Thursday, March 09, 2023

pacific missiology in praxis: review of Winston Halapua, Living on the fringe.

picture of Living on the Fringes Winston Halapua, Living on the fringe. Melanesians of Fiji, Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, 2001, 152 pages.

Winston Halapua, Living on the fringe. Melanesians of Fiji is a fine example of Pacific missiology. Rev Winston Halapua, who at the time of writing was Archdeacon for Pacific Islanders in New Zealand and Principal of the College of the Diocese of Polynesia, seeks to “sing a divine song until the pain of the marginalized in our midst is heard” (6).

The book focuses on an economically deprived and socially marginalized people, Melanesians born in Fiji. Historically, Halapua traces the labour practices of the 19th century, which between 1864 and 1911, resulted in 27,027 contracts of indenture for Melanesian workers in Fiji. When cotton and sugar cane prices changed, many of these workers could not afford to return to their homelands. Caught by shifting patterns of land ownership, many found themselves trapped in generational cycles of poverty.

Theologically, Living on the fringe. Melanesians of Fiji follows God’s Spirit, which yearns to bless the poor, hungry and those who weep (Luke 6:20-21). Halapua demonstrates what blessing might look like and the importance of loving God and neighbour not just with our hearts but with our heads as well.

Prophetically, Halapua examines the historical actions of his own Anglican Church. The Anglican Church in Fiji, while initially established to provide pastoral care to settlers, in time began a ministry to the Melanesians in Fiji. Halapua explores a bold experiment, the Wailoku settlement, where the church sought to provide holistic care. Halapua analyses the church’s actions sociologically, demonstrating how the patterns of mission care matched the hierarchical structures of the Anglican church. This mission, although genuine in intent, served to amplify the embedded patterns of dependency.

Yet prophetically, Halapua is showcasing the contemporary actions of his own Anglican Church. Living on the fringe. Melanesians of Fiji emerges from current activity as teams of local Wailoku leaders, Anglican theological students, priests, and Diocesan staff undertake human research together to understand current realities. Hence Halapua shows that research need not be abstract. Rather, research can be prophetic praxis. The mixed methods approach is a fine example of research forward, in which documentary analysis, interviews with stakeholders and personal involvement result in concrete future strategies. A fine example is how Halapua applies a strength-based approach to the Melanesian people he is researching with. He names the gifts evident in history – “Melanesians played a vital pioneering role for the Anglican Church in Fiji” (127) to empower agency in future decisions.

Halapua writes for “the year 2040 AD,” the year in which the lease on the Wailoku settlement will end. He notes that even if 2040 seems far away, a distant date “should not lull people into a false sense of security.” Instead, this fine example of research forward provides “the information upon which Melanesians can make choices necessary for their self-determination” (128).

Posted by steve at 11:24 AM

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Hybrid Christology as resistance and innovation

Published! ““Hapkas” Christology as resistance and innovation in The Mountain,” Melanesian Journal of Theology 36 (2020): 81-101.

There are lots of feels in this piece of work – a lot of fun to dive into anthropology, literature and art – a real interdisciplinary piece of research. And to write about the country of my birth – Papua New Guinea. Full edition of the journal is online here. That’s right, no paywall! Scroll down to page 81.

The article analyses The Mountain, a novel by Australian writer Drusilla Modjeska. It describes a contemporary Christology – in particular her use of Jesus as “good man true” and the shifts in understandings of hybrid identities in the term “hapkas” (which is Pidgin English for half-caste). I argue for a contemporary Christology of resistance and innovation, in which ancestor agency is affirmed and Melanesian masculinity tropes are challenged.

The article has taken quite a few years to get from acceptance to print. It offers a particularised, Melanesian, reading of some research I had published in Mission Studies in 2019. (“Cultural hybridity in conversion: an examination of “Hapkas” Christology as resistance and innovation in Drusilla Modjeska’s The Mountain,” Mission Studies 36 (3) 2019, 416-441).

After the article in Mission Studies was accepted in 2019, one of the peer reviewers reached out and on behalf of another journal they review for – Melanesian Journal of Theology – suggesting a reworked piece would be of benefit to their readers. The suggestion gave me the opportunity to tighten the argument, as well as include some unpublished research from a visit to Te Papa, plus undertake a literature review of Melanesian Christologies.

