Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Elaine Graham

Description

Public theology is an increasingly important area of theological discourse with strong global networks of institutions and academics involved in it. Elaine Graham is one of the UK’s leading theologians and an established SCM author. In this book, Elaine Graham argues that Western society is entering an unprecedented political and cultural era, in which many of the assumptions of classic sociological theory and of mainstream public theology are being overturned. Whilst many of the features of the trajectory of religious decline, typical of Western modernity, are still apparent, there are compelling and vibrant signs of religious revival, not least in public life and politics - local, national and global. This requires a revision of the classic secularization thesis, as well as much Western liberal political theory, which set out separate or at least demarcated terms of engagement between religion and the public domain.
Elaine Graham examines claims that Western societies are moving from ‘secular’ to ‘post-secular’ conditions and traces the contours of the ‘post-secular’: the revival of faith-based engagement in public sphere alongside the continuing – perhaps intensifying – questioning of the legi¬timacy of religion in public life. She argues that public theology must rethink its theological and strategic priorities in order to be convincing in this new ‘post-secular’ world and makes the case for the renewed prospects for public theology as a form of Christian apologetics, drawing from Biblical, classical and contemporary sources.

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern
• Date de parution: 31 juillet 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780334049920
• Langue: English

Extrait

Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Public Theology in a Post-Secular Age
Elaine Graham
© Elaine Graham 2013
Published in 2013 by SCM Press
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Index created by Meg Davies
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: A Rock and a Hard Place
Part 1 Post-Secular Society
1 The Turning of the Tide: How Religion ‘Went Public’
2 The Unquiet Frontier: Mapping the Post-Secular
Part 2 Post-Secular Public Theology
3 Lost in Translation? The Dilemmas of Public Theology
4 Public Speaking: Secular Reason and the Voice of the Church
5 Crusades and Culture Wars: The Perils of Evangelical Identity Politics
Part 3 Public Theology as Christian Apologetics
6 Jews, Pagans, Sceptics and Emperors: Public Theology as Christian Apologetics
7 An Apologetics of Presence: Public Theology after Christendom and Secularism
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
I am grateful for the support I have received from a number of quarters during the preparation of this book. I would like to acknowledge the encouragement and collegiality of all my colleagues in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Chester, which has been a fine place to work over the past three years. I have also benefited from opportunities to present work in progress at the University of Bamberg, Germany; the School of Theology, University of Auckland, Aotearoa-New Zealand; the Faith and Globalization seminar, University of Durham; The Ebor Lectures, York St John University and York Minster; the School of Religions, Theology and Ecumenics, Trinity College, Dublin; the British Sociological Association Sociology of Religion Study Group conference, Chester; the King’s and Westminster Abbey Faith and Public Policy Forum, London; the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts, University of St Andrews and various Program Units of the American Academy of Religion.
My thanks also go to Natalie Watson at SCM Press for her support, and to Bishop Stephen Lowe, who took time out from his busy media schedule to read an early draft of this book, and whose friendship over the years has been very precious.
One of the most exciting developments within academic public theology over the past few years has been the growth of the Global Network for Public Theology and the founding of the International Journal of Public Theology . I would like to dedicate this book to all my international colleagues in that network in anticipation of further collaboration to come. In particular, I would like to pay tribute to Professor Will Storrar, whose vision, energy and generosity was seminal in creating the Network, and who continues to be a fantastic advocate and practitioner of public theology.
Introduction:
A Rock and a Hard Place
Is the world we inhabit more, or less religious than it used to be? Do we witness a decline, redeployment or renaissance of religiosity? ( Bauman 1988 , p. 56)
Four Reflections on Public Theology Today
1 In November 2012, German Chancellor Angela Merkel surprised many commentators when she disclosed that she was a practising Christian. She used an address to the synod of the Evangelische Kirche Deutschlands (EKD) to commend the contribution of the churches to national life, and went on to claim that Christianity was the world’s ‘most persecuted religion’, and promising that the protection of religious freedoms would become German federal foreign policy ( Merkel 2012 ). 1
This followed earlier revelations in a podcast session, when in response to a question from a theological student, she said:
I am a member of the Evangelical [Lutheran] Church. I believe in God, and religion is also my constant companion, and has been for the whole of my life . . . I find it very liberating that as a Christian, one can make mistakes, that one knows there is something higher than just human beings, and that we are also called on to shape the world in responsibility for others. This is a framework for my life, which I consider very important. ( Warner 2012 )
2 In February 2008, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, delivered a speech at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, entitled ‘Civil and Religious Law in England: a Religious Perspective’. He used the lecture to address the status of shari’a or Islamic law within the British legal system, arguing that the growth of religious pluralism made the case for greater recognition of religious considerations within an overarching system of statutory law. He suggested that for the State to have a legal monopoly flew in the face of modern democratic principles of human dignity, and that parallel jurisdictions might go some way towards acknowledging religiously founded codes of conduct.
The text of the lecture was released in advance to the press, and even before the lecture had been given, Williams found himself at the centre of a media furore. He was accused of calling for the introduction of shari’a law in the UK and sanctioning legal immunity for Muslims from the universal rule of law. Even those who conceded that he was attempting to negotiate his way through a complex and nuanced set of questions about multiculturalism, religious freedom and the challenges of pluralism accused him of obscurantism and lack of clarity, amounting to a ‘disingenuous’ ( Parris 2008 ) failure to anticipate that his speculations would, inevitably, be misunderstood.
3 The Brotherhood of St Laurence is an Australian faith-based organization engaged in research, advocacy and front-line welfare delivery. Founded as a religious order during the Great Depression in 1930, its stated aims are the prevention of poverty and social exclusion and political advocacy around these issues, as well as the development of new policies and programmes through research and innovative practice. ‘The Brotherhood, inspired by our Christian origins, seeks the common good through compassion, with a generosity of spirit and reliance on evidence.’ ( Brotherhood of St Laurence 2013a ) The Brotherhood is one of a number of Christian charities in Australia involved in delivery of publicly-funded schemes and works with a range of collaborative partners across the commercial, public and third sectors (2013b).

