Chapter 2:
Transformational Conversations
(Hermeneutic for the Postmodern City)
Revolutions
in human thinking are not created by new information but by new paradigms that
allow more information to be fitted more fully and adequately. And revolutions in scientific paradigms
can be awesome moments of cognitive dissonance.
Harvey Conn[1]
1: Urban Theology as Transformational Conversation
Fig. 1 shows a process for developing an urban theology about transformative
revival. It begins with (1) an entrance story and involves three components: (2)
internal Christian conversation on pneumatology,(3) the in-city conversation,
and (4) the interfacing of these in a transformational conversation. (5) All
these contribute to the central theme.
Theology begins in the truth of story — God’s story, my story, our story. Over the last fifteen years my involvement in leadership of the global AD2000 cities network mentoring city leadership teams and the Encarnação network of urban poor mission leaders has prompted the evolution of a new hermeneutic – new at least for Evangelicals. This study develops the concept of a “transformational conversation hermeneutic.”[2]
I discovered urban practitioners constantly struggling with the sense of “irrelevance” of their training in systematic theology and its dissonance from the nature of the God of action they followed. In contrast they loved building collective theologies from their stories. I build the theory from such tensions; defining my terms and relating these tensions to four polarities in our perception of the godhead: his structuring and creativity, his relationship to the present and to history, his existing and acting and his transcendence and immanence. I consider the relationship of this hermeneutic with Postmodernity in an excursus on page 151, exploring to what extent evangelical theology can engage with or become postmodern in style.
Transformational Conversations
The phrase “transformational conversations” was sparked by Brueggeman’s comments about intertextuality as “an ongoing conversation that is as urgent and contemporary as the present moment, but it is also a conversation that stretches over the generations” (1997:78-79). This study regards theology as both diachronic “conversations” (over the generations) and synchronic conversations (one time, across cultures). It defines urban theology as communal conversations with the potential to result in societal transformation.
The three circles in Fig. 1 link three conversations in a total process which I am calling a “transformational conversation”: firstly, the conversation within the faith communities, secondly, the community conversation within the city and thirdly, the transformational conversation between these two. The transformational conversation hermeneutic is fed by the metaphors and symbols, imagery and grammar, dialect and cadence of both the city and the faith community. The hermeneutic results in defining public space for open conversations about complex issues (I will use the term “conversation spaces”), in contrast to some approaches that reduce the scriptures to singular meanings or to absolutist slogans.
Personality of God in Theological Style
Theology may be considered as human reflections on the nature of God. In grappling with story-telling theological processes in urban poor pastors’ and city leaders’ consultations we stumbled onto an understanding of doing theology as conversation. Doing theology this way consistently answered four polarities about our perception of God better than the systematic rationalist approaches common among Evangelicals:
· Is God a rationalist philosopher or creative storyteller?
· Is God or was God? Do we know God primarily in his present actions around the globe or through his involvement in history?
· Is God incarnate or cosmic? Immanent or transcendent? Local or global?
· Is God or does God? Is God the God of being or the God of action?
God of Story or Rationalist Philosopher?
From many of the last 30 years in and out of slum areas in cities around the world I have concluded that Jesus’ storytelling style embodied the primary style of teaching of the poor and those of us who choose to live among the poor. We think story, communicate story to story. At a leadership level, the process becomes more refined:
In 1996,
we held a typical storytelling consultation in Mumbai with 80 leaders of urban
poor ministries. Each day we would introduce the day’s theme. Each worker then
had ten minutes to tell his or her story. At the end of each day, we would
integrate the theology and strategies that had been shared. Many worked for
Western funded missions to the poor. On the side, they did what they knew
really worked. It was these Indian stories of how Indians were finding
solutions in their context that were crucial. At the end of the week, the whole
group knew we had developed a genuine Indian theology and praxis of working
with the poor.
In integrating urban poor theologies[3] we extended this methodology of developing grassroots theology, simply labelled as “storytelling theologies.”
This requires a theological facilitator trained in ethnotheological perspectives and able to work with a leadership in designing insider-outsider reflection processes. The role of the trained theologian is thus not that of the expert coming with truth, but as:
The
reflector and thematizer, the one who is able to provide the biblical and
traditional background that will enable the people to develop their own
theology (Bevans, 1996:51).
I would add that the theologian must come as revivalist, bringing the presence of God, for such theologies have been developed much on our knees. These gatherings are often filled with a sense of the presence of God, so that the theology evolved is not simply cognitive and communal but experiential, healing, creating unity and love.
From
1991-1997, as part of the AD2000 city network, a global team of city leaders
from most continents extended the “storytelling” method to city leadership
consultations in other regions and cities.[4]
From these were developed urban theologies and urban strategies (Grigg, 1997b).
