INTRODUCTION
From among a broad range of mission images that have expressed and supported the mission
of The Salvation Army historically, the early decades of the twenty first century in Australia
will require emphasis on a cluster of images around hospitality, accompaniment, participation
and sanctuary. These images need to be

theologically coherent and compelling

practically applied in sociological, political, environmental and economic contexts

expressive of the holistic mission that has marked The Salvation Army in
distinctive ways, naming the transcendent in people and circumstances

capable of engaging all partners in Army mission

positively interacting with the underlying military metaphors of the movement.
The purpose and function of an image of mission is to create an open space into which people
can enter with new energy.
Mission is understood within this thesis as the reason for existence, which in the case of the
Church always contains an outward focus. The mission of the Church always seeks to
discern God’s care and action within the world, and accept the divine invitation to join that
care and action. The subtitle of this work comes from an autograph penned by William
Booth on October 4, 1910. a facsimile of which appears in the cover pages. He writes for the
unknown collector: “Your days at the most cannot be very long, so use them to the best of
your ability for the glory of God and the benefit of your generation.” Booth understood that
the glory of God was tied intimately to the good society.
Chapter one establishes my personal context, the reasons for this research and the most
suitable research methodology appropriate to the research question: What is the dominant
mission image best suited to The Salvation Army in Australia in the early decades of the
twenty first century?
The design of this research asserts that the dominant mission image best suited to The
Salvation Army within contemporary Australia will emerge from a range of influences
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working together: the Army’s distinctive history, theology and practice (tradition); the
context of society in which the Army finds itself (culture); and its learning along the way
(experience).1 The practice of listening to many voices is not at odds with the Army’s
hierarchical structure, where, in theory at least, mission is ‘declared’ from senior levels. In
reality, and even in the days of a highly autocratic founder, foundational identity has always
been formed and shaped by many factors.
2
As such it can be expected that a dominant
mission image can emerge within the complex processes of The Salvation Army, including
‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ dialogue. These three conversation partners, tradition, culture
and experience, as established by James and Evelyn Whitehead, have wide acceptance as a
schema for theological reflection and serve this project well in offering an overall structure. 3
I have carried the basic question of this thesis, matching the mission identity of The Salvation
Army to daily ministry, through more than twenty-five years as a Salvation Army Officer.
Coherent and compelling answers to this basic question are both important and urgent if the
mission identity of The Salvation Army is not to be swamped by burgeoning programmes
carried by diminishing faith communities. The mix of staff, officers, Salvationists and other
employees has changed dramatically over three decades, and many identify this as a serious
threat to mission capacity and identity, while few recognize inherent opportunity. Growing
professionalism, needed but perhaps adopted uncritically, and increasing governance and
corporate concerns further threaten mission identity as it has been conceived and understood.
As outlined above, the well-established paradigm of James and Evelyn Whitehead provides
the overall structure for this study, bringing together three conversation partners, tradition,
culture and experience. Methodologies suited to each of these conversation voices will be
adopted.
Three enquiry paradigms, from among five outlined by Lincoln and Guba, are
especially useful within this project: Critical Theory, Constructivist, and Participatory
1
James and Evelyn Whitehead, Method in ministry, (Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1995.) The Whiteheads trace
a theological heritage for this model from Paul Tillich (Systematic Theology (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1951) Vol. 1, 60), through Shubert Ogden, David Tracey and others, 3-4.
2
The ‘Wesleyan quadrilateral’ of scripture, tradition, reason and experience is a term coined by Albert C Outler
to describe the theological method of John Wesley. It is notable for its inclusion especially of experience. The
Whitehead model, by combining tradition and scripture, essentially duplicates Wesley’s method. This method
has traveled into The Salvation Army as an ‘operational theology’ that honours the place of all four conversation
partners in practice, if not always in theory.
3
Pastoral education in particular has established usage of this framework of reflection.
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paradigms.4 Critical theory is particularly useful in Chapters two and three. Constructivist
and participatory paradigms are well suited to Chapter four. Each of the three enquiry
paradigms is useful throughout, and they are drawn together into constructive statement in
Chapter five. These naturalist paradigms stand in contrast to earlier positivist paradigms.
Narrative and poetic forms will be incorporated to complement the constructivist and
participatory methodology.
Consistent with naturalistic enquiry, the practical theology espoused, and the long instinctive
history of The Salvation Army, the theological style of this project is theology ‘from below’.
Such a style of theology, with recent history in theologians such as Friedrich Schleiermacher,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Paul Tillich,5 begins with lived experience in dialectic conversation
with the ‘other’ subject of inquiry. This hermeneutical style, championed more recently by
Hans-Georg Gadamer,6 is in contrast to theology ‘from above’, such as that expressed by (the
early) Karl Barth.
Chapter two establishes the historical and theological context of Salvation Army mission.
The voice of tradition incorporates the distinctive history and theology that marks The
Salvation Army, including its use of scripture, and will be developed principally in Chapters
two (Theology in Mission) and five (Luke 4:16-30, and emerging images of mission).
Yvonna S. Lincoln and Egon G. Guba, “Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions and Emerging
Confluences.” in Handbook of Qualitative Research, ed. Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (Thousand
Oaks, Ca: Sage, 2000). See especially tables, pp. 165, 166, 168, 170-173.
The basis of these paradigms is established in their earlier work, Naturalistic Enquiry, (New York: Sage, 1985).
Critical theory emphasizes suspicion in a hermeneutic circle of suspicion and retrieval.
Constructivist inquiry brings together related data and allows truth to be ‘constructed’, to emerge as it will from
the way that data is put together.
Participatory inquiry takes seriously the contention that some truth is available only to those ‘inside’ a situation
as participants. The objectivity of a detached observer brings valuable insight but may not access meaning
hidden within a culture. While Socratic wisdom teaches that the unexamined life is not worth living, Buddhist
teaching proposes that the unlived life is not worth examining. Western inquiry has been dominated by the
Socratic view, and emphasis is moving helpfully in postmodern times to include more fully the privileged
perspective of the participant.
5
As Paul Tillich affirms, religion is the essence of culture, culture the form of religion. Culture and religion are
always interdependent, with one always supporting and critiquing the other. Theology ‘from below’ works out
of this reality of interdependence.
6
Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Truth and Method, (New York: Crossroad Publishing, second revised edition, 1991).
4
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The Salvation Army is deeply marked by Arminianism, convinced that all people are
essentially free to choose their destiny in a theological sense, and able also to rise above
social determinism and make positive impact on the condition of the world.7
The Army was born into Evangelicalism, with lively emphasis on
conversionism, the belief that lives need to be changed; activism, the expression of the gospel in effort;
biblicism, a particular regard for the Bible; what may be called crucicentrism, stress on the sacrifice of
Christ on the cross.8
Of these characteristics “the expression of the gospel in effort”, with its conviction that
human agency is part of God’s mission in the world, is especially important within this study,
reflecting also the Army’s Wesleyan heritage.
Wesleyanism provides much of the theological ground for the germination and nurture of the
early Salvation Army.9 Especially important are elements identified by Theodore Runyon:
individual salvation always sits within the cosmic context of creation and re-creation,
essential humanity properly belongs in concrete existence and human partnership with divine
work in this world, and God actively and presently working to transform creation.10
From its origins in 1865 in the East End of London, and in its rapid spread through Britain
and the inhabited continents of the world, these formative marks have combined in ways that
express God’s care for the whole person and for all people within the circumstances of life
and society, as well as for the life to come. From its formative influences, and shaped further
by its mission context, The Salvation Army has gathered and expressed an understanding of
the transcendent within the circumstances of life that mark it in unique ways, marks that
continue to resonate positively in the hearts and minds of Australian people.
7
Lawson, John, Introduction to Christian Doctrine, (Kentucky: Francis Asbury Publishing, 1980), 216-7, offers
a brief summary of the importance of Arminianism in Evangelicalism and Wesleyanism. God’s relationship to
the created world is explored in the questions of Divine sovereignty and human agency raised in Arminian
debate, thus shaping missiology.
8
David W Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730's to the 1980's, (Grand
Rapids: Baker, 1989), 2-3.
9
See, for example, Roger J Green, War on Two Fronts: The Redemptive Theology of William Booth, (Atlanta:
The Salvation Army, 1989) , 10.
10
Theodore Runyon, Wesleyan Resources For Ecumenical Theology, J.D. Northey Lectures 1993, presented at
Theological Hall on 30th July, 6th and 10th August 1993, Melbourne, 11-15. See also Theodore Runyon, The New
Creation: John Wesley’s Theology Today, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998). The book emerges from the
lectures cited above.
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A project I convened over several years under the title Theology in Mission has been central
to renewed debate and articulation of Salvationist mission, strongly influencing both training
and the shaping of strategic framework within the Australia Southern Territory. Theology in
Mission work informs this thesis in two ways. Research and reflection on the processes and
transformative impact of this project for those involved will be a resource for further
discussion in Chapter four.
In Chapter two the content of Theology in Mission work,
outlining the distinctive identity forged within the Army’s historical and theological origins,
will provide resource and continuity necessary for the mission image best suited to the
circumstances of twenty first century Australia to emerge.
Chapter three gives voice to culture, the context external to The Salvation Army, the “spirit
of the age” modern and postmodern sensibilities, theological reflection, and social and
political circumstances, as they impact on the mission of God in the world.
The mission identity of The Salvation Army as outlined in Chapter two is also set alongside
two twentieth century ‘practical’ theologies in Chapter three.11 The Salvation Army has
typically been more active in practice rather than theological formulation, and as it seeks to
chart its future there is considerable benefit in dialogue with other practical theologies.
Dennis McCann compares and contrasts two such expressions in Christian Realism and
Liberation Theology,12 and these provide very useful reference points in clarifying and
articulating an Army perspective. In a time of growing postmodern sensibility it is useful to
compare and contrast these two expressions of practical theology, as they respond to the
questions and context from which postmodernism has emerged. McCann writes from a North
American Roman Catholic perspective in 1982. He enters a then current debate between
advocates of Reinhold Niebuhr’s expression of Christian realism and Gustavo Gutierrez’s
articulation of liberation theology. Each is passionate to ‘do’ theology in their context, to
provide a theological basis that not only makes sense of individual religious experience but
‘Practical’ theology is here used to denote a theology, formal or operational, that seeks to move us from our
experience of the transcendent – meeting the ineffable, wholly other, God alone – beyond personal experience
and into the political realm – the social, systemic, material. Used this way the term practical theology is distinct
from but relates to applied theology disciplines, “Field D”, often worked under the same title.
12
Dennis P McCann, Christian Realism and Liberation Theology: Practical Theologies in Creative Conflict,
(Maryknoll NY: Orbis, 1982)
11
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also names and critiques social realities and provides motivation for positive social change.
McCann explores the internal coherence and relative adequacy of these two expressions of
practical theology as an indication of their sustainability.
His analysis offers helpful
reference points for the Army’s more intuitive approach, an approach in grave danger of
subsiding into an individualized and otherworldly spirituality.
Experience has an honoured place in the Wesleyan/Salvationist history, and Chapter four will
research the lived experience of mission inherent in a range of services.
1. The first case study explores, through questionnaire, the personal impact of long-term
participation in the Theology in Mission focus group on individual members. The
outcomes of the work of this group have also fed directly into a mission values
statement and a strategy planner, each intended to support local planning across all
types of work, local corps, social services and administration, and assist mission
understanding and alignment.
Reference to these tools indicates their value for
incorporating a centralized denominational framework and mission image into local
planning.
2. An example of new forms of local mission, based in a shopfront in Reservoir,
Victoria, provides a second case study. This work began as youth worker and social
worker responses with students of a secondary school college, and is evolving
towards a worshipping community including students and their families. Research
will seek to uncover the cluster of mission images, implicit and explicit, that ground
this venture. A questionnaire directed to staff gathers data. Pictorial and poetic forms
have been incorporated as options for respondents. This research is effective in
proposing rich and sustainable mission images for The Salvation Army in the early
twenty first century, these images emerging largely out of response to local concerns
and interests.
3. The Salvation Army’s global team for community capacity development, in response
to HIV/AIDS, also expresses a cluster of mission images that emerges as foundational
for their work. I explore these mission images, from international, cross-cultural and
local interactions, for what they might suggest for the Army in Australia at this time.
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Chapter five includes a study of the mission of Jesus in the Gospel according to Luke, and
proceeds then to identify mission images suitable for The Salvation Army in the early part of
the twenty first century that emerge from the various voices of this inquiry.
Brendan Byrne, New Testament scholar and prominent Australian Jesuit, offers a reading of
Luke’s Gospel that presents a profound image of hospitality, the hospitality of God and
human response in hospitality to God and other people.13 A focus on Luke 4:16-30, and a
wider treatment of the theme of hospitality in this Gospel will set the scene for drawing
together the themes and directions indicated in Chapters two, three and four into a
constructive statement.
Brendan Byrne, The Hospitality of God: A Reading of Luke’s Gospel, Strathfield: St Pauls Publications,
2000).
13
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Chapter 1
1.1
Images of Salvationist Mission and a Framework for Inquiry
Introduction
What is the dominant mission image best suited to The Salvation Army in Australia in the
early decades of the twenty first century? This chapter outlines the personal context that has
presented and sharpened this question for me, and establishes a methodological framework
that will best allow suitable answers to emerge.
In September 1880 two men met by chance in the Pirie Street Methodist church in Adelaide.
Each had recently migrated from England, and each had been part of the Christian Mission.
William and Catherine Booth had joined this mission to the poor of the East End of London
in 1865, and soon come to lead it. In 1878 it was renamed The Salvation Army, and by 1880
had grown beyond its East End origins. It was about to explode onto the world scene.
These two men, John Gore and Edward Saunders agreed to meet that Sunday afternoon to
lead a public meeting in Adelaide’s Botanic Park. Two elements are recalled from this first
open air meeting of The Salvation Army in Australia, conducted from the back of Gore’s fruit
cart. One was the evangelical challenge in the words of the song “We’re traveling home to
heaven above, will you go?” The other was the invitation “If anyone has not had a meal
today, let him come home with me.”
This founding event functions as a programmatic statement of meaning and purpose, linking
the transcendent in daily experience. It speaks at depth of what it means to follow Jesus
within The Salvation Army. The compelling reason for the founding and ongoing existence
of The Salvation Army is in the way it expresses God’s care for the whole person, meeting
the transcendent in the daily, concrete experience of human life.
In these present days The Salvation Army has to work hard to retain a clear sense of its single
founding mission, particularly the elusive but essential connection of the spiritual and
physical that is necessary to faithful following after Jesus.
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“Christian mission gives expression to the dynamic relationship between God and the world,
…”
14
William and Catherine Booth, founders of The Salvation Army, would have raised a
resounding “Amen!” to this well made point of missiologist David Bosch. Not for them any
sense that God’s work is confined to the few, the elect, within the walls of secure and
comfortable church buildings.
Nor for them any suggestion that God the creator has
withdrawn from the physical world of time and space.
Yet The Salvation Army can so readily be drawn away from its founding vision. We who are
Salvationists can begin to live and work as though God has given up on the world, as though
God no longer loves it, no longer acts through us for its redemption. But the question cannot
be avoided: What is the dynamic relationship between God and the world, and what might
this mean for us?
Catherine Mumford and William Booth met when Edward Rabbits, a fervent Methodist,
enthusiastic for reform, invited them each to his house in 1851. Catherine and William
married in 1855, drawn by love and shared conviction into one of the remarkable marriages
of nineteenth century Britain.15 Together they forged a dynamic movement that sprang from
the streets and lanes of London’s East End, swept through the cities and countryside of
Britain, and spread rapidly across the continents of the world. This movement of the Spirit
was fired by a vision of God’s love and longing for the world, with emphasis on the
transformation of individuals and communities, in spiritual and material dimensions.
For The Salvation Army to retain and recapture its early effectiveness and vigor it is crucial
that we again explore and embody ways in which God relates with the world.
Practical theologies seek to move us from our experience of the transcendent – meeting the
ineffable, wholly other, God alone – beyond personal experience and into the political realm
– the social, systemic, material. In his excellent book Christian Realism & Liberation
Theology: Practical Theologies in Creative Conflict, Dennis McCann discusses, in his
14
David J Bosch, Transforming mission: paradigm shifts in theology of mission, (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1998), 9.
Roy Hattersley offers an engaging and incisive ‘outsiders’ view of this couple in his Blood and fire: William
and Catherine Booth and their Salvation Army, (London: Little, Brown and Company, 1999). Hattersley as an
agnostic outsider is impressed by the Booths’ impact on their world.
15
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introduction, issues for practical theology. “The most important of these is the nature of
religious transcendence and its role in Christian social action.”16
Booth, Bosch and McCann speak with one voice, directing The Salvation Army in Australia
towards a mission image that will sustain The Salvation Army in the 21st Century.
1.2
Personal Context
I have carried the basic question of this project, matching the mission identity of The
Salvation Army to daily ministry, through more than twenty-five years as a Salvation Army
Officer. At different times the question has emerged with greater urgency.
A two-year appointment to the Sunshine, Victoria, corps from 1979 placed my wife Laurel
and me deep into the complexities and joys of holistic mission, as we developed a wider team
approach to local church ministry in a high needs area. This particular experience deepened
in a larger setting at Ingle Farm, South Australia, from 1993 to 1997. Between these years
we engaged the task of broadening the horizons of more insular and inward looking
congregations, with varying degrees of success.
Two appointments within the Officer Training College, 1982–84, and 1997-99 as Training
Principal, required and allowed deeper reflection on the nature of Salvationist mission. An
appointment as Territorial Mission Strategy Secretary, 2000-02, further sharpened and
brought an acute urgency to the question. As Secretary for Personnel I have been responsible
for deployment of officers, human resource issues, and education and training across the
Australia Southern Territory. The question of God’s involvement in the world has continued
throughout this period of ministry.
I grew up as an OK – an officer’s kid - the third of five. This meant partnership with parents
in their calling as they invested themselves fully in the people and the task, both parents
trained and commissioned. Like the remembered traditions around Gore and Saunders two
episodes are remembered from a two-year term in Albany, Western Australia.
16
Dennis P McCann, Christian Realism & Liberation Theology: Practical Theologies in Creative Conflict,
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1981), 4.
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Dad would leave early for the Sunday evening meeting. The four older children would walk
later the few blocks from our quarters with Mum, each required to hold either to the pram
carrying the fifth or to one another, to the customary Salvation Meeting. It was in one of
these meetings that I felt my heart strangely warmed, even as a five year old, in response to
the revivalist type appeal that followed the preaching.
