Theology in the Public Sphere

Public Theology as a Catalyst for Open Debate

Sebastian Kim

• Publisher: SCM Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780334043775
• eBook ISBN: 9780334048503
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Christentum

A substantial and definitive introduction to public theology by one of the leading experts in the field.A key text for third year undergraduate modules and MA courses in Social Ethics, Political Theology and Public Theology.

Part 1: Exploring Public Theology

1. Introduction: Theology and the Public Sphere

As the theology of God’s kingdom, theology has to be public theology: public, critical and prophetic complaint to God – public, critical and prophetic hope in God.5

Public theology is Christians engaging in dialogue with those outside church circles on various issues of common interest. It involves urging Christians to take the opportunity to participate in the public domain in modern secular democracies and to converse with other citizens on issues wider than religious matters. There is an urgent need for Christian theology to be actively engaged in conversation on public issues with the understanding that it can offer complementary or supplementary approaches, and even alternative solutions, to the very complex issues facing society today. The key word for public theology is public conversation, contributing to the formation of personal decisions and collective policy-making in economic, political, religious and social realms. In many ways public theology shares some characteristics of different theological discourses such as political theology, social ethics and liberation theology but, as I will show, it has also established its own distinctive ways to engage in public issues.

The development of public theology

The term ‘public theology’ was introduced by Martin Marty in his attempt to distinguish it from the ‘civil religion’ discussed by Robert Bellah in commenting on American public life in the 1960s.6 While both concepts overlap considerably, civil religion emphasizes the place and role of religion (and Christianity in particular) in relation to the nation and its people in their public life and social responsibilities, whereas public theology starts from the religious community and considers its contributions to the society and nation. Discussions of the difference between civil religion and public theology, and the marginalization of Christian theology in the context of America, were ongoing in the 1970s and 1980s in theological circles in the USA, led by John Courtney Murray,7 David Hollenbach,8 David Tracy,9 Richard John Neuhaus,10 Max Stackhouse,11 Linell Cady12 and Ronald F. Thiemann,13 among others.

In his discussion of mainline Protestant, Evangelical and Catholic churches in the USA, Martin Marty suggested that together they form a ‘public Church’, which holds distinctive resources to respond to the challenge of what he identified as a ‘crisis of morale and mission’.14 He defines the ‘public Church’ as ‘a family of apostolic churches with Jesus Christ at the centre’, which are especially sensitive to the ‘res publica, the public order that surrounds and includes people of faith’. Since it is made up of several different confessions, he also describes ‘the public Church’ as ‘a communion of communions’, distinctive and yet sharing ‘a common Christian vocation’.15 Marty contrasts his vision of the public Church with other ways in which religions organize themselves: totalist (a theocratic approach); tribalist (exclusive and self-interested approaches); and privatist (an individualistic approach).16 He derives the word ‘public’ from the ‘public religion’ described by Benjamin Franklin, which he thinks ‘fits the American pluralist pattern better’ than Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ‘civil religion’. This suggests that these three churches can contribute out of their particular resources to ‘public virtue and the common weal’. Public theology then becomes, in Marty’s view, ‘an effort to interpret the life of a people in the light of a transcendent reference’.17 Doing public theology or being public Church is to exhibit ‘commitment to relate private faith to public order’.18 The public Church recognizes that it ‘shares traditions, reasons, aspects of Enlightenment, civic purpose, and transecting philosophies with many of the constituents and collegia in the larger civic order’, but ‘adapting does not mean letting all moorings go’. Although the public Church is in some respects also a political church, and will be seen by some as compromising and unfaithful, it cannot be so or its very existence must be questioned. The public Church contributes to public discourse out of its own particular revelation and the principles it has developed.19

Although he tends to be over-optimistic about the role of the Church in American public life, Marty’s idea of the public Church and its relationship with politics and society is very helpful and has certainly made a significant impact on the discussion of public theology. He argues historically that each of the three traditions – mainline Protestant, Evangelical and Catholic churches – have inherently public theologies which have influenced US society over several centuries. Although the term was not used explicitly, it has been present in the USA from the time of the Pilgrim Fathers. Public theology was prominent especially in the Evangelical revivals and in the social gospel movement. Since the 1960s especially, public theologies that have been influential globally include Catholic social teaching, statements on social and political issues by the ecumenical movement, and the black theology of the civil rights movement. It has also been prevalent in discussion of religious pluralism, and in the black and feminist theologies of recent years.20 In the 1980s, the publication of the two pastoral letters from the US Conference of Bishops, The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response (1983) and Economic Justice for All (1986), triggered much discussion within the Church and in the academy on the issues of ‘civil discourse’ and the ways and means to engage in public life.21 The dominant themes of public theology in the USA in this period were the role of religion in a democratic polity, Christian social vision and political liberalism, the significance of church-related social institutions and the relationship of theological resources to the global economy.22

In the last decade, there have been relatively fewer writings published in the USA on public theology and instead initiatives have been coming from Europe, South Africa and Australia particularly. Unlike the US situation where individual scholars are leading discussions on the topic, elsewhere centres for public theology have been established within universities and denominations. This development has produced a new vitality in discussing public theology and, as a result, the Global Network for Public Theology (GNPT), with a membership of 25 centres and institutions worldwide, was launched in Edinburgh in 2006 and formally established in Princeton in its second consultation in May 2007. Its aim is to conduct interdisciplinary research in theology and public issues in global and local contexts. At the second consultation, the International Journal of Public Theology (IJPT) was launched to provide a ‘platform for original interdisciplinary research in the field of public theology’ in dialogue with different academic disciplines such as politics, economics, cultural studies and religious studies, as well as with spirituality, globalization and society in general.23 Within the Network, some major research centres are the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (CTPI) of the University of Edinburgh, the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, the Public and Contextual Theology Strategic Research Centre, Charles Sturt University, Australia, the Manchester Centre for Public Theology, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer Research Centre for Public Theology, University of Bamberg, Germany. These centres of the Global Network are based in universities and t...

Table of contents

• Theology in the Public Sphere
• Copyright information
• Contents
• Preface
• Part 1: Exploring Public Theology
• 1. Introduction: Theology and the Public Sphere
• 2. The Bible as a Public Book: Perspectives from Global Christianity
• 3. Doing Public Theology: The Example of Eco-Theology
• Part 2: Public Theology in Global Contexts
• 4. The Church as a Public Body: Exclusion and the Quest for Authentic Community in India
• 5. Socio-Political Reconciliation: Struggles against Injustice and Division in Korea
• 6. Global Economic Justice: Latin American Initiatives to Overcome Inequalities
• 7. Peace-Building: The Response of the Western Churches to the Iraq War
• Part 3: Public Theology in Europe
• 8. Interactive Pluralism in a Multicultural Society: Rowan Williams’ Lecture on Sharia Law
• 9. Freedom of Expression Versus Respect for Faith: The Danish Cartoon Controversy
• 10. Community Identity and Critical Dialogue: The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill
• Epilogue
• Bibliography