At this level, the complexity increases. We drew from stories given in multiple
city contexts. I remember sitting with the leadership team for five days in
1993, identifying strands that seemed to keep twisting with other strands,
becoming braids that eventually linked to major themes. The themes became
paramount in the final written theology. The outcome was a globalised theology and strategy reproduced now in a number of cities.
Fig. 2: Processes in a Transformational Conversation about Transformative Revival
Fig. 2
expands the steps for developing a transformational conversation on the relationship
of Holy Spirit and city. It begins in an action story (#1). A faith community
conversation on pneumatology (#2) develops from that entrance story. From
reflection on the action, biblical urban themes develop (#3a). This leads to an
interface between the urban conversation (#3b), the communal context and Scripture.
In turn, this leads to an interface between these two conversations on the
Spirit and the city — the transformational conversation (#4a). This creates a
new praxis (#4b).
Such theologies develop comprehensive themes of city leadership, holistic ministry among the poor, urban poor church life, etc. This comprehensiveness is not because the theologies are developed with systematic logic, from a foundational web of belief, but because the stories cover the essential range of current issues, related to a given theme, identifying a new web of belief. Stories also gave a warm human sense of truth, honed from both Scripture and involvement. “Systematic theology engages the intellect; storytelling engages the heart and indeed the whole person” (Bausch, 1984:6).
Struggles with "storytelling theology” led me to “transformational conversations” as a more encompassing description. Stories are part of wider urban conversations.
Stories, Chaos and the Multivariate Urban Context
This illustrated a major shift in urban theology from the stability and continuity of rural theologies (emphasis on God is, the God of being and stability) that have been the context of the historic church, to the ongoing discontinuities and chaos of the mega-city (emphasis on God does, the God of action and change). Ariovaldo Ramos, Brazilian Evangelical leader, commented once to me, “since the city is always somewhat chaotic, an urban theological response should also be somewhat chaotic.”
My father, a scientist, left a book around on chaos theory in mathematics. Chaos theory developed because of the nature of multivariate analysis — small perturbations in starting conditions lead to extensive divergences in ending conditions, apparently random, but actually following clear mathematical rules, such as in predicting weather conditions across the earth (Gleick, 1987). Cities are multivariate. Indeed, within urban planning, there is a whole science of fractal geometry based on multivariate analysis, that when applied to the apparently chaotic emergence of city forms enables planning predictions (Batty & Longley, 1994). The parallel concept is multivariate theologies.
In a period in
We opt for a reading (of theology, of the city)
that creates discontinuity before we create order. This is in contrast to two
very different ideological options of our time… One traditional reading prefers
order, continuity… The other posture, with a modern tinge, specializes in the
unity of thought of neo-liberalism. This also announces changes but at their
heart, these changes only maintain continuity. It fixes on a unified structural
model of the city... (2001: 23 tr. from Portuguese mine).
This concept of multiple discontinuities,
multiple variables, causing us to stop in our tracks because they are different
or perplexing, is a feature of urban theology.
Multiple Story Conversations
However, if multivariate analysis in chaos theory produces beautiful art out of apparent discontinuities, can an overarching pattern be seen in the Scriptures? This highlights a historic hermeneutic problem of the search for a unifying centre. Osborne states,
As the interlocking principles between strata of the biblical period become visible, the patterns coalesce around certain ideas that bridge the gaps between the individual witnesses. However, it is very uncertain whether any single theme or concept stands at the apex of biblical theology. Many believe that the complete lack of consensus demonstrates that a cluster of ideas, rather than a single theme, unites all others (1991: 282).
If there is no single theme, can multivariate theologies be patterned? William Temple utilised a concept of drama:
What we
must completely get away from is the notion that the world as it now exists is
a rational whole: we must think of its unity not by the analogy of a picture,
of which all the parts exist at once, but by the analogy of a drama where, if
it is good enough the full meaning of the first scene only becomes apparent
with the final curtain: and we are in the middle of this.[5]
Another perspective was to examine stories within multiple contextual theologies in both Scriptures and everyday contexts. This theological storytelling or conversational approach led us to a more fruitful practical approach, since most Evangelical/Pentecostal preaching is populist, from contextual story to biblical story, rather than systematic.
The pattern of transformative theology thus becomes a dancing, multifaceted conversations, rising from the lowest classes into multiple sectors of society. It is like a series of candles that flame into life in ten thousand corners of the city. The mapping of this urban conversation cannot simply be a search for a grand theme but for multiple simultaneous interwoven themes and within them tens of thousands of vignettes.
But what should the dance, the drama, the conversation, be called? Reflecting on Brueggeman’s concept of the unifying substance of the Old Testament as a plurality of voices led to an expanded hermeneutic for transformational conversation as the interface of that biblical plurality of story with the plurality of urban conversations.
