Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Race, Justice and mission: Glasgow archival perspectives on missionary engagement and South Pacific “blackbirding”
With a nod to sea shanties and the need to decolonise history, here’s a summary of some writing I’ve just completed, and a presentation I’ll be doing at Trinity College, University of Glasgow, in a few weeks time.
Race, Justice and mission: Glasgow archival perspectives on missionary engagement and South Pacific “blackbirding”
“There once was a ship that put to sea … to bring us sugar and tea and rum.” Sea shanties make for catchy TikTok viral hits. They also make visible mercantile activity and migratory labour flows upon which empires expanded.
Historical imaginaries often begin with ships that put to sea and journey from north to south. Yet in the corners of the archives are experiences from the Pacific northward, as Indigenous peoples engaged in what they saw as reciprocity in Oceanic voyaging.
This paper analyses the work of Williamu, an Indigenous man from the islands then called the New Hebrides, who lived in Scotland between 1861 and 1862. During his time in Scotland, Williamu wrote nineteen letters. These were translated by Rev John Inglis, who in 1883 was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Glasgow for his linguistic skills.
Williamu’s letters, housed in the University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections, provide a remarkable account of the Indigenous meeting the imperial. They also contain tragedy as Williamu processes the death of his wife, Dora, from diseases carried by ships that put to sea.
This paper will examine these letters using frames of locating, initial encounter and theodicies of migration. It will document the agency of Indigenous people as initiative takers and the presence of “sugar and tea and rum” in the histories of migration and religion.
Wednesday, March 05, 2025
Listening with Purpose: A Theologian Reflects on the Interface between Theology and Psychology
I am privileged to be building bridges between theology and psychology as a Psychology Cross-Training Fellowship Programme for Theologians Fellow. This 16 month interdisciplinary programme is run by the University of Birmingham and is funded by John Templeton. It involves 3 intensives in Birmingham, monthly online coaching and mentoring. It also funds a small part-time research project over 12 months – in my case researching the social impact of religious practices. I wrote about the interdisciplinary experience a few weeks ago and the Cross-Training blog picked it up. My blogpost was prompted by a post from my mentor, Dr Guy Itzchakov, who researches empathic and non-judgmental listening at the University of Haifa. I’m cross-posting what I wrote for the Cross-Training blog here:
A few weeks ago, I cycled over a recently completed bridge. The modern two-lane structure, with eye-catching visual features, spans Mata-au, the South Island’s largest river. A 136-year-old single-lane bridge remains, repurposed for cycling and walking.
The two bridges got me thinking about the nature of interdisciplinary research. The historic single-lane bridge used traffic lights to regulate traffic flow. Each side took turns. Crossing meant waiting for cars from the other side to hurtle on past. In contrast, the recently built two-lane bridge allows both sides to move. The result is improved safety and new traffic flows.
Photo by Lynne Taylor at https://lynnetaylor.nz/.
Building bridges is the aim of the Psychology Cross-training Fellowship Program for Theologians. The Fellowship feels like the making of a modern two-lane bridge. Rather than separate disciplines hurtling past each other, the Fellowship invites the fields of psychology and theology to create new flows of traffic by exploring shared interfaces.
Listening
One shared interface between psychology and theology is listening. Psychology has explored how high-quality listening improves social connection. The intentional use of two ears builds community and enhances human flourishing. Research has outlined the essential roles of attention, comprehension and intention in high-quality listening.
Theology has commended listening as a spiritual imperative, a way of responding to God’s command to “listen” at Jesus’s transfiguration (see, for example, Matthew 17:5). Listening is then embedded in a range of spiritual practices.
But, like cars waiting to cross a one-lane bridge, research in psychology and theology has had little impact on the inquiry of the other. In a recent blog post, Professor Guy Itzchakov reflected on the interdisciplinary possibilities for listening between psychology and theology. As a psychologist in the science of listening, he utilised themes of connection, empathy, and loneliness to suggest that listening is a practice that “transcends disciplinary boundaries.”
Psychologists like Dr Itzchakov conduct research at one end of the bridge. As a practical theologian, I start at the bridge’s other end. At my end of the bridge, while listening to God is considered important, and listening is taught in practical ministry courses, empirical research into the social impact of religious listening practices is rare. What might building bridges with psychology contribute to theology? How might psychological theories of listening as attention, comprehension, and intention, illuminate sacred religious texts?