Given the Melanesian Journal of Theology retained the original date of publication, it also means I had seven academic journal articles published in 2020 – much of it fruit from my 15-week sabbatical from Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership in 2019.

Abstract – This essay assesses a hapkas christology in Papua New Guinea. A declaration of Jesus as “good man true” in Drusilla Modjeska’s The Mountain is located in relation to hapkas themes of indigenous agency, communal transformation, and hybridity, each in dialogue with New Testament themes of genealogy, redemption as gift, and Jesus as the new Adam. This hapkas Jesus who is “good man true” is then placed in critical dialogue: first, with Melanesian masculine identity tropes as described in anthropological literature and second, with Papua New Guinean christologies, including “wantok,” brother, and protector. The argument is that a hapkas christology acts in ways that both resist and innovate in the reception of the gospel across cultures. This demonstrates how a received message of Christian mission can be creatively transformed in the crossing of cultures and a hapkas christology provides resources in the tasks of contextualisation in a rapidly globalising world.

Keywords – Christology, gospel, ancestor, genealogy, Drusilla Modjeska, post-colonial, indigenous

Posted by steve at 09:38 AM

Saturday, January 15, 2022

journal article acceptance – Ordinary Time Festivals: an Application of Wisdom Ecclesiology

“a thing well made.” It’s a line from a song by Don McGlashan and it’s been an earworm since I received news this week that my journal article “Ordinary Time Festivals: An Application of Wisdom Ecclesiology” has been accepted for publication by Theology Today, an international academic journal out of Princeton. It’s my 23rd accepted academic journal and the news got me thinking – Can journal articles be a thing well made?”

Reflecting on a journal article as a “thing well made”:

  • First, the organising of 5,000 words in a logical and coherent way.
  • Second, the attention to both detail (footnotes, grammar, spelling) and big picture (one coherent argument that connects with the real world).
  • Third, pitching to the right journal. This involves researching the aims and objectives of the journal, working to align the abstract and argument with those aims and then writing a pitch.
  • Fourth, responding to feedback. Submitting your work to multiple blind reviewers takes courage. You open yourself to critique.

Four reasons. What reasons might you add? Can a journal article be a thing well made? While you think, here’s the “Ordinary Time Festivals” abstract —

Feasts and festivals enliven the Christian life. Given Easter, Christmas and Pentecost cluster around the nineteen weeks of Christmastide and Eastertide, the thirty-three weeks of ordinary time are disconnected from these celebrations. The theological impact is considered in light of Amy Plantinga Pauw’s wisdom ecclesiology. For Pauw, the church has largely neglected the ordinary-time dimension of the Christian life. The result is a Christian life disconnected from creaturely existence and God’s ongoing work of creation.

This paper explores the possibility of ordinary time festivals as a way to embody Pauw’s wisdom ecclesiology. A harvest festival in Scotland, a spin and fibre festival in Australia and a local community festival in Aotearoa New Zealand are analyzed. These festivals are argued to embody Pauw’s themes of making new, longing, giving, suffering, rejoicing and joining hands. Hence, ordinary time festivals offer ecclesiologically formed ways for the church to embody wisdom ecclesiology. They enable a theological formed way of joining hands with God’s ongoing work in creation during ordinary time.

Posted by steve at 11:37 AM

Sunday, November 07, 2021

more grounded, more international

I completed 3 major project milestones this week.

First, the 6th and last Mission For A Change for 2021. What was a spark of an idea at the start of the year – to offer online resourcing on mission – has become interviews with women and indigenous thinkers who are writing in areas of mission and change.

Second, the completion of a Codesign report. At the start of this year, I was contracted with Val Goold to undertake a consultation about researching the future of theological education and ministry formation across the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and the Pacific. 55 interactions later, after listening with over 160 people, an 8-page report this week summarised a 2nd stage of the Codesign, as we checked our listening with various stakeholders, and outlined 10 research strategies for what could happen in 2022.

Third, the completion of Learn Local. Funding from the Synod of Otago Southland and the support of the Southern Presbytery has enabled me to offer education in local mission. Over the last month, I’ve been privileged to work face to face and online with folk from 7 local churches and 1 Queenslander who have walked local communities as a mission learning experience. The visual is notes from the final “online” session, by the amazing Lynne Taylor, as participants shared their “walking” learnings and as I gave input on forming faith in local mission.

notes from learn local 4

There is much more to process on each of these and more plans for 2022. But it’s nice to savour 3 milestones, all resourcing mission in different ways across different denominations. I feel more grounded in local communities and more international, resourcing across countries and organisations all at the same time.