In the words of existentialist
theologian Paul Tillich I heard God’s pronouncement “you are accepted”, a beginning of selfconscious Christian life. This has been an abiding experience of being at home in God that
has shaped most of what follows.
It was also in this officers' quarters, 56 Earl Street, on a steep hill overlooking King George’s
Sound, that we welcomed “tramps”, transients needing a bed and a meal. They came from
time to time, directed by word of mouth and possibly even a coded marker indicating ‘help
available here’. An extra meal was served and a bed established in the space under the house.
Usually this guest attended to some tasks around the house, weeding, tidying, and on one
notable occasion beheading and plucking a couple of donated chickens. While never part of
the family as such these people were none-the-less received and engaged with as people.
Five young children were learning by osmosis and by evidence what it means to be The
Salvation Army.
Having trained and practised as a civil engineer I entered the two-year residential Officer
Training College program in response to my own sense of call into ministry. A year after
commissioning I began BD studies, squeezed part time into the stretching and busy life of a
Corps Officer. It seemed appropriate to study theology at the same level as my preparation
for former life. Likewise M Min studies have worked to integrate the practice of ministry
along the way. The Uses of Scripture in The Salvation Army as a supervised research project
tested the impact of my application of historical critical method, and the place of the
scriptures generally in the lives of Salvationists. This supervised research project has been
profoundly useful for me in grappling with the wider ministry task.
More recently I have been appointed to what can be best described as episcopal leadership
within the Army. The oversight task requires a different approach, shaping the response of
others in leadership. The D Min project will assist me to reflect on the creative difference of
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this leadership context while addressing the central task of the mission identity of The
Salvation Army in the twenty first century.
1.3
The Context in The Salvation Army
The project is of importance in that the founding vision and mission of The Salvation Army
needs to be communicated in each new generation, especially so in times of profound and
rapid change.
During the past twenty years, social services in the Australia Southern
Territory have multiplied in financial turnover, number of centres and programmes.
Meanwhile our corps operations have decreased when measured as numbers of soldiers,
attendance and number of corps.
This divergence in scale has been compounded by
divergence in mission perspectives, to the point where the one mission of The Salvation
Army is in danger of fragmenting into narrower social, corps and even administrative
‘missions’. Growing professionalisation of social services – needed, but perhaps taken up
uncritically – has widened the gap between corps and social. Corps have struggled to invent
and adapt new forms that express old truths in contemporary style, and the apparent success
of
‘Pentecostal’ styles threatens the understanding and practice of the holistic mission
foundations. Administrative systems, centrally designed and managed, continually threaten
to overtake mission clarity.
Brief analysis of statistics on officers, soldiers and employees in the Australia Southern
Territory highlights the urgency for a clear and coherent mission identity to be broadly and
deeply owned. Thirty years ago officers, drawn by calling and conviction from within the
faith community and trained in Salvation Army life and mission, made up approximately
eighty per cent of the paid workforce. Officers now comprise ten per cent of the workforce.
Employees, while valued as mission partners, do not necessarily come from within a
Salvationist or other Christian faith community.
Furthermore, the official membership
(number of Soldiers) of those in the faith communities (Corps), about ten thousand in
number, is trending downwards towards the rising number of employees, currently about six
thousand. These figures should not be misused to denigrate the contribution of employee
mission partners. However, the underlying mission capacity, expressive of the essential
holistic mission of The Salvation Army, is in danger of dilution to a point that threatens
identity and even ongoing existence. Persuasive images of mission must be expressed, so
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that those within the faith community will be inspired in their belonging and so that other
mission partners might understand and deepen their belonging within the whole mission.
Symptoms of dissatisfaction, sometimes healthy, have manifested themselves regularly from
within the Army over recent decades. In response annual campaigns have been launched
from Territorial Headquarters at the instigation of the then current Territorial Commander
around a catchy theme. For example “Go For It!” set numerical growth targets and sought to
cultivate a ‘can do’ mentality, and “Christ for the World” urged an outward focus. “Thrust
19__” was fortunately cancelled before launch! While these campaigns have offered some
useful foci, they have met increasing cynicism, especially with the expectation of something
different in twelve months time, or with the change of Territorial Commander, whichever
came sooner. They have also suffered from a lack of clearly expressed, comprehensive and
deep articulation of mission and ministry image. Campaign themes mean what the hearer
thinks they mean, and cry out for a deeper statement of identity and mission.
During the 1980’s the Territory began to adopt a Church Growth model, arising largely from
Fuller Theological Seminary based in California. This response reflected a deep concern that
was raised by the declining numerical strength of the worship life and membership
(Soldiership) of the Territory. Patterns of church life were adopted, largely uncritically, and
crucially lacking in a clear expression of Salvationist identity and mission. It seemed enough
to cry “more people”.
The motivation appeared to be survival rather than service,
maintenance rather than mission. Nor was there any understanding expressed of mission
within social services, except to bemoan the lack of apparent conversion growth from social
services. We still lacked a comprehensive image of mission that galvanized all areas of
operation, Corps, social services, and administration.
In the late 1990’s Future Search produced a five point action cycle: prayerful reflection;
develop vision; accept responsibility; seek solutions; action. The Future Search process also
recognized the need for a comprehensive articulation of mission to speak clearly to the vast
variety of stakeholders. The Theology in Mission focus group, one subject of investigation
within this project, has begun to address this obvious need for a comprehensive statement of
mission.
The impact of Theology in Mission is substantial, and this will be further
investigated in Chapter four. The work of this focus group is far from complete.
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Four successive Territorial Commanders have now embraced Future Search, with the third of
these promoting the implementation steps under a new, though related title, Future Now!
Future Now! processes include a Strategy Planner, naming the central strategic intent of the
Australia Southern Territory, and outlining the nine identified strategic activities, to be
addressed by all centres, calculated to best deliver the strategic intentions. A consistent usage
of a more adequate framework addresses some of the cynicism around these centrally
planned processes.
Over the last eight or so years models and principles from Willow Creek have been imported,
but all too often without appreciating its ‘middle America’ context and its truncated (for
Salvation Army purposes) image of mission.
Natural Church Development, with its deliberate Trinitarian basis, currently offers a useful
tool for analyzing and developing the health of local congregational (Corps) life. Internally
the Territory is developing a tool, “Triple P”, to monitor programme, planning and
performance in social programmes. The hope that the Strategy Planner would provide a
comprehensive tool to align all areas of operation is dimming as it finds resistance, especially
in social programmes, and somewhat in administrative centres.
These important matters of history and current context will be developed in more detail in
Chapter two, and provide subject matter for research in Chapter four. Together they present
the urgent need for a Salvationist image of mission with life and power for the early decades
of the twenty first century.
1.4
Research Model
As outlined above, the well-established paradigm of James and Evelyn Whitehead provides
an overall structure for this study, bringing together three conversation partners, tradition,
culture and experience.
- 14 -
The Whiteheads build on Paul Tillich’s theological method of correlation, “existential
questions and theological answers in mutual interdependence”.
17
“Conversation, with its
possibilities for interruption, disagreement and surprise, seems a more adequate image” than
the detached sense of correlation.18 The rules of conversation apply: a communal exercise,
neither monologue nor lecture; listen with respect; be willing to defend your position, and
willing to change it if the evidence requires such; and converse as a normal part of life, not
just in emergencies.
The Whiteheads offer both a model and a method for theological reflection on Christian
ministry.
The model of three conversation partners, tradition, culture and experience,
provides the framework of this thesis. Their method of pastoral action, attending, moving to
assertion, and then to pastoral response, is appropriate for their ministry interests, but is
replaced in this project with the tools of critical theory, constructivism and participant
research, as described in 1.5 below.
1.4.1 Tradition
This thesis also adapts the Whitehead’s usage of religious tradition as a conversation partner.
Tradition includes the sum of scriptures, church councils, theological statements, pastoral
guidelines, indeed all of Christian history, with its many and diverse voices, giving witness to
God’s mysterious presence in the world.
In narrowing the focus of this thesis to The
Salvation Army, it is appropriate to narrow the category “tradition” to refer to The Salvation
Army, its history and theology and practice. However Army tradition is pluriform, even
within the still narrower confines of Australia. The conversation partner labeled “tradition” is
a textured voice comprising the variety typical of middle-aged institutions in this part of the
world. An important example of this texture is the contrast, often bemoaned and sometimes
documented, between the two Australian Territories of The Salvation Army, with one
characterized as left-wing, liberal and somewhat anti-authority, and the other a mirror image,
right-wing, evangelical and bureaucratic. It seems siblings need to be different, and when
there are only two they must appear to be opposite!
17
18
See Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951) Vol. 1, 60.
Whitehead, Method in Ministry, 4.
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In line with Method in Ministry, tradition does include the use of scripture as word of God
arising from within the community of faith. Historically the Army gives an honoured place
to scripture. Indeed, the first of the eleven articles of faith place the scriptures at the forefront
of God’s self-revelation.19 Again there is considerable diversity in usage of scripture within
The Salvation Army, as readers move from marks on a page to authoritative meaning and
transforming effect.20
1.4.2 Experience
While ascribing a privileged position to religious heritage, James and Evelyn Whitehead
suggest that experience instigates the conversation.
The importance of experience is a
consistent thread throughout this research project, with a constructivist epistemology and a
theological method ‘from below’. Experience is further reinforced in an intuited action
reflection style implicit within the ways of working of The Salvation Army, giving priority in
order and weight to action. There are perils in this starting point, principally self-deception,
appearing as narrow self-interest that is really monologue rather than conversation with the
‘other’.
Skilled listening and awareness is needed in all conversations, including the
conversation we have reflecting on our own experience.
However, the reality is that our experience impacts deeply on all our knowing. The impact of
experience will be developed further in 1.5 below. An example at this point is useful. An
officer more senior in years enquired what I was up to one day as I prepared an ethics class
on marriage and divorce. Expecting a somewhat conservative response, I was surprised and
pleased (on one level!) to hear: “I used to think differently, until my own daughter was
divorced.” This man had allowed his experience into what he formerly knew on this subject,
19
Article 1: “We believe that the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God,
and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.” (See Salvation Story, (London:
The Salvation Army, 1998) p. ix. This statement of faith appears in the earliest formulations of Salvation Army
doctrine and in the 1878 Deed Poll establishing The Salvation Army as a legal entity (see Earl Robinson
emailed draft of an entry on The International Doctrine Council submitted for Historical Dictionary of The
Salvation Army). A more recent formulation of doctrine that was not finally approved, for reasons including the
difficulty of changing the Deed Poll, adapts this wording and relocates the statement to follow ten articles of
faith, with introduction:
These Doctrines we affirm because:
We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God and
that they are the only divine rule of Christian faith and practice.
20
The Uses of Scripture in The Salvation Army was my subject of investigation in an earlier Master of Ministry,
and argued that the scriptures are a primary shaping and sustaining influence upon The Salvation Army, but
often in an indirect or mediated usage.
- 16 -
and was able to change his position.
Personal and pastoral reality influenced earlier
conviction.
The Whiteheads trace the ancient Christian notion of sensus fidelium, ‘the sense of the
faithful’, an instinctual grasp of faith that brings together religious heritage and contemporary
experience. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral (see below) also draws experience into conversation
with scripture and tradition. The local church, a social action group, an individual, and entire
denominations of the Church are more than passive receptacles of a religious past.
Experience has its own authority, whether acknowledged or not. A further example of the
place of experience in the theological conversation is the formation of the scriptures
themselves. They do not ‘fall from heaven’, neither are they dug from the ground as golden
tablets. Rather they tell the story of faith already experienced, faith experienced giving rise
to the scriptures, and these scriptures then serve to create, sustain and guide faith.
We have the choice of conversing well or badly with experience, we cannot pretend to be
unaffected by it. When we attend well to experience we will bring individual experience to
the test of communal reflection, we will hear a range of modes of discourse, we will listen for
missing voices, especially those from the ‘underside’ of society, and we will be nourished by
and speak to the sensus fidelium.
1.4.3 Culture
Culture is both pervasive and invisible, the air that surrounds and supports us. We tend to
remain unaware of it, though never unaffected by it. Culture functions like water supports a
fish, influencing every aspect of life, with the fish being unaware of the water until removed
from it. Culture speaks with many voices, with both positive and negative impact.
Recognizing this essential component (1) alerts us to culture’s role in shaping human experience, (2)
acknowledges the mutual critique of tradition and culture, and (3) encourages the community of faith to
actively engage cultural information and resources in its mission and ministry.21
Semiotics reminds us that reality does not exist as raw data, and that culture shapes
experience. Even the frames through which we name and understand experience are given by
culture.
21
“Gaining perspective on our assumptive world is not easy, because these
Whitehead, 55.
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assumptions are the lenses through which we view life. Reflection asks us to look at rather
than look through these lenses.”22 Our experience of the world is profoundly shaped by
culture.
Christian tradition is likewise shaped by culture. Christianity Rediscovered: An Epistle from
the Masai is powerful illustration that Christian tradition never comes free of cultural
wrapping.23 Liberation Theology reminds us that things are different when viewed from the
sociological underside, and stands as an example that culture and tradition require ongoing
mutual critique. This mutual critique often rouses high passions.24 Such emotions are
routinely stirred within The Salvation Army when the questions of the transcendent within
the world are explored: Is there a rightful place for non-Christian staff in Salvationist
mission? Is mission bringing people in, going out to people, or meeting God in people? Is it
proper to partner with government?
The connection between tradition and culture
cannot be simply dichotomized. God does not abide unambiguously in the Christian tradition nor
Mammon in culture. God’s presence in the world is not restricted within the confines of
denominational life; God’s action can be discerned in cultural life as well as an explicitly religious
heritage. Thus culture remains an ambiguous environment, incorporating values and structures inimical
to the best insights of the religious tradition as well as insights and resources that support the tradition’s
continuing purification and growth. 25
Three directions for the conversation between culture and tradition are proposed, (somewhat
reminiscent of H Richard Niebuhr’s analysis24):
a. the religious tradition challenges culture, as in Christianity’s prophetic role
22
Ibid. 56.
Vincent Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered: An Epistle from the Masai, (London: SCM, 1982). Donovan
eventually discovers the power of hearing and adopting the forms of local culture to name the experience of the
transcendent he shared with the Masai, a people he had previously presumed to evangelize in a culture-free, and
therefore ineffective, manner. “In the end, the lion is God.” 63. God is present in existing cultural forms, and
while we imagine that we are the lion that hunts and embraces God, in fact it is God who is the lion.
24
H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, Harper, San Francisco, 2001. Originally published in 1951, this
sketch of five typical responses of faith to culture: Christ against culture; The Christ of culture; Christ above
culture; Christ and culture in paradox; and Christ the transformer of culture; offers, in the words of James M.
Gustafson, “an ideal-typical study of theological ideas drawn from the history of Christian thought”, xxxiv. In
this preface to the 2001 anniversary edition, Gustafson responds to many subsequent critics of H R Niebuhr to
affirm, “It will continue to be studied because it will always help to understand alternative responses to a
fundamental theological issue, including most interestingly, the alternatives chosen by its vocal critics, xxxv.
He introduces the Preface by citing one pair of critics, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon in their book
Resident Aliens: “Few books have been a greater hindrance to an accurate assessment of our situation than
Christ and Culture.” xxi.
25
Whitehead, 57.
23
- 18 -
b. the religious tradition is challenged by the culture, with examples such as civil rights
movements in the USA, the international women’s movement, and post-colonialism
c. the religious tradition engages the resources of culture in pursuit of its own religious
mission, incorporating such disciplines as philosophy, political theory, social sciences
and other religious traditions.
The Whiteheads continue:
For two thousand years the followers of Jesus have continued this debate concerning the peril and hope
of living in the world. Two powerful temptations repeatedly sweep through Christian life. The first is
the desire to abandon the world and find a more perfect life elsewhere, perhaps in the desert, perhaps
after death. The second is the illusory ambition to bring culture into such conformity with the gospel
that a Christian state will be produced. Both longings defeat the tension that seems an indispensable
aspect of following Christ in our time. 26
Tradition and culture cannot be dichotomized. Indeed, the three conversation partners are not
discrete or disconnected, rather “theological reflection names an ongoing process of both
mutual construction and mutual critique.”27 Any model simplifies reality in order to help
clarity. The strength of using a model, along with the attendant risks is illustrated helpfully:
… separating out three poles of pastoral reflection is something like stopping a propeller to examine its
component parts. When an aircraft is in flight, the blades of the propeller are invisible to the human
eye. If you want to see the components (in our airplane example, the blades) we have to stop the
process (the flight). To be sure, this static view gives only a partial understanding of how an aircraft
flies. But looking closely at the components can expand our awareness of the critical elements in the
process. So the tri-polar model attempts to clarify the process … by looking closely at three essential
components.
But distinguishing these components runs the risk of implying that each pole is actually discrete and
disconnected from the others. The truth of the matter is otherwise; … 28
This research model, comprising three conversation partners resonates with the Wesleyan
heritage received by The Salvation Army, and adopted as methodological practice. Albert C
Outler, an eminent Wesley historian, coined the term “Wesleyan quadrilateral” during the
period immediately following the union of the Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist
Churches in the United States in 1968.29 Outler writes:
26
Ibid. 62.
Ibid. 55.
28
Ibid.
29
http://www.gbod.org/smallgroup/covenant/spring03/foursome.html Elaine A Robinson, Our Formative
Foursome: The Wesleyan Quadrilateral and Postmodern Discipleship. [accessed 5 May 2004]
27
- 19 -
Thus, we can see in Wesley a distinctive theological method, with Scripture as its pre-eminent norm
but interfaced with tradition, reason and Christian experience as dynamic and interactive aids in the
interpretation of the Word of God as Scripture. …
This complex method, with its fourfold reference, is a good deal more sophisticated than it appears, and
could be more fruitful for contemporary theologizing than has yet been realized. It preserves the
primacy of Scripture, it profits from the wisdom of tradition, it accepts the disciplines of critical reason,
and its stress on the Christian experience of grace gives it existential force. 30
Outler reveals some of the tensions produced by the identification of this framework, perhaps
explaining his careful elevation of the primacy of scripture in the face of many challengers to
the quadrilateral:
There is another sense, however, in which the notion of Wesley as the man of "one book only" is
patently absurd. He read voraciously and in all genres. He had a special fondness for "the Fathers" of
the early centuries. He thought that the Greek theologians had understood the Gospel more profoundly
and therapeutically than their Latin counterparts. He came at the Fathers with an Anglican bias (he had
been at Oxford in the twilight of a great age of patristic scholarship), in the tradition of Richard Field,
Henry Hammond and Simon Patrick. He was not in the least intimidated by learned detractors of
patristic wisdom (like Jean Daille and Conyers Middleton).
