Can Theology Be Practical: Moving beyond thin descriptions Professor John Swinton

Thinning out the world Thick and Thin Descriptions

Paying a particular kind of attention to the world Thinning out the world Paying a particular kind of attention to the world

Pay Attention to the Ways in Which you Pay Attention to the World

Thinning out the world: Healthcare Spirituality Our healthcare is inherently secular. Healthcare spirituality has to be similar to antibiotics! It is assumed to be a generalisable concept that must apply to everyone. It must not appear exclusive or excluding. It must not offend anyone! It reflects the spirituality of the institution.

A thinning of our humanness Hypercognition Intellect, reason, individualism, autonomy, freedom, self- direction. Relationships, dependency, values, meaning, surrender

The strange new world within the Bible The main points I will talk to on this slide are as follows: Brief reflection on Karl Barth's essay The Strange New World Within The Bible Barth argues that the bible is not a set of moral rules and precepts that we need to learn in order to live well. Rather the stories, characters, places and images of God that we are given within scripture are intended to reveal to us a strange new world; a world where Abraham is our father; where the story of the Exodus is our story; a place where the weak are seen as strong and where God is perceived as gentle. (in the beatitudes in Matthew Jesus who is God says “ I an gentle. That being so, the task of the church is not to make the bible relevant to the world, but make the world relevant to the church. From the perspective of disability, the task of Christian theologians is not to try and explore ways in which normal people should be helped to offer care to abnormal people. Quite the opposite. The task is firstly to realise precisely why we might assume someone is abnormal in the first place, and secondly, to use the experience of disability to show that within the strange new world of the bible disability looks quite different. We have seen this in relation to Psalm 139. We need now to go deeper.

Expanding our Imagination

Illumination

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2 Renewing our minds

Theology is an intellectual, practical and embodied enterprise 1 John 4:16: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” Luke 10:27 “He answered, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.’” Isaiah 22: 16: “He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD.”

Dementia and the thinning of the world

Thin descriptions of personhood “If you’re demented, you’re wasting people’s lives – your family’s lives – and you’re wasting the resources of the National Health Service.” … if somebody absolutely, desperately wants to die because they’re a burden to their family, or the state, then I think they too should be allowed to die.”“…putting it rather brutally, you’d be licensing people to put others down. Actually I think why not, because the real person has gone already and all that’s left is just the body of a person, and nobody wants to be remembered in this condition.

Thin descriptions of embodiment: Remembering the Heart Luke 10:27 “He answered, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.’”

The Person is the Heart “The heart is the deepest most fundamental aspect of the human being that is touched and transformed by the Spirit.”

Thin descriptions of memory

Re-thinking reminiscence The tensing of time: Re-thinking reminiscence “If only I could turn back time” Memory, community and the tensing of time

Thin descriptions of Christian practices What the mind has forgotten, the body remembers for much longer

Watching memory: Living out the past in the present

Beatrice’s Prayers Our Bodies Remember Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

Can Theology be Practical?