Posted by steve at 09:57 AM

Monday, October 18, 2021

why should a Christian get vaccinated?

I got vaccinated today. Let me give 5 brief reasons why.

First, because I’m not an island. I live in relationships and I have a human responsibility to be healthy in those relationships. A vaccine reduces the chance of infecting others (for one study, see here).

Second I did an undergraduate science degree, including biochemistry. I learnt enough to know how little I know and how focused and dedicated are those who work in science research. Rather than fear what I don’t know, I choose to trust those with more knowledge than me.

Third I’m a Christian. As the charismatic leader Christian John Wimber used to say – I pray for my headache and I take a Panadol. God heals through medicine and God protects through vaccines. To not trust God the healer through and with science is the way of the fool in Proverbs.

Fourth, in my current work, I conduct high-quality human research. I know how carefully my colleagues check my ethics applications and how carefully I check theirs. That careful diligence is magnified when it comes to medical trials. The global collaboration amongst scientists and governments in vaccine development is to be applauded, not feared.

Fifth, it’s a global pandemic. It’s scary and unknown. One way to respond to fear is with love – love of neighbour, which is what Jesus commands in the Gospels.

For these reasons, I got vaccinated today.

Posted by steve at 03:27 PM

Sunday, July 11, 2021

Deliver us from evil: theological film review

Monthly I write a film review for Touchstone (the New Zealand Methodist magazine). Stretching back to 2005, some 160 plus films later, here is the review for July 2021.

Deliver us from evil
Reviewed by Steve Taylor

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil – The Lords Prayer

Evil is a terrible thing to watch. Deliver us from evil, made by Korean director, Hong Won-Chan, subtitled in English, is filmed across Japan, Thailand, and Korea’s cultural diversity and complex histories. Former Korean special agent Kim In-nam (Hwang Jung-min) accepts one last job to find a kidnapped nine-year-old. Arriving in Thailand, he finds himself followed by his past, including Ray (Lee Jung-jae), seeking revenge for the assassination of his twin brother. The result is a rapid spiral into violence, torture and revenge killing. Yui (Park Jung-min), a trans-female, provides humour as she is paid to guide and translate.

While watching evil is terrible, pretending sin does not exist is a travesty. Vulnerable children deserve to play in safety after school. Trafficking in children and organ harvesting must be exposed.

The presence of evil presents challenges; experientially, to those who suffer and intellectually, to claims of God as loving and powerful. It is tempting to consign ideas of sin and evil to a premodern universe. We might tap along to “Into my Arms”, joining Nick Cave (The Boatman’s Call (2011 Remastered Version)) in singing “I don’t believe in an interventionist God”. Yet, the atrocities humans commit, whether ancient or modern, require some form of intervention.

The Lord’s Prayer is another response. The well-worn words turn the Sermon on the Mount’s beaut attitudes into lived reality. The Prayer names the reality of sin. Evil is something to watch for. The words Jesus’ taught his disciples recognise the personal and the systemic, the individual lure of temptation and the malevolent power of unexplained systems.

Prayers require an answer. Deliver us from evil (the movie) provides two different responses to the tragedy that is human trafficking. In-nam leaves a trail of bodies. The value of sacrifice, mixed with the use of violence, has been one way of understanding Christianity. Substitutionary atonement, poorly applied, can turn Jesus’ body broken on the cross into some sort of Divine revenge killing for human sin. But violence, even if sacrificial, should have no place among those who pray the beaut attitudes.

Deliverance can also occur through random acts of kindness. Yui is delightful. Initially paid as a guide, she demonstrates a depth of love. Wide-eyed, out of her depth, her persistent presence becomes essential for the redemption of nine-year-old Yoo-min. Wide-eyed kindness is another way of understanding Jesus. In the somewhat foolish act of riding a donkey on Palm Sunday, the human temptation to follow a crowd and the presence of evil is exposed even in religious communities. Jesus’ actions, mixed with his persistence unto death on the cross, form a new community. Those who see evil find new ways to care for each other. Such can be the wide-eyed hope for all who dare to watch and pray for deliverance from evil.

Rev Dr Steve Taylor is author of First Expressions (2019) and writes widely in theology and popular culture, including regularly at www.emergentkiwi.org.nz.