What Wesley learned most from the Eastern fathers was the rich notion of the Christian life as a
participation in the divine (i.e., salvation as the restoration of the ruined image of God in the human
soul). …31
He affirms the value of the quadrilateral:
The term "quadrilateral" does not occur in the Wesley corpus—and more than once, I have regretted
having coined it for contemporary use, since it has been so widely misconstrued. But if we are to
accept our responsibility for seeking intellecta for our faith, in any other fashion than a "theological
system" or, alternatively, a juridical statement of "doctrinal standards," then this method of a conjoint
recourse to the fourfold guidelines of Scripture, tradition, reason and experience, may hold more
promise for an evangelical and ecumenical future than we have realized as yet—by comparison, for
example, with biblicism, or traditionalism, or, rationalism, or empiricism. It is far more valid than the
reduction of Christian authority to the dyad of "Scripture" and "experience" (so common in Methodist
ranks today). The "quadrilateral" requires of a theologian no more than what he or she might
reasonably be held accountable for: which is to say, a familiarity with Scripture that is both critical and
faithful; plus, an acquaintance with the wisdom of the Christian past; plus, a taste for logical analysis as
something more than a debater’s weapon; plus, a vital, inward faith that is upheld by the assurance of
grace and its prospective triumphs, in this life. 32
Over the last ten years the “Wesleyan quadrilateral” has been discussed actively in Salvation
Army journals, with appreciation of its value for naming Salvationist theological
methodology. While these categories are not identical to those proposed by James and
30
http://wesley.nnu.edu/WesleyanTheology/theojrnl/16-20/20-01.htm Albert C Outler, The Wesleyan
Quadrilateral – In John Wesley. [accessed 5 May 2004]
31
Ibid.
32
Ibid.
- 20 -
Evelyn Whitehead, they do indicate within Salvationist/Wesleyan heritage a very similar
framework, notably including experience.
I recall the central issue of this research project: What is the dynamic relationship between
God and the world, and what might this mean for us? What image of mission will best
inform and sustain The Salvation Army in the early twenty first century? The research model
of three conversation partners, tradition, culture and experience offers a suitable framework
for inquiry. Our attention now turns to a methodology and epistemology suited to this form
of inquiry.
1.5
Research Methodology
Within this thesis the above conversation partners will be developed by applying a mix of
naturalistic inquiry methods, including critical theory, constructivist and participatory
paradigms.
Lincoln and Guba have established a strong case for naturalistic inquiry in their work of the
same title.33 They identify three “paradigm eras”, prepositivist, positivist and postpositivist,
with the second and third of most interest. Positivism emerges as a movement early in the
nineteenth century, primarily in France and Germany. Twentieth century advocates gathered
under the banner of logical positivism and impacted heavily on scientific method. Logical
positivism operates on the assumption that reality is objective, and can be accessed through a
method that accounts for influencing factors.
Elements of positivism are summarized
‘negatively’ in the following critique, published in 1985:
Positivism rests upon at least five assumptions that are increasingly difficult to maintain. These five
assumptions capture the most salient aspects included in the various definitions of positivism that have
already been reviewed, and will form the basis for the counterproposals that are the basis of this book:

An ontological assumption of a single, tangible reality “out there” that can be broken apart into
pieces capable of being studied independently; the whole is simply the sum of the parts.

An epistemological assumption about the possibility of separation of the observer from the
observed – the knower from the known.

An assumption of the temporal and contextual independence of observations, so that what is true in
one time and place may, under appropriate circumstances (such as sampling) also be true at
another time and place.

An assumption of linear causality; there are no effects without causes and no causes without
effects.
33
Yvonna S. Lincoln and Egon G. Guba, Naturalistic Enquiry, (New York: Sage, 1985)
- 21 -

An axiological assumption of value freedom, that is, that the methodology guarantees that the
results of an inquiry are essentially free from the influence of any value system (bias).
The consequences of these several critiques of positivism are sufficiently telling and widely
appreciated that a significant number of vanguard scientists have abandoned that paradigm and moved
into the postpositivist era.34
Some would insist that postpositivism is an overreaction, a realignment of the positivist
paradigm. However the challenge within science remains, and the challenge to the scientific
positivistic paradigm as it has dominated other fields, such as social inquiry, has firmly
established the naturalist alternative in many schools of thought. Put briefly, there are other
ways of knowing beyond the offerings of positivism. Songwriter and former General of The
Salvation Army, Albert Orsborn (1886-1967) expresses the existential need to know in
deeper ways in a much loved and often used hymn: “The mind cannot show what the heart
longs to know/ nor comfort a people distressed.” 35
Lincoln and Guba, writing in 1985, offer a succinct contrast of the two paradigms in tabular
form:36
Table 1.1 Contrasting Positivist and Naturalist Axioms
Axioms About
Positivist Paradigm
The nature of reality
Reality is single, tangible, and
fragmentable.
The relationship of the knower Knower
and
known
are
to the known
independent, a dualism.
The possibility of causal There
are
real
causes,
linkages
temporally precedent to or
simultaneous with their effects.
The Role of values
Inquiry is value-free.
Naturalist Paradigm
Realities
are
multiple,
constructed, and holistic.
Knower
and
known
are
interactive, inseparable.
All entities are in a state of
mutual, simultaneous shaping,
so that it is impossible to
distinguish causes from effects.
Inquiry is value-bound.
Each of these axioms is given a chapter for expanded treatment in this seminal work, and
each has wide-ranging implications for the doing of research.
Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Guba combine again in Handbook of Qualitative Research (2nd
edition, 2000), to offer their maturing outcomes. Six years after the first edition of this work,
they comment on the explosion of qualitative research approaches, and the blurring of genres.
34
Ibid. 28.
The Song Book of The Salvation Army, The Salvation Army, London, 1986, song number 527. The chorus
poses the repeated question: Except I am moved with compassion,/ How dwelleth thy Spirit in me? Along with
Paul Tillich existence poses the question, and answers require more than positivist responses can provide. Such
verse is indicative of Salvationist theological method.
36
Yvonna S. Lincoln and Egon G. Guba, Naturalistic Enquiry, 37.
35
- 22 -
Each “methodology is inevitably interwoven with and emerges from the nature of particular
disciplines … and particular perspectives … ”.37 Their earlier Naturalist Paradigm now
includes not only Postpositivism but also Critical Theory, Constructivism, and
Participatory/Collaborative approaches, Table 6.3 reproduced on following page:38
Yvonna S. Lincoln and Egon G. Guba, “Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions and emerging
Confluences.” 163-4.
38
Ibid. 168.
37
- 23 -
Table 6.3 Basic Belief of Alternate Inquiry Paradigms – Updated
Issue
Positivism
Postpositivsm
Ontology
Naïve realism –
“real” reality but
apprehandable
Critical realism –
“real” reality but
only imperfectly
and
probabilistically
apprehendable
Epistemology
Dualist/
objectivist;
findings true
Modified dualist/
objectivist;
critical tradition/
community;
findings probably
true
Methodology
Experimental/
manipulative;
verification of
hypotheses;
chiefly
quantitative
methods
Modified
experimental/
manipulative;
critical
multiplism;
falsification of
hypotheses; may
include
qualitative
methods
Critical
Theory et al.
Historical
realism –
virtual reality
shaped by
social,
political,
cultural,
economic,
ethnic, and
gender values
crystallized
over time
Transactional/
subjectivist;
valuemediated
findings
Constructivism
Dialogic/
dialectic
Hermeneutic/
dialectic
Relativism –
local and
specific
constructed
realities
Transactional/
subjectivist;
created
findings
Participatory
*
Participative
reality –
subjectiveobjective
reality,
cocreated by
mind and
given
cosmos
Critical
subjectivity
in
participatory
transaction
with cosmos;
extended
epistemology
of
experiential,
prepositional
and practical
knowing;
cocreated
findings
Political
participation
in
collaborative
action
inquiry;
primacy of
the practical;
use of
language
grounded in
shared
experiential
learning
* Entries in this column are based on Heron and Reason (1997) 39
While detailed discussion of the above chart is beyond the scope of this project, some
implications are immediately applicable to this study. Critical theory finds a primary place in
the exploration of Salvationist tradition, its history, theology and relationship to other mission
exponents, as well as its place within wider culture. Constructivism and participatory inquiry
39
Heron, J.& Reason, P. (1997). 'A participatory inquiry paradigm', Qualitative Inquiry, 3 (3), 274-294.
- 24 -
are well matched to the investigation of Shop 16, the International Health Team, and
participants in the work of the Theology in Mission focus group.
Lincoln and Guba proceed to develop implications of these five paradigm positions for seven
selected issues. Again, this encyclopedic work is beyond the scope of this study. However
some treatment of epistemology, from Table 6.3 above, is justified.
1.6
Epistemology
The choice of research method is directed by the nature of the knowledge that is sought.
Epistemology explores the nature, reliability and limits of human knowledge.
We can trace a history of epistemology and discern a trend “… from a static, passive view of
knowledge towards a more and more adaptive and active one.”40
Heylighen comments further, seeking to address the difficulty of “absolute relativism”:
… constructivism … assumes that all knowledge is built up from scratch by the subject of knowledge.
… the danger with constructivism is that it may lead to relativism, to the idea that any model
constructed by a subject is as good as any other and that there is no way to distinguish adequate or 'true'
knowledge from inadequate or 'false' knowledge.
We can distinguish two approaches trying to avoid such an ‘absolute relativism'. The first may be
called individual constructivism. It assumes that an individual attempts to reach coherence among the
different pieces of knowledge. Constructions that are inconsistent with the bulk of other knowledge that
the individual has will tend to be rejected. Constructions that succeed in integrating previously
incoherent pieces of knowledge will be maintained. The second, to be called social constructivism, sees
consensus between different subjects as the ultimate criterion to judge knowledge. 'Truth' or 'reality'
will be accorded only to those constructions on which most people of a social group agree. 41
This thesis selects a research model of three conversation partners, both to enable possible
creative/constructive outcomes to emerge, and “to reach coherence” for myself as well as to
establish a validity that will not “tend to be rejected”.
40
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/EPISTEMI.html Author: F. Helighen in 1993, [accessed 6/5/04]. This article
presents a brief and accessible summary of the theory of knowledge, from Plato through positivism, to
constructivism and onto ‘memetics’ – the transmission of knowledge, memes, from one subject to another
independently of any single individual. Thus the meme survives the death of an individual carrier. Heylighen
proposes this latest form, labeled evolutionary epistemology, as an alternative to the “absolutist (nature of
constructivist theories) in the primacy they give to either social consensus or internal coherence… A more broad
or synthetic outlook is offered by different forms … evolutionary epistemology. Here it is assumed that
knowledge is constructed by the subject or group of subjects in order to adapt to their environment in the broad
sense.”
41
Ibid.
- 25 -
The choice to employ a methodology combining critical theory, constructivism and
participatory/cooperative paradigms is made for the reasons set out in Table 6.3 above, and
reduced here for clarity:
Issue
Ontology
Epistemology
Critical Theory et al.
Historical realism – virtual
reality shaped by social,
political, cultural, economic,
ethnic, and gender values
crystallized over time
Transactional/ subjectivist;
value-mediated findings
Constructivism
Relativism – local
and specific
constructed realities
Participatory
Participative reality – subjectiveobjective reality, cocreated by mind
and given cosmos
Transactional/
subjectivist; created
findings
Critical subjectivity in participatory
transaction with cosmos; extended
epistemology of experiential,
prepositional and practical knowing;
cocreated findings
Critical theory is useful because it explores the values inherent in a situation, and is
applicable to all the research foci of this thesis.
Constructivism takes seriously the
possibilities latent but undiscovered in a situation, and encourages their emergence, and is
likewise applicable. Participatory/cooperative methodology, along with constructivism, is at
the heart of community capacity development approaches, established in many parts of the
non-Western world and beginning to be taken up in places such as Australia. Each of the
three inquiry paradigms is useful throughout, and they are drawn together into constructive
statement in Chapter five. Narrative and poetic forms are appropriate to complement the
constructivist and participatory methodology, and will be adopted as possible and suitable
within the research.
These approaches connect directly to the hermeneutical interests of my Master of Ministry
research. While the focus there was on the text of scripture, ‘text’ covers the range of all
experiences. From my earlier Master of Ministry research I quote a discussion incorporating
insights from Paul Ricoeur, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Anthony Thistelton, Meir Sternberg and
others:
Suspicion takes us behind the text. Retrieval allows us into the issue of the text.
- 26 -
This double function of hermeneutics is central. For Ricoeur, the hermeneutic task is far larger than
explaining the text, although this critical task is always necessary. It is a quest for understanding new
modes of being, possible worlds in the text, worlds which have the capacity to transform us. 42
The issue of the text requires us to overcome our distance from it, we must meet it on its terms.
At the same time we must recognise who we are and where we are coming from.
We must have our own horizon in order to be able to transpose ourselves into a situation.43
Transposing ourselves consists neither in the empathy of one individual for another, nor in
subordinating another person to our own standard; rather, it always involves rising to a higher
universality that overcomes not only our own particularity but also that of the other.44 45
And finally:
… the practice of ministry is applied hermeneutics. In preaching, teaching, counseling and
administering, our understanding of what is happening, as meaning is transferred between people, or
between a text and a person, profoundly shapes the content and outcome of the exchange. Our
hermeneutical style shapes and gives substance to the ministry outcomes. In the words of Marshall
McCluhan, “the medium is the message”. 46
The insights I gathered, focused in the conclusion “the practice of ministry is applied
hermeneutics,” contribute to and support my choice of model and methodology for this
present research. Emerging images of Salvationist mission will express and create new
modes of being and possible new worlds.
1.7
Theological Model
Brief comment suffices at this point to highlight the consistency, necessarily present, between
research model and methodology, and the theological style that sits within this one project, as
a theological style that works “from below”. This style is well matched to a postmodern
mindset. It is also important that such a style suits and matches my own preferred way of
working.
Furthermore, The Salvation Army, in continuity with its Wesleyan heritage,
stresses the experience and assurance of faith, confirming a “from below” theological
method. With all of these correspondences in place, it is doubly important that the warnings
around the inherent weaknesses of this style be understood and addressed.
42
Campbell, Craig, The Uses of Scripture in The Salvation Army, unpublished thesis submitted to the
Melbourne College of Divinity, 1995, 46.
43
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 305.
44
Ibid.
45
Campbell, 53.
46
Ibid. 58.
- 27 -
Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century the touchstone for style of theological
method was the debate between Friedrich Schleiermacher and Karl Barth. Schleiermacher,
responded to religion’s “cultured despisers” to argue that Christianity is an individual’s
personal “feelings of dependence” on God. He in turn has been accused of making religion
invulnerable to attack by turning it into a purely subjective experience.
The influential neoorthodox movement of early-20th-century theology, particularly as
represented by Karl Barth, developed partly in reaction to Schleiermacher, stating that
Schleiermacher led the great defection whereby liberal theology focused on human
potentiality and religiosity at the expense of God's own reality, majesty, and grace.
Barth was profoundly disillusioned by the emptiness of his own liberal training as preparation
for the pastorate and for the horrors of trench warfare while serving as a chaplain in the Great
War. Barth’s revolution was one of method and one that saw him lay a whole new
foundation, approaching theology “from above” in contrast to the anthropologically centered
approach of Schleiermacher. God could only be known through God’s self-revelation.
The principal emphasis in Barth's work, known as neoorthodoxy and crisis theology, is on the
sinfulness of humanity, God's absolute transcendence, and the human inability to know God except
through revelation. … Barth saw the task of the church as that of proclaiming the "good word" of God
and as serving as the "place of encounter" between God and mankind (sic). Barth regarded all human
activity as being under the judgment of that encounter. 47
Barth’s answer to the question of this research project is a brief and comprehensive one: The
church is “the ‘place of encounter’ between God and mankind.” However, this answer leaves
too many people excluded, and does not include any sense of missio dei, God at large in the
world inviting all who will to join that mission. The presence and action of God in the world
enlarges the place of encounter. For Salvationists God can be encountered anywhere and
everywhere. If we are to honour the tradition, the espoused theology and the practice of The
Salvation Army, this thesis requires a theological style that comes “from below”, wherever
people are found. Grounding a Salvationist mission theology in the action of God offers
some safeguard against relativism, even though the action of God itself requires human
interpretation.
47
http://www.island-of-freedom.com/BARTH.HTM, [accessed 6 May 2004].
- 28 -
However, the enduring liveliness of this debate, in the academy and in popular Christianity,
suggests important truth on each side of the debate. Neo-orthodoxy with its approach “from
above” risks a cold sterility. Theology “from below” risks the anarchy of relativism and
individualism.
1.8
The Use of Images of Mission
As stated in the introductory chapter, the purpose and function of an image of mission is to
create an open space into which people can enter with new energy. The use of images has
been popular in recent times to frame discussion of complex realities such as the Church.
The strength of using an image is that it simplifies complex realities into communicable
forms, introducing a symbolic mode of discourse that effectively communicates a reality
other than itself. The limitations of an image are that it approximates but is not identical to
that which it represents. When pushed too far an image can break down and no longer truly
represent the reality to which it points.
It is appropriate to speak of images of mission. All mission of the Church is derived from the
mission of God. The understandings of the mission of the Church, and the particular mission
of The Salvation Army, are multi-layered and complex, as evidenced by the growing
discipline of missiology and the body of literature that attaches to this field of knowledge.
Well-cast images will allow the subtlety and texture of mission to emerge, and allow another
to explore those images in a non-dogmatic way that encourages a fruitful conversation to
develop.
It must be remembered that any image fails to grasp the full reality that it points towards.
Single images require other images in paradoxical tension so that they are not overworked,
but do justice to the complexities that we seek to address.
1.9
Conclusion
In summary, a model incorporating three conversation partners, tradition, culture and
experience, provides the framework for exploring the question: What is the dominant mission
- 29 -
image best suited to The Salvation Army in Australia in the early decades of the twenty first
century?
This model from James and Evelyn Whitehead is matched to a methodology incorporating
critical theory, constructivism and participatory/cooperative paradigms.
Each of these
paradigms is matched differently to different lines of inquiry, the history and theology of The
Salvation Army, the surrounding culture and context, including other mission movements,
and the experience of frontline mission practitioners within The Salvation Army.
