{"id":20811,"date":"2019-01-17T13:41:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T21:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=20811"},"modified":"2019-01-17T13:45:36","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T21:45:36","slug":"bebbington-meets-the-wireless-router","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/bebbington-meets-the-wireless-router\/","title":{"rendered":"Bebbington meets the Wireless Router"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, I had the incredible opportunity to hear Dr. Monica Coleman speak.\u00a0 Dr. Monica A. Coleman, a native Michigander (!), is the Associate Professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religions at Claremont School of Theology and Associate Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.\u00a0 She\u2019s also an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.\u00a0 Dr. Coleman was on a panel discusing how the church needed to re-imagine the imagery in our worship spaces.\u00a0 Some of our most cherished symbols are outdated and don\u2019t bring people together, she argued.\u00a0 Most notably, Dr. Coleman emphasized how churches should remove crosses and images of the crucifix from their sanctuaries and replace them with wireless internet routers . . . because that is where everyone today is finding community and connection.\u00a0 That is what brings us together.\u00a0 To Coleman, a wireless router was a stronger image of connection, than a cross.[i]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I still remember this talk, and the symbolism of connection.\u00a0 In his seminal text on the history of Modern British Evangelicalism, David Bebbington names the four key components of Evangelicalism as, \u201cconversionism, activism, Biblicism and crucicentrism.\u201d[ii]<\/a> \u00a0Bebbington argues that these have remained the same \u2018core tenets\u2019 from 1730 up until the 1980\u2019s.\u00a0 And through a few commentators argue that Bebbington should have included \u2018assurance\u2019 as the fifth component, I haven\u2019t seen anyone argue that crucicentrism should be replaced.<\/p>\n

I do not believe that Colemen was critiquing Bebbington\u2019s scholarly work on the history of the Evangelical movement, but rather making a statement about modern liturgical imagery and atonement theory.\u00a0 However, the bold statement does stand in contrast to Bebbington\u2019s insistence that, \u201cto make any theme other than the cross the fulcrum of a theological system was to take a step away from Evangelicalism.\u201d[iii]<\/a>\u00a0 Can community and crucicentrism co-exist?<\/p>\n

My argument is that they already do in the modern eco-theologies of many prominent voices in and throughout the green movement.\u00a0 Caring for creation as a steward acknowledges that we are members of a beloved community[iv]<\/a> not only of humans, but of animals, plants, minerals, single celled organisms, even down to the elements of earth, water, air, and fire.[v]<\/a> The works of Pierre Thelliard de Chardin, Sally McFague, Karen Baker-Fletcher and Tom Berry, all connect humanity, (or in some cases, specific tribes or demographics) to God through the wondrous marvel and mystery of creation.\u00a0 Karen Baker-Fletcher perhaps puts it most directly when she writes, \u201c\u201cOur survival requires realistic vision for a new order in which, with the best of creation (plant, animal, soil, air, waters), we humans (black, white, brown, gold, red, rich, middle-class, and poor) can flourish in freedom.\u201d[vi]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Conversion, Biblicism and activism all can be lifted up as key components of the modern eco-theology movement in Christianity.\u00a0 There commonly is a realization or an awakening to the main points of green theology \u2013 conversion.\u00a0 There are numerous texts throughout the Bible that point to caring for the earth, these are only made more poignant through Bible study and textual criticism \u2013 Biblicism.\u00a0 And if there is one thing the green movement does well it is social and community action \u2013 activism. If caring for the earth is the natural spiritual response to God\u2019s unfailing love because of Christ\u2019s atoning work on the cross, which has drawn us all into him, with him, through him, (in the unity of the Holy Spirit) along with the all of God\u2019s creation, then eco-theology too has \u2013 crucicentrism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> Coleman, Monica A. \u201cTheology and the Impact of New Media, a Vision for the Future.\u201d Panel, Union Theological Seminary, September 12, 2014.<\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a> Bebbington, D. W. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s.<\/em> New ed. n.p.: Routledge, 1989, 19.<\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a> Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain<\/em>, 38.<\/p>\n

[iv]<\/a> This, of course, being one of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King\u2019s favorite theological descriptions of creation, used and cited intentionally in honor of his birthday and National Holiday in the US. The term \u201cbeloved community\u201d was first coined in the early days of the 20th Century by the philosopher-theologian Josiah Royce, who founded the Fellowship of Reconciliation.<\/p>\n

[v]<\/a> Rasmussen, Larry L.\u00a0 Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics In A New Key<\/em>.\u00a0 Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, 22.<\/p>\n

[vi]<\/a> Baker \u2013 Fletcher, Karen.\u00a0 Sisters of Dust, Sisters of Spirit: Womanist Wordings on God and Creation<\/em>. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1998, 56.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, I had the incredible opportunity to hear Dr. Monica Coleman speak.\u00a0 Dr. Monica A. Coleman, a native Michigander (!), is the Associate Professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religions at Claremont School of Theology and Associate Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.\u00a0 She\u2019s also an ordained elder in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,1321,1322],"class_list":["post-20811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bebbington","tag-dminlgp9","tag-lgp9","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20811"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20819,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20811\/revisions\/20819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}