Posted by steve at 08:39 PM

Thursday, June 03, 2021

journal article acceptance – Theologies of fulfilment in a reciprocal study

Stoked with news this week of journal article acceptance in International Bulletin on Mission Research. The journal is “an unparalleled source of information on the world church in mission. The editors are committed to maintaining the highest possible academic editorial standards.” I used to browse the journal as a wide-eyed undergraduate, never imagining I’d ever be a contributor.

My article will likely appear in pre-print later this year and in print 2023 – which suggests a pretty popular journal! This is the first academic output of the AngelWings season, written over the last few months, following presentation at the World Christianity virtual conference in early March and after reading Hirini Kaa’s Te Hāhi Mihinare | The Māori Anglican Church back in February in preparing Mission For a Change. At the same time, it began as part of lecture while I was Principal of KCML, and it’s really gratifying to have this sort of international benchmarking of my lecture content.

Theologies of fulfilment in a reciprocal study of relationships between John Laughton and Rua Kēnana in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract: The crossing of borders of religion presents challenges and provides opportunities. This paper presents a contextualized case study from Aotearoa New Zealand, examining the life-long relationship between Presbyterian missionary, Rev John “Hoani” Laughton (1891-1965), and Māori leader, Rua Kēnana (1969-1937). Photography, as a tool in discerning lived theologies, suggests a side-by-side relationship of reciprocity and particularity. Relationships across differences are revealed not in theory but lived practices of education, worship, and prayer, life, and death. The argument is that Kēnana and Laughton are enacting theologies of fulfilment, grounded in different epistemologies, one of matauranga Māori, the other of Enlightenment thinking.

Keywords: fulfillment theology, matauranga Māori, new religious movements, Presbyterian

Posted by steve at 09:38 PM

Friday, November 06, 2020

Theologies of fulfilment in a reciprocal study of relationships between Christianity and Ringatu in Aotearoa New Zealand

Today involved submitting a paper proposal for the World Christianity Virtual Conference, March 3-6, 2021. Being virtual, it’s a great way to connect with missiologists, without the expense and time of travel.  The conference theme is the borders of religion and it seemed a good chance to take some research I did last year on a “contextualized case-study” – of how Presbyterians in Aotearoa interacted with Ringatu into a world Christianity space.

SEO-World-Christianity-Conference

However it was also a wakeup call. Being 2021, it is after I finish as Principal of KCML. So when it came to “academic affiliation,” I found myself having to tick “independent scholar.”  While I have links with Flinders and Aberdeen University, they are not Faculty roles. While I’ve got some (very exciting) possibilities for 2021, they are all still conversations and none at the public stage. So a reality check.

Anyhow amid the swirl of emotions, here’s the paper proposal, with notice of acceptance (or not), in a few weeks.

Theologies of fulfilment in a reciprocal study of relationships between Christianity and Ringatu in Aotearoa New Zealand

The crossing of borders of religion presents challenge and opportunity. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Christianity’s arrival resulted in new religious movements, including Ringatu, an indigenous religion, emerging in the 1860’s.

For Presbyterians in Aotearoa, a leading figure in the crossing of religious borders was Rev “Hoani” Laughton (1891-1965). Scottish born, Laughton ministered to Maori for all of his adult life. His approach to other religions is evident in an 1960’s lecture he delivered regarding Ringatu. For Laughton, Ringatu is seen as a living religion, in which Christians must immerse themselves as guests. As a result of Laughton’s participation in “hundreds of [worship] services,” he outlines a theology of fulfilment. Ringatu’s birth is a creative fulfilment in response to the historical actions of Christians in the New Zealand War. Laughton works in the hope of a new dawn for suffering Maori forced into an “arrested twilight” by colonization.

Analysis of Laughton’s approach will occur by way of comparative reciprocities. Initially, Laughton will be pairing with Maori contemporary, Rua Kenana. What is Kanana’s approach to the other religion that is Christianity? Are there signs of evolution, fulfilment even, in the Ringatu movement?

Further analysis will occur by locating Laughton alongside Presbyterian approaches to other faiths, in particular, that of John Nicol Farquhar (1861-1929), Scottish born, who ministered in India for much of his adult life. Farquhar published The Crown of Hinduism, arguing that Jesus fulfils the desires and quests of other religions. How might this resonate with Laughton’s approach to Ringatu and Kenana’s approach to Christianity?

