sustain:if:able kiwi

Faith development for girls: more than just a guy thing

I’m doing a workshop at Connect this weekend. I’m taking some friends – Mary, Elizabeth, Anna – to help me explore Faith development for girls: more than just a guy thing. Workshop participants will have a chance to make a Mary/Elizabeth/Anna ‘action’ figure.

This workshop explores gender in discipleship. What can we learn from teenagers in the Bible like Loruhamah and Jarius’ daughter?  It is an important question given most material on faith development has been written by men. Voices of contemporary pre-teenagers will be placed alongside Biblical voices in asking how we encourage faith development for all God’s people.

sacred welfare

How to nurture mystery in the practical act of giving plants?

An Australian magazine, Zadok Winter edition, carries a 900 word article they asked me to write on the future of church-based welfare. I’ve called it Sacred welfare. I start with a ministry story and examine it in light of Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age. I then reflect on an Old Testament image of mission, in Micah 4:4, alongside the work of Roland Boer The Sacred Economy of Ancient Israel, on ancient Israelite economies. Finally, I return to my ministry story to coin a new term “sacred welfare” as a way to understand mission and social service.

Here’s the article in full:

Theologies of redemption and the ‘secondary-victimization” impact of sexual violence

I’m presenting at ANZATS 2017 tomorrow, on Sexual violence in the line of David: The possibilities and limits of recapitulation. It is a weighty, yet essential topic. Much sexual violence occurs in the context of kin and family. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse leaves no doubt that sexual violence also occurs among the family of God.

In my paper, I consider the impact of sexual violence, particularly ‘secondary-victimization” in relation to Christian understandings of redemption, in conversation with one of the four doctors of theology of the church, Irenaeus of Lyon. His theology has been summarised by Orthodox theologian, John Behr, The Way to Nicaea (2001) as continual presence, making visible and full maturation. (See also Behr, Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement, (2000)).

This is a table summarising my data:

Given the data, I conclude:

the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 offers an understanding of redemption grounded in the reality of family and kin. In Matthew 1 and in the crucifixion, the invisibility of sexual violence is made visible. Jesus, of the line of David, in Gospel narratives of compassion and truth-telling, acts in full maturity, recapitulating on behalf of other “less than mature” males in his ancestor line.

In resurrection, Jesus is revealed as fully present, both backward and forward, calling Tamar and Rahab as witnesses to the ‘economies’ of God in “each generation.”  Recapitulation provides ways to redeem the ‘secondary-victimization” impact of sexual violence.

Wonder Woman as female Christ figure: a theological film review

Monthly I write a film review for Touchstone (the New Zealand Methodist magazine). Stretching back to 2005, some 120 plus films later, here is the review for June 2017.

Wonder Woman
A film review by Rev Dr Steve Taylor

Wonder Woman is fun. My three female companions loved it. Each appreciated a strong woman, doing what is right without needing a male savior. For one, there was delight in connecting with 1970’s childhood TV memories of Lynda Carter fighting crime with one golden lasso and two bullet-deflecting arm guards.

Wonder Woman was a comic character, created in 1941, for DC Comics. The opening scene of the Wonder Woman movie pays homage, with a Marvel van delivering a package. Inside is a photograph. It is a smart scene, connecting Diana (Gal Gadot) with the comic genre, locating her in contemporary time, yet with a photographic history that includes World War 1.

Wonder Woman was created by American psychologist and writer, William Moulton Marston. He sought a superhero who would triumph not with fists or firepower, but with love. “Fine,” his wife said, “but make her a woman.” (Lamb, Marguerite, “Who was Wonder Woman? Bostonia). In seeking inspiration, Marston looked to early feminists, including birth control pioneer, Margaret Sanger.

Given these feminist ideals, it is interesting to then ponder Wonder Woman as a female Christ figure. Historically, Christian theology has offered a number of ways to understand the work of a male saviour. Three have dominated, including Jesus bringing victory over evil, offering a moral example and as a substitute for sin. (There are other Biblical trajectories, including Jesus as our representative, as faithful witness, as adopting us into God’s family, as embracing us like the Prodigal Son and with us in solidarity.)

