Why here …?
Medium seems to be catching the imagination of a lot of different types of people. For some it will be a really good way to get ‘stuff’ out there without having the responsibility of maintaining a blog; for others it will be a really good place to write and share ideas; I suppose poets and story writers will love it as a place to share and practice.
For me …. I want to see if this is a place that begins to offer an answer to some of my meanderings and concerns over the last few years.
I’m a theologian; more precisely I’m a contextual theologian. Contextual theology is a particular discipline in the broader academic field of theology. I have written something of the nature and necessity of contextual theology in a chapter of this book, but I suppose a simple definition of contextual theology would be ‘a method of doing theology that takes context as its primary source.’ By primary I mean ‘starting place, point of origin’. In other words, contextual theology begins with the context that we find ourselves in rather than a philosophical argument, a doctrinal statement or a biblical text. In that sense contextual theology tends to be pragmatic so can be called practical theology. I prefer the term contextual theology because it keeps context as the focus.
But context, in contextual theology, is always in dialogue or relationship with other disciplines, it is truly a univers -ity subject (although rarely taught as such in the more elite universities in Britain). These disciplines are, of course, some of those other core disciplines that belong uniquely to Theology: Biblical Studies, Church History, Systematic/Doctrinal Theology etc. But they are also other sociological subjects such as anthropology, economics, geography psychology etc. In fact contextual theology can often stray into many fields.
So Contextual theology is this complex mix of conversations happening in a crowded room. The theologians job is to introduce different conversation partners to one another but always in the knowledge that there are other voices in the room (even if you can’t hear them — or can only hear faint whispers) and that there might just be an important voice stood in the corner not really talking to anyone (in that sense contextual theology is utterly post-modern).
But there are a few problems! Contextual theology can be so context specific that it is difficult to know if anything articulated is transferrable to other contexts. So we can’t easily lift the articulations and methods of feminist theology and apply them equally to masculine or transgender theology; nor can we lift the work of the liberationists of Latin America and plant it in a Northern European context. This leaves those of us who are contextual theologians in a bit of a quandary — does our work have any value at all to the rest of the Church or to the world? In order to find that out contextual theologians need to engage with each other to see if what they have articulated is of use (or is utterly abhorrent) to other contextual theologians.
I wonder if Medium is a place to do that?
There is another problem — contextual theology is, without a doubt, a movement of the people. What we have discovered through the liberationist movements of the global south and the slow liberation of people groups such as Black Americans, women, and more currently the GLBTQ community is that the theologian is not wandering through the corridors of academia.
Which is what I do (1/2 the week).
Instead the theologian is the one in location. The one who is engaging with a particularity and reflecting on it.
In order to be a successful academic you must publish in peer reviewed journals and books with reputable publishers. But contextual theology has an in built instinct to baulk at that. Just because I have a few degrees does not make me the dominant voice in this crowded room. To become a well respected theologian you must break the rules of contextual theology and to do contextual theology with any integrity you risk the opportunity of becoming a well respected academic (unless your context is academia).
I wonder if Medium is the place, then, for contextual theologians to publish their ideas (and I know blogs can do that but I also know the draining responsibility of keeping a blog alive!) without having to go through the usual academic channels and, hopefully, still enabling them to remain in situ?
I recognise that this throws up a whole host of questions. For instance: if contextual theology is about a conversation in a crowded room then how does it differ from other fields of study? surely that’s what all academic study is about?
And if contextual theology is done on the ground, by the people it effects — then what is the role of the academic theologian? if at all? and how do the contextual theologians learn anything of their Christian heritage and tradition? is that even important?
And finally (for now): surely if the publishing in reputable journals and books is the key to academic success then a lot will ride on the reputation of Medium which the author will have little control of?
The last question is up for grabs! but the other two I hope to answer indirectly through my writing over the next year or so.
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