Attention
Attention involves being fully present to a speaker without internal and external distractions. Humans have a unique ability to filter sounds. We can listen closely in a noisy café or hear the voice of a loved one in a throng of people.
Attention provides ways to understand silence as a Christian practice. Christian services of worship often include silence as an element of corporate prayer or in hearing Scripture read aloud.
Silence is thus an antecedent or a precondition of quality listening. One cannot pay attention if one is speaking. Through the lens of attention, the religious practice of silence can be understood as similar to warming up before exercise. The practice of silence involves stretching the listening muscles in preparation for enhancing social connection.
Hands formed together create a red heart. Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash.
Comprehension
Comprehension refers to how listeners signal they understand the speaker. Summarising what I think I have heard from another demonstrates listening and deepens our sharing.
The lens of comprehension illuminates the practice of lectio divina, particularly in group settings. Latin for divine reading, lectio divina encourages listening to sacred texts. When used in groups, there is often a time of sharing what individuals are hearing. This sharing deepens comprehension. Sometimes, the interpretations of others in the group provide insight and deepen connection. At other times, diverse interpretations or provocative questions raise hermeneutical questions and encourage respect across differences.
Intention
Intention describes how the speaker experiences a listener. High-quality listening involves communicating acceptance, empathy, and curiosity. Sometimes, this is verbal, with words of agreement. At other times, it is through back-channel behaviours like body posture or a nod.
In The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Adele Calhoun introduces the practice of slowing and describes its use at the start of a meeting: “I want to give you a moment of silence to leave behind what you are coming from. I want us to be present to each other in our discussion together. Take some deep breaths and relax. We will start in one minute” (2015, 90). Slowing is a practice that signals an intention to fully present.
Through the lens of attention, slowing, like silence, is like a warming-up exercise. The intention of being “present to each other” enhances the possibility of high-quality listening.
Hence, psychology illuminates the social dynamics embedded in spiritual practices. Attention, comprehension and intention provide ways to think about the role of listening in religious practices.
The “I am” as a Listener
Attention, comprehension and intention can also be used to analyse theologies of revelation. A particularly striking description of God occurs in Exodus 3, a narrative of great significance to the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. God is a listener in the account of Moses and the burning bush. The “I am” pays attention as they hear the cries of the suffering in Egypt (3:7). The “I am” communicates comprehension as they send Moses to respond to human misery (3:10). The “I am” signals intention by instructing Moses to take off his sandals as an observable listening posture (3:5).
The narrative in Exodus also describes what it means for humans to listen. Moses pays attention by choosing to hide his face (3:6). His comprehension is deepened because he asks multiple questions (3:11-13). His intention is signalled as he returns to the suffering community from which he had earlier fled (4:29).
Moses’s behaviour can guide religious practice. The Exodus narrative encourages questioning the Divine and choosing solidarity with the suffering as a way of service. Ecclesiologically, the church glimpses ecclesia discens and the behaviours that mark a learning community.
Attention, comprehension and intention illuminate Moses encounter with “I am.” For the Abrahamic religious traditions, listening is defined, not as a one-sided monologue but as a co-creative movement toward solidarity with the suffering.
Conclusion: Listening as a Theological and Psychological Practice
Theology has much to learn from psychology. Attention, comprehension, and intention illuminate the social dynamics embedded in spiritual practices and provide ways to analyse theologies of revelation. As a practical theologian, I am finding practical and intellectual, individual and communal benefits in building a two-lane bridge with psychology.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
The Convert: theological film review
Monthly I write a film review for Touchstone (the New Zealand Methodist magazine). Stretching back to 2005, some 175 plus films later, here is the review for April 2024.
The Convert
A film review by Dr Steve Taylor
The Convert works as a historical drama of importance for all who live in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Aotearoa in the 1830s was a period of time during which te reo Māori was central and hapu were powerful. Māori chiefs defined trade, shaped politics and enacted justice.
A few Pākeha clutched the edges of the Land of the Long White Cloud. Some brought Christianity. Others brought guns, mixed with visions of a European good life. These Pākeha intrusions inflamed the tribal conflicts that beset Aotearoa through the 1830s. As lay preacher Thomas Munroe notes so astutely, he sailed from a land steeped in blood, only to step ashore on another land also soaked in blood.
