I want to commend you for your series on Theology 101. Clear thinkers and good writers enable all members of the Church to wrestle with critical issues that must not remain the sole prerogative of the academy.
In your 2010 series Where in the World is God?, I hope you have chosen someone to write on the basic theme that God Is With The Poor. In our postmodern age the notion that God has a ‘preferential option for the poor’ has become somewhat quaint. After all, don’t we all have issues? I am aware of the critique of liberation theology, but what has replaced it? The modern focus on individual fulfillment, be it in Canada or Africa, seems nicely to avoid the notion of the Church as ‘the Body of Christ’ and our collective responsibilities for the stewardship of the created order as well as the socio-economic systems we create.
I would be curious what the thinking of our Church is on the issue of poverty. Is it, in the broadest sense, a problem to be solved or a condition to be embraced as we seek to know and follow Jesus Christ in his world?
The Theology 101 Committee responds:
Glenn, you raise a crucial issue; now that “preferential option for the Poor” and its related liberation theology seem to have been relegated to the back burner. Naturally it was easier to see this as a critical issue in the Developing World — for us it’s the same old question of “charity or justice?”
If we see poverty as partly self- caused and partly due to natural phenomena (such as living in the accident-prone Haiti) we can remain above the fray.
But if we in the Developed World seize it as the leading symptom of human greed and selfishness we may develop a stewardship of wealth that includes these others as partners rather than objects of pity and charity.
Our Reformed heritage, not to mention Scripture, speaks much on poverty and the issues of charity and justice. The Theology 101 series will continue into 2011 and we shall touch upon the issue of poverty along the way.
The committee will look forward to delving into the issue further. Thank you very much.
Rev. Dr. Joseph McLelland
Rev. Dr. John Vissers
Rev. Dr. Pam McCaroll
Rev. Dr. Richard Topping
