Theological Wiggle Room as a Resource in Ordinary Theology: Significance for Ecclesiology, Leadership, and Personal Development
-
Knut Tveitereid
and
Bård Norheim
Abstract
Ordinary theology is often described as unrefined and imprecise in comparison to academic theology. A recent ethnographic study of vital youth ministries discovered a similar pattern, which the study coined “theological wiggle room.” This article discusses how a lack of precision may serve as a possible resource for theology in the ordinary, and thereby why theological wiggle room may be of significance. The article argues that a certain theological wiggle room engages centripetal and centrifugal dynamics. In other words, the lack of precision should not be interpreted as a shortage or deficiency alone, but as a significant quality of theology in the ordinary – in particular with regard to ecclesiology, leadership and personal development.
Zusammenfassung
Das Theologietreiben der Ordinary Theology gilt vielen als grobschlächtig und unpräzise. Sie bewahrt mehr Ambivalenzen und schleift ihre Begriffe weniger scharf als die wissenschaftliche Theologie. Diese Eigenart begreift der vorliegende Aufsatz nicht nur als Nachteil, sondern unter bestimmten Bedingungen als eine Chance der Ordinary Theology. Denn sie eröffnet Spielraum („wiggle room“), der für eine besonders zielgruppenorientierte Passung kirchlichen Handelns genutzt werden kann.
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Research Articles
- Truth in Pastoral Practice: A Firmer Foundation for Contested Territory
- Living Between: Exploring a Framework of Spirituality for Teachers and Students in Catholic Schools
- Theological Wiggle Room as a Resource in Ordinary Theology: Significance for Ecclesiology, Leadership, and Personal Development
- The Invention of Clutter and the New Spiritual Discipline of Decluttering
- Decolonizing “Protestant” Death Rituals for the Chinese Bereaved: Negotiating a Resistance that is Contextually Relevant
- Systemic Terror, Silent Mourning, and Postcolonial Hope: The Case of Forcibly Separated Migrant Families
- Embrace at the International Ecumenical Youth Meeting in Beirut 2019
- Research Report
- Praktische Theologie angesichts der ökologischen Krise
- Book Review
- Wilfried Engemann, Einführung in die Homiletik, Tübingen (Narr Francke Attempto Verlag), 3., durchgehend neu bearb., aktualisierte und erw. A. 2020, 709 S., ISBN 978-3-8252-5293-9, € 39,90 (utb 2128).
- Mai-Anh Le Tran, Reset the Heart: Unlearning Violence, Relearning Hope, Nashville (Abingdon Press) 2017, 176 pp., ISBN 9781501832468, $34.99
- Muslim Subjectivities in Global Modernity: Islamic Traditions and the Construction of Modern Muslim Identities by Dietrich Jung and Kirstine Sinclair: Brill: Leiden, 2020
- John Swinton, Finding Jesus in the Storm: The Spiritual Lives of Christians with Mental Health Challenges, Grand Rapids (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company) 2020, 245 pp. ISBN 9780802873729, $25.00
- Ulrike Auga, An Epistemology of Religion and Gender: Biopolitics – Performativity – Agency. Routledge Critical studies in Religion, Gender and Sexuality, Abingdon and New York (Routledge) 2020, 364 pp., ISBN 9780367226176, £120 (Hardback), £33.29 (eBook).
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Research Articles
- Truth in Pastoral Practice: A Firmer Foundation for Contested Territory
- Living Between: Exploring a Framework of Spirituality for Teachers and Students in Catholic Schools
- Theological Wiggle Room as a Resource in Ordinary Theology: Significance for Ecclesiology, Leadership, and Personal Development
- The Invention of Clutter and the New Spiritual Discipline of Decluttering
- Decolonizing “Protestant” Death Rituals for the Chinese Bereaved: Negotiating a Resistance that is Contextually Relevant
- Systemic Terror, Silent Mourning, and Postcolonial Hope: The Case of Forcibly Separated Migrant Families
- Embrace at the International Ecumenical Youth Meeting in Beirut 2019
- Research Report
- Praktische Theologie angesichts der ökologischen Krise
- Book Review
- Wilfried Engemann, Einführung in die Homiletik, Tübingen (Narr Francke Attempto Verlag), 3., durchgehend neu bearb., aktualisierte und erw. A. 2020, 709 S., ISBN 978-3-8252-5293-9, € 39,90 (utb 2128).
- Mai-Anh Le Tran, Reset the Heart: Unlearning Violence, Relearning Hope, Nashville (Abingdon Press) 2017, 176 pp., ISBN 9781501832468, $34.99
- Muslim Subjectivities in Global Modernity: Islamic Traditions and the Construction of Modern Muslim Identities by Dietrich Jung and Kirstine Sinclair: Brill: Leiden, 2020
- John Swinton, Finding Jesus in the Storm: The Spiritual Lives of Christians with Mental Health Challenges, Grand Rapids (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company) 2020, 245 pp. ISBN 9780802873729, $25.00
- Ulrike Auga, An Epistemology of Religion and Gender: Biopolitics – Performativity – Agency. Routledge Critical studies in Religion, Gender and Sexuality, Abingdon and New York (Routledge) 2020, 364 pp., ISBN 9780367226176, £120 (Hardback), £33.29 (eBook).