The film, directed by Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors and Mahana), draws from Wulf, a debut novel by Hamish Clayton. Bradford Haami, Laidlaw College lecturer and Māori historian, provides cultural advice. Extended sequences of The Convert are set in Māori pa. These include several delightful scenes that illuminate the role of tohunga, waka voyaging and Māori perceptions of Pākeha. The result is a rich immersion in Māori worldview.
Several strong performances carry the film. Guy Pearce (previous roles in L.A. Confidential and Memento) plays as Thomas Munroe, challenging stereotypes of missionaries as pious destroyers of culture. Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne (previous roles in Cousins and Whina) plays Rangimai, who as a grieving widow offers quiet karakia, dignified courage and assertive actions to showcase the place of wahine toa (strong women) in Māori culture.
Birds are also a feature of The Convert. They express another dimension of Māori filmmaking, given that for Māori, ngā manu are tohu of the future. In an opening sequence, a marauding karearea (falcon) savages a lone kāhu (hawk). Turiwhatu (dotterel) skip across a beach scene, while in a joyous moment of cross-cultural encounter, Rangimai and Charlotte (played by Jacqueline McKenzie) mimic tui call. In a closing sequence, a flock of birds offer a sense of kotahitanga. Flying together, they illustrate a movie that turns from solo violence to collective action.
These shifts required profound transformations. The Convert bears witness to the multiple conversions that occurred in pre-colonial New Zealand. Politically, iwi were reforming to ensure a collective identity. Individually, emerging leaders were transforming the practices of utu.
Utu is often defined as revenge. Yet the term emerges from an indigenous worldview that values balance and applauds those who uphold harmony in relationships. While a wrong must be put right, how restoration happens can vary greatly. Utu can include the possibilities of gift exchange to create and restore social bonds.
The transformations around utu evidenced in The Convert offer significant theological resources. Māori Christian historian Hirini Kaa, in his groundbreaking Te Hāhi Mihinare: The Māori Anglican Church, demonstrated how Māori creatively responded to Christianity, drawing on rongopai (gospel) to enhance maungārongo (peace) and seek rangimarie (harmony). Approaching Easter, The Convert resonates with Christian themes of peace and reconciliation.
Whakarongo mai, Ki te kupu o te manu rongo
(Listen, to the words of the bird of peace )
Rev Dr Steve Taylor is the author of “First Expressions” (2019) and writes widely in theology and popular culture, including regularly at www.emergentkiwi.org.nz.
Monday, July 24, 2023
Retrieving practical theology from the archives paper proposal
Glad to submit a conference paper proposal for Association of Practical Theology in Oceania (APTO). It’s in Dunedin in 2023 so nice and close to home! The conference theme – migration – gives me the opportunity to offer some research emerging from my Race, justice and mission project, thanks to my upcoming University of Glasgow Library Research Fellowship.
Retrieving practical theology from the archives: a reassessment of race and justice in Oceania migration
In the academic study of lived experience, practical theology often draws on empirical research. However, practical theology’s engagement with lived experience, as presented in archival material, is less common. The Glasgow University Library and University Archives hold a unique repository of pamphlets, sermons, reports and minutes. The archives include accounts of how Scottish missionaries experienced “blackbirding,” a coercive approach to migrant labour in Oceanic history. How might these historical accounts of lived experience help us analyse race and justice in the practices of mission?
This paper considers three methodological approaches by which practical theology might research migration histories in Oceania. First, McDougall (2016) used oral histories retrieved through ethnography to outline a distinctive cosmopolitan openness that shaped migration amongst the Melanesian peoples of the Solomon Islands. Second, Modjeska (2014) used embodied imaginaries and drew the work of historians and anthropologists into a “fictive” narrative that asserted indigenous Melanesian agency. Third, Halapua (2001) wove documentary analysis, interviews and action research in seeking to sing God’s song of solidarity with marginalised Melanesians in Fiji.
These three Oceanic methodologies provide ways first to approach archival history as lived experience and second to reflect on race and justice in the practices of Christian mission.
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Race, justice and mission – my 2023 University of Glasgow Library Research Fellowship
I’m delighted to have been awarded a 2023 University of Glasgow Library Research Fellowship. This provides access for a month to what is a unique archive collection of mission archives. It also provides some funds to aid with travel and accommodation, which I hope to do around September 2023.
