Doing Theology in the New Normal

Description

Responses to the recent pandemic have been driven by fear, with social distancing and locking down of communities and borders as the most effective tactics. Out of fear and strategies that separate and isolate, emerges what has been described as the “new normal” (which seems to mutate daily).
Truly global in scope, with contributors from across the world, this collection revisits four old responses to crises – assure, protest, trick, amend – to explore if/how those might still be relevant and effective and/or how they might be mutated during and after a global pandemic. Together they paint a grounded, earthy, context-focused picture of what it means to do theology in the new normal.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Theology
• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd
• Date de parution: 30 juillet 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780334060659
• Langue: English

Extrait

Doing Theology in the New Normal
Edited by Jione Havea





© Editor and Contributors 2021
Published in 2021 by SCM Press
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SCM Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd (a registered charity)

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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the publisher, SCM Press.
The Authors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Authors of this Work
In Chapters 1 and 24 Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
In Chapter 14 Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
978-0-334-06064-2
Typeset by Regent Typesetting
Printed and bound by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd



Contents
Acknowledgement
Foreword by Collin I. Cowan
Preface
About the Contributors

1. New but Old: Go and Do Otherwise
Jione Havea
Part 1: In Touch
2. The Touch of Jesus in a Time of Untact
Sung Uk Lim
3. Bodies in Covid: A Caribbean Perspective
Anna Kasafi Perkins
4. Spiritualities in Resistance: Latin-American Social Movements and Solidarity Actions
Angelica Tostes and Delana Corazza
5. intact
Karen Georgia Thompson
6. Heaven-Human Harmony in Chinese Philosophy and Theology of Impurity in the Hebrew Bible
Wei Huang
7. Reopening the Churches and/as Reopening the Economy: Covid’s Uncovering of the Contours of ‘Church Theology’
Gerald O. West
8. out of breath 2
Jione Havea
Part 2: In Relation
9. Private and Public Pandemics: Theological Imperatives Summoned by HIV and Covid
Beverley Gail Haddad
10. Interpretation Against: What if not punishment?
Volker Küster
11. ‘Stripping the Thief in the Night’: Decolonizing Pentecostal Eschatology during Covid
Hadje C. Sadje
12. out of touch
Jione Havea
13. Vulnerability: Embodied Resistance During Covid
Kuzipa Nalwamba
14. Solidarity Assurance: Reality, Faith and Action
Sithembiso S. Zwane
15. out of hand
Jione Havea
Part 3: In Decencies
16. Indecent Resurgence: God’s Solidarity against the Gendered War on Covid
Keun-joo Christine Pae
17. Speaking of God: Unruly God-Talk with Julian of Norwich
Michael Mawson
18. Lagim ā lie : Covid, De-Onefication of Theologies, and Eco-Relational Well-being
Upolu Lumā Vaai
19. out of darkness
Jione Havea
20. Coronavirus Cacophony: When the Dwarf Rebukes the Giant
James W. Perkinson
21. Not Returning to the Old Normal
Anthony G. Reddie
22. for everyone?
Karen Georgia Thompson
Part 4: In Protest
23. An Infinite Present: Theology as Resistance Amid Pandemics
L. Juliana Claassens
24. Good grief: Mourning as Remembrance and Protest
Tat-siong Benny Liew
25. ‘Today I Let My Rage Be Beautiful’: Poet(h)ical Responses to the New Normal
Dorothea Erbele-Küster
26. nonplussed
Karen Georgia Thompson
27. Blame the Victim: When Systemic Injustice Ceases to be a Culprit
Wanda Deifelt
28. Beyond the Graveyard and the Prison, a New World is Being Born
Tinyiko Maluleke
29. new hope
Karen Georgia Thompson

