Relationship Paul Avis Durham and Exeter Universities, uk [email protected] Abstract This article undertakes a critical exploration of the current relationship between ec- clesiology and ‘ecclesial ethnography’. It begins by proposing that ecclesiology should be a realistic, critical and practical discipline and that in these respects it can learn from ethnographical principles. It goes on to raise some questions about how the rela- tionship between ecclesial ethnography and ecclesiology is presented in some recent literature, pointing out instances of over-drawn distinctions, exaggerated claims and methodological naivety. It concludes by affirming the vital role of ethnographical study to the overall theological investigation of the church and suggests that this would be strengthened if the weaknesses mentioned above were addressed. Keywords Ecclesiology – empirical theology – ethnography – induction-deduction – practical theology – theology and science – theory and practice The interface between ecclesiology and ethnography is currently generating interest in the academy and giving rise to significant published discussion. But it seems to me that there are some aspects of the relationship that are prob- lematical Ideally the two disciplines should work in partnership, but, as it is construed in recent literature, their interaction involves certain tensions. This article is a contribution towards easing those tensions and clarifying the rela- tionship between ecclesiology and ethnography in a constructive manner.1 To 1 I am most grateful to Professor Paul Fiddes for commenting on an earlier draft of this article. A condensed version was read at the meeting of the Society for the Study of Theology at the © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/17455316-01403006Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 05:28:45AM via free access <UN> Ecclesiology and Ethnography 323 justify this approach, I need to begin with a couple of definitions. Put very con- cisely, I understand ecclesiology to be the theological discipline that engages in comparative, critical and constructive reflection on the dominant paradigms of the identity of the Christian church.2 I understand ethnography, on the oth- er hand, to be the empirical-conceptual study of the life of societies or com- munities as that life is lived and experienced in social practice; and ecclesial ethnography, therefore, to be the application of that distinctive approach to the Christian church and its constituent communities. I will now expand on these two concise definitions by way of preparing the ground for an examina- tion of the relationship between ecclesiology and ethnography. Ecclesiology normally starts from the faith of the Christian church concern- ing itself, as that faith has been received within a certain tradition. However, the identity of the Christian church refers not only to how it sees itself (its self- understanding) on the basis of Scripture and theological traditions, but also to how the church is perceived by those who look at it from the ‘outside’. So the church’s identity is derived, not only from how it understands itself, but also from its locus in culture and society, the prevailing image of the church in its environment. Hans Küng defines ecclesiology as ‘the theological expression of the church’s image’.3 Situating the church ‘in the eye of the beholder’ by speak- ing of its ‘image’ gives ecclesiology an open and public aspect. I suspect that many people have a general, ‘global’ image of the church which transcends their experience of particular ‘local’ churches, even though it is partly shaped by that experience. The public dimension of ecclesiology helps the church to be self-critical, which is the prerequisite of any steps towards reform of what needs mending. ‘Public theology’ requires ‘public ecclesiology’. This is my first sense of ‘ecclesiology’, referring to the universal church. In a derivative sense, ecclesiology includes the comparative, critical and constructive study of particular churches, often called ‘denominations’, though I would not myself normally use that term, preferring to speak of Christian tra- ditions or communities.4 The identities of the many particular churches con- cern how they see themselves in relation to the world and to other churches. But it also includes the ways that other churches and the surrounding societies University of Nottingham, uk, in April 2018, and once again I am grateful for the comments received then. 2 Further on the nature, scope and methods of ecclesiology, see my Introduction (Chapter 1) to Paul Avis (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Ecclesiology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). 3 Hans Küng, The Church (London: Search Press, 1971), p. 6. 4 See Paul Avis, 'Denomination: An Anglican Appraisal', in P. M. Collins and B. Ensign-George (eds), Denomination: Assessing an Ecclesiological Category (London and New York: T&T Clark, 2011), Chapter 2. ecclesiology 14 (2018) 322-337 Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 05:28:45AM via free access <UN> 324 Avis see these churches. Again, the reflexive aspect of the church’s identity gives ecclesiology a reforming edge, because those looking at the church from ‘the outside’, whether from a Christian or a non-Christian (I am avoiding saying ‘secular’) point of view, seem to be the ones who are most acutely aware of the church's shortcomings and where it needs to change, whereas those who have been entrusted with large responsibilities within the institution some- times seem short-sighted and complacent, if not worse, about what abuses and deficiencies need to be tackled. In this second sense ‘ecclesiology’ refers to the identity of individual churches. But there is also a third sense of ecclesiology: ecumenical ecclesiology. Ecumenical ecclesiology is the theology of the nature and mission of the church that resources ecumenical dialogue between separated churches and, at the same time, is generated by that dialogue. Just such an ecclesiology is the theological milieu of ecumenism. Ecumenical ecclesiology brings together our first and second senses of ecclesiology. When two Christian world com- munions – for example, the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, through the work of the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission (arcic) – engage in theological dialogue with the assigned goal of restoring full visible communion between them, they are bound to examine the common ground and the real differences between their traditions (thus looking at the ecclesiology of particular traditions – sense two). But they do this in the light of what they believe about the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church that the two traditions each affirm in the creed (sense one). What they respectively believe about the church catholic will include significant com- mon ground (if it did not, they could not do business together), but it may also include some important differences. So ecumenical ecclesiology is similarly concerned with ecclesial identity and is similarly comparative, critical and constructive in its method.5 Ecclesiology is multifaceted in other ways too: it investigates the church’s manifold identity in relation to a wide range of research areas: its theological rationale; historical origins; mission and ministry; authority and governance; worship and liturgy; initiation and sacraments; unity and diversity; not forget- ting its relation to the state, civil society and the cultural environment. The scope of ecclesiology certainly includes what the church is understood to be in the purposes of God the Holy Trinity and the work that the church is given to do in relation to its social, cultural and political environment (its mission). Ecclesiology also studies the church as an institution, an enduring, structured 5 Paul Avis, Reshaping Ecumenical Theology (London and New York: T&T Clark, 2010). ecclesiologyDownloaded from 14 Brill.com10/01/2021 (2018) 322-337 05:28:45AM via free access <UN> Ecclesiology and Ethnography 325 socio-political phenomenon, and when it does so it draws on collateral aca- demic approaches, including cultural studies, the sociology of religion, sta- tistics and political philosophy. Thus ecclesiastical polity is also an aspect of ecclesiology.6 Ethnography, on the other hand, is understood here in a broad sense as the scientific study – by both empirical and conceptual methods (or, as I would prefer to say, empirical-conceptual methods) – of the life of societies or com- munities as that life is lived and experienced in social practice and ceremonial or ritual performance. Ethnography uses mainly qualitative empirical meth- ods to understand the life of social groups and what it means to their members to belong to those groups and how they relate to and interact with each other. Qualitative empirical methods are in-depth, exploratory and hermeneutical in their approach.7 Ethnography frequently takes the form of congregational studies, aiming for a ‘thick description’ of the life and practice of a congrega- tion or parish by means of participative observation.8 Since ethnography is a well-established ‘secular’ academic discipline in its own right, with various applications, I will use the term ‘ecclesial ethnography’ for the study of the Christian church and its constitutive communities by means of ethnographi- cal methods and skills. Ecclesiological Realism The ecclesiology of the recent past could hardly help
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