The model and the methodology are chosen as most appropriate, matching my personal style,
matching the temperament and nature of The Salvation Army, suited to the current era,
increasingly postmodern in sensibility, and consistent with the theological style essential to
the research question.
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Chapter 2
The Voice of Tradition
History and Theology of The Salvation Army
2.1
Introduction
The quest for a mission image to sustain The Salvation Army in the early twenty-first century
in Australia turns naturally to the history and theology of the movement as a primary voice in
the conversation with culture and experience.
Two periods are of special interest. The founding generation through to the ending of the
Great War in 1918, a span of about fifty years, represents the direct influence of the cofounders Catherine (d.1890) and William (d. 1912), and includes the early years of their
eldest son, Bramwell Booth’s, succession as General. Bramwell was effectively in charge of
administration from the time of Catherine’s death, and this brought significant sibling tension
among this family of exceptional leaders.
The next fifty years, leading to the centennial celebrations, was a time of consolidation, a
pattern common to most organizations. While the transition between eras is not clearly
defined, it seems that in the decades following World War I the theology, methodology and
psychology of mission in the Army began to change so as to preserve gains already made,
rather than continue the relentless and rapid march forward. Particular causes, both internal
and external to The Salvation Army, can be identified as contributing to this overall pattern.
The voice of Salvationist tradition, its founding influences and background in Methodism, its
period of consolidation, and current efforts to find a contemporary mission identity are now
explored.
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2.2
Theological Roots of Salvationist Mission
2.2.1
Biography and Theological Heritage of William and Catherine Booth
I worshipped everything that bore the name of Methodist. To me there was one God, and John Wesley
was his prophet. I had devoured the story of his life. No human compositions seemed to me to be
comparable to his writings, and to the hymns of his brother Charles, and all that was wanted in my
estimation, for the salvation of the world, was the faithful carrying into practice of the letter and the
spirit of his instructions.48
William Booth dates such admiration from the age of twenty-one years, and while given to
rhetorical flourish the quote above does not exaggerate the importance of the Wesleys in
shaping Booth, and shaping to a similar extent Catherine, his wife and co-founder of The
Salvation Army.
Born on 10 April 1829 in the village of Sneinton, now part of inner city Nottingham, William
was the third of four children of Samuel and Mary Booth, and was baptised in the Church of
England parish church two days later. In later references he recalls his mother fondly and as
a positive religious influence. His father seemed more intent on making money, sometimes
though not always successfully. At thirteen years of age, following the financial ruin of
Samuel, William Booth was apprenticed as a pawnbroker, a trade he came to dislike deeply.
In September that year, 1842, his father died.
Feargus O’Connor, the Chartist orator, made a deep impression on the youthful Booth on his
visit to Nottingham at that time, and with his first-hand knowledge of the ragged and starving
poor of that city, William enthusiastically embraced the reform cause. Another profound
early influence on Booth, in 1843, under the revivalist ministry of a lay preacher, Isaac
Marsden, was his conversion in the Broad Street Wesleyan Chapel.
Booth left Nottingham for London on the completion of his apprenticeship, and worked in the
East End, six days a week in pawn broking and preaching on Sundays, soon including street
preaching late at night after shop closing time. He became an official preacher with the
Lambeth Circuit and offered for full-time work. This offer was rejected, probably on the
48
Frederick de Lautour Booth-Tucker, The Life of Catherine Booth, 2 vols. (New York: Fleming H. Ravell
Company 1892) I:74.
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grounds of Booth’s limited education.
Coupled with his own passion to evangelise
independently, this rejection pushed William towards the Reformers, one of a number of
groups seeking to bring about change within Methodism. Under the patronage of Edward
Rabbits, a wealthy boot-maker, Booth took on full-time preaching and ministry on his
twenty-second birthday, 10 April 1852.
On 16 June 1855, William Booth and Catherine Mumford, both twenty-six years of age were
married in a ceremony conducted by the Rev. Dr. Thomas at the Stockwell New Chapel in
South London. In a pattern typical of their shared love and spiritual fervor, one week’s
honeymoon on the Isle of Wight was followed by a religious campaign in Guernsey.
Born in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, on January 17 1829, Catherine was one of two surviving
children of John and Sarah Mumford. At that time John, a carriage builder by trade, was a
Methodist lay preacher, was committed to abstinence from alcohol and was interested in
politics. Sarah, with Church of England beginnings, found her place of spiritual nurture and
belonging within the Methodists, embracing its somewhat ascetic disciplines. Catherine’s
diary at age 18 records her sorrow at John’s decline away from both faith and temperance.
Sarah was protective of Catherine, allowing only two years of external schooling. Catherine
was however an avid reader, and during an extended illness turned to reading church history
and theology. Many social issues became important for Catherine, temperance, the treatment
of animals, and racial and gender equality. The family returned to Boston in Lincolnshire in
1841, and then moved to London in 1844 to settle in Brixton. Mother and daughter were
enthusiastic and devout members of the local Methodist Church.
During the time of their courtship, William, with the support of Catherine, considered
ministry with the Congregationalists. Unhappy with the Calvinist emphasis of doctrine and
practice that ran counter to the Arminian sensibilities of both William and Catherine, William
returned to another Methodist denomination, the New Connection, founded by Alexander
Kilham in 1797. Kilham had been greatly influenced by Thomas Paine’s pamphlet The
Rights of Man, itself significant in both the French and American revolutions.
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New
Connection members in Huddersfield were known as the “Tom Painers”, so great was their
concern for the rights and welfare of ordinary people.49
Such were the formative influences on William and Catherine Booth, themselves the primary
influencers and co-founders of The Salvation Army.
Revivalism, Wesleyan holiness
teaching, the salvation and welfare of all people, God’s concern for this world as well as the
next, the reformation of society as essential to true religion, temperance, gender equality in
ministry, and pragmatism in method are all enduring marks of The Salvation Army that can
be traced directly to the Booths. And the most consistent and dominant thread in their
formation was the influence of John Wesley.
2.2.2 John Wesley
Theodore Runyon identifies at least five distinct theological heritages combined in creative
ways in John Wesley.50 Each of these contributes to understanding the life and influence of
Wesley.
Puritan Calvinism came through grandparents and great grandparents on both sides, who as
Anglican clergy were ejected from their parishes when they refused to sign the Act of
Uniformity in 1662, with the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II.
Susanna
Annesley and Samuel Wesley each returned to Anglicanism. However the home they formed
for John and Charles Wesley never relinquished the piety of Puritanism.
John Wesley remained throughout his life an Anglican, and described himself as “a high
churchman and the son of a high churchman”. “High” at this time described a quest to
establish the Anglican Communion in legitimate succession to the primitive church of the
first four or five centuries, a period when the Eastern Fathers played a dominant role.
Wesley, who died an Anglican priest, saw Methodism “as a lay renewal movement within
Anglicanism.”51
49
E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, (London: Penguin, 1963) 49.
Theodore Runyon, Wesleyan Resources For Ecumenical Theology.
51
Ibid. 5.
50
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Moravian Lutheran Pietism is a third heritage identified by Runyon, bringing to Wesley the
centrality of justification by faith alone, and the possibility and importance of the assurance
of the radical forgiveness of God. These emphases on justification by faith and ‘knowing’ by
the warming of the heart, the centre of commitment and action, is foundational in the
experience of Wesley, and flows directly into The Salvation Army.
The ideal of ‘perfect love’ and the writings and exemplary lives of Roman Catholic
mysticism were included in devotional family reading by Wesley’s parents. Despite the
charges of being crypto-Papist Wesley continued to champion Catholic authors.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the claim has been advanced that Wesley combines the Protestant
emphasis upon justification with the Catholic emphasis upon sanctification. There is a certain cogency
to this claim, but it seems to me more accurate to say that he placed the Lutheran Doctrine of
justification within the context of a doctrine of salvation derived ultimately from Eastern patristic
sources.52
The fine distinctions quoted above become important for understanding Wesley’s ‘new
creation’ emphasis, and introduce the fifth theological heritage.
Critical editions of the Greek Fathers were published in the seventeenth century from within
the Anglican Church, and these provided an important link for Wesley to Eastern Orthodoxy.
In his doctrine of sanctification, Wesley replaces the forensic metaphors of Western doctrine
with the therapeutic metaphors encountered in the Eastern Fathers, and names sanctification
as a process rather than a completed state. Salvation is not just a release from the burden of
sin but a restoration of the sinner to health. Healing love transforms the recipient, and what is
received is also given away. Grace, faith and works are never separable, but come together in
the experience of the love of God.
Salvation for Wesley includes justification and
sanctification and consequent good works, the work of God in us and through us.
“(Albert) Outler makes the important point that “the axial theme of Wesley’s soteriology is
the renewal of the image of God.”53 The renewal of the individual is thus always connected
to their social context. “In this way human beings become partners in God’s own enterprise
52
53
Ibid. 9.
Ibid. 10, emphasis within original text.
- 35 -
of renewing the fallen creation. Indeed, our own sanctification can be understood only in this
larger context of cosmic renewal which the Eastern Fathers celebrated.”54
Just as this diverse heritage is fundamental to understanding and interpreting Wesley, so also
it is fundamental to understanding and naming the foundational identity that William and
Catherine Booth established within The Salvation Army, and the theological heart of the
mission of the Army. Individual salvation sits within the cosmic context of creation and recreation. “Indeed we might say that creation and re-creation supply the framework apart
from which no other aspect of salvation can be grasped and understood.”55 As this was true
for Wesley, so also it developed within The Salvation Army as a corrective to narrow
individualism and subjectivism in the experience of salvation.
My salvation means
something for the world around me.
Furthermore, Wesley identifies for us a “synergy” between grace and works as a corrective to
the Reformation tendency to separate these into an unhelpful dichotomy. God invites humans
into partnership in the divine mission. This is the expression of essential humanity, rather
than merely the forensic declaration of God’s election of an individual. The “assurance of
justification and divine love is given expression in service within God’s design for the
renewal of the world and the race.”56
So also the vision of the Kingdom of God is not relegated to an indefinite future, but as the
power of God impinging upon the present. God has not given up on creation, nor should
religion be an abstraction from the world.
Runyon’s analysis of Wesley resonates strongly with the analysis of The Salvation Army’s
history and theology outlined by the Theology in Mission focus group below: the cosmic
context of salvation; the synergy of grace and works; the present, realised dimensions of the
Kingdom of God. Much of Wesley has found its way into The Salvation Army. Runyon
establishes further useful points of continuity from Wesley: an activist nature; and the
importance of authentic Christian experience.
54
Ibid. 11.
Ibid.
56
Ibid. 12.
55
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“A genuine Wesleyan position is always activist; receiving love from the Creator of heaven
and earth, it cannot avoid following out the telos of the new creation.”57 This understanding
leads logically to direct action both to alleviate human need and distress, and to change the
conditions and systems that brought these circumstances about. Runyon cites particularly
human rights, poverty and economic rights, sexual equality, and the environment as
contemporary issues of interest. These issues and others all find their way into activist
responses by The Salvation Army.
The final matter raised by Runyon in this series of lectures is Wesley’s recognition of
experience as the medium through which religious reality is transmitted. Runyon coins the
term “orthopathy” to sit alongside orthodoxy and orthopraxis, and speak of “right feeling”.
Orthopathy is not necessarily subjectivist, but applies empirical method that matches spiritual
data with spiritual senses, bringing together scripture, tradition, reason and experience, with
care to separate experience of the “other” from experience of the self. Orthopathy is also by
its nature transformational, engaging the recipient who is captured and changed by God’s
disclosure of love. Orthopathic faith is thus necessarily social – what is received demands
further expression. The fourth mark of orthopathic faith, of authentic Christian experience, is
that it is teleological, part of a context of the ongoing process of cosmic redemption; the
assurance that God will finish what God has begun, that the future can and will surpass the
present. This teleological element becomes important, especially within Chapters two and
three of this work, as the question of eschatology and a theological view of history emerges
as foundational for any adequate Salvationist mission image.
Experience is greater than feeling, suggests Runyon. The eighteenth century understanding
of experience pre-dates nineteenth century Romanticism that reduces experience to subjective
experience. Feelings function as a sub-category within experience, “they provide the marker
set down in memory to recall subjectively the larger objective event of experience.”58
William and Catherine Booth bring into The Salvation Army this further valuable legacy
from John Wesley. The experience of the love of God is thus affirmed and encouraged
57
58
Ibid. 19.
Ibid. 41.
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within a person, and a framework is available in which experience is validated and honoured
as an essential component of theological method.
Methodism itself sat within the broader framework of Evangelicalism, with characteristics
outlined in the introduction to this work, typified by Bebbington as conversionism, activism,
biblicism and crucicentrism. Within Evangelicalism, Wesley and the Booths represented
strongly the Arminian emphasis, best summarised in Runyon’s discussion of Wesley’s
“synergy”. Booth explicitly names Calvinism as his reason for moving away from his
experiment within Congregationalism.
From earliest times Booth adopted the doctrinal
formulation “whosoever will may be saved”. There are no limits to God’s desire for cosmic
re-creation except in the cooperating response of people. Together William and Catherine
were always conscious of active partnering with God in redemptive mission.
Salvationist theologian Roger Green takes up the work of Donald Dayton to emphasise the
Wesleyan influence within Evangelicalism, against scholars such as George Marsden who
would argue for a predominantly Reformed influence. He argues that while the methods of
North American revivalism found their way into the ministry of the Booths, and through
them into the earliest Christian Mission days of The Salvation Army (see section 2.3 below),
their Evangelicalism came “by way of classical, historical Wesleyanism.”59 This affirmation
is important, especially from an American voice, against those who would argue for
transatlantic domination in the Booths’ theology, and for a sudden theological ‘about face’
when confronted by failure, so-called, of the inner city East End mission (See further in
section 2.3 below).
Green cites the official expression of the Army’s theological convictions, Salvation Story:
Salvationist Handbook of Doctrine, firstly to quote the introduction:
They (the doctrines) also express the fundamental evangelical convictions of Wesleyanism, the branch
of the Church out of which The Salvation Army grew. 60
And then to locate the origins of Salvationist articles of faith more precisely:
Roger J Green, ‘The Salvation Army and the Evangelical Tradition’, Word and Deed, Vol 5 No 2, May 2003,
59-61.
60
Salvation Story: Salvationist Handbook of Doctrine, (London: The Salvation Army, 1998), xiv.
59
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The articles bear a striking similarity in words and content to Methodist New Connection doctrines,
which can be traced back to at least 1838. William Booth was an ordained minister in the New
Connection, whose founders claimed their doctrines to be ‘those of Methodism, as taught by Mr
Wesley.’ With the Movement’s birth in 1865, William Booth adopted seven articles of belief. Three
more were added in 1870 and the last … in 1876. Each additional point can be traced back to the New
Connection document. … Our doctrinal statement, then, derives from the teaching of John Wesley and
the evangelical awakening of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. … the distinctives of Salvation
Army doctrine came from Methodism. Our strong emphasis on regeneration and sanctification, our
conviction that the gospel is for the whosoever and our concern for humanity’s free will all find their
roots there.61
The primary voice behind Salvationist mission as introduced and practiced by William and
Catherine Booth is clearly that of John Wesley.
2.3
Methodological Influences in Salvationist Mission
In any activist movement, effective methodology can rival theology in shaping mission
direction. Norman Murdoch goes so far as to propose that William Booth’s sense of failure
to convert the masses in the East End of London caused him to turn his attention to the
‘revival belt’ of England, and later to systematic social services and reform ministry.62
However he undervalues the theological formation of William and Catherine Booth within
Methodism, and their consistent history of engaging with the disenfranchised poor.63 Just as
pastoral experience often modifies theological perspective, so also pragmatic effectiveness
can shape mission identity.
Soon after his conversion, William’s encounter with the American Methodist revivalist James
Caughey in Nottingham introduced him also to the scientific revivalist methods of Charles
61
Ibid. 130-1.
Norman Murdoch, The Origins of The Salvation Army, (Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1994)
63
For example, Catherine’s work in Gateshead, 1858 - see Roy Hattersley, Blood and Fire: William and
Catherine Booth and Their Salvation Army, (London: Little, Brown and Company, 1999), 101. Catherine and
Bramwell (eldest son) supporting in 1864 Josephine Butler’s campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Act, a
piece of legislation regulating the activity of prostitutes, Catherine’s support of the Midnight Movement to
rescue prostitutes, William’s response to the cholera epidemic in The Revival magazine 31 January 1867, and
the establishment of a soup kitchen at Poplar in that year. See Boundless Salvation 31-34 for further examples
leading up to the publication of In Darkest England and the Way Out in 1891.
Roger Green, War on Two Fronts: The Redemptive Theology of William Booth, (Atlanta: The Salvation Army
1989), argues for a distinct periods in William Booth’s theology, up to 1878, then to 1890, and then from 1890.
This model is useful to outline an understandable development in theology and practice, but if coupled with
Murdoch’s thesis it simplifies dangerously the ‘eras’ of Booth’s theology, allowing the possibility of picking
and choosing the more congenial elements and losing the essential holism of early Salvationist mission. Green
argues against Murdoch’s somewhat American-centric ideas in ‘The Salvation Army and the Evangelical
Tradition’, Word and Deed, Vol 5 No 2, May 2003, 59-61.
62
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Grandison Finney. Early efforts with friends to evangelise the poor of Meadow Platts
included nightly open-air addresses, invitation to cottage meetings, and exhortations to
decision for Christ, methods carried through to his own itinerant ministry and later into
Salvation Army Orders and Regulations. Catherine too writes of her admiration for Finney
and his Lectures on Revival, “the most beautiful and common-sense work on the subject that I
ever read.” Finney, rejecting the doctrine of predestination, held that mass conversions could
and should happen, and that the methods used made a difference.
Personal friendship developed between Caughey and the Booths, to the extent that Caughey
baptised their second son, Ballington.
Caughey’s itinerant evangelism seems to have
influenced the Booths, and in the year following this meeting, 1861, they resigned from the
New Connection to become itinerant revivalists.
Such denominational independence
reflected Finney’s advice for revival in the British Isles.
While revivalism’s methods made the trans-Atlantic crossing into The Salvation Army
substantially intact, deeply affecting the methods of the early movement, I support Green’s
argument that the dominant theological influence on both founders remained that of John
Wesley.64
Furthermore, I suggest that the diverse theological heritage of Wesley was
transmitted into the Army with much of its texture intact.