My research project is titled Race, justice and mission and here is some of what I wrote in my application:
Understanding the past demands a contemporary reappraisal of race and justice in the expansion of empires. The history of slavery invites educational institutions to assess their complicity in education, empire and exploitation. Slavery generally tends to be framed in relation to the transatlantic slave trade. However, a unique history of coerced Pacific labour is called “blackbirding.” Pacific peoples were extracted from island communities to build sugar plantations in Australia and Fiji. Recently, scholars have called for a reappraisal of “blackbirding,” the need for new Pacific genealogies and a critical reassessment of the “racial imaginaries” at work in the empire’s expansion.
My research project aims to illuminate the Glaswegian contribution to the modern Protestant missionary enterprise. The archives at the University of Glasgow Library offer a significant resource. Several Special Collections contain pamphlets and sermons that illuminate historic attitudes to other cultures, as students from the University were encouraged into mission activity by Christian student bodies meeting in and around the campus. The University Library Missions Book collection includes descriptions by missionaries who sailed from the ports of Glasgow and wrote of their encounters with “blackbirders” in operation.
This unique archival material will be located in relation to the growing body of contemporary scholarship attuned to histories of slavery and the economic and educational complicities of British imperialism. My research project aligns with the University of Glasgow’s Historical Slavery Initiative, which seeks to respond to the University’s complicated entanglement with Scottish imperial expansion.
I am thrilled to have been awarded this Research Fellowship, grateful for the opportunity to access what is a unique collection and thankful for the help from Rev Dr Doug Gay in alerting me to the archive. I look forward to strengthening academic relationships with various colleagues and friends and am excited by the important work already being done at the University through the Historical Slavery Initiative. This research allows me to return to my roots as Melanesian born and reflect on the Pacific’s particular histories of slavery.
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Missional Research Workshop online
The Ecclesial Futures journal, which I co-edit with Nigel Rooms, is offering an online workshop to try and encourage publishing in ecclesially grounded mission.
A short summary would be – Missional Research Workshop: This Workshop (online June 8-10, 2021) is designed to encourage research and networking. Sessions will share skills in writing and publishing and provide opportunities for presentation of work in progress, along with generative feedback from experienced researchers. The event will suit those seeking to publish in areas of ecclesially grounded mission, particularly new and emerging researchers who have not published before. To make a proposal, go here
A longer summary would be – Missional Research Workshop Call for Contributions
The Ecclesial Futures journal, in partnership with the IAMS Christian Communities in Mission Study Group are hosting an online Workshop, 8-10 June, to nurture research, and publishing that research, in mission. The Missional Research Workshop is designed to encourage research and networking. Each session will share skills in writing and publishing and provide opportunities for presentation of work in progress, along with generative feedback from experienced researchers.
The event will suit those seeking to publish in areas of ecclesially grounded mission, particularly new and emerging researchers who have not published before. We seek proposals offering verbal presentations of research reports, thought pieces and updates on mission research in progress, in areas that include:
• Examination of the ways in which theology is generated with the local church
• Longitudinal studies in congregational development over 5-10 or more years
• Diagnoses of why different churches flourish or die
• Studies of the relationship between a local church and its ‘world’ or context, including issues related to contextualisation, ‘cultural negotiation,’ ‘intercultural mission’
• Ethnographic studies of the cultural changes required in flourishing churches
• Methodological treatises on how to research in ecclesially grounded mission
• Studies of how local churches learn to experiment and fail
• Analysis of how organisations and denomination might transform themselves towards embodying the mission of God
• Astute, hermeneutically aware bible scholarship on the future of the contemporary church
• Implications for theological education of the local church ‘as the hermeneutic of the gospel’
• Contextual studies of transformative churches from wide-ranging places, particularly local churches formed outside of Christendom and modernity
• Ways in which leadership is identified, discerned and theologically formed for the local church to embody the mission of God
• Systemic studies of local churches and the systems that support them.
Workshop format – Each session will commence with a short presentation by an experienced researcher on their craft of research and writing. Work-in-progress summary of 10 minutes will be followed by generative feedback of 15 minutes. The 75 minute sessions will be spread over 8-10 June, at different times, to allow global participation.
Timeline
Abstract proposal of up to 250 words – 15 April 2021.
Notification of acceptance – 30 April, 2021.
