Foundations for ministry and Mission in context (Sem3)

basic slides

Module number: TMM1301

Session 4: Seminar 3

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with youAnd also with you.

God, help us to listen;and in our listening to hear You.

God, be in our thinking:and renew our minds.

God, we will speak together:let our conversations be words in the Word.

What we're looking at today ... What is culture

Missio What-i?

Gospel and/or/vs/in culture

Double listening

Could be a bit 'bitty': various things to get you started but not necessarily all joined up at this point.

How we're learning ... Exercises

Making notes

Listening & discussing

Reading

Puzzling over stuff (sometimes not a smooth argument) ...

Why we're learning this stuff

In order to ...consider more fully God at work in the contexts we find ourselves in. resource spiritual and mental disciplines to help our double listening

Link to assessment; the tools are the kind of things that students may want to use for their assessment.

Culture. /kltj/, n ....

Write down your own, brief, informal, 'work in progress', definition of culture ...


Please share that brief, informal, 'work in progress', definition of culture with someone else.

Decide on a joint definition you could share with the rest of the group.

... and share it ...


... definitions on the handouts...

Which are most helpful to you, and why?

anything seem insightful for you?! anything surprise you?? anything you have questions about?+ anything to add to your definition(s)?

Thinking about culture ...

culture

Thinking about culture ...

WORLD:Events,environment & artefacts

WaysofThinking & feeling

practicesculture

Thinking about culture 1/3 ...

Events,environment & artefacts

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Invention of transistors

Invention of gunpowder

Lisbon earthquake

Warm climate (streetlife)

Thinking about culture 2/3...

world

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Eating habits

queuing

Taking turns in conversation

Listening to music

Thinking about culture 3/3 ...

World

WaysofThinkingAndfeeling

practicesculture

Individualism

hierarchical

egalitarian

non-violent

pluralist

Thinking about culture starting with an artefact ...

World:artefact

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Affordable mobile telephony

Phone calls all over the place. Decline of landlines and payphones.

More spontaneous? Sense of connection and availability

Thinking about culture starting with an event ...

World:an event

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Lisbon earthquake

Loss of confidence in providence.

Deism & atheism grow in plausibility

Churchgoing etc falls

Thinking about culture starting with a practice ...

world

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Listening to music, alone

Music as 'private space'

'wired for sound'

Thinking about culture starting with a way of thinking ...

World

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

democracy

Voting, elections, plebiscites ...

Parliaments,ballot boxes,returning officers ...

Thinking about culture starting with ...

World

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Well, try it for yourself (but not now).

What has God done for you?

Or: what makes us say Thank God for that?

What has God dove for you?

Or: what makes us say Thank God for that?

Reflection together on our responses:

How might we classify them?

How might we classify them in this schema?

Bevans and Schroeder; Constants in Context

Witness & Proclamation

Liturgy, prayer & contemplation

Justice, peace & integrity of creation

Interreligious dialogue

Inculturation

Reconciliation

Are any of these unpopulated?





Inculturation

Reconciliation

Mission is all these: getting involved in God's purposes and activity





Inculturation

Reconciliation

MissioDei

Using a schema for thinking About gospel, theology andcultural context fromBevans, Stephen & Schroeder, Roger P. Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today, P.37 ff

(Using Justo Gonzalez and Dorothy Solle).

See hand-out table...

CharacterisationIconic originCultural backgroundKey exemplarKey wordTrajectory

Type A theologyCarthageRomanTertullianLawAugustine > Anselm > Aquinas > protestant orthodoxy

Characterisation...ChristologyAtonementSoteriologyEcclesiologyEschatologySalvationAnthropologyAttitude to Culture

Mission exemplars

Type A theology...High.Satisfaction theoryExclusiveInstitutional model; heraldFuturist. IndividualSpiritual.Negative. Hierarchical.Premodernity: classicist. Modernity: empirical counter-cultural or translation model.Francis Xavier; William Carey


Type B theologyAlexandriaHellenisticOrigenTruthAbelard > Schleiermacher > liberal prot'ism . Lonergan > Rahner

Characterisation...ChristologyAtonementSoteriologyEcclesiologyEschatologySalvation