4 The Anglican Church in Kenya has a long history of social welfare provision, most of it independent of government funding and management. Its independence from the State, its ethnic diversity and its presence at all levels of society has granted it widespread credibility. While its leadership and people are committed to addressing issues such as lack of participation in public policy making, poverty, HIV and AIDS, corruption and ethnic tension, it faces resistance from the policy-making elite in government which assumes that ordinary people cannot be involved in decision-making for themselves. The Church is thus working at grass-roots to facilitate greater capacity-building, such as workshops with women and young people living with HIV/AIDS ( Ayallo 2012 ). It follows the pattern of churches in many other parts of Africa, which play decisive roles in democratic engagement and education of its membership in order to become better mobilized in policy-making and local civil society ( de Villiers 2011 ). Indeed, the focus on congregational and neighbourhood-based activism may be a distinguishing feature of faith-based organizations the world over ( Day 2012 ; Jacobsen 2012 ).

Four vignettes, all of which reveal various aspects of the role played by religious faith and practice in the contemporary world; yet all of them invite further inspection. Angela Merkel’s statements were not just a matter of personal profession, since no politician ever speaks purely as a private citizen. I have already noted in previous work that political leaders, especially in Europe and Oceania, often face difficulties in negotiating questions of personal religious belief in relation to their public images. The relationship between private conviction and public office can be fraught with difficulty, especially when opinion among the electorate at large is at all sceptical or suspicious of those who claim to ‘do God’ in relation to political policy ( Graham 2009a ; 2009b ).
Certainly, Merkel’s personal beliefs had been something of an open secret in Germany. Although she leads the country’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which historically has strong links with the Roman Catholic Church, she had always maintained a public discretion, to the point in 2009 when she barred the media from a visit she made with Barack Obama to the Frauenkirche in Dresden, during which they prayed together. What makes her recent profession of faith all the more