"Live And Let Live" Theology

In a recent class debate, a fellow postgraduate student commented: "Thomas, your live and let live theology from below is a fresh and empowering approach that could have transformational impact in the lives of believers. ... Can you elaborate on how this works in your Church? Does a member get to write his or her own creed for their own life? Are they free to interpret Scripture situationally without regard to exegetical integrity or a commonly upheld hermeneutical understanding? Does this happen by a committee of the priesthood of believers?" OBSERVATION: These aren't easy questions, and I won't try to answer them here. What I said was basically the following: that our Church's (vernacular) theology is enriched and shaped by diverse spiritual input, or ministry by members -- however, one needs to take certain risks in order to do that, and some Churches won't entertain it. We sometimes need to wink an eye at what we hear. I do agree that our approach is "fresh and empowering".

"Psychologically Regressive"

At a recent theological forum I encountered something I have frequently encountered in recent theology, and it disturbs me. In the debate, alternative theological viewpoints were characterised, dozens of times, as being "regressive" or "psychologically regressive". Similarly, in my postgraduate studies, free Church tenets have been described as "dangerous", faith-based leadership as "irresponsible", and so on. OBSERVATION: Personally, I don't think such language belongs in theological debate, even if it is backed up with charts and graphs.

Leadership Not About Leadership

I wrote to my US leadership professor today that Christian leadership in Africa may, in an important sense, not be about leadership. To put this in other words, a Westerner may not recognise African leadership training by looking at the curriculum or the textbooks. US leadership training typically focuses on the leader, while African leadership training often focuses on aspects of leadership thought to be more central than the leader himself / herself: the Holy Spirit, homiletics, prayer, the task at hand, and so on.

Doctoral Proposal

I handed in a doctoral proposal today. While I have not finally completed my M.Th. thesis, some universities prefer an early start to the doctoral process. The title of my dissertation is provisionally: Fact/Value Dualism: The Role of Language as Reconciling Factor. The difficulty can be stated simply: “How can facts lead us to values?” Fact/value dualism has been described in various terms. Chisholm (1977:60) sees it in Kant’s analytic vs. synthetic propositions; Capra (1982:21) describes it as rational vs. intuitive knowledge; Lyotard (1984:64) refers to it as denotative vs. prescriptive language games; Toulmin (1990:200,201) describes it as abstraction vs. humanism; Davey (2001:31,32) refers to it as devalorization vs. valorization; while Korten (2001:234) refers to it as materialistic monism vs. transcendental monism. This dualism is, I believe, the most important conceptual problem of our time. It has also deeply influenced recent theology. Anyway, a number of eminent thinkers have proposed a reconciliation of this dualism through a study of language, and this is the route that I propose to take in exploring the problem. QUESTION: So you have all the facts of a situation. How do you evaluate it? On what basis do you act? And why? What examples are there of people who have the facts, or data, yet do not use them appropriately?

Censorship?

A friend at Fuller Theological Seminary sent me a professor’s paper, which forms the basis of the professor’s teaching this semester. Like me, my friend is completing a Master’s degree in the field of leadership. The material is very interesting, from the point of view that it would seem to show where Fuller “is at”, and it contains theological and conceptual content which would particularly lend itself to debate on core issues. However, it threatens legal action if any content whatsoever should be “publicly posted” without written permission. That, of course, includes this blog. QUESTION: Would it be in the interests of the Church or public for such material to be quoted without special authorisation? Are there real reasons to control the disclosure of such material? What would constitute reasonable restrictions on its use? Might a Creative Commons copyright better apply?

Puzzling over Sources

I am often flummoxed by apparent parallels between theologians’ statements, unable to trace a connection with any certainty, or to know whether this is merely a case of parallel terms without parallel content. Here’s an example. Shelley Trebesch of Fuller Theological Seminary makes the following statement -- a notion which is not uncommon in the Christian leadership literature: "They [Christian leaders] have adapted to many situations and organizational cultures and have often forsaken their own identity to succeed" (Trebesch S 1997:37). Then consider this -- it is philosopher Kevin Hart summarising Harold Bloom: "We will not be saved by following the Law or by believing in Jesus. We will be saved only if we become ourselves, if we finally recognize in ourselves that which has not been fashioned by culture and society" (Hart K 2004:98). QUESTION: Is Trebesch coming from the same place as Bloom? How should one know the difference? Should one BE ABLE to tell the difference? The photo shows Dr. Shelley Trebesch.

Definition of Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a dominant leadership paradigm in the Church in the Global North. George Barna (Leaders on Leadership) prefers the definition of Gary Wills: “Leadership is mobilizing others toward a goal shared by the leader and followers” (Barna G ed. 1997:22). Tonight I completed a draft definition of Christian transformational leadership for my thesis, based on an analysis of some forty Christian authors. Here it is: “Transformational Christian leadership is effective leadership, by which a Christian leader’s character lays the foundation for personal persuasiveness, influence, and the formation of shared goals.” QUESTION: If my definition should be broadly correct, then character is the touchstone of leadership. Yet being such a central concept (a "centre", in Derridarean terms), might it not merely be serving to give leaders an imaginary handle on success?

16% Holy Spirit

While I have my academic supervisor in mind, his doctoral dissertation surveyed 116 books on Christian leadership -- mostly originating in the Global North. He found that just 16% of these books dealt with the role of the Holy Spirit in Christian leadership. Details are in the Addendum of his dissertation, which may be downloaded free from http://etd.unisa.ac.za/ETD-db/theses/available/etd-03072007-144800/unrestricted/thesis.pdf (5.8 MB). It is written in Afrikaans, but has an English abstract. QUESTION: So what happened to the Holy Spirit? SHOULD He be there?

My Academic Supervisor

Here’s a good place to start. My present academic supervisor is Dr. Vincent Atterbury, of the South African Theological Seminary (SATS) -- the largest independent theological seminary in Southern Africa (http://www.sats.edu.za/). He is a pastor in the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM), and the AFM's Executive Director of Education and Training. Vincent is very matter-of-fact. He communicates with me through “telegrams” -- often just a single line. However, they are well targeted telegrams, which have helped me a great deal. QUESTION: What would be your expectation of a supervisor? For instance, would you expect a personal relationship?