Friday, November 01, 2024
The Social Impacts of Listening Practices in Religious Organisations
The Social Impacts of Listening Practices in Religious Organisations: A pilot study*
This project applies research related to the science of listening to analyse how religious practices might contribute to social connection and human flourishing.
In religious settings, the importance of listening is emphasised. A range of religious activities could be said to facilitate listening, including contemplation, confession, examen and lectio divina. However, there is little theoretical or empirical research into the social dynamics surrounding these religious practices. In psychology, there is a growing body of research into the science of listening and how attention, comprehension, and intention contribute to social connection and human flourishing.
Hence, research is needed to understand how selected religious practices contribute to social connection and human flourishing in religious organisations. This twelve month pilot study will
• undertake a literature review to assess religious practices against the psychological framework of listening structures and listening as attention, comprehension, and intention
• conduct a real-world intervention by offering selected religious practices in small group settings in local religious communities
• conduct mixed-methods research to assess the social impacts of these interventions. Two religious practices will be offered. Quantitative data will be gathered using pre- and post-intervention psychological measures to assess social impact over time. Qualitative data will be gathered from participant observation, participant research diaries and summative focus groups exploring how religious practices contribute to social connection and human flourishing.
Hence, the research project will offer theoretical, practical and foundational benefits. Theoretically, the project creates an interdisciplinary dialogue between listening research in psychology and religious practices. Practically, the project sheds light on how religious practices might foster stronger connections within religious communities. Foundationally, this pilot study will guide further research into the social impact of religious practices.
The research project offers an exciting mix of academic outputs in psychologically-informed theology and research shared with religious communities and religious leaders. Some of the outputs include
• an academic article
• a conference presentation
• an online presentation of findings to interested church leaders
• an online workshop inviting interested researchers and religious leaders to consider further research into the role of listening in community building
For enquiries or to register interest in the online presentation or online workshop, please email s.j.taylor at otago.ac.nz (Research Affiliate, University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka; Psychology Cross-Training Fellow, University of Birmingham; Director AngelWings Ltd).
*This project was made possible through the support of a grant from John Templeton Foundation, awarded via the grant entitled “New Perspectives on Social Psychology and Religious Cognition for Theology: Training and Developing Science-Engaged Theologians,” University of Birmingham.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Reverse migration: insights from an 18th-century journey from the Pacific to Scotland
I’m delighted to have a chapter proposal accepted for a planned Migration and Religion in Australia and the Pacific volume with Springer Nature, edited by Rev. Dr. Titus S. Olorunnisola, Interim Director of Research at Whitley College, University of Divinity, Melbourne.
My chapter proposal is the first written output from my 2023 University of Glasgow Library Research Fellowship, where I was able to spend time immersed in a unique archive collection of mission archives at the the Archives and Special Collections of the University of Glasgow. My research fellowship was titled Race, justice and mission. During the archival search, I came across 19 letters written by an indigenous man, who was living in Scotland for two years in the 1860’s undertaking Bible translation work. The letters offer a glimpse of the theological resources that an indigenous migrant brings to their journey of migration.
Here’s the chapter proposal which I submitted a few months ago:
Reverse migration: insights from an 18th-century journey from the Pacific to Scotland
Historical imaginaries of migration to Australia and the Pacific focus on journeys north to south. Motivated by science, commerce and religion, Europeans embarked on so-called “South Sea Voyages.” However, in the corners of the archives are experiences from south to north, as indigenous peoples voyaged north (Brook, 2001; O’Malley, 2015). This paper analyses the experience of Williamu, an indigenous man from Aneitynum, an island in what is now Vanuatu, who lived in Scotland between 1861 and 1862 and worked alongside Rev John Inglis in Bible translation. During his time in Scotland, Williamu wrote nineteen letters, which provide a “vivid picture of the “First Impressions of Britain and its People”” by an indigenous man (Inglis, 1890, p. 317).
