{"id":5060,"date":"2015-05-19T04:57:16","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T11:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=5060"},"modified":"2015-05-19T04:57:16","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T11:57:16","slug":"grassroots-theology-from-grassroots-movements-need-grassroots-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/grassroots-theology-from-grassroots-movements-need-grassroots-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"Grassroots Theology from grassroots movements need grassroots voices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon Chan, writing in Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking Faith from the Ground Up<\/em>, [1]<\/a> offers a recent attempt to rectify what has been an ongoing conundrum in theological reflection around the world. The theological conundrum is that those who are formally well-educated are often the ones who tell the stories and, unfortunately, formal education has a tendency to distance people who have this type of education from other people who have not experienced such learning methods. Therefore, the theology that is often articulated in writing \u2013 while often being deeply well-meaning \u2013 tends toward an elitist, exclusivist theology through simple removal from certain \u201cgrassroot\u201d community interactions.<\/p>\n

Of course, the opposite can also be noted to be of concern. That is, grassroot theology can be disturbingly unaware of the goodness of other\/outside perspectives\/learning. Actually, this is a vital point for healthy theological interaction. Each version of theology (no matter from where it hails) has a distancing myopia that needs to be actively combatted through focus on relational engagement with theologies outside of its own norming functions. Chan speaks to this need at the beginning of his Grassroots Asian Theology<\/em>.<\/p>\n

One of the ways that a mitigation — of the weakness that arise through inordinate focus on ones own interests at the expense of others \u2013 can transpire is through employment of the twin principles of ressourcement<\/em> and aggiornamento<\/em>. Chan explains that ressourcement<\/em> is \u201ccreative engagement with earlier sources, the fountainhead of spiritual life.\u201d and aggiornamento<\/em> is \u201cadaptation and updating in light of the new situations in which the church finds itself.\u201d [2]<\/a> Another way this can be described is as the conversation between particularity and universality, of contextuality and globalization.<\/p>\n

There is an irony at the very beginning of this text that should be noted. I\u2019m thankful that Chan has taken the time to write this text; it\u2019s an important dialogue to foster. However, Chan having gained his Ph.D. from Cambridge is now one of the very elitist theologians of which he notes concerns. This is not to suggest that the did not do a fabulous job with his writing, but it is to be honest about the situation. I would have liked to see this work offered in similar manner to how Duke Center for Reconciliation\u2019s Resources for Reconciliation series out of InterVarsity Press offered their texts. In the Resources for Reconciliation series a person who is primarily an academic is paired with a person who is primarily a practitioner. This brings about a healthy conversation throughout the text. As an alternative, I would also have loved to see this as a reader composed of multiple authors with Chan perhaps offering the introduction, a chapter in the middle and a concluding statement. This noted, Chan has sought to incorporate multiple voices and perspectives and it is overall a strong text.<\/p>\n

The first chapter in the text begins to lead toward an articulation of an \u201cAsian theology,\u201d but I find this to be too stringent. I think it would be better to discuss Asian theologies<\/em>. As well, while Chan alludes to engagement of broad and historic church influences with his reference to ressourcement<\/em>, he really wasn\u2019t kidding. I found the lean toward \u201cWestern\u201d theological resources awkward in this chapter due to what felt like inordinate use\/reference in contrast with \u201cEastern\u201d sources. I found myself desiring to hear others from an Asian context quoting these Western sources if they were to be utilized rather than just Chan using them.<\/p>\n

It is the second part of the second chapter that I found Chan becoming more helpful in delineating numerous theological discussions\/traditions from multiple areas in Asia. This discussion began to really move the text in the direction that the title suggested it would go in at least the sense that it began offering indigenously birthed movements and conversations.<\/p>\n

Overall, while grassroot theology<\/em> arising from grassroot movements<\/em> was offered and explicated in the text, I would have loved to hear from more actual grassroot voices<\/em>. More actual voices would have allowed for an even greater sense of empowerment of the very people that this text means to honor and bring into the worldwide conversation of the Church.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Simon Chan, Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking Faith from the Ground Up<\/em> (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., loc 55-69.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simon Chan, writing in Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking Faith from the Ground Up, [1] offers a recent attempt to rectify what has been an ongoing conundrum in theological reflection around the world. The theological conundrum is that those who are formally well-educated are often the ones who tell the stories and, unfortunately, formal education has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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":[634,2,481],"class_list":["post-5060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chan","tag-dminlgp","tag-lgp4-2","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5060","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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5060"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5061,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5060\/revisions\/5061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}