The aim is to utilize a methodology of reciprocity in a contextualized case study. Theologies of fulfilment are tested by listening at the border between Christianity and Ringatu.

Posted by steve at 05:48 PM

Friday, October 09, 2020

Healing amid crisis: an analysis of theologies of healing in public prayer

The Association of Practical Theology in Oceania (APTO) Conference is online in 2020 – December 3 to 5. I couldn’t afford to go normally but virtual is whole other story. The theme is Encountering God: Practical Theology and the Mission to Heal. After a conversation or three with fellow researcher Lynne Taylor, thinking about our praying in trauma research, we’ve submitted the following abstact:

Healing amid crisis: an analysis of theologies of healing in public prayer as local churches respond in gathered worship to tragedy and trauma

Christian practices embody and reflect lived theologies. The gathered worship service is theory- and theology-laden, offering insight into Christian understandings of how God is engaged in human history and what human response could and should be. Investigating how Christians pray corporately is thus a potentially fruitful way to explore underlying theologies.

This paper draws on empirical research to investigate how local churches pray in response to trauma and tragedy. Online surveys were conducted in November 2015 (following coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris) and March 2019 (following the Christchurch mosque shootings).

The paper is part of a larger project, that seeks to examine how in the midst of trauma, churches might pray. Previous analysis has examined the empirical data in dialogue with Storm Swain’s understanding of God as earth-maker (creating/holding); pain-bearer (suffering); and life-giver (transforming) (in Trauma and Transformation at Ground Zero: A Pastoral Theology); and with Samuel Well’s typologies of God’s presence (Incarnational Mission: Being with the World).

This paper analyses the data paying particular attention to healing. What images of healing are evident? Who are envisaged as agents of healing? What is the telos, the imagined shape of a healed world? As one example, a church invited prayer by placing native grasses on the altar. This suggests several theologies of healing, including remembering, with one grass for every victim murdered, and hospitality, recognizing those who died not as “other” but as lives planted in indigenous soil.

The implications for those who pray in trauma and tragedy will be considered, with particular attention to the theological work possible through the practices of Christian public prayer.

It will give us the opportunity/push/invitation to look again at the local church in action and to take in a new direction research shared at ANZATS 2019 and about to have published in Stimulus, the New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought and Practice

“Praying for Christchurch: First Impressions of how local churches responded in gathered worship to the mosque shooting,” Stimulus: the New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought and Practice (co-authored with Lynne Taylor), (accepted for publication) 2020.

Posted by steve at 10:05 PM

Friday, August 02, 2019

formative process and summative assessment in teaching theological reflection in ministry

I teach a course on Theological Reflection. It is a vocational setting. All participants have done an undergraduate theology degree and all are preparing for ministry in a mainline (Presbyterian) context. This trajectory needs to shape the course and two graduate outcomes in particular: one, being attentive theologically to the questions of another in the wider community and two, being able to help a community reflect theologically.

For the last few years, in seeking to attend to these graduate outcomes, I have developed a summative assessment which involves peer review. Students grade (50% along with me) each other’s work, providing both comment and a grade, which I moderate. This attends to the vocational aim of helping a community reflect theologically, which includes being able to assess theological reflection.

However, peer review does not come easily and so I need to provide some opportunity for rehearsal. This includes myself as lecturing doing the assignment. Each year I choose a recent issue and do the assignment (for a 2018 example of reforming ecclesiology in Oceania see here). I provide this “fresh” piece of theological reflection to the class. I give them time to read my model answer and check they are still clear about the assignment. I then ask them to “grade” it. This allows anxieties, fears and understandings to be clarified in community, before they attempt a peer.

Overall, the formative process and the summative assessment has been very generative. It makes clear the vocational endpoints and creates an energy as the class rehearses together. It allows a far greater attentiveness to each other’s work and uniqueness of contexts. While there are anxieties, the interns appreciate engaging more deeply with each other. It’s a really worthwhile process of engaging in capacity building.

Here is a video

explaining Theological reflection assignment Recording from steve taylor on Vimeo.

which explanations more of the why and how, the process and the resources used. The resources and handouts I describe in the video are

  • Case study – of Church as Cathedral of Living Stones – here

For more on theological reflection in this particular vocational space of ministerial formation

  • theological reflection as integrating the journey’s of life go here
  • theological reflection as decolonising through place-based methodologies go here.
Posted by steve at 05:28 PM

Friday, July 19, 2019

Side project research: turning 1 journal article into 2

IMG_7498 So I’m working on an academic side project.