In relation to Wonder Woman, the act of sacrificial love is performed by the male, as Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) offers his life for the sake of the world. Diane takes another approach. In a climatic final scene, she presents in a crucifix position, arms outstretched, radiating white love from her heart to conquer darkness. It is an act chosen after an extended wrestle with the implications of free will.

It is a complex moral question, carefully explored over an extended final action sequence. Will you give someone choice, when they have the ability to choose evil? For Diana, the answer is resolved in remaining love.

“And now I know… that only love can truly save the world.
So now I stay, I fight, and I give – for the world I know can be.
This is my mission now, for ever.”

Confronted with the human potential to bring darkness, she triumphs not with fists or firepower, but with love. In so doing, redemption chooses to participating with humanity, active in a mission in which love wins.

Wonder Woman is packed with action and fun-filled humour. It provides connections for fans new and old. For new fans, Diana’s Amazon origins are describing, while for old fans, she appears in the opening scene in the same clothes as she wore in the much loved 1970’s TV series. At the same time, Wonder Woman is a serious examination of a female Christ figure who responds to the complexity of free will with a remaining love.

conference bound

After 2 sleeps at home, I am on the road again, heading to Australia for two academic conferences.

The first conference – Australian Association of Mission Studies – is in Melbourne. I am presenting a paper titled – Converting Kings? theologies of church and state in the encounter between British and Maori. I am looking at the story of Maori leader, Wiremu Tamihana. I am biography as theology (drawing from James McClendon, Biography as Theology: How Life Stories Can Remake Today’s Theology) and feminist research on home-making (drawing from Sef Carroll’s chapter in Colonial Contexts and Postcolonial Theologies: Storyweaving in the Asia-Pacific), to appreciate how his use of the book of Ephesians acts as a public theology of Empire resistance. There are over 10 folk from Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand attending, with 4 KCML faculty presenting. That is an excellent turnout.

The second conference – Australia New Zealand Association of Theological Studies – is in Adelaide. I am doing two things.

First, I am presenting a poster – Structuring Flipped learning: The use of Blooms taxonomy in the classroom experience. I’ve had some playful fun putting together the following.

Second, I am presenting a paper on Sexual violence in the line of David: The possibilities and limits of recapitulation. I’ve worked on this with a colleague at University of Otago, David Tombs and we will be testing some ideas about pastoral theology.

Sexual violence in the line of David: The possibilities and limits of recapitulation
ANZATS 2017

Much sexual violence occurs in contexts of kinship, including tragically the family of God. This paper tests notions of recapitulation when lines of kin are stained by sexual violence. Tombs has previously argued that Jesus is a victim of sexual abuse. How is this good news for victims in history?

The genealogy of Matthew 1 connects Jesus with the royal line of David. It names women either sexually mistreated or vulnerable to sexual violence. Tamar is dishonoured by male sexual practices, resorting to prostitution. Bathsheba is sexually preyed upon by a powerful ruler. Rahab as a prostitute is likely to have experienced sexual mistreatment. Ruth’s vulnerability is evident in the encounter with Boaz. A further victim is anonymously present, given David is Tamar’s father, raped by Amnon. The Matthean genealogy thus locates Jesus as a descendant: of men who violate and of women violated. At stake is the depths to which redemption is possible.

Irenaeus offers an essential link between theology and anthropology. For Behr, The Way to Nicaea (2001), these can be summarised as continual presence, making visible and full maturation. (See also Behr, Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement, (2000)). These ground redemption in humanity experience. Jesus makes sexual violence visible when framed as from the Davidic line. In full maturity, Jesus acts justly toward victims of sexual violence. Gospel episodes of compassion, vulnerability and solidarity become a recapitulation, a contrast to actions of the males in the line of David.

What emerges are starting points for ways to respond to sexual violence, including solidarity, visibility, acting humanly and tending bodies broken.

David Tombs and Steve Taylor
University of Otago and Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership: Flinders University

It will be good to be back in Adelaide, which was home for us for 6 years.