Theoretically, these letters open windows into a reverse migration. Missiology uses the term reverse mission (Adogame, 2013) to focus on the role of Christians from the global South in mission to Europe and North America. Williamu’s letters illuminate the role of indigenous peoples in Bible translation. They invite questions about the role of “reverse mission” and power dynamics present in the translation of Scripture. Further, the letters provide insight into the theological resources a migrant used to respond to grief and suffering. In particular, while in Scotland, Williamu hears news of the death of Dora, his wife, from “migratory” diseases. Hence, Williamu’s letters stand as the first written indigenous migrant theodicy of the Pacific. Research into reverse migration is needed to challenge historical imaginaries and foreground indigenous communities’ resources in journeys of migration.
Acknowledgements: The research was made possible by the University of Glasgow, the Archives and Special Collections, the resources of the Trinity College collections, and the award of a Visiting Library Research Fellowship in 2023.
Thursday, October 24, 2024
The mission of local resilience centres
A devotional I shared at a monthly Church Council I chair.
First, a welcome to new members. We are grateful for your willingness to offer your wisdom, gifts, and experience. Second, a welcome to returning members. We are equally grateful for your willingness to offer your wisdom, gifts, and experience.
The gospel reading for Sunday is of particular relevance to a church council.
In Mark 10: 42-45: Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
So, just in case any of us imagine that being on a church council is a chance to lord it over a church, Jesus is quite clear. We are here to serve.
We serve because of verse 45, the example of Jesus who comes to serve. And as we are reminded in other places in the Gospels, Jesus serves not just people inside the church but all those who are in need. So we, as a church council, are called to serve this church and the wider community.
Today, we have our budgets and our agendas. As we make decisions, we are making them because we are here to serve the community.
I was thinking about what it means to serve the broader community as I drove past the church building a few weeks ago. It was the day after the floods, which closed our state highway and rationed our water supply and caused some of our neighbours houses to be red-stickered.
Outside our church, as you can see from the photo, the Council had set up a water tanker. As I drove past, people from the community were at the water tanker filling up containers with drinking water. So, we, as a church, were part of serving our community. In a very practical way, providing a parking place for a water tanker.
I was on a zoom today, learning about climate change and Christian faith. The speaker described local congregations in a time of climate change as resilience centres. The speaker observed how congregations have buildings, locations, connections and networks with the community. So, in times of emergency, a congregation can play a role in serving the community.
So today we can be thankful for the way we as a congregation could serve a few weeks ago. But we also need to think about what it means to serve again.
Because the recent rain event is likely to happen again. Our community is likely to experience floods and damaged roads and water challenges again. So we will have future opportunities to serve. There might be other things we can do as a congregation that might help us be a resilience centre, serving in this community, besides having a place for a water tanker to park.
So I’ll pause there and see if my devotional thoughts have sparked any reflections or pondering.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
listening as community building in public spaces
It was great to begin a research side project yesterday and sit at a public community event doing some ethnography.
The side project is researching the science of listening and social connection, seeking to understand what happens when adults gather for an hour to have great literature read aloud. It is a pro-bono AngelWings Ltd project that complements and localises my Birmingham University/John Templeton Cross-training research into the social impact of listening in community organisations.
This research side project will use a mix of methods, including observation and interviews with readers and listeners. So yesterday involved not only observing, but also introducing myself and the research with information and consent forms.
Hence, the photo is of a brand new research journal and pen for taking notes, along with consent forms and information.
For those who want to know more about the project and the connections I am making between researching listening and community building, see here.
Thursday, October 03, 2024
the fun of research coding Ordinary knitters
Today was fun.
Today was a research coding day.
Today was out with the coloured highlighters and A3 sheets of paper, seeking threads and weave in focus group interviews in the Ordinaryknitters project.
After the toil of transcribing and cleaning transcripts, today was about the joy of making patterns, listening to people who knit for Christian projects in public spaces.
I know there are computer programmes to help with coding. There are the cheap options ranging from highlighter and comment functions on Word, through to paid software like NVivo.