A side project, according to wikipedia, is a project undertaken by someone already known for their involvement in another project. In this case, the side project involves turning 1 recently accepted journal article into a 2nd and different (adapted and localised) journal article.

A side project is also something done on the side, which applies here given my writing occurs outside of normal work hours.

Why this side project?
1 – I’ve already done much of the work. When writing, there is always work left on the editing floor. In this case, a visit to Te Papa to research Pacific bark cloth, along with a literature review. The work got left behind in the 1st journal article. So it just makes sense to bring that work back into production and make it visible.

2 – I have been strongly encouraged. When the initial journal article was accepted by Mission Studies, Reviewer 1 noted “I am intrigued by the notion of “hapkas” christology and hope the author has a chance to expand on this analysis in subsequent research.” Then Reviewer 2 took the initiative and contacted a 2nd journal to say “I reviewed this article and thought it was so good … I thought it would be great” for this second journal. That sort of feedback and proactivity provides motivation and energy.

3 – It’s part of re-connecting to my birthplace of Papua New Guinea. It was such a thrill writing the initial article and that sense of satisfaction and re-weaving continues with this side project. I get to appreciate the bark cloth of my childhood as part of a complex cycle of art production and think again about the kin relationships that were part of raising me. I feel more centred as a human person.

4 – It’s a concrete step in a bigger project – a monograph researching hybridity and genealogy in Christology. That’s a big project. So I need ways to make it bite sized. A 2nd journal article does that, as I extend existing trajectories and develop new sections.

So what is involved this particular side project? The 1st article was for an international journal. For that journal, the article needed to communicate globally. This involved locating a specific, national, piece of research in relation to international trends in mission. Specifically, a literature review that engaged a range of authors, from a range of countries.

The second journal article is for a national journal. This article needs to communicate more locally. Specifically, more concrete detail of the actual culture. Hence editing in the notes I took from that visit to Te Papa to research Pacific bark cloth in 2016. It is such a thrill to find the Evernote entry from September 2016 and realise that 250 draft words, typed on the airplane on the return flight, are just waiting to be edited in. The result is a new section on the history of art in this particular region.

It also requires locating the research in relation to other national research. Hence deleting a range of authors from a range of countries and instead reading through the back issues of this particular national journal. It was such a thrill to find the Evernote entry with the URL of the journal article back copies, already found online, waiting to be analysed. The result is a literature review for this journal of the history of Christology in this journal over the last 30 years – of Jesus the “wontok” (relation), the clan brother, the “tatapa” (protector).

As a result, over the last 2 weeks, 1 hour a day, a very different journal article is being written. Using work already done, yet particularising, localising, enlarging my understandings of indigenous Christologies, important for my ongoing teaching as an inhabitant of Oceania, a guest on the land of another, a boy born in Melanesian.

Posted by steve at 12:15 PM

Thursday, July 04, 2019

Theological Education as Development in Vanuatu published in Sites journal

Steve Taylor, Phil King, “Theological Education as Development in Vanuatu: ‘Wayfaring’ and the Talua Ministry Training Centre,” Sites: a journal of social anthropology and cultural studies 16 (1) 2019, 135-157.

Abstract
Education is essential to development. In Pacific cultures, in which the church is a significant presence, theological education can empower agency and offer analytical frames for social critique. Equally, theological education can reinforce hierarchies and dominant social narratives. This paper provides an account of Presbyterian theological education in Vanuatu. Applying an educative capability approach to a theological education taxonomy proposed by Charles Forman brings into focus the interplay between economics, context, and sustainability as mutual challenges for both development and theological education. However Forman’s model does not accurately reflect the realities of Vanuatu. An alternative frame is proposed, that of wayfaring, in which knowledge-exchange is framed as circulating movements. Wayfaring allows theological education to be imagined as a development actor that affirms local agency, values networks, and subverts centralising models. This alternative model provides a way to envisage theological education, both historically in Vanuatu and into an increasingly networked future, as an actor in Pacific development.

