Stephen Pattison being polemical

Pattison wrote a deliberately polemical essay about theology and its relation to society and the academy. I liked it so much I’ve summarised it below. I think he’s on to something.

Stephen Pattison, The Challenge of Practical Theology: Selected Essays. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007.

Ch. 16 ‘Public Theology: A Polemical Epilogue’, 212-228

221 Theology shouldn’t smooth all the edges by constantly refining metaphors and ideas. It should leave things untidy so that people are puzzled and called out to new thoughts. [should be generative].

‘theological activity should actually make a real difference to our lives and thinking of peoples of all kinds.’

 Theologians should be able ‘to create and analyse the myths, symbols, metaphors and narratives that constitute the action-influencing world views that people inhabit.’ Trying to create ‘transformative, mutative understandings and meanings’ – [so not just analysing but creating, offering, even if you’re just helping improve someone else’s vision without adding anything from Christianity.]

222 theology should be trying to contribute to human flourishing in general

- deal with new and different types of religious performance, not just texts

- ‘playful, imaginative and porous, a zone of experimentation and innovation, rather than a closed domain of orthodoxy and conformity.’ ‘Human beings cannot live without action-influencing world views and faith systems, but they need to have the possibility of testing their boundaries, validity and potential to nurture flourishing.’

223 ‘Theologians must learn to commend themselves as useful in the public domain.’ [no need to interpret this as needing to serve power; might be useful to people by being prophetic]

223 notes meant to be controversial:

1. Offer fragments of insight to public discussion to be useful.
2. Stop religious studies and theology as its own department/subject and make it interdisciplinary.
3. ‘Make all theology issue based.’ Don’t talk to ourselves but to others engaged with problems. Can’t use a ‘private language’ or become obsessed with methodology. [coming to sound like feminism – not a department but a way of approaching any subject. McIntosh said something similar. Think it’s wrong to deny that, e.g., systematic theology has no use, but Pattison is on to something]
4. Avoid the ‘self-ghettoizing’ use of the term ‘theology’. Call ourselves ‘public critical thinkers’ who engage with common concerns from a ‘particular faith tradition’.
5. Decide who theology is for and what it is trying to accomplish.
6. Recognise theology done outside institutions.
7. Treat the tradition as ‘an imaginative resource or spring board’ rather than something closing you down. Theologians should be ‘coaches’ for performances of theory and practice.
8. ‘Work on making theology a more truly imaginative and innovative activity that is universally accessible. For example, it may be possible to create new religious stories that are not the old stories in new words but are actually new stories that have some indebtedness to the old. This will ensure imagination and inventiveness as well as continuity. Means of conveying these stories should not just be books or analytic narratives. Media such as films, art and poetry need to be considered as appropriate ways of conveying theological insights and analytic perceptions.’ [e.g. put them on the syllabus!]
9. Make the main vehicle for theology 500-1000 word articles in the national press. We can still do extended analysis in books but we’d be more accountable this way.
10. Study public religious performances and discourses that ‘struck a chord’ in public, such as CofE report Faith in the City, or Bishop David Jenkins’ works.
11. ‘A certain amount of interpretative ingenuity and stealth is needed in terms of analysis and expression if people’s anxieties about the ideological and obscurantist nature of theological activity are to be allayed.’
12. ‘Theology should be practised with passion and commitment.’