But somehow getting off screen is vitalising. Perhaps it’s because I’m analysing the words and thoughts of knitters, for whom the tactile is so present in their theology and practice.
Perhaps its the physical detaching in which words on paper are seen in different ways that words on a screen. And so new ways of seeing and linking emerge.
Today was fun. A reminder that any research project has moments of creativity and colour.
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Visualising online climate change activism: public eco-theologies in grassroots climate-justice organisations accepted
I’m delighted to have news overnight of a journal article about my research into grassroots digital activism accepted for publication with Theology (UK based journal). The article is scheduled for publication early in 2025.
This is the first piece of writing from my Edinburgh IASH Fellowship sojourn in June and July this year. The article outlines my novel contribution to the study of digital activism, visual images, and the construction of public eco-theologies. The research in the article draws on the social media of two UK climate justice groups as illustrative.
It’s nice to take topics like activism and social media into a journal committed to broadening knowledge of contemporary theological studies.
Friday, September 20, 2024
Reading Allowed and aloud: Cultivating listening structures in a literary city
Paper acceptance!
I’m thrilled to have a paper accepted for Books and the city: the 2024 Otago Centre for the Book Annual Symposium (21-22 November, 2024). The symposium is local, so that’s always a bonus.
My paper applies “listening structures,” a theoretical framework I’ve been reading around as part of my University of Birmingham, Psychology Cross-training Fellowship Programme for Theologians, to a local activity – Reading Allowed – that I’ve enjoyed being part of for the last few years.
Paper title: “Reading Allowed” and aloud: Cultivating listening structures in a literary city
This paper analyses the benefits of reading books aloud in public city spaces. Qualitative research is used to investigate the social impact of “Reading Allowed” as a collective listening structure.
“Reading Allowed” is an event that runs monthly on the ground floor of the Dunedin Public Library. Since 2022, people have gathered in the late afternoon to hear stories for all ages. For 60 minutes, readers from the University of Otago and Friends of the Library introduce and share excerpts from classic and contemporary literature.
Listening structures is a phrase used by organisational psychologist Guy Itzchakov (2024) to advance the science of listening. Listening structures refer to the processes and practices that build the human capacity to pay attention, deepen comprehension, and amplify intention (Kluger and Guy Itzchakov, 2022). Hence, listening structures contribute to social relationships and collective flourishing between individuals and organisations.
This paper considers “Reading Allowed” as a listening structure. It draws from the researcher’s ethnographic participation as a listener at “Reading Allowed,” along with interviewing readers and listeners. Attention, comprehension, and intention are themes used to analyse the qualitative data.
New ways to conceptualise the places of books in a “literary city” are provided when “Reading Allowed” is theorised as a listening structure. The research is theoretically important in advancing scholarship regarding the public nature of listening structures. The research also has practical application for those who care about books in the lives of cities and their citizens.
Dr Steve Taylor,
Director AngelWings Ltd; Research Affiliate, University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka
IASH Research Fellow, Edinburgh University
Monday, September 16, 2024
Knitting as public theological witness
Researching Ordinary Knitters – people who knit for Christian projects in public spaces – has been a research side project for me since August 2021. This paper, if accepted, will be the first public articulation of data.
A paper proposal: Knitting as public theological witness
This paper examines the ways in which acts of making are public theology. Matthew Engelke has researched how the Bible Society in the United Kingdom is active in public domains. He uses “ambient faith” as an analytical tool to theorise Christian activity that challenges the political and civic constraints imposed by the modern secular imaginary.
This paper applies “ambient faith” to recent practices of knitting in which Christians have been publicly active through yarnbombing and social activism. This paper draws on interviews with fifty knitters in four countries, along with participant observation of public interactions with several knitted projects, including visible displays of solidarity with those affected by abuse. While knitting is commonly seen as a domestic activity, done in private spaces, this paper describes how making offers new ways of relating and gives voice, particularly to lay women. Making as “ambient witness” offers new ways to think about the nature of public theology and Christian witness.