A further trans-Atlantic influence to shape the methods of the early Army came through
Phoebe Palmer. Palmer was active with her husband Walter, as a laywoman teacher in the
Allen Street Methodist Church in New York City. Pulpit criticism of Phoebe Palmer when
the Booths were in their New Connection appointment to Gateshead in 1857 stirred Catherine
to answer Palmer’s critics, particularly Rev Augustus Rees, in a thirty-two page pamphlet,
Female Ministry: Or, Women’s Right to Preach the Gospel. The Holy Spirit was given to
both genders, and the Pauline injunction “let your women be silent” applied, she argued, to
gossip and interruptions, not to proclamation and teaching. She rose from her seat on
Pentecost evening 1860 in Gateshead, and following conversation with William he
announced, “My dear wife wishes to speak.”
Catherine became a notable preacher,
sometimes supporting the growing family through her activities, and often garnering support
Roger Green, ‘The Salvation Army and the Evangelical Tradition’, Word and Deed, Vol 5 No 2, May 2003,
59-61.
64
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among more polished people and congregations for the work of the fledgling Army. From
this time, equality in ministry for men and women became a prized and celebrated principle.
Phoebe Palmer was clearly influential in this development, a methodological matter with
clear theological undertones that would likely have met with John Wesley’s full support.
Without doubt the missional methods of the Christian Mission and early Salvation Army
contributed greatly to astounding success, and methodological flexibility was a foundational
principle. However, methodological innovation, while influential in shaping the identity of
The Salvation Army, was never allowed to override foundational theological convictions,
grounded as they were in Wesleyan Methodism.
2.4
Historical Perspectives on Salvationist Mission
2.4.1 The Christmas War Cry 1893, An Early Australian Image of Mission
The graphic reproduced below was the front cover for the Australian War Cry of 1893. 65
This publication, still printed through most of more than one hundred Army Territories
throughout the world, becomes for many the public face of The Salvation Army in that
location.
The War Cry was a communication tool combining evangelical and internal
purposes since its first appearance in 1878 in Britain.
This graphic offers a ‘snapshot’ of Salvationist mission understanding at this time, when
literacy rates among internal and external constituencies were not high. The symbolism
would have been largely recognisable to most readers.
The text in the shield announces the War Cry as “The Official Gazette of the Salvation Army
in Australia & Tasmania”; reminding us that Australia at this time was not yet a nation, but
rather a collection of colonies. The theme is introduced: “The Salvation Santa Claus presents
Australia with the Golden Keys of Prosperity”.
This should not be confused with
contemporary prosperity doctrine as portrayed by some. The content is revealed rather in the
detail of the graphic.
65
I am grateful to John Cleary for discovering this excellent resource in the Melbourne archives, where the
original is held, and for making the scanned version available. He also offered the original exegesis in the
Theology in Mission group.
- 41 -
The key figure dominates the foreground and directs attention to the city behind the gate, the
“Entrance to the City of Prosperity”. The figure is multi-layered in meaning. The people of
the time would recognise the European pre-1930’s rendition of Santa Claus, complete with
holly wreath (prior to CocaCola’s adaptation to a red, fat
and jolly gentleman).
The
nose and general appearance
suggests also William Booth to
any who have seen his portrait.
Many
notice
a
prophetic,
Elijah-like appearance.
The
lamp reminds us still of the
Holman Hunt rendition
of
Jesus, “Behold I stand at the
door and knock!” So popular
was this painting that a second
‘original’ was produced to
allow
public
demand
for
viewing to be met. The figure
also holds a key, labeled
“salvation” (see enlargement,
appendix 2.1).
finger
The pointing
resembles
that
of
Michelangelo’s Creation on the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, as God infuses life into humanity. Rerum Novarum, ‘The
Condition of Labour’, a Papal Encyclical of 1891, still foundational for Roman Catholic
social theology, argued at this time for cooperation between capital and labor, freedom of
association in trade unions, fair working conditions, and restraints on child labor and some
unsuitable forms of work for women.66 This possible connection with Roman Catholic social
teaching is more explicit in discussion below of the third statue in the line drawing.
66
Hubert Cunliffe-Jones ed., A History of Christian Doctrine, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981), 549-50.
- 42 -
The Jesus-Elijah-Santa Claus-William Booth figure addresses a crowd, unfortunately both for
those times and for the present, all male.
What is notable is the diverse company, a
workingman of dark complexion, behind him a gentleman, and further back an agricultural
worker, scythe in hand. Other styles of headwear add to the depiction of all classes of people.
The city is served by a river (the Thames?), with a cathedral reminiscent of Saint Paul’s in
London placed on the far side. Does this graphic have an origin in Britain, with the original
‘Australianised’ in this representation?
I have not been able to confirm this, but such
confirmation would broaden the mission understandings further detailed in the city itself.
Appendix 2.2 enlarges the centre of the graphic, depicting a lengthy stream of people on the
march, arriving at the “Salvation Army Temple”, an image of ‘going out’, and also an image
of ‘bringing in’.
This enlargement, and that of Appendix 2.3 place the Army Temple
carefully, in the middle of cultural, commercial and residential life. Next to the Temple is a
school, and then a museum, and across the road a technical college.
The ‘going out’ reflects accurately a deeply prized missiological value of the early Army.
Some would say that the Army was born in the open-air meeting – this was certainly where
William Booth encountered the Christian Mission and supposedly reported to Catherine on
arriving home, “Darling, I have found my destiny!”
The right to conduct such street
meetings was defended vigorously, sometimes at great personal cost. War Cry and presence
evangelism in the public houses was adopted as a way of meeting people with the message of
Jesus, as well as for raising much needed money. ‘Going out’ also took the form of humble
service, the Gutter and Garret Brigade sought out and responded to deep practical need,
cleaning filthy houses, nursing sick and dying people as the incarnation of the love and
presence of God.
‘Bringing in’ was also highly prized, in a missiological sense, as a means of bringing people
to saving faith in the indoor Salvation Meetings and the music hall style ‘Free and Easy’
gatherings. ‘Bringing in’ also carried ecclesiological overtones. It was the opportunity to
grow the number of missioners, the active fighting soldiers, and to prepare them for the battle
‘out there’. However, ‘inside’ is also a safe place, away from worldly temptation and
- 43 -
distraction. In my experience, the Army has always struggled with the tension inherent
between these images of ‘going out’ and ‘bringing in’.
Andrew Mark Eason provides a helpful analysis of the convergence of characteristics of both
church and sect in the early Salvation Army.67 He suggests the Army accommodated the
world in a church-like manner, adopting and adapting working class cultural forms such as
music hall, revivalist methods, military organizational structures and titles, and partnering
with governments and authorities, especially in fundraising for its spiritual and service
missions. At the same time the Army displayed a sect-type rejection of the world, distancing
themselves from the prevailing spiritual and moral climate.68 Sect-type isolation from the
world was evident in encouragement for new converts to avoid worldly friendships, in
separation from certain cultural and amusement options, and in providing an internal culture
that kept soldiers busy. It seems that sect-type isolation began to predominate in the second
fifty years of The Salvation Army, following the Great War, and with this dominance
Salvationist mission changed radically. Salvationist culture turned inwards.
The line drawing carries this paradoxical tension of ‘going out’ and ‘bringing in,’ mixing
missiological and ecclesiological interests and concerns, and this tension will be considered
further within this thesis.
Appendix 2.4 details three statues, similar I understand to those outside the central law courts
in London. A Moses-like figure stand on a pedestal labeled “Knowledge”, and detailed
Intelligent acquaintance with Divine Truth
Wise government, Home, Local and National
Free education, Intellectual and Moral
Literature, Science and Art Popularised
It is notable that the ‘secular, free and compulsory’ education debate was current then in
Australia, and this political comment advocated the availability of education for all.
Andrew Mark Eason, ‘The Salvation Army in Late-Victorian Britain: The Convergence of Church and Sect’,
Word and Deed, vol. 5 no 2, May 2003, 3-27.
68
Eason proposes that this sect-type isolationism is characteristic of Evangelicalism at the time. This last point
may need more investigation, and be tied rather to the ‘Great Reversal’ of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, as some evangelicals, predominantly from North America, began to reject any form of social
engagement (see discussion on premillennialism and fundamentalism below).
67
- 44 -
The second figure resembles the Statue of Liberty donated by France to the USA, a statue
welcoming refugees and migrants to settle in a land of freedom and opportunity. The
pedestal is labeled “Truth” and detailed
Purity in Press and Politics
Justice Free and for All
Honesty in Commerce and Finance
A Faithful Pulpit and Platform
The ‘faithful pulpit and platform’ is directly linked to matters of honesty and justice, as an
expression of truth.
The final figure is in Salvation Army uniform, holding a cross and bible. The pedestal is
labeled “Love” and detailed
The Brotherhood of Man an active Force
Unity of Christian effort
Goodwill between Capital and Labor
Federation of Colonies and Nations
The first line offers the clue to all subsequent lines – if God is Creator and Father of all, then
all men are brothers. (Again the masculine form offends, but must be heard in its own time.)
This then necessarily implies ecumenical cooperation, goodwill and justice in the workplace,
and an internationalism that transcends human borders. At the time a form of the Army
shield carried a banner declaring “Advance Australasia”, advocating federation in this highly
contentious debate then current, to include New Zealand as well as all Australian colonies
(and Tasmania!). We gain also an insight into an important principle of Salvation Army
organization. It is an international Army, not a loose federation of Salvation Armies. Indeed
it is one of the first internationalist institutions. Local pressures continually threaten this
principle, but especially in the twenty-first century it is a valuable advantage that remains to
be fully exercised. This latent capacity to respond to the large issues of our ‘global village’
could still be mobilised beyond even the profound impact of the early years.69
69
Campaigns such as the Maiden Tribute, establishing an age of consent and making sexual trafficking more
difficult, the introduction of safety matches that protected the health of workers, and the closure of Devil’s
Island prison are notable examples.
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Thus, twenty-eight years on from William Booth joining the Christian Mission, and a mere
thirteen years on from establishing a presence in Australia, this bold statement of mission is
declared to those within and those without The Salvation Army. It is theologically coherent
and compelling, practically applied in the contexts of the day, expressive of holistic mission
that names the transcendent in people and circumstances, capable of partnering with many
other people and agencies, and culturally attuned in its forms and methods.
This line
drawing, readily accessible to people of its time, carried all the required marks of a mission
image established in the introduction to this project. The image requires updating, but the
1893 version carries the required elements in impressive simplicity.
2.4.2 Theology In Mission – Articulating a Contemporary Salvationist Mission
The clarity of the Salvationist mission portrayed in the Christmas War Cry cover of 1893
contrasts very strongly with the crippling diversity and diffusiveness of contemporary
understandings. It is accepted that such stark clarity was not necessarily universal in 1893.
However the sharp focus of the founding generations that is so important in those energetic
early growth years will be foundational still for vitality and growth at this time. And tracing
the path by which the mission understanding and focus has been lost will be instructive for a
vibrant contemporary mission image.
The Theology in Mission focus group was commissioned by senior leadership of the day “To
articulate a Salvationist theology of mission accessible to the various stakeholders in our
social services.” The first meeting was held 20-21 August 1999. In this section the path that
this group together traced from early days of the Army to the present situation is outlined.
Reflection on the experience of group members will contribute further in Chapter four to the
image of Salvationist mission that might be suggested out of the experience of mission itself.
Boundless Salvation is the title given to the draft document arising from Theology in Mission
deliberations. The written form has been drafted by John Cleary, a group member, as an
historical perspective on the theology of Salvationist mission. The document remains in draft
form for a range of mainly practical reasons, despite considerable interest in its completion.
In many ways the slow completion has proved an advantage in retaining a sense of ‘living
document’, needing still to be grappled with, not able to be put aside as ‘done’.
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Its
provisional nature has allowed and encouraged people to come to the document in dialogue
and contribution, rather than simply in outright defense or attack.70
The document still bears the mark of the original task in addressing the social mission of the
Army. Group members sensed early the need to articulate the one comprehensive mission of
The Salvation Army, not adding to the already unhelpful dichotomizing of mission, rather
journeying to the more radical single mission. This task takes time in setting aside the
prejudice of current individual perspectives, and allowing group and wider processes to do
their work. To this point the group reflects the members’ reaction against a recent and longterm trend that devalues the place of social engagement in favour of a privatised and
spiritualised view of God and the world. Many of the focus group members acknowledge a
need to more strongly reflect the conversionist heritage of The Salvation Army – what form
and shape does conversion take in a postmodern era?
The document title, Boundless Salvation, draws a deliberate link with the ‘Founders song’,
the best known and loved of William Booth’s songs, the ‘anthem’ of the movement,
composed by its founder in 1893 for a rally at Exeter Hall, the site of many earlier social
reform rallies of the Evangelical movement. Exeter Hall had been used in 1890 for the launch
of In Darkest England and the Way Out, William Booth’s declaration for the comprehensive
redemption of humanity. The first of the seven verses of Booth’s song is indicative of his
world redeeming passion:
O boundless salvation! deep ocean of love,
O fullness of mercy, Christ brought from above,
The whole world redeeming, so rich and so free,
Now flowing for all men, come, roll over me!71
70
At this stage I know of approximately five hundred photocopied sets of this document, in addition to an
electronic version, many of which have received close and enthusiastic study. While writing this chapter, a
letter of deep appreciation has arrived from an officer couple in Brazil who has somehow found a copy and has
been helped to name their experience. When presented to groups of people it has resonated strongly with the
experience of most people.
71
The Song Book of The Salvation Army, 1986, number 298.
It is notable that the song finds itself placed within the current edition of the Song Book in ‘The Gospel:
Response’ section. This is indicative of one of the major issues of the Theology in Mission task, an
individualising and spiritualising of Salvationist identity that fails to recognise the world engaging nature of
mission. The song might have been placed in the section titled The World for God, or other sections.
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In its original context the song declares the holistic and world engaging nature of Salvationist
mission. The title Boundless Salvation deliberately connects to this context, while also
appealing to the sentiment of many current day Salvationists.
Boundless Salvation first establishes biblical foundations for its task, drawing on the themes
of Creation, Fall, the action of God in history, the Law, the Prophets, and the New Testament
accounts of the life and meaning of Jesus.
Biblical Framework
The biblical accounts tell us unambiguously that goodness is at the heart of Creation. God
made the world, loves the world, and continues to care for creation. These accounts express
purpose, love and destiny within creation. The world is not the product of blind chance, nor
is it merely the arena for purposeless struggle.
The scriptures speak of God’s deliberate and loving action to embrace the whole world.
Despite the prior goodness of creation, the world is not as God created and desires it. The
longings of individual people to be better, and the fragmentation and walls of hostility
between people that are all too obvious in the world at large, remind us every day that the
world is not as God intends. God’s response is to act consistently within the world to redeem
the creation, as seen in the law, the prophets and the incarnation of Jesus.
The Law offers form for human response to God’s gracious, historic acts for salvation. “I am
the Lord your God who brought you out … therefore …”. It gives expression to right
relationships with both God and fellow humans. True religion is not expressed in the
fulfillment of personal desires but rather in the fulfillment of God’s will, essentially in right
relationships.
The prophets repeatedly remind Israel of this necessary response to God’s salvation.
Continually the reminder calls for a healthy heart relationship with God to be expressed in
social relationships of justice and care (Hosea 6:6; Isaiah 1:11-17; Amos 5:21-24, 8:4-7;
Micah 6:6,8; as representative examples).
And from Boundless Salvation:
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Thus, the society shaped by true religion is built on justice, and exhibits a special concern for the poor.
South African Theologian David Bosch in his seminal study Transforming Mission says:
God as revealed in history is the One who has elected Israel. The purpose of this election is
service, and when it is withheld, election loses its meaning. Primarily Israel is to serve the
marginal in its midst: the orphan, the widow, the poor, and the stranger. Whenever the people
of Israel renew their covenant with Yahweh, they recognise that they are renewing their
obligations to the victims of society.72
This is the context of Jesus coming to his people. From the beginning Jesus clearly understood his
mission in terms of the authentic Old Testament tradition. 73
Jesus of Nazareth came teaching, preaching and enacting a startling new message – that in his
person God’s reign in the world has come in a new way. In continuity with God’s action in
the world, but also as a decisive new action, we read in Mark’s introduction to his Gospel:
“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and
saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in
the good news.”” (Mark 1:14-15).
The kingdom of God is a favorite theme of the Synoptic Gospels – one hundred and twenty
two references in Matthew, Mark and Luke, with ninety-two occurrences on the lips of Jesus.
It refers to the quality and direction of God’s action with the expectation and exhortation that
those who come under this rule will live their lives out in the same quality and direction.
Conversion to the ways of Jesus is expected to make a world of difference to life here and
now, in the arena of a creation that God’s loves and seeks to redeem.
The reign of God is inaugurated in a new way in Jesus, and this reign is intended to address
the real lives of real people, individually and together, here and now as well as for the life to
come. The reign of God has begun in a new way in Jesus, but is yet to be seen in a full and
unambiguous way on earth. The Booths understood themselves as being part of the purposes
of God in establishing the reign of God.
The characteristics of the reign of God are demonstrated in the stories that are told in the
Gospels about the ministry and message of Jesus. A little later in Mark’s Gospel, having
invited, in a call of grace, two pairs of fishermen brothers to join him in kingdom mission,
72
73
David Bosch, Transforming Mission, (New York: Orbis, 1991), 18.
Cleary, 9.
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Jesus enters a synagogue in Capernaum. There he accepts an invitation to teach, something
Jesus does with startling authority. (Mark 1:21-28) Surprisingly in a synagogue, a demoniac
confronts Jesus, and in the pattern of the miracle worker of the day, Jesus exorcises the
demon, by authoritative rebuke.
The congregation expresses their amazement – at the
powerful teaching and authority of Jesus.
Mark is emphasising a characteristic of great importance. Look at the words and the deeds of
Jesus together to understand and live within the reign of God. The words explain the deeds,
and the deeds demonstrate the words. The reign of God is not a matter of words alone,
disconnected from life here and now.
Matthew 8:1-17 follows the Sermon on the Mount to introduce the ‘doing’ ministry of Jesus.
Matthew groups three stories of Jesus as he reaches out in healing touch to the ‘untouchable’
leper, in restoration of the gentile ‘outsider’s’ dead daughter, and to a woman, mother-in-law
of Peter but a woman nevertheless who by virtue of gender had no legal or social standing in
her own right. The reign of God is inclusive of all, with all boundaries transcended by grace.
