The whole Guantanamo thing and a lot of other stuff we 'engage' with here are a form of 'Contextual Theology'* - To play with a Dean Flemming quote 'In every particular place and time we must learn to do theology/read and apply the bible/listen to God/follow Jesus in a way that makes sense of/in/to the world we find ourselves in, while challenging it at the deepest level'
We have been doing this with Guantanamo, debt, economic crisis, art, the walk of faith, etc etc etc and I have to say I am loving it and long may it continue.
If you have a spare 30
mins and are interested in HIV/Aids
here is a great paper from the UN of all people about a theological reflection on the stigma of HIV/Aids. It's an interesting e.g of wrestling with a particular 'now' issue (or better a 'now' suffering of people in our global community) and what our response may be as a supposed 'kingdom of priests' who mediate God in the world. Enjoy and if it's an issue close to your heart you might like to get involved with the great work
tearfund or
christian aid do around it.
*Contextual theology is not - abandoning the Bible, or 'Truth', or mission etc etc. It's based on a simple acknowledgement that we all know and act in a context. However hard we try that will always be the case. That doesn't mean it legitimises a 'me-centric' view of the God/the world. In fact it is all about me being honest about my/our 'me-centricness' and trying humbly to 'work out' what God is saying in my/our situation. God made us and put us in, meets us in, is present in and calls us to follow him and bring his good news in our context and that seems like a wonderful thing not something to be scared of. For more on CT see the very accessible Coffeehouse Theology
I really like this blog and this post is a short, sweet but important one re the dangers of making God over in our image. I don't think this risk is unique to contextual theology, its a besetting sin of both biblical and systematic versions too. Good prompt though, no matter which side of which fence you sit on, as Anne Lamott says in Bird by Bird, " You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do ..."
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