Monday, August 19, 2024
living bread prayers as active, silent, take-home-able
I was leading worship and preaching at my local congregation. The text was John 6. A few years ago, I had used bread rolls. When baked hard, they can be written on with felt pens. It allows a tactile and personalised engagement, as people are invited to write on the bread roll.
This year, I built on the bread roll stations, particularly around prayers for others. I introduced our intercessions as being a time for active but silent prayer. I handed around the baked loaves of bread (cocktail rolls from a local supermarket). I observed they had been baked long enough to be hard enough to write on. I invited folk to pray actively, but silently, by using the felt pens and writing on the bread roll the name of a person or situation that needs Jesus as “living bread.” Perhaps we know someone who is not well, or a situation of conflict.
After several minutes of active silence, I then invited people to place their bread in a plastic bag. The invitation was to take their bread roll home. The plastic bag meant we wouldn’t get crumbs in our handbags or on car seats. And people could use the bread roll during the week, to keep holding, to keep praying, to keep adding things as they came to mind. It was a way of praying actively, silently and in a way that could be taken home into life beyond the gathered service.
It worked well.
Monday, August 12, 2024
Ordinary Time Festivals: An Application of Wisdom Ecclesiology published in Theology Today
I’m delighted with news of a journal article published with Theology Today, a peer-reviewed, quarterly journal connected to Princeton Theological Seminary.
Steve Taylor, “Ordinary Time Festivals: An Application of Wisdom Ecclesiology,” Theology Today (here). (It’s behind a paywall and I can provide an accepted version if folk don’t have institutional access).
Its been quite the writing journey. It began with some thoughts on festival spirituality in my 2005 The Out of Bounds Church? book. During 2018, I began reading theologian Amy Platinga Pauw, particularly her Bible commentary on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and her book Church in Ordinary Time: A Wisdom Ecclesiology. I wondered if her work on the doctrine of creation and her proposal for a wisdom ecclesiology could make sense of how churches engage in community festivals.
To develop my proposal, I used empirical research of three festivals – a harvest festival in Scotland, a Blessing of the Fleece service at a craft festival in Australia and a neighbourhood festival in Aotearoa New Zealand. I outlined the different ways in which these festivals provided concrete examples of new ways by which the church might theologically participate in their communities today.
I submitted the article around the middle of 2021. It was accepted early in 2022 and was finally! published online this week. I really enjoyed creating a dialogue between theology and qualitative research and was delighted to have the peer reviewers called it “interesting,” “helpful,” and “novel.”
Here’s the conclusion:
Hence, ordinary festivals provide imaginative possibilities for faith communities today. Instead of the present festive barrenness of ordinary time, new opportunities emerge. In ways similar to how the church puts energy into the seasons of Advent and Lent and the festivals of Christmas and Easter, the church can put energy in ordinary time into wisdom festivals. The church turns outward, finding imaginative ways to join hands with God’s ongoing work in creation, making ordinary time good news for church and world. A church could join an existing community festival, like Spin and Fibre, using Pauw’s themes to offer a distinct liturgical presence. A church could, like CompassionFest, offer ‘initiatory’ capacity for a new community festival. This would begin by paying attention through placemaking. The church could enrich existing festivals, for example, exploring ways that a harvest festival might deepen faith formation. As Jesus grew in faith through Passover, so Pauw’s six themes become similarly generative, deepening discipleship during ordinary time. Wisdom ecclesiology becomes a distinct resource, offering a Biblically formed and flourishing praxis of delight, wonder, and perseverance.
Friday, August 09, 2024
knitting is gendered
With Tom Daley knitting at the Paris Olympics, 3 years on from his knitting at the Tokyo Olympics, there is a fascinating article in The Conversation:
Knitting helps Tom Daley switch off. Its mental health benefits are not just for Olympians
The article notes the benefits of knitting for wellbeing and for community. The article also names the gendered nature of knitting. Knitting is an activity, usually done by older women, and normally at home. Each of these three reasons – wellbeing, community and gender – are reasons why I’m researching Ordinary knitters – people who have knitted for church projects. I am seeking to understand what happens when an activity, associated with women, is taken from the home to public places as an expression of Christian witness.