In this study, themes of revival, the Kingdom and city of
Transformational Conversation: Similarities to Narrative Theology
Narrative theologies give us some exegetical tools for step #2 in Fig. 2. Narrative theology in the second half of the twentieth century developed as crossover of ideas from literary theory to become popular as a style of interpretative approach to the biblical stories.[6]
In the plot, coherence, movement and climax
that characterize a story, narrative theology sees a way to overcome the
problems theology creates for itself through its subservience to discursive
reasoning (Fackre, 1983:340).
Evangelical theologians have recently been more receptive to
a liberal exegetical concept of “narrative” (Van Engen, 1996:44-70). However,
there are problems. Only parts (admittedly large) of the Hebrew Old Testament,
the Gospels and Acts are narrative in style. Pauline and Johannine theology are
both conceptual. The Wisdom literature is of a very different genre. Thus a purely
narrative focus reduces the range of the God-side of a transformational conversation
purely to story. The Proverbs and poetry (of
Thus, in seeking a better phrase than “storytelling” I have chosen not to use “narrative theology.” It is too emotionally loaded for Evangelicals and too limited in its biblical compass.
Is God or was God?
In answering the second question, “Is God or was God?” I
recognise that philosophic and systematic theologies tend to be diachronic, testing for validity against
historical patterns of theology back to the Scriptures. All theology must pass
this test to some extent. In theology within a context of historic roots in
traditional
In contrast, practical, pastoral, contextual and missions theologies prefer to start with contemporary stories of the day (real stories = truth) and then find biblical truths and stories responding to these. As the global village of the 20th century transitions into the urban millennium, the verification of theology has moved from the above diachronic perspective to a synchronic perspective where we contrast theology across cultures in a single timeframe. When operating globally, those of us doing theology largely share e-mail networks enjoying collective paradigms. This process moves too rapidly for formal publishing.
Biblical theologians of the recent decades, have responded to the milieux of societal change by also increasingly speaking about the active “God of redemption history” in contrast to historical theological categories of the “God of being” of classic theology. This raises the question about whether foundationalism (building rationally from some foundational truth) has failed[7] as the basis for theological study. In a postmodern world, history as a rational construct has been found wanting by some (see discussion in Hagner, 1998; Perdue, 1994), so ceases for many to be a valid basis for testing truth — but both rationalist liberal and evangelical theological study are deeply rooted in historical paradigms.[8] However, there are other routes to rationality than Cartesian foundationalism, which requires beliefs to rest on verifiable evidence and deductions from inarguable foundations (Vanhoozer, 1995:11).
A Web or a Building?
A helpful model is that of “knowledge as a web or net”[9] with neither foundation nor starting point (Quine & Ullian, 1978). Quine argues that nonfoundational theology fits the way Christian faith and practice generally operates. This requires attention to patterns inherent in beliefs and practices rather than a general theory of rationality. Since knowledge is seen as a web, there is not the problem of the building collapsing if one piece of knowledge is found wanting. The stories must mesh, but need not necessarily do so in a rationalistic linear manner from a foundational point.
This web approach better describes global thought processes. Filipino or Maori cultures like most band, tribal or peasant societies are story-based, holistic in discerning truth. The aberration has been the Western nations’ loss of story as primary vehicle for truth.[10] As Newbigin says about Western imposition of principles on biblical interpretation:
Our
European culture (with its large non-biblical component) predisposes us to
think of the biblical stories primarily as illustrative of principles which can
be grasped conceptually and which enable us to remain in orbit after the
supporting illustrations have been jettisoned. To live with the Bible, however,
means to recognize that it is the story which is primary and irreplaceable, a
story of which we and our contemporaries are a part and that the “principles”
are not the enduring realities behind the story but rather the time conditioned
attempts of a people at particular moments in the story to grasp its meaning (1981:357).
This is not a rejection of rationality. However, it is an understanding that rationality need not be linear and foundational, but can be holistic.
Nancey Murphy (1997:120) develops MacIntyre’s (1988) description of tradition, to give a three dimensional, (what I call a “helical”) model linking the diachronic and synchronic components. In transformational conversations, we mesh synchronic Quinian web analysis with diachronic analysis, interfacing the historic conversations with the present web (see my summary diagram in Fig. 3). The storytelling consultations involve people trained in diachronic theologies, yet immersed in urban contexts, providing a multi-traditional background to the synchronic processes.
Fig. 3: Elements of a Web of Belief Analysis
Fig. 3: The elements of a web of belief
analysis. In synchronic (present time, global) analysis, the integrating truth
is validated by comparison of theologies across cultures. Multiple historic
Christian communities and traditions feed these. In contrast, validation in
traditional diachronic analysis is against past traditions derived from a
formative tradition. The particular community of faith, reflecting on both Scriptures and
traditions informs and validates each web of belief.
