From proclamation to conversation: ethnographic disruptions to theological normativity

Abstract

In recent years, theologians have increasingly used ethnographic research methods to strengthen the connections between their theological constructions and the social practices they seek to impact. The migration of these methods into the theological context has raised important questions about theological normativity. This essay draws on the author's fieldwork in a Southern Baptist congregation in Nashville Tennessee to argue that the ethnographic intervention into traditional methods for producing theological knowledge shifts the mode of speech in which normative theological claims can be made from that of proclamation to an anti-hierarchical practice of conversation. The author proposes that ethnographic theologians can use the ethnographic research question to shape the normative weight of sources in the field and what types of normative claims can be made out of that fieldwork in the theological text. She argues that while such a shift in the understanding of theological normativity and, by extension, of theology itself has the potential to threaten methods seeking to preserve the authority of Christian speech in an increasingly post-Christendom context, that this more humble, collaborative approach is better suited to the interfaith, intercultural contexts of contemporary life, all of which face the reality of the contingency of all truth claims, including religious truth claims. This article is published as part of a thematic collection on radical theologies.

An Ecclesiology of a Queer Kenosis? Risk and Ambivalence at Our Lady, Trondheim, in Light of the Queer Theology on Kenosis of Marcella Althaus-Reid

“…This conversation has been going on for centuries between the various disciplines of theology. The empirically inclined theologian still does what theologians always have done: present the different sources and then discuss them against each other and consider their relevance (Wigg-Stevenson, 2015).…”

“…According to her, there can be no prefixed script or ethos that yields historical or empirical material conforming to dogma if the dialogue wishes to continue to be identified as Christian. The whole empirical (and theoretical) story needs to be told, even if its progress and conclusion do not support conventional dogma or biblical narrative (Wigg-Stevenson, 2015: 4). This empirical freedom of non-complicity in dogma and biblical narrative must always be defended, even if the co-reading of empirical material and biblical narrative is queer and indecent, as the one above.…”

Tweeting dignity: A practical theological reflection on Twitter’s normative function

“…Instead a postmodern practical theological orientation would see the Christian tradition as 'fundamentally open' and to be constructed by a contextual sensitive 'faith from below' (Beaudoin 2014:196). Some postmodern practical theologians would therefore indicate that the formulation of a contextual-driven normativity is at most of preliminary nature and in constant flux (Wigg-Stevenson 2015:3).…”

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“… 6. For more on theological normativity in relation to ethnographic theology, see the special issue of Ecclesial Practices : 2(1) dedicated to this question. See also Natalie Wigg-Stevenson (2015). …”