The reign also speaks to the needs and concern of everyday existence. The mission of the
kingdom is “as coherent, broad and deep as the exigencies of human life”.74 God does not
remain at a distance. The merciful Messiah reaches out in reconciliation and healing.
Salvation Story Study Guide in discussing the ‘already, but not yet’ nature of the reign of
God, states:
That present reality of the Kingdom of God is particularly emphasised in the teachings of John Wesley
and subsequently by William Booth for The Salvation Army. As an evangelist Wesley was concerned
for the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth as he preached the gospel of salvation by faith.
As individual lives were transformed by the grace of God, they would experience the life of the
Kingdom in the present.
“… not merely a future happy state in Heaven, but a state to be enjoyed here on earth … subjects were
to be gathered to God by his Son and a society to be formed, which was to subsist first on earth, and
afterwards with God in Glory.” (Wesley’s Comment on Matthew 3:2 in Explanatory Notes upon the
New Testament)
But in Wesley’s view the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth went beyond the internal
religion of those who accepted his kingship and rule in their hearts. That acceptance entailed an
outward expression of love which would have an impact on the world at large as followers of Christ
fulfilled his ideal for them to be the ‘salt of the earth.’
74
Bosch, 10.
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The Christian is to have an impact on society at large and thus contribute to the establishment of God’s
kingdom on earth beyond that reign of God that is inward in his or her own relationship with the
divine. Wesley includes the social dimension of grace and the teaching of holiness in his preaching
and practice. Social action and social reform become essential to his evangelism, for in his view,
solitary religion is not to be found in the gospel of Christ, nor is there a solitary holiness that excludes
the social dimension: ‘The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social
holiness.’ 75
Christian History
Building on the heritage of the Army in Wesleyanism, Evangelicalism and Arminianism
outlined above, it is useful to emphasise that The Salvation Army emerges from mainstream
Christian tradition, through Anglican and Methodist background, more so than reformed and
Dissenting traditions. John Wesley’s links to the Orthodox spirituality of the Eastern Fathers
is further illuminating background for The Salvation Army, naming origins of much that can
be readily experienced from within the Army, and read from documents such as Salvation
Story.
As outlined above, these Evangelical and Wesleyan distinctives shaped the lives of both
William and Catherine Booth, and through them the doctrine and practice of The Salvation
Army. This background is demonstrated in the formal statements of the emerging articles of
faith, in the preaching and writing of the young movement, in the transformation of the lives
of people thus impacted, and in the initiatives to reform and ameliorate dehumanising social
conditions.
This dynamic, aggressive and flexible movement had the whole world in its sights - far and
wide geographically, up and down socially - a comprehensive vision of redemption for this
world and the next. The January 1889 issue of ‘All the World’ carried an article by William
Booth, ‘Salvation for Both Worlds’.
Now I shouted, “I have found the remedy indeed!” Now I saw that this was the work that Jesus came to
accomplish - that he manifested to dispossess all these fiends of evil for the souls of men, to destroy the
works of the devil in the present time, and to set up the soul of the kingdom of heaven instead.
And I said to myself, and I have been saying to others ever since, “Christ is the Deliverer for time as truly
as for Eternity. He is the Joshua who leads men in our own day, out of the wilderness into the promised
land, as His forerunner did the children of Israel thousands of years ago. He is the Messiah who brings glad
tidings! He is come to open the prison doors. He is come to set men free from their bonds. He is indeed
75
Salvation Story Study Guide, (The Salvation Army, London) 1999.
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the Saviour of the world! Men can have liberty, gladness here and now through Him, and I will consecrate
my life to apply to Him for the deliverance that He came to bring.”76
In this reminder of Jesus’ echoing of Isaiah in Luke’s Gospel, we sense the breadth of the
early Salvationist passion for the redemption of all people, salvation for present time and for
eternity, redemption of people and their circumstances.
The following year saw the
establishment of the Social Reform Wing, and the publishing of Booth’s comprehensive plan,
In Darkest England and the Way Out.77 Booth confidently linked God’s salvation for the
individual to the circumstances of society as a whole. This linkage was not a sudden
realization. It emerged from his boyhood experiences and influences, from his theological
roots, from his shared ministry with Catherine in the intervening years. The publishing of
Darkest England simply marked the culmination of growing life-long conviction regarding
God’s redeeming purposes for creation.78
Written before the development of the Social Sciences as we understand them today, the
language of In Darkest England can appear quaint, the analysis inadequate, and the style
somewhat anecdotal. It does however offer a comprehensive critique of society and a wideranging vision of redemption, incorporating salvation and sanctification, redemption that
changes lives and the structures of society here and now. It also articulates foundational
principles. The Good Society must take responsibility to care for its citizens, and in this the
Church is also responsible. Charity alone is not enough; the causes of need and injustice
must also be addressed. The individual person has value. The victim should not be blamed.
In Darkest England also foreshadows practical and innovative responses such as low-cost
housing, the provision of adequate recreation time and affordable holidays, legal aid, small
claims tribunals, industrial and domestic waste recycling, co-operatives and credit unions, in
addition to the more widely known farm colonies and migration schemes.
In fact not much of In Darkest England eventuated in the form proposed. It is also true that it
found much resistance both outside and inside the Army.79 Indeed, some propose that this so
76
All the World, (London: The Salvation Army, January 1889).
William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out,
78
The analysis of In Darkest England that follows draws heavily on Cleary’s work in Boundless Salvation.
79
See, for example, KS Inglis, Churches and the Working Class in Victorian England, (London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1963), ch 5 ‘The Salvation Army’.
77
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called change of direction was Booth’s admission of failure in evangelizing the urban poor. 80
But surely the accusation ignores the personal and religious origins of William Booth, and the
content of his own ministry before and after 1890. Either way, engagement with the physical
and social needs of people has remained part of Salvationist expression of Kingdom life, and
of their effort for the salvation of others.
In 1911, a year before his death, Booth delivered his International Social Council Addresses.
Under the heading ‘A Historical Sketch of the Social Operations of The Army’ he writes:
By social work, I mean those operations of The Salvation Army which have to do with the alleviation,
or removal, of the moral and temporal evils which cause so much of the misery of the submerged
classes, and which so greatly hinder their salvation.
Our Social Operations, as thus defined, are the natural outcome of Salvationism, or, I might say, of
Christianity, as instituted, described, proclaimed, and exemplified in the life, teaching, and sacrifice of
Jesus Christ.
Here I would like to say that Social Work, in the spirit and practice that it has assumed with us, has
harmonised with my own personal idea of true religion from the hour I promised obedience to the
commands of God.
To help the poor, to minister to them in their slums, to sympathize with them in their poverty,
afflictions, and irreligion, was the natural outcome of the life that came to my soul through believing in
Jesus Christ.
Before many days - nay, before many hours - had passed after my conversion, I was to be found
praying in the cottages in the working-class quarters of the town in which I lived, talking in the slums,
comforting the dying, and doing, so far as I knew how and had ability, what seemed to me most likely
to help the poor and miserable classes, both for this world and for the world to come.
But Social Work, as a separate entity, or department of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, recognized,
organized, and provided for, had to wait for (i.e. within) The Salvation Army. 81
Booth continues, expressing his regret that it had taken so long to respond in this manner,
recalling 1883 as the beginning of systematic effort in both London and Melbourne,
Australia, as a means “to make the godless crowds hear the message of Salvation.”82
Despite such a rich biblical and traditional heritage The Salvation Army has not always
understood and practised Christian mission that gives expression to the dynamic relationship
between God and the world.
80
Ibid., 195, 197. See also Norman Murdoch, The Origins of The Salvation Army, (Knoxville: University of
Tennessee, 1994) and in more muted tone Roger Green, War on Two Fronts: the Redemptive Theology of
William Booth, (Atlanta: Salvation Army Supplies, 1989).
81
General William Booth, International Social Council Addresses, 1911, Part 1: Principles of Social Work,
(SP&S, 1912), 1,2.
82
Ibid., 2-5.
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The Salvation Army in Australia reached an absolute peak in Soldiership (membership) in
1931.
Subsequent decline is of course much greater in percentage terms, reflecting
momentum changes from one or two decades before this year.
Social work and corps work seem to be moving apart at a frightening rate, with social
program growing rapidly, traditional corps work declining, and new corps plants adding real
strength but not quite sensing that they belong to the mainstream. Each of these three areas is
called forward by differing values, aims and agendas.
Some corps are seeking to grow social work and corps work together, with notable success
but usually with inherent tensions between the two.
Salvationists continue to be admired from afar, and the Australian public supports our social
mission through the Red Shield Appeal to an extraordinary degree. Many of that public
recognizes the spiritual and religious motivation of our mission, but while they support the
Army with $50 million of direct giving annually they are not rushing in large numbers to
support or join our more apparently ‘spiritual’ activities. Our ‘going out’ is admired; our
‘bringing in’ is ignored. We seem to have lost much of our capacity to reach beyond
ourselves at corps level to engage surrounding culture and community, and have become
significantly inward looking and self-sustaining within the culture of our corps life.
Our social program is increasingly operated by non-Salvationist employees, working
substantially in frameworks that encourage professional detachment rather than holistic,
including spiritual, engagement.
A chaplaincy model is emerging as one response to
strengthening spiritual foundations.
There has never been a ‘golden age’ to which we could or should uncritically return.
However some understanding of the development and decline of mission vitality is required.
Let us pause to consider influences, external and internal, that have brought us to our present
situation.
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Pressures Within the Early Salvation Army83
In the first two decades of the twentieth century many pressures came to bear on the young
Salvation Army.
- The Death of the Founders
Catherine, who had given profound leadership, especially in her theological insights, was
‘promoted to glory’ in 1890. The General ‘laid down his sword’ in 1912, the same year that
the triumph of technology and engineering, the unsinkable Titanic, sank on her maiden
voyage, taking Booth’s colleague and ghost writer, WT Stead, to his death.
Eldest son Bramwell, effectively in charge for several years, succeeded his father. As Chief
of Staff he had shouldered the management burden of preventing the rapidly expanding
movement from flying apart.
Significant sibling rivalry, and the crucial principle of the internationalism of The Salvation
Army and its governance, saw the departure of the second son Ballington from the USA, the
first daughter Catherine from France, and the third son Herbert from Australia. The fourth
daughter Eva survived, to later challenge Bramwell’s leadership by declaring what amounted
to a unilateral declaration of independence in America.
Organisational excess had to be curbed, finances regularised, and legal processes established
and observed in this new phenomenon of an internationalist movement with an authoritarian
command structure centred in one country. Rigidity and rigorous conformity began to assert
themselves as dominant elements in the organisational ethos.
The culture of the movement began to look more inwardly. Eric Ball in an interview with
John Cleary told a story of Bramwell lecturing him as a cadet, outlining his vision of The
Salvation Army as a ‘nation within the nations, with its own art, literature and music’. For
fifty years this vision succeeded in building a remarkable internally consistent culture. Books
poured from Army presses, music from Army composers, and standardised units of ordered
soldiers filled the platforms and pew of citadels throughout the world.
83
This analysis of internal and external pressures on The Salvation Army draws on and develops Chapter 4 of
Cleary, and the discussion of the Theology in Mission focus group.
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Whilst this vision had great power, it is also a vision that turned the world engaging theology
of the first generation Salvation Army in on itself. Some of the original weapons of cultural
engagement, such as bands and uniforms, became transformed into signatures of
separateness.
The standing of women as officers is a benchmark of the retreat from the earlier innovative
and aggressive culture. From the earliest days women were the evangelical shock troops,
pioneering Army work in Britain, America, Australia and other countries. The 1900 edition
of Orders and Regulations for Officers names gender equality as “one of the leading
principles upon which the Army is based”. The 1925 edition drops the word “leading”, and
the 1974 edition omits the section entirely, writing of officer-wives: “In most appointments ...
an officer-wife should assist her husband. He is of course responsible …”. The offending
“of course” was still there in the edition published in 1987, a long way from the principles
enunciated and enforced by Catherine.
Pressures from Outside The Salvation Army
- The First World War
The second decade of the twentieth century was a pivotal one for the maturing Salvation
Army. In addition to the internal influences named above, the horrors of the First World War
continued the destruction of the confidence.
Salvationists found themselves on opposing sides of the conflict and experienced the
unimagined dehumanisation and destruction of the total warfare that was to become all too
familiar in the new century. They returned home largely unable to understand or talk about
their experience, and were soon to encounter the unemployment lines of the 1920s. Their
world had been transformed, becoming far less predictable and far less hopeful.
- The Crisis of Confidence in Philosophy, Theology and Popular Culture
Religious retreat and pessimism indeed became characteristic of the Evangelicalism of which
the Army was a part. Since the tumultuous political and intellectual changes of the
Enlightenment and American and French revolutions in the late eighteenth century, the old
certainties had been eroding. The forces of democracy challenged the political status quo.
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The Enlightenment encouraged the intellectual tools of doubt and skepticism as means of
intellectual enquiry, and these were quickly picked up by all disciplines, from science to
theology. Darwin’s The Origin of the Species; tools for critical study of the Bible; and the
quest for the ‘historical Jesus’ were all significant influences in recasting older frameworks.
Paradoxically, while doubt and anxiety worked their way through high culture, popular
culture was still at its optimistic zenith. Buoyed by the capacity of science, technology and
the industrial revolution to deliver ever more material improvement, discovering the power of
political forces for nationalism and democracy, and imbued with romantic notions of heroic
achievement, popular culture of the late nineteenth century believed that the world was being
changed for the better. The Salvation Army captured these popular cultural currents and
wedded them to an equally optimistic vision of kingdom building. Popular culture, however,
inexorably followed the path of high culture.
- The Rise of Premillennialism and Fundamentalism84
Evangelical Christians in the United States led the fight against slavery, as they had in
Britain. Their conviction that the Bible was as much about this world as it was about the next
was their driving force. If St Paul was right, that in Christ there was neither bond nor free,
then a Christian society should reflect that. Slavery was wrong and it must therefore be
opposed. True religion involved building the good society.
This not only pitted the American North against South over the twin political issues of
slavery and states rights, but Christian against Christian, as such powerful political use of the
Bible produced its own reaction. Christians who supported slavery began to look for their
own form of biblical justification. In the protestant churches of the southern states a new
doctrine of the ‘spirituality of the church’ emerged, which according to theologian John Leith
was soon “corrupted by the pressures of racial and economic issues into an escape from
social responsibility”85
84
The analysis from Boundless Salvation, reflecting the group consideration of Theology in Mission, is drawn
on extensively in this discussion of premillennialism, and its effect within The Salvation Army.
85
Mark A Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 168, citing John H.
Leith, ‘The Spirituality of the Church,’ in Encyclopaedia of religion in the South, ed. Samuel S. Hill, (Macon
GA: Mercer University Press, 1984), 731.
- 57 -
Religious retreat and pessimism found further expression in the upsurge of pre-millennial
adventist groups such as the Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and
Christian Scientists in America, and the Irvingites in Britain. Popular revivalists also began
to be attracted by the apocalyptic colour of pre-millennialism.
The influence of pre-
millennialism on mainstream Evangelicalism began to spread through the popularity of the
Keswick Convention movement. It found its most detailed expression in the Schofield
Reference Bible, and what was called Millennial Dispensationalism.
These fundamentalist interpretations of scripture are profoundly pessimistic about the world,
accepting that God cares so little for creation that he will destroy it all, except for the souls of
the elect. The responsibility of Christians is to save themselves, and as many more as they
are able, from the world and from the wrath to come upon it.
The impact on the Holiness Movement was profound. Wesley’s emphasis on social and
temporal holiness was lost in a search for the spiritual perfection of individuals and
disengagement from this fallen world.
United States church historian Donald Dayton writes:
Pre-civil war Evangelical eschatology was largely postmillennial, expecting Christ to return in
judgment after a millennial reign of one thousand years. Post-Civil War Evangelical eschatology was
dominated by a new doctrine of premillennialism. This view expected Christ to return before the
millennium to take the saints out of the world in an event called the ‘rapture’.
Finney’s revivalism ... the Wesleyan Methodists, and other Evangelical reformers, were tied to
postmillennialism. Reform activity was in part to prepare the way for the millennium, which was in
turn a vision of the ‘state of the perfect society’ that drew Evangelicals into reform.
Evangelical effort that had once provided the impulse and troops for reform rallies was rechannelled
into exegetical speculation about the timing of Christ’s return and into maintenance of the expanding
prophecy conferences.
The extent to which this shift in eschatology was felt throughout Evangelical life and thought is
difficult to overestimate. 86
The upsurge of pessimism regarding the created world found receptive ground within The
Salvation Army, with devastating consequences for its world-engaging mission. Premillennialism did damage to both social and corps operations.
86
Donald Dayton, Discovering an Evangelical Heritage, (USA: Hendrickson, 1976), 125 – 127.
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- Effects of Premillennialism and Fundamentalism within The Salvation Army
In the wake of the social gospel controversy at the beginning of the twentieth century, many
Evangelical
churches came to regard participation in social reform as a sign of apostasy.
The gnostic strand in pre-millennialism also invited the judgment that the poor had only
themselves to blame for their plight. It bred a sense of separation and superiority in service
delivery. The potential comrade became simply a client, or worse a hopeless case to be
viewed with pity mixed with contempt.
As the movement lost touch with the coherent vision of the kingdom which had fired its
mission, social work moved into a separate ‘over there’ world associated with charity, duty,
and second-line service. The passion for Social Transformation or Temporal Salvation was
replaced by an ethic of duty to provide Charity. Our capacity to ‘walk alongside’ the other
person slipped away.
As the size of the Army grew and institutional responsibilities multiplied engagement with
people was replaced by engagement with the organization. The good of the organization took
precedence over the needs of the individual. Bureaucratic demands came to dominate the
policy and management agenda.
As the Army’s international structure consolidated in an era hostile to Evangelical social
engagement, social officers came to be seen as ‘support troops’ and backroom managers; the
real fight was ‘on the field’. Careerism dictated that success was to be found in a prominent
field command. By the 1930s to be classed as a ‘Social Officer’ was held to be a sign of
failure in Salvation Army career terms.
The legacy of this era is still strong within the Army. Many Evangelicals blame social work for
the lack of dynamism in the Army’s evangelical mission.
In Australia the resources
committed to such events as the Red Shield Appeal, and the amount of money going into
social programs, is still treated by some as a diversion from the real purpose of mission. The
prominence of Army social work in the public mind, rather than being assessed to discover
the secret of its public success, is criticised and questioned.