Acknowledgements of Sources




Acknowledgement
Work on this book was supported by
the Council for World Mission





Foreword
This publication is another step along the journey of ‘discernment and radical engagement’ (D are , a programme of the Council for World Mission) with God’s mission, this time in the context of the Covid pandemic.
Covid changed the world. We were required to observe physical distancing and to work, if not to also ‘live’, in virtual space. The revelations of Covid, a ‘pandemic of inequality’, were stark – including the endemic societal issues of racism, poverty and gender-based violence – all of which are closely tied to the contest to maintain the ‘empire’s economy’.
While the pandemic forced us to look at the brokenness of our society, it also made us witnesses to the celebrations of flora and fauna, of earth breathing, of trees clapping, of air becoming lighter and cleaner, of waters teeming with life – made possible by our absence. Covid is therefore an opportunity for us to also focus on life-flourishing perspectives, and to grapple with disruptions without losing faith or weakening our grip on the alternatives to which our aspirations and discernment lead. To this end, we are not looking to return to the old normal; instead, we want to follow where God leads so that together we may engage the Covid disruptive ways of living with the confidence and courage that faith in God enables.
It has been said that Covid is another manifestation of capitalism. I agree. The debate on when or how to reopen the economy seems to be over human life versus the economy. Such a dichotomy is unhealthy. What we need is not a debate on life versus economy but the affirmation of the economy of life and the aspiration for life-flourishing communities .
Covid disrupted life and in its wake infected over 98 million persons and left over 2.1 million dead (by the middle of January 2021). Those who were infected by the coronavirus have brought us face to face with our mortality, liminality and vulnerability. We all share the pain of not being able to offer the usual ritual of homecoming to our loved ones; and, while we offer our sympathies to those who have gone through this frightening experience, we live with the nagging fear that any of us could be the next to go through this trauma.
And yet we must live with the pain of irresponsible personal behaviour and poor examples from those who occupy the offices of leadership. The callous disregard and disrespect by many of our leaders towards individuals and families who have suffered and are suffering the effects of this coronavirus is both unbelievable and unacceptable.
This publication explores the question of normalcy, on the one hand, and the ‘new normal’, or what I choose to call the unfolding future, on the other. Two positions are emerging, and they are not mutually exclusive: stubborn resistance to allow the disruptive forces of this pandemic to define the basis of life in the unfolding future nor to determine our destiny; strong impulse to see this pandemic as one among many, some of which are preventable but are not given the attention they deserve perhaps because of social location.
In consideration of these positions the critical concerns remain the same – the economy, the ecology, systemic racism and its consequent violent oppression against black and brown people, xenophobia, homophobia, white privilege and patriarchy.
The contributors to this publication engage with the fierceness of the Covid pandemic and reflect on what it has exposed. The key questions that this work puts before us are: What can we as God-talking people offer in a time of pandemic, social disintegration and broken systems? What resources can we summon to promote a future that is peace-affirming, justice-focused and life-flourishing?
The Council for World Mission (CWM) believes that rising to life is the strategic path for now. Over the past ten years our focus was on resisting empire, highlighting its evil and challenging its injustice. Today we declare that we will not allow the forces of death and destruction to command our lives and our movements.
We will not become servants of Covid. On the contrary, by God’s grace we will become creators of a new pathway to life, a new way of being and behaving, a new pattern of living based on justice and peace. We will pursue this imagination to sharpen expectation on what a different world could be, to deepen our appreciation for the resources that are available, and to build resilience for participation in God’s promised New Heaven and New Earth.
CWM is grateful to the contributors who have taken the time to prepare and to offer perspectives to inform these conversations. The conversations in this work are insightful and instructive, stimulating and hopeful.
I invite readers to allow our views to contend in this daring God-talk, confronting our vulnerabilities, acknowledging the ambiguities and complexities of life, embracing the intersections of our lived experiences and wrestling with God as we seek to make sense of a God who is sovereign and vulnerable, omnipotent and incarnate, on the throne and on the cross. In the midst of fear about resurgence and lockdowns, inadequacy of health-care facilities and lack of political will, we as people of faith must be ready to wrestle with God, to stay on the side of life flourishing.
Collin I. Cowan
General Secretary, Council for World Mission




Preface
Covid has infected what we do, how we do them and with