Fruitful Conversations

In the prologue to On Christian Theology, Rowan Williams develops a typology of theological expression. He describes three 'moments' of theology: celebratory, communicative and critical. The first two have provided me with a way to describe my purposes for this space. The former, or celebratory mode, Williams describes as having the intention:

"less to argue than to evoke a fullness of vision."

This struck a chord in me. I do not want the things I write here to be merely interesting, though even that is a difficult task which I am not sure I can rise to.

To exemplify the second, he gives liberation theology's productive use of Marxist categories. In the communicative mode:

"The assumption is that this or that intellectual idiom not only offers a way into fruitful conversation with the current environment but also that the unfamiliar idiom may uncover aspects of the deposit of belief hitherto unexamined."

I would like to attempt to have fruitful conversations to evoke a fullness of vision. Many traditions which are not properly part of Christian discourse provide us with ways in to the 'deposit of belief' in such a way that we find in them deeply Christian resonances, even if we are unable to assimilate them in toto.

It is my intention that this space become somewhere for fruitful conversations to occur with more marginal (often called sectarian) parts of the Christian traditions, permaculture, agrarianism, communalism and anarcho-communism. For me, these have evoked a more full vision and I believe that they provide ways in to some of the biblical resonances which struggle to be heard in our times. I realise that for many these traditions may appear irrelevant or threatening or hostile and this would not be without reason. Nevertheless, I believe that a discerning approach to these conversations can be transformative and conversional for all concerned.