A Practical Theology of Church and World: Ecclesiology and Social Vision in 20th Century Scotland
Abstract
The strong emphasis on ecclesiology in the work of Stanley Hauerwas, John
Milbank and others associated with ‘the new ecclesiology’1 brings theological
challenges to the contemporary move to recast practical theology’s attention to
church and society as ‘public theology’. A historical reading of three key examples
of practice in the tradition of twentieth century Scottish reformed-ecumenical
reflection on ‘church and society’ displays a rich seam of reflection on ecclesiology,
with some significant affinities to ‘the new ecclesiology’. The work of Stanley
Hauerwas is used to develop a critical reading of the practices of theology and the
theologies of (church and world) practice embedded in each example. This leads to
the claim that ‘the new ecclesiology’ offers practical theology a way of articulating
the church-world relationship and expressing the social, political and cultural
witness of Christianity within Scotland which is to be preferred to the rubric of
‘public theology’. Its appeal for practical theology in the face of church decline and
the marginalisation of theological discourse within liberal culture lies not in a
temptation towards the comforts of “sectarianism”, but in its confession of the
“ironic” character of the politics of Jesus and the reign of God. Its promise for
practical theology lies in its claim to offer a narrative display of how theology as
“church pragmatics” can mediate a fruitful social, political and cultural imagining of
the world Scotland is and the world it is called to be.