Incarnate or Cosmic?
This helps answer the third question, the dialectic of cosmic Christ and incarnate Son. Urban missiologists generally insist that transcendence is rooted in incarnational living. We share a strongly held value that following Jesus demands this.
But some of us while living in the story-telling environment of the poor, also gravitate to linking the stories to global systematic theologies based on principles and philosophy. This reflects not just Western rationalism accentuated by rationalist modernisation but the mind of Christ who structures and organizes the universe. In his image, we intuitively search beyond the stories for supra-theological truths to connect our contextual theologies to one another.
The final stage of development of a biblical theology is the
identification of an archetypal concept(s) or unifying themes behind the
diverse documents.… Many believe that the complete lack of consensus
demonstrates that a cluster of ideas, rather than a single theme, unites all
the others (Osborne, 1991:282).
Thus in answer to the third question, “Is God cosmic or local God? Transcendent or immanent?” we recognize the necessity of both poles, but among urban workers keep the emphasis on story for we find the storytelling carries living theology better than global rationalism.
Bottom-up Contextual Theologies
This leads to the next concept. Transformational conversations exist within a genre of contextual theology. Urban missions theology is by its very label contextual theology. In reality, all theologies are in essence contextual:
The
Bible is a library of books and consequently of theologies. The Hebrew Scriptures
are made up of Yahwist theology, Elohist theology, Priestly theology,
Deuteronomic theology and Wisdom theologies, prophetic theology, exilic
theology… the New Testament includes Pauline theology, Johannine theology — to
name but a few (Bevans, 1996: 3).[11]
Systematic theology itself is a contextual theological genre, with its Western, Aristotelian roots, philosophic context, establishment environment and so on.
Is God or Does God? Transformational Conversations as Action Theologies
The fourth question in establishing this hermeneutic theory is, “Is God or does God?” This is at the heart of praxis theologies. City transformational conversations begin in missional action where we seek to respond in godly manner to a need or an issue in the city. That is biblical. Theology, the knowledge of God, flows from obedience. This is part of the unspoken hermeneutic of Pentecostal theology, part of the “but does it work?” syndrome.
Like the incarnate Word, we live out conversations. Moreover, the incarnation is communal, hence structural. Structures are indicators of the realities of our theology, an anchoring into earthiness, demonstrating the God-humanity-creation linkages of a full-orbed theology.
As an
example of discerning or creating a charismatic/ Pentecostal transformational
theology, we could take the legal sector of
However,
from the entrance stories we must press on through the conversational process
to new action stories, for God is a God of action. That means enabling the
lawyers to engage fully in conversation between the Scriptures and the legal
sector of the city. Part of that conversation is conversation as structure. Two
evangelical Christian law firms have become the core of that structure and worked
with Australian counterparts to put together consultations of Christian lawyers
every second year, though mainly focused on the details of Christians in the
legal environment.[12]
This study explores the idea that major urban conversations are conversations of ideas embodied in structures. Sustaining and expanding the structural base numerically and concomitantly in quality is essential for ongoing societal influence. The perception of entrepreneurial success, momentum and structural expansion is part of gaining credibility in the postmodern cultural milieux. Those who lead larger structures often gain necessary credibility to speak into higher levels of city leadership. More than image, the reality of numbers of people on the ground, with capacity to speak, expands the potential of meaningful conversation at critical societal junctures.
This study proposes that should that be the case, conversation may ensue — if the theological hermeneutics enable the conversationalists to impart significance of meaning in their conversation. A discussion with a battered mother about the dignity of personhood from Genesis 1 and Psalm 139 while watching our kids score goals at Saturday soccer is only possible if I understand the theology of the meaning of personhood. The same principle is true at a structural level in the city.
Conclusion and Implications for this Study
“Transformational Conversation Hermeneutics”, a paradigm for creating new postmodern theologies, is rooted in the nature of God. Bringing together the stories, then identifying and reflecting on themes enables conversations within the community of faith, within the postmodern urban context and between the two. (If the reader wishes to evaluate this hermeneutic approach as a postmodern approach at this point, they may turn to the excursus after chapter 12 on postmodernism, p 151).
I have introduced the study with action stories (#1 in Fig. 2) in chapter 1. In this chapter I have
developed a hermeneutic theory for the research process. Chapter 3 reviews
literature that reflects transformational conversations of the modern period. This
lays the basis for Part 2 where I trace the pneumatological
conversation (#2). Part 3 develops the city
conversation (#3). Transformational
conversations (#4) are developed contextually within both part 2 and 3
(particularly Chapters 7, 10, 11, 13 and 15).
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