What good is a public theologian?
This week marks the end of my time serving as the public theologian for Student Christian Movement Aotearoa (SCMA). I started the job in mid-2022, when I was just a year into PhD study and still finding my feet in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The role of public theologian was as new for SCMA as it was for me. What is the use of theology in the current day and age? More importantly, what safeguards are there for theology so that it does not merely become a tool to serve pre-existing ideological commitments?
These two questions have accompanied me throughout the past three years as I have sought to engage in theological reflection on current affairs, political manoeuvres, and wider contemporary worries. From the climate crisis to West Papua to Māori sovereignty to burnout society to Palestine to sex work to Christian nationalism, there is no shortage of current crises that require sustained reflection and collective action.
The answer to the second question is perhaps easier than the first. There are two commitments that I’ve held to in the process of theologising. The first is never to do theology alone. Speaking with other people—especially with others who disagree with me—is incredibly helpful in refining my positions, being challenged to rethink my assumptions, and to bring critical perspectives that push me out of echo chambers. The second is that theology starts just as much with action as it does with thinking and reflection. Theology is always already at work in our practices, and sometimes, the best kind of theology is formed not by studious reflection in isolation in advance of action, but emerges as one actively engages in the world. Theology is not just an exercise of interiority.
The first question—what is the use of public theology?—is much more difficult to answer satisfactorily. In a pluralist world, in a country that is a liberal democracy, to whom does the public theologian speak? Is theology purely an insider game of speaking to those who profess Christian belief? Does Christian theology have wisdom or perspectives to offer that go beyond parochial borders and boundaries? Or does Christian theology bear witness to a transcendent and immanent God to any and all who care to pay attention?
To paraphrase Wendell Berry, I think that the answers to these questions can only be answered over the course of living out the life we’ve each been given. Theology at its best challenges each of us to draw nearer to God, living a life that reaches for justice, love, and selflessness. In a world obsessed with KPIs, metrics, and results, public theology offers an alternative way of engaging in the world—a way that values scholarship, study, and deep reflection.
The theologian is the perpetual student, and I am exceedingly grateful to all the perpetual students I’ve encountered in this role: both those enrolled in study, senior friends, and those who just have a passion for engaging the mind in theological thinking with me.
As I leave Student Christian Movement Aotearoa, I offer gratitude to all those who came alongside me to share their wisdom and experiences, to those who legends who came before me, and to all those who will join the movement in the future. It’s been an absolute privilege and pleasure, and I pray that God continually move in new and exciting ways through each and every member of SCMA.
Ngā mihi nui,
Michael