Why Ecclesiology Cannot Live By Doctrine Alone
A Reply to John Webster’s ‘In the Society of God’
In: Ecclesial PracticesSearch for other papers by Christopher Craig Brittain in
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This essay defends the significance of ethnography for ecclesiology. It does so by engaging with the ecclesiology of John Webster, particularly his essay ‘In the Society of God’, which directly challenges the appropriateness of ethnographic methods for a theology of the church. The discussion demonstrates the importance of Webster’s warning against the reduction of ecclesiology to an uncritical embrace of the apparent ‘givenness’ of empirical observations, but also argues that his approach is less useful for analyzing and criticizing the failures of the church community. The essay concludes by arguing that ethnography has the potential to enhance the church’s capacity to recognise, and thus confess, its sins, but also to deepen its corporate discernment and attentiveness to the presence of God’s activity in its midst.
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1
L. MacIntyre, The Bishop’s Man (London: Vintage Books, 2010), p. 20.
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2
Ibid., p. 128.
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4
D. A. MacGavran, Understanding Church Growth (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990); L. J. Francis and C. Roberts, ‘Growth or decline in the Church of England during the decade of Evangelism’, Journal of Contemporary Religion 24.1 (2009), pp. 67-81.
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5
S. Snyder, Asylum-seeking, Migration and Church (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012); W. Vaughan Jenkins and H. Kavan, ‘Sermon Responses and Preferences in Pentecostal and Mainline Churches’, Journal of Empirical Theology 22.2 (2009), pp. 142-161.
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7
The conference was held in March 2011, and the paper is published as: J. Webster, ‘In the Society of God: Some Principles of Ecclesiology’, in P. Ward (ed.), Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnography (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012), pp. 200-222.
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8
J. Webster, ‘Theological Theology’ in Confessing God: Essays on Christian Dogmatics II (London: T&T Clark, 2005), p. 22.
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9
J. Milbank, Theology and Social Theory (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990), p. 101.
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10
G. Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine (London: SPCK, 1984); H. Frei, Types of Christian Theology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992).
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12
R. Hütter, Suffering Divine Things: Theology as Church Practice (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000); M. Volf and D. Bass (eds.), Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in the Christian Life (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001).
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13
J. Webster, ‘On Evangelical Ecclesiology’, Confessing God, pp. 155.
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15
Ibid., p. 201.
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16
N. M. Healy, Church, World and the Christian Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
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17
Ibid., p. 36 (emphasis in original).
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18
Ibid., p. 38.
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20
Ibid., p. 215.
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22
J.A. van der Ven, Ecclesiology in Context (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), p. xiv.
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24
See: M. Horkheimer, ‘Materialism and Metaphysics’, in Critical Theory: Selected Essays, trans. M.J. O’Connell (New York: Continuum, 1995), pp. 10-46; T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 3rd edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996); B. Latour, S. Woolgar & J. Salk, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (Princeton: Princton University Press, 1979); S. Shapin, A Social History of Truth: civility and science in seventeenth-century England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
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26
For example, see: A. Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reconstructing the Missional Church (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2007); D. MacLauren, Mission Implausible: Restoring Credibility to the Church (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2004); D. A. Roozen & C. K. Hadaway, Church & Denominational Growth (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993).
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27
D.M. Kelley, Why Conservative Churches Are Growing (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1996).
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29
L. Iannaccone, ‘Religious Practices: A Human Capital Approach’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 29.3 (1990), p. 301.
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32
J. Webster, Holy Scripture: A Dogmatic Sketch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 42-43.
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33
Ibid., pp. 46-47.
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37
McGrath, p. 110. For another example that shares much in common with McGrath’s approach, see: N. Adams and C. Elliott, ‘Ethnography is Dogmatics: Making Description Central to Systematic Theology’, Scottish Journal of Theology 53 (Autumn 2000), pp. 339-64.
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42
Ibid., p. 165.
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43
Ibid., p. 166.
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46
Ibid., pp. 51-52 (emphasis in original).
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48
Ibid., p. 17.
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54
World Council of Churches, The Nature and Mission of the Church: A Stage on the Way to a Common Statement (Geneva: WCC, 2005), para. 54.
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55
J. Bergen, Ecclesial Repentance: The Churches Confront Their Sinful Pasts (London: T&T Clark, 2011), pp. 202-216.
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56
M. C. McCarthy, ‘Religious Disillusionment and the Cross’, Heythrop Journal 48 (2007), p. 584; quoted in Bergen, Ecclesial Repentance, p. 223.
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59
Webster, Holiness (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003), pp. 60, 73.
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60
Ibid., p. 63.
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61
Ibid., p. 71.
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62
See: Bergen, Ecclesial Repentance, p. 235; C. C. Anderson, ‘Bonaventure and the Sin of the Church’, Theological Studies 63 (2002), pp. 667-89.
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65
Ibid., p. 172.
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68
E. Radner, The End of the Church: A Pneumatology of Christian Division in the West (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), p. 26.
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69
Ibid., p. 317.
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71
Ibid., p. 133.
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72
J. Webster, ‘Theology and the Peace of the Church’, in The Domain of the Word: Scripture and Theological Reason (London: T&T Clark, 2012), n.28, p. 164.
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73
Ibid., p. 162.
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75
Ibid., p. 222.
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81
J. Moltmann, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1996).
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85
Ibid., p. 71.
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86
See, for example, ‘The Interior Castle’ in The Collected Works of Teresa of Avila, trans. K. Kavanaugh & O. Rodriuez (Washington, D.C.: I.C.S. Publications, 1980), as discussed in S. Coakley, ‘Deepening Practices: Perspectives from Ascetical and Mystical Theology’, in M. Volf & D.C. Bass (eds.), Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in the Christian Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002),, pp. 78-93.
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89
MacIntyre, p. 283.
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Why Ecclesiology Cannot Live By Doctrine Alone
A Reply to John Webster’s ‘In the Society of God’
In: Ecclesial PracticesSearch for other papers by Christopher Craig Brittain in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This essay defends the significance of ethnography for ecclesiology. It does so by engaging with the ecclesiology of John Webster, particularly his essay ‘In the Society of God’, which directly challenges the appropriateness of ethnographic methods for a theology of the church. The discussion demonstrates the importance of Webster’s warning against the reduction of ecclesiology to an uncritical embrace of the apparent ‘givenness’ of empirical observations, but also argues that his approach is less useful for analyzing and criticizing the failures of the church community. The essay concludes by arguing that ethnography has the potential to enhance the church’s capacity to recognise, and thus confess, its sins, but also to deepen its corporate discernment and attentiveness to the presence of God’s activity in its midst.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 467 | 80 | 2 |
| Full Text Views | 319 | 15 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 145 | 30 | 1 |