Workshop contribution of up to 1500 words – 25 May, 2021.
Proposal registrations here or to Steve Taylor (kiwidrsteve@gmail.com).
A voluntary participation donation is invited. All contributions will fund developments in the Ecclesial Futures journal. Suggested donation for salaried academic/church minister – $40. Suggested donation for student or participant from global south – $10.
Enquires to the Ecclesial Futures editors – Nigel Rooms (nigel.rooms@churchmissionsociety.org) or Steve Taylor (kiwidrsteve@gmail.com).
Finally, as a image,
Friday, October 16, 2020
listening in mission
Leaving a role involves a stream of letting go’s. Yesterday was a letting go of Listening in Mission.
When I arrived at KCML in 2015, the hope was, in the words of the Council of Assembly Convenor, that my passion for contemporary mission and leadership would equip church leaders for today’s world.
With these words of invitation ringing in my ears, Mark Johnston and I looked together afresh at the existing Mission Course offered at KCML. We decided to experiment with our shared passion for contemporary mission and leadership in three ways.
- first, given our location in the Presbyterian Church, we redesigned the course around the 5 faces of mission
- second, we redesigned the assessment, increasing the focus on equipping leaders in the practice of mission. This involved a paired assignment, one in year 1, another in year 2, in which our interns formed small groups in their local churches to listen, discern and act in mission.
- third, we wrapped tutorial support around the assignment. We wanted to provide just-in-time learning, walking alongside interns as they sought to lead in mission. This required us to decrease lecture content. It also required the development of online learning. KCML had no video-conferencing capacity or learning management capacity, so I had to do some self-learning, finding suitable learning platforms (the most recent prior learning technology improvement at KCML had been a binding machine to spiral bind printed notes!).
As a result, I found myself leading the Year 1 interns in Listening in Mission. Over four online learning sessions, I modelled missional spiritual practices and supported interns as they gathered a small group in their local context, to enact the same 4 learning sessions locally, teaching missional spiritual practices to listen, discern and act in their local context.
After a few years, Mark and I realised we might have stumbled upon a stand-alone, online professional learning option. We had ministers noting to us that KCML interns were learning new things about mission. So why not offer the assignment, the written resources and the cohort experience to ministers? Using the online technologies, they could be supported by KCML in listening, discerning and acting in their local context. They could learn with us and from each other, across different Presbyteries.
The result has been three consecutive years of Listening in Mission as life-long learning, advertised through Presbyteries, the PCANZ facebook and at the Connect conferences.
I’ve even made little video’s to try and spread the word.
listening in mission from steve taylor on Vimeo.
So yesterday’s last Listening in Mission class online was a letting go. There was a wondering (with anxiety), about the future of my gifts in teaching, along with Listening in Mission at KCML. A sense of grief, because I’ve loved this part of the role, being able to engage local contexts. A sense of joy and privilege at what has happened, the resources developed, the insights gained.
In some ways, it was a simple innovation, offering a defined piece of learning online. And the numbers add up
- 8 – the number of online Listening in Mission cohorts I have taught in the last 5 years (5 cohorts of year 1 interns, 3 cohorts of ministers and church leaders)
- 50 – the number of leaders, formed around mission practices (30 interns and 20 ministers/church leaders)
- 300 – the total number of participants, given that each of the 50 leaders was required to gather a small group of 4-6.
- 50 – the number of churches invited into mission experimentation, supported by KCML to learn locally in mission.
As the Council of Assembly Convenor noted – contemporary mission equipping church leaders for today’s world indeed!
As part of our ongoing action-reflection and leaving a record, we at KCML have written about Listening in Mission as one of our innovations in a number of places.
- Mark Johnston, “Trusting the missio Dei in the midst of mission innovation education,” ANVIL 36, (2)
- Steve Taylor and Rosemary Dewerse, “Unbounding learning communities: Ako-empowered research in life-long ministerial formation,” Practical Theology 13 (4), 2020, 400-412. Doi.org/10.1080/1756073X.2020.1787005.
- Steve Taylor and Mark Johnston,“The missio Dei embodied in local community ministry in Scotland,” Ecclesial Futures 2020, 1 (2) (accepted for publication).