Anthropology

Attitude to Culture

Mission exemplars

Type B theology...Premod: high; mod; lowExemplar modelInclusive /modified pluralistMystical communionRealised. IndividualPremod: spiritual illumination.Mod holisticPositive. Premodern: -hierarchical Modern: equalityPremodern: classicist. Modern: empirical Anthrop'cal modelCyril & Methodius; Matteo Ricci;Max Warren; John Mbiti


Type C theologyAntiochNear Eastern /SemiticIrenaeusHistoryFrancis of Assisi > early Luther > Wesley > Barth > Teilhard de Chardin, Gutierrez

Characterisation

ChristologyAtonementSoteriologyEcclesiologyEschatologySalvationAnthropology

Attitude to Culture

Mission exemplars

Type C theology

Low (from below)Christus VictorInclusive /modified pluralistServantInaugurated. HistoricalholisticPositive. Premod. Some hierarchy. Mod -equalityPremod: classicist. Mod. Empirical praxis or moderate cntr-cultural.East Syrian monks; Francis of Assisi; liberation theologians

stretch your legs for a bit ....

The next slide has a dialogue, gradually revealed.

Your task is to work out what they're on about.

Well discuss a bit with each reveal.

A: I saw a blick earlier today.

Z: Blicks are quite common at this time of the year.

A: Yeah. Is this the blick breeding season or something?.

A: They must store them somewhere in the winter.

Z: Heh heh. You'd think so... I guess that spring is the time to start outdoor public works.

Z: The Highways Agency must have stores all over the shop.

Questions to ask during the discussion would be 'what makes this hard to interpret?'How are we working out what is being talked about?What are the implications we are drawing on and where do they come from?

At the end address:How did we work out what a blick is? What do we know and what do we not know yet?Where was the information?What assumptions did we make, draw on or notice?

Point: we use context and implication to find meanting. In fact 'blick' is a word made up by linguisticians to 'not mean anything'. We however, assume it must mean, so we go to wark on it on that basis. Why do we assume it must mean something?NB

EXCURSUS

CON/TEXT

Traduttore traditore ...

Translator: traitor!

Exact equivalents or not easy to find. Either there will be some mismatch of semantic filed size or connotative menings will be different.

(Disclaimer: I'm still working out how to do the colours, so these are notional rather than exact.)

Just note that the colour scheme isn't totally okay. Make sure that people 'get' what is deing showed: that the labels for various shade of colour are not universally equivalent.

May be worth noting that over the whole world, different languages have a variety of different colour terms. Some with only two or three basic terms which may be more about light and dark or one end of the spectrum or the other etc ...

Just for fun, people!Stereotypes can be socially dangerous.

This is mainly to amuse but also to introduce the idea that actually, labelling isn't so simple. Move quickly on, however, to the next slides as they raise that issue more seriously.

May be worth mentioning that my wife and I argue over what is turquoise and the boundary between green and blue ... not to mention pink and purple.

Add to which, there is some evidence that men and women really do have different sensory capacities in regard to colour; we see colour differently (relates to more men being colour-blind).

Exact matches are hard to find between words and phrases in different languages

Area of meaning differs

Connotations vary

Contexts add or nuance meaning

Assumptions can change things

Gospel and culture exercise(cf p.57f, Hiebert Anthropological Insights for Missionaries)

Which is essential? Which is negotiable?

Mark with 'E' for essential,'n' for negotiable.

How did you decide between them?

Would your essentials mean not associating with others?

Any items that have nothing to do with scripture at all?

Handout of propositions. Handout also has instructions for usage.

Bevans's 5 models for contextual theology.

See handout.

Translation

Anthropological

praxis

synthetic

transcendental

Handout notes are taken from the Bevans book but are my notes.

The Conversation. Edgar Degas


Driving distracted? Why not?


Managing a project ...


Double listening

To ?

For what purpose?

How?

experience

exploration

(theological) reflection

Planning /action

The pastoral cycle -for theological reflection

Listening to context

Listening to God ...

Integrating 'voices'

Some (all?) should be somewhat familiar with this. Quick recap -use (handout?) unemployment example.NB unemployment is a cultural 'thing'.

Further reflection:How does your background influenceYour way of understanding what 'the Gospel' is?

How can you become aware of your own unconscious biases?