To date I’ve interviewed over 50 people, including people who have knitted Christmas angels to yarnbomb in their neighbourhoods, climate scarves to give to politicians and LOUDfence strawberries to express solidarity with survivors of church abuse. Given that only two of my participants have been male, knitting is clearly gendered.
What is fascinating is how in different ways, a hobby that is domestic and private is being made public. There is Christmas love made visible in streets and parks, concerns for future generations expressed in politicians offices and the secrecy that surrounds abuse made visible in public places. Knitting becomes a way for women to express a public theology.
Saturday, August 03, 2024
Cross-training and research capacity
I’ve been privileged to spend the last two weeks at the University of Birmingham, participating in the Psychology Cross-training Fellowship Programme for Theologians. The fields of psychology and theology have multiple points of shared interest. These include what it means to be human and relate to the world around us. Yet often the worlds of psychology and theology talk past one another. Hence the Cross-training Fellowship, funded by John Templeton Foundation.
The Fellowship runs for 16 months and is structured to include
- an initial two week intensive
- monthly online training
- a contestable grant to undertake new research
- a mid-point one week workshop
- a final gathering to share research
The two week intensive has involved training in research methods, introduction to current developments in social psychology and workshopping a research project in psychologically engaged theology. It’s been full on, 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday.
Some highlights for me include:
- some really helpful professional development, particularly around research empirical methods and open-science. I use plenty of empirical methods in my work with AngelWings Ltd, as we use different research methods to serve the church. So it was superb to have 3 days listening to current best practice
- space and support in thinking about a research project, supported by a small grant. The support included space to present a possible project, followed by feedback both shared and immediate, and individual in the days following. Having a concrete research project possibility helped to focus attention and provide inspiration
- plenty of formal and informal opportunities to build connections with others interested in interdisciplinary research. These include the other 18 fellows. It also includes networking with theologians and psychology academics. I suspect that connection-making will deepen and interweave even more over the next 16 months and beyond
- the greenery of English summers and the long evenings, in particular the Winterbourne Gardens.
It’s been a rich, intense and engaging experience, for which I’m very grateful to the organisors and funders. I am looking forward over the next few weeks and months to experiencing how the doing of a small research project can further build capacity around interdisciplinary research. That begins with an grant application process. But first, the long trek back to Aotearoa beckons.
Saturday, July 20, 2024
“Grassroots digital activisms” research project July 2024 update
I leave Edinburgh tomorrow. It’s been a wonderful time, of new networks of people and a peaceful setting in which to think and research. With my 7 weeks at IASH ending, I have written up a July 2024 research project update.
“Grassroots digital activisms: learning with the visual grammar of indigenous Christian climate justice organisations” research project
Background: Digital technology is changing the world. Neumayer and Svensson (2014) have researched how individuals and organisations use online platforms to activate for change. They theorise a typology of digital activism but call for fine-grained studies from diverse contexts. There is much to learn from local communities with different epistemologies as they activate for change.
This research seeks a decolonial perspective by centring indigenous Christian organisations working on climate justice. It takes a case study approach, beginning in the world’s largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean, and seeking collaborations with other digital activist grassroots organisations in local, diverse, and indigenous contexts.
The research assumes that grassroots Christian communities are using online social media for activism. Their digital outputs, including visual images, provide insights into climate change, digital activism, and visual grammars. Learning with and from grassroots indigenous digital activism offers fresh responses to the ‘wicked problems’ facing our planet.
Research questions:
• What is the nature of online digital activism in grassroots indigenous Christian organisations?
• What might online digital activism, including its visual grammar, reveal about indigenous ways of knowing and activating?
