4/09/2004 05:48:00 PM

lots of feedback on this. most via email. some here. a couple here. i liked this email (my comments follow those preceded by ">"):

>>...theologies and ecclesiologies that have come to dominate the memory of the man Jesus. We envision a direct, participatory spirituality
>
>All theologies start with the dream of direct, participatory spirituality.

Maybe. "All" is a broad term and we might disagree with what "starting with" means in any given case. I do not believe, for example, that the major fourth century creedal conferences and the bureaucracies that calcified around their work-products had a dream of direct, participatory spirituality. Much of what we look back on with a bit of wistful and rosy retrospect, I would suggest, had a more nuanced history of political positioning and ideological power-mongering that we would do well not to forget.


>What will prevent your's from calcifying?

Mine will. Just as I will calcify, decay and die. So be it.

Functionally, though, I am not setting out to build anything for anyone that could be christened, "mine." What I do and say is an outflow of my life as life. I only do theology and ecclesiology as it is locally relevant to my history, experience, communities and interests. I am, as far as I know how to, directly participating in the life I've been given without the ambition of creating a definitive anything save the definitive life that Daniel Hughes was given to live with and for others.


>
>could not these theologies and ecclesiologies in their domination still contain inherent subversions, which if deconstructed, would reveal the subversive Christ.
>

Oh, yes. Hegemony is self-subversive, indeed.