Friday, July 17, 2020
of glasshouses and sandpits: mission and innovation
I spoke on mission and innovation at Central Presbytery earlier this week. By the wonders of technology, the minimum 90 minute flight took 9 seconds as I walked downstairs and turned on zoom. I offered 10 minutes on mission. What does good mission leadership look like, using art and Biblical reflection and the excellent Stanley Skreslet, Picturing Christian Witness: New Testament Images of Disciples in Mission
- leaving the pen, leaving the existing 99 (John 10: 14-17; Luke 15:3-7)
- the simplicity of sharing your Jesus encounter (John 4:27-30; 39-42)
- listening, of finding out where Spirit is already at work in the lives of strangers (Acts 8: 26-31, 34, 36-38)
- afresh in every different cultural encounter (Acts 14: 14-17)
I then offered 10 minutes on innovation, first pointing out the way that the Presbyterian Book of Order encourages innovation (8.4.1p; 9.45-48; Appendix D-4-E-vii ), then using 3 metaphors
- enforced
- glasshouse
- sandpits
My argument is that COVID has “enforced” innovation and opened up the church to more change than it ever imagined. However, organisations don’t need to wait for enforced, external change. They can erect glasshouses, to protect and nurture innovation. They can create sandpits, to encourage random play. These are deliberate ways to allocate resource and focus. Mission gives these innovation activities a distinct focus. They are not about novelty, but intentional participation in God’s making of all things new.
The images of glasshouses and sandpits are a development of material in my First Expressions: Innovation and the Mission of God
After the benediction, about half the folk stayed online with ongoing conversation for another 30 minutes. That was excellent for teasing out the discussion and engaging more deeply. Since then, there has been ongoing requests for more resources in relation to innovation, including resources I’ve been testing the last few years
- systems innovation evaluation framework
- innovation evaluation process
All in all, a graced event. All due to “enforced” innovation. As I said in my talk, 5 months ago if Central Presbytery has asked me to speak and I’d said yes, but can I do it online please, it would have been seen as out of the question. But “enforced” is bringing change.
Full notes are here.
Thursday, May 07, 2020
Jesus as a socially (ir)responsible innovator research seminar
I’m committed to interdisciplinary research. As Paul Fiddes writes, Christian theology needs “to keep a conversation going with others outside the church, and to occupy a public space alongside late-modern thinkers” (Seeing the World and Knowing God: Hebrew Wisdom and Christian Doctrine in a Late-Modern Context
Christine is Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. We began working together three years ago, with the Lighthouse weekend, which sought to encourage mission and innovation, primarily among lay leaders nationally across the Presbyterian Church.
We’ve both found the interdisciplinary relationship quite engaging and co-presented (OK, Christine presented, together we wrote) at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship 2020 conference in New Orleans in January.
Now, with the wonders of technology, I will find myself talking Hebrew Wisdom literature, Jesus and Paul at the Faculty of Business & Economics at the University of Auckland on Thursday. Here’s our abstract.
Jesus as a socially (ir)responsible innovator: seeking the common good in a dialogue between wisdom Christologies and social entrepreneurship
Abstract:
Within Christian academic circles discussion on entrepreneurship has included the notion of missional entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. This produces a challenging set of discussions around the relationship between market capitalism and Christian belief. In this paper we specifically extend the discussion on social entrepreneurship and suggest that Jesus can be read as a socially (ir)responsible innovator.
A connectional theology is used to develop an interdisciplinary contribution between theology and social entrepreneurship. The work of Schumpeter, who argues for innovation as social change through a mechanism of creative recombination is brought into creative dialogue with Wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures.
The potential of recombination is developed first in Pauline literature, particularly in 1 Corinthians as ministry is understood as serving, gardening, building, resource managing, risking and parenting. Each of these six dimensions can be theorised as recombinations in which Paul seeks social change, including in family life, in ways that in fact are socially irresponsible, challenging existing hierarchical patterns. The potential of recombination is further tested in analysing Jesus as a socially (ir)responsible innovator. This begins with examination of wisdom Christologies and Jesus as the fulfilment of God (Matthew 5:17). What emerges is recombinations that again seek social change, including in gender patterns, and hence are socially irresponsible as they challenge existing hierarchical patterns.