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As Dayton warns, pre-millennial worldview and readings of scripture have been deep in their
impact within The Salvation Army, especially in encouraging a separation between the
physical and the spiritual.87
2.5
Images of Salvationist Mission emerging from its History and Theology
An essential resource in any discussion of contemporary Salvationist mission, Creed and
Deed, emerged in 1986 from a symposium on “The Theology of Social Services” held at the
Catherine Booth Bible College in Winnipeg, Canada.88 The symposium examined the place
of social services within the mission of The Salvation Army, with a general conclusion that
social services, including social reform, are an essential part of one comprehensive mission.
Creed and Deed provided a sound resource for the Theology in Mission focus group, with
notable contributions from Donald Burke and Philip Needham.
Each of these two contributors offer further published resources that propose mission
principles and images in contemporary form.
In the face of the significant challenges gathered in 2.4 above, and resourced by the Army’s
distinctive heritage, the following implications for Salvationist mission and ministry have
been adapted by the Theology in Mission group from a paper developed by Donald Burke: 89
1. Human beings are invested with a dignity that cannot be compromised in any way
2. human beings are earthly creatures, living in this world with all the resulting needs
and desires
87
A recent helpful treatment of pre- and post-millennialism and effects with The Salvation Army comes from
Philip Davisson, ‘Sweeping Through the Land: Postmillennialism and the Early Salvation Army,’ Word and
Deed, vol. 5 no 2, 29-50. This entire issue of Word and Deed is excellent resource and confirmation for the
argument followed in this study. The exception to this is the puzzling comment in the editorial, 1-2, “While the
Army today no longer embraces a postmillennial theology, this article causes us to question our present vision
of history and what the place of the Army is within that historical context.” Agreed, the ‘millennial’ interest is
appropriately low, but the implications of the ‘post’ part of postmillennialism are central to the issues facing the
Army, otherwise we drift, as we have, into premillennialism. A vision of God’s action in history, past, present
and future, is needed.
88
John D Waldron ed., Creed and Deed, (The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda: 1986).
89
Adapted from Donald E Burke, ‘What Motivates our Social Service Ministries? A Theology of Social
Services’, The Standard (Fall 1998) 12-14, generalising to the comprehensive mission of The Salvation Army.
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3. a full understanding of humanity must include an affirmation of our essential
spirituality that can only be satisfied in communion with God
4. human existence is profoundly shaped by the reality of sin, both individual and
corporate, that distorts and impairs the living of human life to its fullness
5. Christian mission must manifest a deep concern for social justice since this
concern for justice is seen in the bible as fundamental to the character of God
6. the Christian gospel, founded in the character of God as revealed in the Bible and
definitively in Jesus Christ, cannot be divided into “evangelism” and “social
service”, but must address human needs at every level.
Therefore Salvationist ministry must:
1. Be available to all people, regardless of any potential bases for discrimination,
because of our Christian affirmation that all have been created in the image and
likeness of God
2. be focused on the physical, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of
human life, because we affirm that we are creatures who have needs in all of those
areas
3. take into account the reality of human sinfulness that manifests itself in both the
individual’s self-detrimental actions and in the sinful social structures that
perpetuate injustice
4. be shaped fundamentally by the Christian witness to the character of God as one
who is deeply concerned about the full dimensions of human life
5. be concerned with both the amelioration of human suffering and with social
justice
6. demonstrate the love and compassion of God that never gives up on people.
While all Salvationist ministry is never contingent upon someone accepting our faith,
it is nevertheless profoundly informed by our understanding of the Christian gospel.
When applied with care and understanding these statements have served very effectively as a
contemporary summary to inform and explain Salvationist mission, both with nonSalvationist and Salvationist mission partners.
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Phil Needham presents a Salvationist ecclesiology around the compound image ‘Community
in Mission’.90 The sub-titles of each chapter build a series of images – the new humanity, the
redemptive fellowship, the pilgrim people, the army of salvation, the nurturing community,
the colony of hope – to present ecclesiology and missiology in dynamic relationship, each
needing the other to be adequately themselves. This image offers some resolution, at least in
theory, to the dilemma phrased above as ‘going out’ and ‘bringing in’ (section 2.4.1). The
community needs the mission, the mission needs the community, but the theology of each
part needs to be consistent.
World denying theology inside the community will sit
uncomfortably with a theology that sends us out to be with others in God’s mission of
renewal. This remains a crucial contemporary issue.
It is disturbing that so little is heard from the symposium that produced Creed and Deed, and
from the Theology and Ethics symposium held in the same location two years ago. Much
effort is spent in refining mission methodology but very little spent on its theological
foundations. The Army is fortunate in its theological heritage, and has traveled well and far
in this resource. However, in Australia at least, the theological mission foundations are at
great risk of being overwhelmed by a burgeoning superstructure, technically and
professionally competent though it might be.
2.6
Conclusions
“Bring them in with all their sin;
He’ll wash them white as snow.” 91
So ends the chorus of a rollicking war song, originating around 1888, and still in the current
1986 edition of the Song Book of The Salvation Army. Without question “bring them in” is,
and has been a dominant and prominent image of Salvationist mission. It comes from within
the personality of William and Catherine Booth, from their Evangelical and Wesleyan
heritage, and from the American revivalist preachers with their outrageous methods. It
comes too from the fact that it worked. The people did come, and many were soundly
90
91
Philip D Needham, Community in Mission: A Salvationist Ecclesiology, (St Albans: Campfield Press, 1987).
Song Book of The Salvation Army, number 814.
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converted, transforming their lives and those of family and friends. These words of song
reflected an absolute confidence in the possibility of personal conversion and social
transformation, and a deep commitment to the costly pastoral processes needed to support the
convert, and willingness to risk reputation and personal safety to join the work of renewal of
creation.
“Bring them in” images can be seen to work from either theological view of history,
premillennial or postmillennial. However the impact is totally different for each view of
God’s action in history.
When the chorus is sung from a postmillennial perspective, the ‘them’ is also ‘us.’ The
distance between those singing and those sung about is not great. We are all the object of
God’s love and care, some have heard and responded to his call of grace, others are yet to,
and God is still working in all. Likewise the walls of the citadel are highly permeable; going
out and coming in is easy in both directions, and the culture inside is hospitable and accepting
because the difference between the people is not great. Holy joy becomes the attractive,
fascinating mystery.
When however the chorus is sung from a premillennial stance, ‘them’ and ‘us’ live in
different worlds, an almost unbridgeable distance apart. Those inside may feel privileged,
enlightened, even elect, not simply graced. The walls of the citadel, from both sides, seem
massive and impermeable. From outside, at best the building and the people in it seem awefull. At worst the outsider feels excluded by people they consider hypocritical. The reaction
of most from outside is understandable apathy.
Mission has also always seen Salvationists ‘going out.’ From a postmillennial perspective,
this means leaving the safe confines of the citadel as the refreshed and renewed people of
God, joining the mission of God within the world that God loves and cares for, the sacrament
of service, bringing the presence of God to those who know their need.
Again this image
emerges from the Founders and all that shaped them theologically and practically.
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From a premillennial stance, the world has become ‘other,’ either frightening or despised.
‘Going out’ is only done to ‘bring them in,’ and both parts are exercised with great care
because each action could contaminate the faithful, or at least cause discomfort.
Crucial in these images, ‘bring them in’ and ‘going out,’ is the theology that underpins them
each.
The view of God’s action in history is pivotal.
The clear and predominant
postmillennialism of Booth’s day held both images together coherently, each supporting the
other. The community and the mission were congruent in their theological convictions,
particularly the understanding that God loves the world and is active in it for the renewal of
all creation. The two images compete destructively when the faith community centres on
separation and protection from the world, leaving the confines only reluctantly to drag a few
people back into the citadel.
A separate social mission then emerges, also profoundly
damaged, in this case through disconnection from the community of faith.
Through recent generations, Salvationists have been exhorted to be ‘going out in order to
bring people in’. Some might have heard the message as ‘going out to be with people and
represent God to them,’ although I estimate that these would be a small minority. I am sure
that for most Salvationists the theme of the day has passed largely unnoticed. Much effort
and resource has been spent on promotion and technique. The results, however, have been
disappointing. This is not surprising when the theological views of history are so divergent.
“Out We Go” and “Christ for the World” are themes adopted in recent times to focus the
efforts of the Territory, the second of these indeed being an international theme. However
the slogans have totally different meanings, depending on understandings of God’s action in
history. This crucial matter of perspective leads into Chapter three that follows.
Chapter
four will include consideration of Future Now!, a Territorial focus that, on reflection, has
sought to bring a more congruent view of theological history in emphasising elements of a
postmillennial view.
The following diagram seeks to simplify and summarise the foregoing discussion, and allow
further nuances to emerge.
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Images of Mission
Bringing people to God
Taking God to people
From a postmillennial perspective the circle, equivalent perhaps to the walls of the citadel,
are quite permeable, allowing easy movement outwards by Salvationists into a world that
God loves and where God is.
From a premillennial perspective the circle, the walls of the citadel, constitute a strongly
protective barrier that keeps an alien and meaningless, even dangerous world at bay. The
world is marked for destruction, so jump in the lifeboat and rescue as many as you can.
In closing this study of history and theology, the hint of another image of mission always
present in The Salvation Army is suggested in Henry Lawson’s Booths Drum II. This image
is named more directly through the work and experience of the International Health Team as
they have responded to the overwhelming concerns arising from HIV/AIDS, and will be
developed more fully in Chapter four.
From Boundless Salvation, outlining the remarkable resonance that The Salvation Army
enjoyed within the fledgling nation of Australia:
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… perhaps nowhere has the Australian sympathy for The Salvation Army been better exhibited than in
the work of the poet Henry Lawson. The historic Australian tradition of “mateship” embraced great
compassion for the underdog and suspicion of authority, particularly those authorities that wrapped
themselves in the moral cloak of religion.
Lawson’s bush and city stories are tough on the clergy. Like many today, he despised institutional
religion. Yet Lawson had a soft spot for the Army. There seemed to be something in the character of
the early day Salvationists that overcame Lawson’s hostility and endeared them to him. Like his
American contemporary, Vachel Lindsay, Lawson wrote a tribute to the Army on the death of William
Booth. He called it Booth’s Drum.
Some years later, in the midst of World War One and as he battled the alcoholism which was
eventually to kill him, Lawson wrote a second and more intimate tribute to Booth’s Army ‘Booth’s
Drum II’. The poetry is perhaps not as technically proficient as in much of his earlier work, but the
insights into ‘True Religion’ are profound.92
The first two verses comment with regret on the absence of life and entertainment available
from the local Corps of The Salvation Army now that most of the men have left for the war.
Along with the final verse they are deleted to aid the point at issue. We take the poem up at
verse three:
BOOTH’S DRUM II
(Bulletin Magazine 1917)
No more we see across the “park”
The SA barracks all aglow;
A single gas-jet lights the dark,
A single lassie runs the show.
And other shows – she travels round
To help them here and there a bit;
She knows the Bush, and knows her ground –
She’s very small but she has grit.
She said to me the other day;
“I wish you would come in to-night;
I think ‘twould help me, anyway,
And give me better strength to fight.”
I scarce knew what she meant, for she
Hath humour in her winsome face Unless ‘twould help her heart to see
A BULLY bard in halls of grace.
But I grow tired of doing right.
And then I thought I’d let her know
92
Cleary, 48-9.
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That I was saved one strenuous night,
In old North Sydney years ago,
And “never had no luck” until
I got “run in and fined five bob”
(And also that I never will
Until I lose my stiddy job.)
“But that old save’s worn out,” she said;
“And those old days are past and gone.
Come in tonight, and clear your head,
And get a brand-new save put on.
You know that I'm a stranger here,
And find it very dull and slow” –
She paused, and brushed away a tear –
“You'd help me more than you can know.”
And so I went, a sinner grey,
And sat among the earnest few,
And prayed, when she said: “Let us pray” –
Or rather I pretended to.
And when the others rose to go
(They very seldom stay out late)
She sat, for half an hour or so,
Beside the Unregenerate.
She showed me (sitting by my side)
A letter from a chaplain’s hand
That told her how her sweetheart died
A hero’s death in No Man’s Land.
I'd known them both in days gone by,
What time the chaplain used to swear.
I read the lines and saw that my
Unworthy name was mentioned there.
Then, blind with tears, she bowed her head;
But just as soon the tears were stayed.
“Now, brother, let us pray,” she said –
And then her “brother” bowed and prayed.
And far, or near, it seemed to me,
Or yesterday, or long ago,
In this town, or across the sea,
Booth's drum was sobbing soft and low.93
Prayer happens, God takes form in time and space, when two people sit side by side and
share their concerns.
‘Mission with,’ truly incarnational mission, one person coming
alongside another, and in the mystery of grace God is present in the exchange, both people
93
Henry Lawson, Complete Works Vol 2, A Fantasy of Man, (Dingley: Redwood Editions, 2000), 711.
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are enlarged, neither is diminished. The power relationships are equal in participation, not
unequal as inevitably occurs in provision based responses.
The single lady officer coming alongside, vulnerable in her pain, “And then her “brother”
bowed and prayed.” Provision based responses seem inevitably necessary, where one has
resources, money, time or knowledge, and provides them on their terms to the one in need.
Circles one and two indicate such a response. But participation is a vastly greater expression
of the grace and compassion of Jesus. Booth’s Drum II hints at a third circle based on
something extra detected by Henry Lawson. Wary of the power of institutionalised religion,
Lawson warms to something implicit within the identity of this rough and ready new
expression, newly arrived but deeply at home in this young country.
Images of Mission
Bringing people to God
Taking God to people
Meeting God in people
Something of Matthew 25:40 comes alive, where in the parable the King in judgment
declares regarding the kindness shown to ‘the least,’ “you did it for me.” Two people meet
and participate in common need, and God is present. The third circle no longer represents a
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building, rather the space between people that becomes sacred space, “I – Thou” space of
mutual hospitality.
Elements of the first two circles may still be present, and can still be
appropriate, but not as threat or power. Neither a postmillennial nor premillennial view of
God’s action in history will guarantee such hospitable meeting. It seems less likely to
happen, however, where the “other” is seen as threatening or alien.
At its best the early Army exuded a sense of this third circle. At its best it does still.
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Chapter 3
The Voice of Culture
Practical Theology and Postmodern Context
3.1
Introduction
The future of The Salvation Army in Australia will be governed largely by its capacity to
reconnect the experience of the transcendent with the daily experience of Australians,
especially those most disconnected from the benefits of society. This chapter continues the
quest for a mission image that will drive such engagement by the Army within its current
context, by considering the impact of the emerging postmodern sensibility of Australian
culture, and by developing a conversation with some other recent practical theologies. We
tune into these two voices in order to listen to the second of the three conversation partners,
the cultural context external to The Salvation Army in Australia.
Any theological method and content that seeks to engage its world must necessarily work to
understand that world’s philosophical, cultural and religious frames of reference. Australia
has been long regarded as typical of Western scientific modernist culture, founded on the
Enlightenment principles of the certainty, objectivity and goodness of knowledge, grounded
in reason and individual freedom. As argued above (Chapter two) the optimism characteristic
of this worldview has been challenged through the twentieth century, initially within high
culture and increasingly expressed through popular culture. Most social commentators within
Australia would agree that the ground has shifted, that modernist foundations are no longer
securely in place. This new era is defined in opposition to the worldview that has dominated
the last two hundred years and has been labeled postmodernism. Time will tell whether the
philosophical foundations of postmodernism are robust enough for it to be more than a brief
transition into the next era. However its characteristics are sufficiently strong, especially in
reaction against the confines and failures of modernism, that any practical theology in
Australia must take the claims of postmodernism seriously, to speak for it and against it as
appropriate, to accept that many people see the world from postmodern perspective, and that
all are influenced by this worldview in some degree.
The Salvation Army has typically been more active in practice rather than theological
reflection, and as it seeks to chart its future there is considerable benefit in dialogue with
other practical theologies, as they seek to connect the transcendent with daily experience.
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Dennis McCann compares and contrasts two such expressions in Christian Realism and
Liberation Theology, and these provide very useful reference points in clarifying and
articulating an Army perspective. Each of these expressions of practical theology respond to
influences that shape what we now know as postmodernism. McCann writes as a North
American Roman Catholic in 1982. He enters a then current debate between advocates of
Reinhold Niebuhr’s expression of Christian realism and Gustavo Gutierrez’s articulation of
liberation theology.
Each is passionate to ‘do’ theology in their context, to provide a
theological basis that not only makes sense of individual religious experience but also names
and critiques social realities and provides motivation for positive social change. McCann
explores the internal coherence and relative adequacy of these two expressions of practical
theology as an indication of their sustainability. His analysis offers helpful reference points
for the Army’s more intuitive approach, an approach in grave danger of subsiding into an
individualized and otherworldly spirituality.
We turn firstly to consider the impact of postmodernism upon the mission context in
Australia, and then to an analysis of Christian realism and liberation theology, drawing
together implications for the mission of The Salvation Army.
3.2
Australian Culture and Salvationist Mission
What is the social, intellectual and moral context in which The Salvation Army in Australia
lives and speaks and acts?
In what ways might this context shape the mission image
appropriate to this place and time?
There is a general spirit, or mood, or ethos, a lens through which we view the world, which is
abroad at any given time, by which most people form their values and make their choices. In
pre-modern times people understood a lightning strike on the parish church spire in a
predictable manner, as a judgment by God. A modernist worldview understands that the
height and shape of the spire makes it vulnerable within a rationally understandable process
of cause and effect, and proceeds to install a copper conductor that might prevent damage
arising from electric potential difference between the cloud base and the earth. Though even
in a modernist era the liberal views of a bishop can attract sensationalist headlines when, a
few years ago, lightning struck Durham Cathedral! Old worldviews are remarkably resilient,
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never quite giving way to the new, particularly at the popular level. However, different eras
of predominant influence can be identified.
Australia was colonised and came to nationhood during the era of modernity, incorporating
its presuppositions of reason, nature, autonomy, harmony and progress.
Modernism
emphasizes not only the human rational capabilities, but presumes a fundamental order and
structure within all reality. The exercise of critical reason could then be applied to subdue
and transform the world. This in turn elevates the autonomy of the individual, not into
lawlessness but towards the universal natural law, overcoming selfishness and leading to a
natural harmony.
Thus optimism and belief in progress emerge from the apparent
superstition and barbarism of the Middle Ages, now labeled as pre-modernism.94 Australia,
since settlement, is deeply marked by the convictions of modernism that have underpinned its
formative centuries.
