{"id":338,"date":"2014-02-13T23:56:31","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T23:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=338"},"modified":"2014-08-12T22:35:41","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T22:35:41","slug":"seersucker-stereotypes-and-sharing-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/seersucker-stereotypes-and-sharing-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Seersucker, Stereotypes, and Sharing Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" I grew up in North Carolina in a traditional Southern culture. Shrimp and grits, homemade biscuits, sweet tea, ladies in pearls and men in seersucker suits were everyday, normal ways of life. Religion and politics were \u201cno-no\u2019s\u201d at dinner parties, and everyone always dressed in their Sunday best to go to Meeting for worship. And who could forget the etiquette classes, where we learned which fork to use for what course and how to properly shake hands? It was here that I constantly heard the phrase, \u201cChildren are meant to be seen and not heard. Actions speak louder than words.\u201d Religion, Christianity and faith were taught to be a private manner. They were not something to talk about at dinner parties, at school or in the workplace. Faith was between one person and God, not something to gab about in social circles. \u201cLet your actions do the talking,\u201d I was always told. \u201cNo one should have to ask you what you believe.\u201d This brings me to our week\u2019s reading on context and public theology. It seems as if the forbearers of my Southern heritage could have written these articles. As one of the authors writes of public theology, \u201c\u2026only one part of Christian theology is public in nature, and the rest is, somehow, private.\u201d[1]<\/a> How would contextual and public theology look in my North Carolinian Southern culture? Instead of a Bro\u2019town episode depicted in New Zealand[2]<\/a>, would it instead be a Downton Abbey-like series with immense Southern dialect, proper manners, tight-lips in public and intense comedic discussions reserved for the privacy of one\u2019s four walls? To be honest, before now I have not read much about \u201cpublic theology\u201d and \u201ccontext theology,\u201d though, because of my Southern heritage, I do believe I have lived in the midst of these concepts, in a unique way, without exactly knowing what to call it. I tend to think that the writing and testimony of a Southern American Christian, in most cases, is vastly different than that of a Haitian or a New Zealander. And I believe the same could be said for those I have yet to meet or am just getting to know. After all, we have spoken in this forum many times on the importance of building relationships and knowing your audience. Wouldn\u2019t these previous conversations fall right in line with context theology? I think of theology as simply faith seeking understanding. I also believe that scripture has not changed, nor has God changed. Because of this, I have to believe that the only variance of our experiences of God and understanding of the Christian faith is the place and culture from which our experiences and understandings are based. Theologian Stephen Bevans seems to agree,<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no such thing as \u2018theology\u2019; there is only contextual theology, the attempt to understand Christian faith in terms of a particular context is really a theological imperative. Contexualization is not something on the fringes of the theological enterprise.\u00a0It is at the very center of what it means to do theology in today\u2019s world.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This calls for the Christian, the missionary, the leader to be prepared for speaking the languages of faith, hope and love in every culture. \u00a0I believe the way we ought to do this is by responding to and sharing the grace of God shown to us through our own stories in a contextual, authentic and appropriate way. In addition, we ought to build relationships and be authentic so that we help create an ethic of mutual forbearance. The chief end to this would be,<\/p>\n

\u201cthe goal of finding a more inclusive, genuinely ecumenical and catholic way of identifying a valid, viable inner convictional and ethical framework on which to build the moral and spiritual architecture of our increasingly common life.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This way of living life together is inherent upon making ourselves vulnerable and is problematic for many, missionaries and politicians alike, because of the chance of vulnerability in sharing their actual stories, not their rote methods, in their attempts at having an impact on the listeners. Because they fail to present their story in their context in an authentic way, they instead present an unauthentic view of themselves, which can lead to false hope that does not last. Just like my Southern upbringing dictates, there are those that try to live things out without speaking out about their own story. They are truly \u201cseen but not heard\u201d. Through my travels, I have encountered those who use their hundred-year-old methods but fail to share their stories and therefore fail to open an honest conversation about true needs and what it would take to make a lasting impact. Maybe instead of worrying about the material of your suit, the freshness of your shrimp or your mother\u2019s last name as I grew up learning to do, we ought to be seen and heard talking about our stories in their context and therefore causing intentional and authentic change. Reference: Bevans, Stephen. \u201cContextual Theology as Theologial Imperative\u201d in Models of Contextual Theology<\/em>. 1-10. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Press, 2002. Garner, Stephen. \u201cMorningside for Life!: Contextual Theology Meets Animated Television in Bro\u2019town.\u201d Studies in World Christianity<\/em> 17, no. 2 (2011): 156-74. Marshall, Christopher. \u201cWhat Language Shall I Borrow?: The Bilingual Dilemma of Public Theology.\u201d Stimulus<\/em> 13, no. 3 (2005): 11\u201018. Stackhouse, Max. \u201cCivil Religion, Political Theology, and Public Theology: What\u2019s the Difference?\u201d Political Theology<\/em> 5:3, (2004): 275-293.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
[1]<\/a> Christopher Marshall, \u201cWhat Language Shall I Borrow?: The Bilingual Dilemma of Public Theology,\u201d Stimulus<\/em> 13, no. 3 (2005): 11.<\/div>\n
[2]<\/a> This is the show referenced in Stephen Garner\u2019s article, \u201cMorningside for Life!: Contextual Theology Meets Animated Television in Bro\u2019town,\u201d which depicts a series between God, Jesus and his interaction with various celebrities in order to expose the wider public in New Zealand to religion.<\/div>\n
[3]<\/a> Stephen Bevans, \u201cContextual Theology as Theologial Imperative\u201d in Models of Contextual Theology<\/em> (Maryknoll: Orbis Press, 2002), 10.<\/div>\n
[4]<\/a> Max Stackhouse, \u201cCivil Religion, Political Theology, and Public Theology: What\u2019s the Difference?\u201d Political Theology<\/em> 5:3, (2004): 277.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up in North Carolina in a traditional Southern culture. Shrimp and grits, homemade biscuits, sweet tea, ladies in pearls and men in seersucker suits were everyday, normal ways of life. Religion and politics were \u201cno-no\u2019s\u201d at dinner parties, and everyone always dressed in their Sunday best to go to Meeting for worship. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"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":[2,13],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-garner","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions\/1663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}