Fragments from within the pandemic: theological experiments in silence, speech, and dislocated time

Abstract

This article is a methodological experiment in 'live' theology. It reflects on the difficulty of creating theological meaning in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Drawing on trauma theology, disability theology, and autoethnographic reflections, we explore a particular "double bind" between silence and speech. While hurried speech can foreclose meaning and cause deep damage in the midst of unfolding trauma, theological silence risks concealing existing injustices that have been intensified by COVID-19. As such, we focus on intersections of race, class, poverty, disability, and legal status. Examining the tensions between overwork and inactivity in pandemic time, we consider dislocated time as resistance to hasty solutions, the rush towards resurrection hope, and modes of redemptive productivity. We confront the desires of practical theology to be found useful in times of trauma, and instead point towards theological practices of fragmented speech and remaining in dislocated time.

The Openseminary Methodology: Practical Theology as Personal, Local and Transformative

“…16 In this way, the overall move in the module, and the assessment structure, is an affirmation of the practice-theory-practice process. It resists applied theology while also insisting on the importance of action, and not simply remaining in academic reflection only (Cross et al 2021).…”

“…Practical theology as a discipline is well placed to serve students and practitioners in this emerging new context. However, as Cross et al (2021) have reminded us, while "claiming that practical theology is well-poised to respond to questions raised by the pandemic" we should be cognizant of "how might we also recognize that practical theology-with its practices of speech, silence, doing, and meaning-making-is enmeshed in these oppressive systems".…”