• What learnings might result for other grassroots local activist organisations?
Approach: The project values collaborative approaches and utilises participatory methods. A case study approach centres local particularities and diverse contexts. Visual grammar methods offer frameworks for analysing the online social media images of grassroots organisations. Offering online conversations to participants in grassroots organisations about their online social media images prioritises local perspectives and creates feedback loops. Testing initial findings with local communities invites mutual learning and facilitates grassroots resourcing.
Benefits:
• Practical benefits in offering guidance for volunteer grassroots organisations seeking to activate online for climate justice
• Methodology benefits in testing collaborative and mutual research protocols for use in various indigenous grassroots contexts
• Theoretical implications in challenging Euro-centric theorisations of climate change, digital activism and visual grammar
• Relational benefits in weaving networks of scholars researching digital activism and public theology in non-Western contexts
Outputs past and planned:
Outputs 2023
• IASH funding bid, with the support of Dr Alex Chow, Centre for World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, to initiate the research
Outputs 2024
• Ethics application to the University of Edinburgh
• GoNeDigiTal24, Digital activism as justice-making academic presentation
• IASH, Visualising climate change activism academic presentation
• Funding proposal submitted seeking support for a colloquium of grassroots digital activist researchers
• British Sociology of Religion Conference 2024, Digital activism as justice-making academic presentation
• Journal article. Discussion of implications of digital activism and visual grammar methods for public theology, applied to the social media presence of two UK climate activist organisations
Outputs 2025 and beyond
• Hybrid colloquium on grassroots digital activism, drawing together research into digital activisms in grassroots contexts with the aim of networking and multi-voiced publication of research (April 2025 tbc)
• An open-access academic publication (interest already from an international academic publisher)
• A visual resource and podcast series with activists in grassroots communities about their learnings.
Principal Investigator: Rev Dr Steve Taylor, AngelWings Ltd
Funding and conversation partnerships: The Grassroots digital activism research project welcomes interest in conversations or collaborations. Current supporters include IASH (Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities), CWC (Centre for World Christianity), the University of Edinburgh, and RISC (Researching Indigenous Studies and Christianity).
For more information about the research, in the first instance, contact Rev Dr Steve Taylor on kiwidrsteve at gmail dot com.
Friday, July 12, 2024
fun day plotting the IASH Digital activism research project
It was good today to spend some time reflecting on the IASH Digital Activism as justice-making project to date.
Over the last 6 weeks in Edinburgh, I have gathered a raft of research notes. I’ve written various research memos and pieces of data analysis. Together these total around 12,000 words.
Over the last 6 weeks, I have also presented 3 academic talks. Each of these have helped to clarify data and flesh out some arguments. But they’ve also meant I’ve skipped around a bit, collecting enough data for an “initial finding” in a presentation, but not enough for an indepth written argument.
In the up-next-soon, I have one full week left in Edinburgh. It would be nice in that week to gather threads and work toward something I could publish.
In the up-next-medium term, I have some grassroots activist organisations who are keen to participate. But they have some project deadlines, so have asked if they can be researched later in the year. Totally understandable.
Then in the up-next-longer-term, I want to develop the research in ways that involve multiple voices, not just mine. To make this concrete, a few weeks ago I submitted a funding bid. This is under peer review and could make possible a multi-voiced gathering. I have also initiated contact with a publisher, who has expressed enthusiasm for the project and my hopes for a multi-voiced project.
So today was spent plotting ways that I might produce different outputs. The IASH time was always about the conceptual space to set up the ethics process and research design. It was never intended to complete the project. At the same time, I don’t want to juggle yet another unfinished project, as I already have several too many of those. Equally, having several projects on the go can help with managing timelines.
So today was about plotting. Can there be something in the short term, that is distinct, yet sets up outputs in the medium and long term? Can I match an argument I’ve verbally developed with an already gathered concrete set of data?
After several coffees, and then some thinking thoughts into (1800) draft words on a page, I can see some ways forward.