Theoretically, we argue that Jesus the socially irresponsible innovator is an act of public theology. A dialogue between academic disciplines of theology and social entrepreneurship is possible bringing together the three domains of church, academy and world. Practically, this is grounded in educational contexts, in which we have engaged in interdisciplinary praxis. This includes developing Innovation Canvas and Next Step resources to encourage social entrepreneurship among grassroots religious communities. The result is an envisioning of the church as a player in innovation, the world as locus of activity for agency of God and a wisdom innovation that inhabits an ethically coherent narrative.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Making matters
Making matters: yarn-bombing and craftivism in contemporary Christian mission
What is the role of making in contemporary culture? From pink pussy hats to yarnbombing – craftivism combines craft and activism, providing hands-on ways to engage in change. In 2014, Christmas Angels began as a project of Methodist churches in the North of England, yarn-bombing their communities with hand-made angels. By 2018, the number of Christmas Angels knitted in Great Britain were too many to count. Steve Taylor shares his research, focused on those who received these angels. How was good news as craft experienced? How might making provide new insights into Christian faith and mission as hands-on?
St Lukes Remuera, 130 Remuera Road, 7:30-9 pm, Thursday 5th March.
Steve Taylor is Principal of Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership and author of 3 books and over 200 articles and publications. His latest study leave involved learning to knit and using digital ethnographies to study making in mission. Steve Taylor is married to Lynne, and together they enjoy two adult children.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
The burning bush – a visual study of indigenization and faith
Title (working): The burning bush in Aotearoa New Zealand: a visual study of indigenization and faith
Aim: 5-7000 words, including notes; scholarly rigour with clear and lively prose; due to publisher 1 March 2020.
Abstract(working): Presbyterianism is a global faith. Yet a message spoken by a sender is not always what is heard by a receiver. Hence communicating faith across cultures can simultaneously generate both globalization and distinct accounts of indigenization. Messages are communicated not only in words but also in visuals. This paper examines the indigenization of the burning bush in the contexts and cultures of Aotearoa New Zealand. An archival study of crafted adornments to Bibles, stained glass windows and identity symbols suggest that visual communication enhances local agency and empowers indigenization. The bush takes indigenous form, burning because of a Presbyterian theology of immediacy in revelation.
(Trying to turn a cross-cultural experience in 2018, and a keynote talk in 2018
and another more academic talk in 2019 into a written piece for a special journal issue on the principles of indigenization).
Thursday, December 19, 2019
When Christmas Angels tweet – a research summary as book contribution
One of my 2019 tasks has been a research project investigating the impact of Christmas Angels, a form of Christian witness that began in the north of England in 2014. (A brief summary for my denominational magazine is here). The research project began on the edges of my sabbatical, a creative break in the grind of book completion. It made possible a conference presentation at the Ecclesiology and Ethnography conference (thanks workplace).
Following the conference, I had an email from one of the keynote speakers, Mary Clark Moschella. They had sat in on my conference presentation and the email was one of congratulations, describing my research as highly imaginative.
It was also an email of invitation. Mary was working on revising Ethnography As A Pastoral Practice: An Introduction
I had already submitted my research to an academic journal so there were copyright implications to consider. But this request was asking something quite different, with a focus on explaining the research to students in a step-by step way, concentrating on the bare bones of the research methodology and process, the ethical considerations, and theological reflections.
Ethnography As A Pastoral Practice: An Introduction
Yesterday I was able send off 4,500 words, tenatively titled – When Christmas Angels tweet: making matters and practical theology in researching mission online, seeking feedback from Mary.
It might well need reworking, or be deemed not suitable. But it has been wonderful to write, sharing the research journey, including my learning to knit and in conversation with Fieldwork in Theology: Exploring the Social Context of God’s Work in the World (The Church and Postmodern Culture)
The sending brought to 9* my academic research outputs for the 2019 year. It’s been a highly productive year:
- 1 book – First Expressions
- 5 academic journal articles (3 accepted following revise/resubmit; 2 revise/resubmit work in process)
- 2 book chapters (writing up of conference presentations)
- 1 (successful) $130,000 research grant (further announcements pending)
Obviously the 15 weeks of sabbatical has helped my productivity, giving sustained space to complete a range of products. So also has been writing in partnerships. 4 of the 9 outputs have been co-authored with 3 people in different types of writing partnerships. So has a work situation, which in complexity has required me to re-order where my creativity can be offered. With less creativity required in some areas, an unintended benefit has been increased productivity in the cracks of time. I’m not spending any more time writing, just finding in retrospect, that the time I spend writing is proving to be highly generative.