Key words: Vanuatu, theological education, wayfaring, Christianity, development

Screen Shot 2019-07-04 at 5.48.31 PM

This is part of a full special issue on Christianity and Development in the Pacific, which began with Woven Together conference at Victoria University in 2016. New into the role of Principal, KCML, I used the conference as an opportunity to build connections with the Pacific, to collaborate with Phil King, in another part of the PCANZ and to learn about the partnership between PCANZ and Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu. Sites is a journal of social anthropology and cultural studies. It practices ‘delayed open access’, which means that the contents of the journal are made available in full open access 12 months after an issue is published.

I’m grateful to the conference organisors and journal editors, Philip Fountain and Geoffrey Troughton; to the Harrison Bequest which paid for one of the authors to travel to Talua for a ten-day immersion experience in 2017 and to the staff at the Archives Research Centre of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and the Hocken Collections, University of Otago, Dunedin for their tending of taonga.

Posted by steve at 06:04 PM

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Indigenous home-making as public theology – Wiremu Tamihana

Unknown-12 Happy Steve, stoked to have a book chapter published on the life of Maori leader, Wiremu Tamihana, in which I argue he’s an extraordinary public theologian.

The theme of home yields rich insights when it is examined through diverse cultural lens, in this case in relation to New Zealand history. Methodologically, an approach of biography as missiology has been used in researching the life of Maori leader, Wiremu Tamihana. In word and deed his reimagining of home has been outlined: in planting an alternative indigenous community, in leadership reorganisation and in public speechmaking as a set of ethical acts shaped by a christological ethic. Translation theory has clarified Tamihana’s reading of Scripture, including the reversing of what is foreign and domestic, and a household code shaped by Christology. What Wiremu Tamihana offers is a theology of homemaking as a public theology of empire resistance. His theology offers significant resources for those seeking to reimagine home in response to dominant cultures, in encouraging a Christology interwoven with ethics and the use of place-based readings to reverse categories of what is foreign and domestic. It suggests that creative responses to the empire can emerge through the ongoing renegotiation that happens as people move in the tides of history. A flexible justice-making is encouraged, one that uses the translations from the empire in resistance against the empire.

This is part of research begun in 2017, which has resulted in 3 conference papers, 1 (unsuccessful) research bid, 2 keynotes, 2 sermons, 2 short publications for the Presbyterian Church and now this longer academic piece. It is published as one of the conference papers from Australian Association of Mission Studies 2017. It was nice to slip a New Zealand indigenous story into the mix!

Details: “Indigenous home-making as public theology in the words and deeds of Maori leader, Wiremu Tamihana,” Re-imagining Home: Understanding, Reconciling and Engaging with God’s stories together, edited by Darren Cronshaw, Rosemary Dewerse and Darryl Jackson, Morling Press, 2019, 188-207.

Available from Morling Press. Thanks to Darren Cronshaw, Rosemary Dewerse and Darryl Jackson for their editorial skill, Morling and Whitley for their hospitable approach to scholars and scholarship.

Posted by steve at 10:20 PM

Friday, May 03, 2019

good to go – Theological Education as Development in Vanuatu

You are ‘good to go’ said the editors.

sites

Forthcoming in Sites: a journal of social anthropology and cultural studies vol 16, issue 1, (August 2019). As I submitted it today, I noted the partnerships that made this possible, particularly staff at the Archives Research Centre of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. My thanks also to Phil King, Talua College and Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu, along with the dedication and energy of the editors, Philip Fountain and Geoff Troughton, from Victoria University, Wellington.

THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT IN VANUATU: ‘WAYFARING’ AND THE TALUA MINISTRY TRAINING CENTRE
Steve Taylor and Phil King

Abstract
Education is essential to development. In Pacific cultures, in which the church is a significant presence, theological education can empower agency and offer analytical frames for social critique. Equally, theological education can reinforce hierarchies and dominant social narratives. This paper provides an account of Presbyterian theological education in Vanuatu. Applying an educative capability approach to a theological education taxonomy proposed by Charles Forman brings into focus the interplay between economics, context, and sustainability as mutual challenges for both development and theological education. However Forman’s model does not accurately reflect the realities of Vanuatu. An alternative frame is proposed, that of wayfaring, in which knowledge-exchange is framed as circulating movements. Wayfaring allows theological education to be imagined as a development actor that affirms local agency, values networks, and subverts centralising models. This alternative model provides a way to envisage theological education, both historically in Vanuatu and into an increasingly networked future, as an actor in Pacific development.

Key words: Vanuatu, theological education, wayfaring, Christianity, development

Posted by steve at 12:33 PM