Conversation Guide #17: Missiological Reflections – by Dorottya Nagy

Initiating conversations about religious exclusivism and social inclusion at the level of faith-communities implies conversations about belonging. Conversations on belonging in their turn necessarily ask the “Who are we? Who am I?” and “How am I/we?” questions. In the case of faith-communities, these identity questions can only be answered in a relational way; the unavoidable relationality is the relationality with God. So, questions about God´s identity enter into conversation: “Who is God?” and “How is God?”

The language through which faith communities and their theologians describe, explain, and formulate their beliefs in God´s relationality with the world at large (inhabited planet, universe, cosmos, creation) in, for example, doctrines, symbols, confessions, texts, and narratives has immediate consequences for the practices of a particular faith-community and its members in the lived life (both within and beyond liturgical settings). Within a faith community the question of belonging then translates into further questions such as, “Based on our faith who does and who does not belong and why?” Thus, the question about the other enters the stage: “Who and how is the other?”

The dynamics of relationality

Whether and, if yes, to what extent can a faith community be theologically exclusive yet socially inclusive depends on the answers to the three-fold identity questions introduced above:  what  faith-communities and individual believers think, believe, and confess about God and how  that confession and belief translate into practices of relationality with the whole creation are interrelated matters. In the limited framework of these reflections, the focus lays on relationality with and among God-I/we-fellow human beings/communities and their social organisations (churches, faith communities, other sorts of groupings). Matters of exclusion and inclusion, belonging or not belonging become meaningful and existential when one looks at them within the dynamics of triangulations of these basic categories of agency.

Identity and belonging require an elaborate set of terms based on which particular relationality is settled. One of the central notions through which exclusion and inclusion is being negotiated within and by various Christian communities is the notion of sin. A notion which needs explanation and becomes meaningless in abstraction. Sin when associated with false belief (doctrines) and/or wrong action (ethics) affects relationships. The meaning and implication of sin for practices of exclusion and inclusion needs further attention.

The terms exclusion and inclusion suggest a clear position of power on the part of those who are able to exclude or include. There too, sin, needs to be addressed. This terminology also suggests that there are people and communities who are objects of exclusion and inclusion. Such power-relations unavoidably evoke the notions of violence and aggression. Terminology is never innocent. Language and speech, sooner or later, for better or worse, becomes embodied in actions, lives, and relationality.

Exclusion and inclusion in which context?

The somehow abstract model of triangulation of the basic agencies (God, I/we and fellow human beings and their social organisations) needs further articulation in relation to the contexts (socio-political, religious, cultural, geographic) in which they need to be considered. One of the most explicit contexts in which triangulations result in practices of exclusion and inclusion is the dynamic and fast-changing multi-religious, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural context of Europe. Within this context I propose two main venues for further exploration. The first one is the venue of theology and people of other faiths/ideologies. The second venue I propose is a theological engagement with social exclusion especially through the phenomenon of loneliness.

  1. The question of the religious other has been one of the major definers of identity for and among people in Europe and beyond. There is a complex history of how religious identities shaped relationship with the rest of the world and how encounters with the religious other led to peace or war and to complicity in exclusion throughout history. Therefore, there is a need to revisit histories of identity formation in relation to the religious other and it is important to do so from and within the realities of the histories and dynamics of migration and religious identities. European societies, and faith communities struggling with identity questions, need a new language which comes forth from the encounters with the religious other living next door, the religious other as fellow citizen. Without the experiences of such encounters, questions about religious exclusion and social inclusion cannot be answered and the identity questions remain channeled through essentialisation. “Islam/Christianity/Judaism/ Buddhism/and fill it in/ is such and so”, “Muslims/Christians/fill it in/ are such and so.”
  2. The second avenue proposed for further explorations is an approach to exclusion and inclusion through a societal problem: the phenomenon of loneliness. For a long time, social inclusion has been dealt with within societies from the perspective of poverty and deviance. Recent research, however, discloses that numerous societies in Europe struggle with the issue of loneliness. Loneliness thus becomes a major factor in addressing the issue of social inclusion. Loneliness, when perceived as a form of exclusion, invites and urges faith communities to examine the question to what extent is there a link between their theology (beliefs and practice) and the phenomenon of loneliness (exclusion, abandonment, individualism) within a society? To what extent are faith communities complicit in causing loneliness as a societal phenomenon? Three further societal issues may help in exploring practices of exclusion and inclusion related to loneliness: (im)migration, internetisation, and intergenerationally. These three sociological triggers of isolation/exclusion within societies invite faith communities to revisit their theologies of relationality; for example, instead of scapegoating secularisation (personified!) faith communities may ask questions about their own practices of abandonment: whom they abandon and why?

Explorations of practices of exclusion and/or inclusion through the two directions proposed above serve to dismiss any dichotomy between mission and social action, and seek to demonstrate that theology encompasses the whole life, mind, and heart of a community and a believer. It is impossible to love God and hate the fellow human being. It is impossible to turn to God yet turn away from the fellow human being. The question where is your brother/sister/fellow human being remains an identity question; a question of who is missing, who is not there, and why?

Questions

  1. To what extent and how has our own faith community been involved in practices of religious exclusivism and social inclusion throughout its history till the present?
  2. What does our community say/teach/share/confess about God and how does this speaking about God (theology) relate to how our community practises exclusion or inclusion in relation to individual persons and other communities? (Create mind maps.)
  3. What are the conditions through which belonging to our faith community is being acknowledged or denied (e.g., who or what is the authority, what power-relations do we see)?
  4. Who are the religious others in the vicinity (village, town, city) of our faith-community and how do we relate to them?
  5. Who are the lonely ones in our community and in the socio-political, religious and cultural context our community is part of?

About

This summary belongs to a more extensive article of Dorottya Nagy, which can be found here: Religious Exclusivism, Social Inclusion: Missiological Reflections.
Last year, we published the book Religious Exclusivism and Social Inclusion? A Religious Response, which is available Open Access (for free). People asked for an additional discussion guide to bring the outcomes of this research to a wider audience. We agreed to that, and are happy to present a discussion guide which offers you summaries of all contributions, accompanied by questions for discussion. We hope this stimulates people, in all different contexts, to discuss these matters thoroughly and make them actual and relevant for their own situations. Every week we publish another summary of a chapter of the book, and questions for discussion.  If you want to use the whole conversation guide at once, it can be downloaded here: Conversation guide.