Scottish Baptist Practical Theology and Scottish Independence

I am begging to feel like a dog with a bone on this issue but i am going to hang on and keep worrying away at it for a number of reasons:

As long as people are intending to vote on an issue that  involves the very nature of the structure of society it is an activity worth theological reflection

As long as misison is concerned with the transformation of society it si an activity with missional implications

As long as I hear James W McClendon asking about the lack of explicit 'baptist' theology I will keep trying to stimulate some

Here I want to say some things about present Scottish Baptist Practical Theology and ask about the implications of this for questions of Independence.

Practice expresses theological conviction. By this I do not simply mean that it reveals peoples theological convictions but that it also generates theological convictions. Peoples practice is a source for theological reflection on their convictions. Some refer to the theology of practice as our 'operant' theology - basically it is the theology expressed in our actions.

In practice we have a seperate and indeed independent Baptist Union of Scotland - albeit one which exists in various fellowships and Unions with other and wider associations. Yet on issues of governanace and power - well that remains 'local' at least in a 'national' sense, accepting that there are I believe one or two churches both North and South (here I am using the Scottish/English border as a divide) which belong to the alternate or maybe both Unions.

The governanace of the Baptist Union of Scotland is not devolved from the Baptist Union of Great Britain but is as it were 'autonomous'.

This being the case I wonder about the theological significance and rationale for having a seperate Unions. Perhaps the response will be that it is simply a matter of history and pragmatics - which is fine though may beg the question as to whether on this issue we are placing an area of our life outside of the authority of Jesus Christ as revealled in the Scriptures which we claim is our authority in matters of faith and practice. 

Now here I am not quite ready to re-enter a previous argument that the 'politics' of the Church should reflect the 'politics' of the kingdom and accordingly we should seek to see it replicated at least in some 'thin' way in wider culture...I might return to that... :)

Rather here I find myself asking:

'what is the theology expressed in having seperate Unions?'

'on what grounds can we justify seperate and Independent Unions but not seperate and independent nations in terms of governance?'

just worrying and wondering...

 

Comments

[Brodie]

Is your angst over the lack of engagement on the Indy issue by Baptist theologians, or a lack of theological engagement on the issue by Baptists more generally. I guess one is easier to detect than the other. It may be hard, I'd suggest, to keep track of conversations or sermons etc. that are addressing this issue and trying to bring a theological perspective to bare upon it.

As for me the primary reason I've not contributed anything to the public sphere on this matter is that age old enemy - time! Now my viva is out the way, I intend to make some time to reflect more upon the matter. However, perhaps a Baptist way of reflecting upon the theological, political, societal and constitutional issues at hand is to have some sort of round table discussion where we might do theology together and discern the Lord's mind?

[Stuart Blythe]

Hi Brodie there is an argument that hymns and sermons etc. are first level theological conversation and you are right these can be hard to measure. I wonder though how many sermons have in any way actually addressed this issue in the same way as many have included references to issues of sexual morality. I also agree about table conversations and in some ways I am arguing for such a Baptist response although would like some bread and wine on that table.

In terms of worry I don't know if it is angst. Yet I suspect a couple of things...this issue is exposing a failure in our theology to deal with concrete contested socio-political issues something we are not ready to admit. I find the same failure in respect to the issue of a Scottish Baptist response to nuclear weapons...secondly, there is not a lot of theologising going on even by Baptists with attention to explicit Baptist convictions.

In turn I worry because I think we have something to bring to the table on this that bears faithful witness to Jesus Christ.