* My rule of thumb is 1 “industry” ie church-facing output for every 1 “academic” output, in which I seek to express theological thinking in accessible and church-facing places. In 2019, there has also been 19 industry/”church-facing outputs including 11 film reviews in Touchstone, 2 SPANZ columns, 1 Zadok column, 2 Weekly Worship lectionary guides, 1 devozine youth resource, 1 Candour blog, 1 SCM blog.
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Innovation ecclesiologies and the expanding of World Christianity
Paper proposal – taking my new book
Title: Innovation ecclesiologies and the expanding of World Christianity
Global Christianity assumes a gospel that expands throughout the world, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Yet notions of expansion have trajectories, ethics and hoped for eschatologies that require missiological examination.
Ecclesiological expansion is probed through dialogue with research into fresh expressions in the UK (Taylor, First Expressions: Innovation and the Mission of God
A pragmatic ecclesiology values numbers. If fresh expressions die, are they of value in theorising the expanding of world Christianity? A pastoral ecclesiology values people. What are the pastoral implications if half of newly planted diaspora churches die in new cultural contexts?
This paper responds to these challenges by developing an innovation ecclesiology. An initial globalizing trajectory is followed as Christianity first expands into Europe. The innovative role of Lydia as a church planter in Philippi is read in relation to Mary as a first apostle, commissioned amid the eschatology of death and the trajectory of resurrection. This resonates with Epaphroditus, who despite nearly dying for the gospel, is regarded as valuable (Philippians 2:29). Such an innovation ecclesiology, in which dying is woven into rising, values expansion while providing ethical resources for the pastoral care of those who innovate in world Christianity.
Monday, October 07, 2019
Listening in Mission key missiology assumptions
I began Listening in Mission 2019 as online continuing education cohort experience a few weeks ago. It’s the 3rd year in a row we as KCML have offered this online educative local mission in neighbourhood experience. In preparing for the opening session (of five), I wanted to articulate some of the missiology that shaped the design of the course. Since we were working with John 21:1-14 in the lectio divina, I turned to that Biblical text as I sketched the key missiological assumptions.
The first assumption is that God is active in the world. This is central to John 21; first in the centrality of the Resurrected Jesus and second in the affirmation that this Jesus “showed himself in this way” (verse 1) by the Sea of Tiberias. Jesus “showed himself” as present and active neither in a building nor in a clearly religious activity, but beside a Lake and in the everyday, working day actions of fishing. Listening in mission assumes that God is active in the everyday working world. This assumption invites us to pay attention to our local communities, to look for Jesus in the ordinary and everyday.
A second assumption is that existing approaches yield little fruit. The disciples have fished all night, but “have no fish.” (21:5). This is the experience of many of our churches. What used to work, the ways we used to gather fish, are not yielding the same results. Our communities are changing. There is nothing wrong with the activity, skill or dedication of the disciples. It is simply that they have no fish.
This results in a third assumption, to be open to surprises from outside ourselves. The invitation from Jesus in verse 6 is to try the other side of the boat. This required the disciples to stop and listen, to attend to a voice from outside their hard-working circle, from a person they did not yet recognise. In Christ, there are new possibilities. These emerge as we pay attention to voices from outside ourselves.
A fourth assumption is that we need the body of Christ. In verse 4 – ‘disciples did not know” and in verse 7, Peter needed John as part of the process of discernment. While we can wonder at why this lack of recognition might be, the text makes clear that the discerning of Jesus was a shared task. This notion of shared discernment is central to being Presbyterian. Aware of our human sinfulness, we enact shared governance. Hence any listening in mission must be communal. We need others to help us looking for Jesus in community.
These 4 assumption
• God is active in the world, so pay attention to local
• Old ways are not working
• Jesus invites to pay attention in new ways
• We need each other
shape the design of Listening in Mission.
Participants are invited to
• gather local because our everyday communities are where God is present
• engage in disciplines of listening, a double listening for God in Scripture and in community
• take time, because new possibilties and new habits are not always immediately obvious
• keep gathering support – both local and in engaging with KCML
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For a 90 second video introduction, shot in my friendly local cafe, click here …
listening in mission from steve taylor on Vimeo.
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For a musical – pop culture, Kiwi contextual – framing go here …
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