An Essay Engaging:
‘What is Public Theology?’ By Harold Breitenberg Jr. and
‘Speaking the Truth in Love: Elements of a Missional Hermeneutic’
By James V. Brownson
In this paper I will engage ‘What is Public Theology?’ by Harold Breitenberg Jr.[1]
And ‘Speaking the Truth in Love: Elements of a missional Hermeneutic’ by James V. Brownson[2] to make comparisons and demonstrate the necessity of a missional hermeneutic in public theology.
Breitenberg filters out the numerous confusing definitions for Public Theology and defines it first as: A “theologically informed discourse” seeking to be knowable to those within its own religious institution and those external to it. Second, public theology, “is concerned with issues, institutions, interactions, and processes that are of importance and pertinence both to the church and or other religious communities and the larger society.” This definition includes those of the same faith and those of differing faiths, and ones claiming no faith and religious affiliation. Breitenberg notes on this point that “public theology interprets public life, engages society and its institutions, and offers guidance to and for society and its different sectors, interactions, and organizations,” making public theology in essence an ethical exercise. Lastly, Breitenberg claims that public theology, “draws on and makes use of sources of insight, terminology, and forms of discourse and argument that are in theory available and open to all,” outside of ones that are specifically religious (Hainsworth & Paeth, 4-5).
Theology is human speech about God. It is humanity’s best attempts at naming and responding to a gift that God has given us- life and language. The best way to know God is to speak to God, and read God’s Word where one discovers what God is doing in revealing God’s self to us, in our own language. Everyone is a theologian; theology is any reflection on life’s ultimate questions directed toward God. Specifically, Christian theologians are ones who reflect on and articulate the God-centered life and beliefs that Christians believe and embody, and it is done that God might be glorified in all Christians are and do.
This exercise takes place in a moving, and changing world. The issue is that we don’t stand removed and bracketed out. Our reading of the Bible is taking place within a moving and changing world; it is a “public theology.” We are embedded in our world, there’s no safe place to hide. We do theology in the midst of the cultural, or as Breitenberg claims, the “public,” and this needs to be interpreted well and often. This is why I point to Brownson’s work on the elements of a Missional Hermeneutic.
Brownson draws attention to the need specifically in North America for Christians to claim a fresh vision for what it means to live and be Christian in a post-Christian context. Secondly, Brownson believes the Christian faith offers good news and hope to our context (and I’ll add the world in general), but this truth has to be “lived out and proclaimed with courage and wisdom,” (Hunsberger & Van Gelder, P. 228). This is where I detect a useful intersection between the work of Breitenberg and Brownson. Both authors though not identical in analyses, each begin with theology and end with its application to life.
Brownson notes that to further aid in the process of visioning, discernment is needed. First, look at our own cultural context and see what’s taking place and take action. I would add here that it is our mission as Christian believers to take action daily in the way we live out our faith. Brownson points to the enlightenment and uses Newbigin’s analysis of our current worldview. Newbigin points to empiricism as the dominant hermeneutic for our context, one that looks to the “empirical- what can be measured and qualified- has resulted in an unhealthy split between the public and the private realm,” (Hunsberger & Van Gelder, 229). This is where Brownson points to religion, generally speaking, and the Christian faith, particularly, as having been “relegated to the private realm,” (Ibid). Resultantly, the public realm is emptied of the hope of a moral framework leaving our world without a common good or sense of purpose.
Secondly, Brownson points to postmodernism as the as a powerful force affecting our context and mission. The move has shifted from an enlightened way of thinking-“grand synthesis of all human arts under the banner of reason and science, a postmodern perspective consciously and explicitly eschews such a goal,” (Ibid, 229). Within a postmodern world the pluralism causes fragmentation and a constant grasping for control and the inevitable violent resultants. The attention now turns toward the gospel and it’s claims and power to influence the public sphere, I would define this as the Christian mission.
Brownson moves into a hermeneutical understanding of the gospel that seeks to move beyond terminology toward an identification of available hermeneutical models and how they should work for our context. Brownson proposes: A Hermeneutic of Diversity to include a missional hermeneutic, A Hermeneutic of Coherence, and Gospel as Hermeneutical Framework to lay out a model for interpretation that actively incorporates the truths of the biblical text and our current context.
I was specifically drawn to Brownson’s use of “A Missional Hermeneutic” because it takes the truths of scripture to include the Christian movement it sprang from to reveal a missional character. This was a boundary crossing movement that crossed the cultural, and engaged the world not only with a message but also as the embodiment of that message. Brownson’s model assumes plurality in its interpretation not as a factor for failure in its task, but to demonstrate that this allows for effectiveness by accepting each context and reader. Here Breitenberg’s definition gives another point of comparison “public theology interprets public life, engages society and its institutions, and offers guidance to and for society and its different sectors, interactions, and organizations.”
The good news of an incarnational gospel is that it has power to transform the public sphere by defragmenting the chaos of pluralistic society and teaching love as a means to suppress the violence. In my tradition I support and incorporate John Wesley’s hermeneutic of interpretation translated by Albert Outler as: Scripture, reason, experience, and tradition as a framework for interpreting my world and mission, and allowing me to proclaim with my life Jesus is Lord.”