However a new mood that challenges all the presuppositions of modernism has reached
Australia. Postmodernism is no longer convinced that knowledge is inherently good, or that
truth is certain and purely rational, or that knowledge is objective.
Boundless Salvation, introduced in the previous Chapter as the document recording the
conversations of the Theology in Mission focus group, characterises in brief point form the
impact of postmodernism for The Salvation Army.
I draw from this document as a
participant in these conversations and as convener of Theology in Mission group.
- Impacts of Postmodernism for The Salvation Army
Postmodernism leads to a loss of faith in ‘universals’ or ‘grand narratives’, including such
things as universal values, and historic institutions, particularly those prescribing moral
visions, such as political and religious institutions. Such institutions and values are merely
the creations of flawed human beings and reflect all their weaknesses.
94
See Stanley J Grenz, A Primer on Postmodernism, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996) for an introduction from
within an evangelical Christian perspective.
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Commitment to institutions is to be avoided.
appropriate viewpoint.
Ironic detachment and suspicion is the
What is true is “my” experience, “my” community and “my”
spirituality.
This attitude or mood is accompanied, as we have seen, by a similar loss of faith in human
“progress”.
This loss of faith in progress is a symptom of loss of faith in human ‘reason’ and our ability
to know the ‘truth’ about anything. There can be no universally agreed principles of human
reason through which we can find “objective” truth. All truth is subjective and relative. The
only truth is “my” truth. There are no absolutes. There are no “foundations” on which to
build.
Knowledge is understood as an expression of the power of the dominant group. The Nazis
believed the ‘truth’ of what Hitler said about the Jews and the coming of a Thousand-year
Reich. The strength of this ‘truth’ forced a world into war, and led directly to the genocide of
millions of Jews.
Women have been suppressed for thousands of years because of a dominant ‘male truth’ that
women were not equal.
There are ‘regimes’ of truth. The poor remain poor because the system of truth exercised by
the powerful and rich keeps them there.
If all truth is relative, your opinion is as good as mine. The opinions of others have as much
merit as ours. We must respect ‘otherness’. Our truth is ours only. Indigenous religions are
worthy of as much respect as Christianity. Difference is to be celebrated.
If there is no truth, then there can be no judgment. Tolerance is the primary virtue.
The thinking ‘self’ is a subjective, variable construct.
The mind and its processes are
unreliable. What is real and matters is the body and experience. Experience triumphs over
analysis, and the body over the mind.
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Paradoxically the anti-rationalist and experience centred aspects of the postmodern invite an
openness to subjective experience, which includes a sense of holism and interconnectedness.
It rejects the confident top-down ‘control of the world’ emphasis of modernism and adopts a
much more networked view of the world. Thus, postmodernity has encouraged a renewal of
interest in creation centred spirituality – recognition of the ‘interconnectedness of all’.
Despite pessimism regarding social progress, many young people work hard for ecological
conservation and fairer global trade.
Another paradox of the postmodern is its emphasis on the cultural significance of technology
(television, mobile phones etc.), a creation of the very rational scientific view it challenges.
The use made of these technologies is of particular concern. In a modernist perspective
technologies tended to be seen simply as neutral tools that we use either wisely or badly. In a
postmodern perspective, there is a recognition that technologies are centrally involved. As
Marshall McLuhan famously declared, ‘The medium is the message!’
Postmodernism has been described as “modernity without illusions”. Its great strength is its
awareness of the limits of human possibility. It removes humanism from its pedestal. Its
great weakness is that its profoundly pessimistic relativism can provide no alternative vision
to the culture of globalised individualism. It is profoundly nihilistic. It is a culture without
social hope.
Much of postmodern thought is antithetical to the Christian vision of a creator God, in whom
truth resides and on whom ultimate hope is founded. Further if ‘tolerance’ is the primary
virtue there can be no judgment, and without the exercise of judgment there can be no
justice.95 Without justice there can be no good society.
At its extreme, postmodernity involves a reversion to a pagan, tribal universe. It can lead to
the world foreshadowed in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. In this world there are no
overarching truths or gods, only local ones who work for ‘my tribe’ or ‘my’ community. The
Postmodern ‘tolerance’ is acceptance that the stance of another is as sound as your own. Niebuhr’s ‘test of
tolerance’, 3.3.2 below, has different meaning. Niebuhr’s test of tolerance “is twofold and includes both the
ability to hold vital convictions which lead to action; and also the capacity to preserve the spirit of forgiveness
toward those who offend us by holding convictions which seem untrue to us”.
95
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dominant imperative is the survival of ‘my’ group, however that is defined. From our
perspective postmodernity contains at its heart a selfishness completely in harmony with the
‘greed is good’ fashion of market-driven materialism.96
Chapter one of this present work, in its discussion of research methodology, outlines some of
the philosophical, hermeneutical and epistemological issues that have arisen to challenge
modernist understandings and methodologies.
Chapter two outlines the challenges
confronting The Salvation Army as the optimism of modernism collided with the many harsh
realities of the twentieth century.
Indeed, we might ask, have the foundations of the
theological view of history, which came through Evangelicalism and Wesleyanism into The
Salvation Army and gave such life and energy to its first five decades, been lost beyond
recovery?97 In a postmodern era, how might we express the possibility of the transcendent
breaking into or emerging from within time and space as we experience it? This matter is a
crucial issue as we pursue the question of mission image, and the transcendent taking form in
time and space.
- Responses to Postmodernism
Stanley Grenz outlines the “contours of a postmodern gospel” as being post-individualistic,
post-rationalistic, post-dualistic and post-noeticentric (beyond the limitations of arid
intellectualism).98
David Tacey, Associate Professor of English at LaTrobe University, argues that a postmodern
sensibility offers possibility of a recovery, in new ways, of a lost spirituality, grounded in the
feminine, and that Australia with its strong sense of place is precisely the arena for such a
spirituality to emerge. “Our real problem is how to properly honour, recognise, and serve the
new sacredness that has erupted.”99 He has earlier argued, “So many of our social and
96
Drawing from Cleary, 66-7.
Stanley J. Grenz writes, “in some sense Evangelicalism – with its focus on scientific thinking, the empirical
approach, and common sense – is a child of early modernity”, A Primer on Postmodernism, 10, citing George
M. Marsden, ‘Evangelicals, History, and Modernity,’ in Evangelicalism and Modern America, ed. George M.
Marsden (Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans, 1984), 98.
98
Ibid. 167.
99
David Tacey, The Edge of the Sacred: Transformation in Australia, East Melbourne: Harper Collins, 1995,
195.
97
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political problems stem from the loss or absence of a living and sustaining religious
vision.”100 He sketches the “contours of an Australian spirituality”:
A spirituality that arises metaphorically from below will be a very earthy spirituality. In theological
terms, it will be immanental, sacramental, and the opposite of otherworldly, abstract or puritanical. In
political terms it will also be ‘down to earth’, and the opposite of hierarchical, authoritarian or ‘topdown’ styles of religious leadership. As such, it might be difficult for conventional religious
awareness, which is still primarily puritanical, abstract and hierarchical, to recognise this new religious
dimension in psyche, art and society.101
Captain Phil Garnham, staff member of The Salvation Army’s International Training
College, writes regarding postmodernism and “intimations for the direction for faith
education in The Salvation Army”:
We must face the issues with a confident humility. We cannot simply ignore the fact that many people
in our society accept uncritically the postmodern claim that all truth is relative. The claims of
postmodernity should stimulate us to explore creative, non-dogmatic ways to communicate the
Christian faith which refute the idea that seeking truth is futile. We must also address the increasing
social divisions caused by semiotic consumerism. Modeling a commitment to social action, pursuing
justice and practical ministry among the poorest in our society will, I hope, continue to be an important
element in our strategy to counter the growing polarisation that a postmodern society inevitably
produces. Concerning the postmodern issue of the loss of future hope, the Army will need to take
seriously the collapse of the Western dream and the tendency towards nihilism, and encourage its
centres in their capacity to be creative, accepting communities of hope. 102
Garnham advocates further for a servant style of leadership that counters the postmodern
perception that all metanarratives are oppressive, exploitative and controlling. Training
methodologies will need to be consciousness-raising, rather than domesticating, building on
‘problem posing’ principles. Radical discipleship, he suggests, is the key element; “Nominal
Salvationism will not bear the blast of postmodernity.”103
The challenges posed to theology by postmodernism are similar at many points to those
confronting the study of history, and comparisons are instructive. Ernst Breisach, professor
emeritus at Western Michigan University, writes defending the enterprise of historiography.
From his interests as an historian, he identifies postmodernism as challenging the nexus
between past, present and future based “on a radically different valuation of the two basic
experiences of time – change and continuity. In doing so, postmodernists touched the core of
100
Ibid. 10.
David Tacey, Re-Enchantment: The New Australian Spirituality, Harper Collins, Pymble, 2000, 255.
102
Phil Garnham, unpublished paper Postmodernity and Faith Education in The Salvation Army, accessed in
1998.
103
Ibid.
101
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the historicity of human life and historical thought: the historical nexus.”104 He suggests an
earlier form of postmodernism, based in France and Germany, – ‘structural postmodernism’ –
that sought to retain “a knowable world of objectively given structures and forces” 105 and
envisaged a state of stable continuity, where “progress (change) ended in a state of full
rationality (continuity).”106 From the 1960s Breisach suggests a second group of
postmodernists emerged from interests in the humanities, especially literary criticism,
continental European philosophy, the arts and architecture.
This group, labeled
‘poststructuralist postmodernism,’ rejected all grand conceptualisations of history
(metanarratives), and shifted emphasis in truth finding “from reason and empiricism to
desires and drives, especially power.”107 “Poststructuralist postmodernists would establish
their postmodernity by persistently barring closures (establishments of illusory and damaging
continuity) in a world defined as endless flux.”108 Both forms are ‘posthistoric,’ excluding
the essential task of historiography - mediating between continuity and change.
Against the claims of both forms of postmodernism Briesach points to four issues: “the
stubborn persistence of the metanarrative,”109 “the issue of truth without stability,”110 the
problem that history is actually used to establish the postmodern condition, and “the absence
of persuasive successes in the translation of postmodernist theories into viable historical
writings.”111 Does history have a future? Briesach argues that life, as the final arbiter, will
always return to the nexus of both continuity and change, away from the boredom of pure
continuity, and away from the asceticism of abstaining from all certainties. Briesach calls for
selective listening by historians to postmodernism, and to make corresponding adjustments to
their practices. Against structural postmodernism, we must remember that history is ironic
and progress is contingent and non-linear. Poststructuralist postmodernism has “enriched our
knowledge of the process by which we relate to the world,” and leaves historians with “a
richer repertory of questions and a new sense for the proper possibilities and limits of
104
Ernst Breisach, On the Future of History: The Postmodernist Challenge and its Aftermath, (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press), 2003, 18.
105
Ibid. 22.
106
Ibid. 25.
107
Ibid. 24.
108
Ibid. 25.
109
Ibid. 196.
110
Ibid. 197.
111
Ibid. 200-1.
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historical enquiry.”112 However there is no need for history to surrender to postmodernism in
either form. A similar approach seems to be emerging in theology: Listen to the questions
posed by postmodernity and learn what these teach us, and trust the power of life to assert
itself.
Anthony Thiselton, Professor of Christian Theology at Nottingham University, and Canon
Theologian of Leicester Cathedral, addresses the implications of postmodernism in general
while responding particularly to Sea of Faith proponents.113 Interpreting God and the
Postmodern Self carries the sub-title On Meaning, Manipulation and Promise, and these are
the basic themes he pursues in this series of lectures, in response to the rich questions posed
by postmodernism. He agrees that truth claims have been used to legitimate the use (abuse)
of power, but that in unveiling this reality postmodernism tells only part of the story of the
human self, not the whole story.
Selfhood discovers its identity and personhood within a larger purposive narrative which allows room
for agency, responsibility and hope. Even if postmodernity fragments the self and society into multiple
role-performances, and dissolves truth into the conventions or power-interests of different or competing
communities, the future may nevertheless hold out the possibility of reintegration on the basis of
promise.114
Thiselton develops Moltmann’s Theology of Hope.
Moltmann writes from a ‘modern’
background but pre-figures postmodernism in his understandings, particularly the earlier
forms posited by Breisach.
‘Christianity’ has its essence and its goal not in itself and not in its own existence, but lives from
something and exists for something which reaches far beyond itself.
This mission is not carried out within the horizon of expectation provided by the social roles which
society concedes to the Church, but it takes place within its own peculiar horizon of the eschatological
expectation of the coming kingdom of God, of the coming righteousness and the coming peace, of the
coming freedom and dignity of man. The Christian Church has not to serve mankind in order that this
world may remain what it is, … but in order that it may transform itself and become what it is promised
to be.
Hence mission means not merely propagation of faith and hope, but also historic transformation of life.
The life of the body, including also social and public life, is expected as a sacrifice in day-to-day
obedience (Romans 12.1ff.).115
112
Ibid. 206.
Sea of Faith is the title given to international groups developing perspectives of Don Cupitt, initially
proposed in a British television series under the same title.
114
Anthony C. Thiselton, Interpreting God and the Postmodern Self: On Meaning, Manipulation and Promise,
T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1995, ix.
115
Jurgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope, (London: SCM, 1967), 325, 327, 330.
113
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Thus promise is not mere interpretation, but is also the agent of change. In promise the
transcendent is expressed in temporal terms, as ‘ahead’ of us, rather than the spatial imagery
‘above’ us. “Without this temporal dimension, Christian theology plays into the hands of the
criticisms of Neitzsche and Heidegger that Christianity becomes a world-denying ‘Platonism
for the people’.”116 Rather than docility, the language of promise invites
venture and courage. It entails neither the ‘presumption’ of modernity that everything can be known
and controlled, nor the ‘despair’ of postmodernity that no strategy, no purpose, no order, no future, can
beckon from ‘beyond’ the horizons of the self in its present situatedness, to borrow Moltmann’s
terms.117
Thus Thiselton, drawing on Moltmann, proposes a theology of history, hope and promise,
where “an initial venture on the basis of a hypothesis coheres closely with what is termed
‘preliminary’ or ‘provisional’ understanding,”118 and
initial or provisional acts of trust may lead to a discovery of patterns of promise and fulfillment which
seldom exhaustively match expectations, but instantiate both continuity and room for novelty. …
This initial and provisional exploration may lead to an experience of ‘reconstituted’ identity. We may
begin to ask ourselves whether either the self of modernity or the postmodern self need be the only
possible selfhood.
Perhaps the self of modernity has been right to hope, but wrong about the basis on which it built its
hope. Perhaps the postmodern self has been right to despair if will-to-power exhausted the content of
all reality, but wrong in its assumption that this exhausted all that might be called ‘real’. 119
The ‘reconstituted’ identity takes seriously the possibility of moral agency and
transformation. A theology of promise “beckons from beyond to invite new hope, new
purpose, even ‘resurrection’. For what else is resurrection but a reconstituted selfhood of the
same identity… From the viewpoint of Christian theology, everything depends on divine
promise and agency.”120
Does this theology of promise enrich an image of mission? Certainly an adequate theology
of history that reflects postmodern questions needs to be outlined, and hope, promise and
fulfillment, based on historic experience and ‘reconstituted’ identity, offers both direction of
116
Thiselton, 146.
Ibid. 148.
118
Ibid. 160.
119
Ibid. 161.
120
Ibid. 77-8.
117
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change and agent for change. The effectiveness of such an eschatological framework will be
demonstrated in Chapter four, particularly in the international health team case study.
The case studies will also amplify a further central issue outlined by Thiselton, arising from
the discipline of hermeneutics, but carrying large import for mission as it engages with
culture, with ‘otherness.’
For Schleiermacher and for Dilthey, we shall see, genuine ‘understanding’ of a text or of another
human person arises only when we seek to ‘step out of our own frame’.121 We need to renounce those
prior categorizations and stereotypifications with which we begin. In Gadamer’s language, we
renounce the manipulative ‘control’ epitomized by ‘scientific method’, and allow ourselves to enter
unpredicted avenues into which mutual listening and genuine conversation leads. 122 In Ricoeur’s
terminology, we explore new worlds of possibility. 123 124
We recall the side-by-side conversation of the bereaved ‘lassie’ officer and the reprobate
poet, and the inbreaking of gracious presence in Booth’s Drum II. Through all time, and
especially in postmodern times, genuine mission conversation will step out of its own frame,
renounce manipulative control, and explore new worlds of possibility. If mission’s content is
based in promise and hope, mission’s method is necessarily hospitality, participation, and
accompaniment.
Non-manipulative love, exemplified in the cross and in the free gift of resurrection, “A love
in which a self genuinely gives itself to the Other in the interests of the Other dissolves the
acids of suspicion and deception.”125
Thiselton, with Trinitarian emphasis, continues in tones reminiscent of Wesley:
In theological terms the transformation of will-to-power into will-to-love means being transformed into
the image of Christ. As such, the self finds itself beloved and cherished by the Father and the Spirit,
and, bearing the likeness of Christ discovers the joy of finding its life in losing it, of receiving in
giving, of experiencing resurrection through the cross. 126
121
F. D. E. Schleiermacher, Hermeneutics. The Handwritten Manuscripts, ed. H. Kimmerle (Eng. Missoula:
Scholars Press, 1977) 42, 109.
122
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, (2nd Eng. edn. from 5th German edn., London: Sheed and Ward,
1993), 362-79.
123
Paul Ricoeur, Time and Narrative (Eng. 3 vols., Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1984-8), vol. 3, 253-61;
cf. vol. 2, 100-60.
124
Thiselton, 13.
125
Ibid. 160, see also 16-17.
126
Ibid. 161.
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Hoping in what is ‘ahead,’ in contrast to what is ‘above’, is grounded in the intimations of the
fullness of what is currently experienced. Present transformation, although partial, is real and
points to future fullness.
In the section which follows, the ‘middle axioms’ proposed by
Niebuhr, and Gutierrez’ use of ‘experience’, each make use of this promise and fulfillment
theme.
We now turn to Dennis McCann’s excellent discussion of these two practical
theologies, as examples for The Salvation Army of ways of understanding mission at this
time.
3.3
Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism
In introducing Christian realism, McCann offers considerable biographical detail on its chief
proponent, Reinhold Niebuhr, necessary given the experiential theological foundations of this
expression of practical theology. The son of a Prussian immigrant and preacher, Niebuhr was
born in the American Midwest and raised in Illinois. He completed two years graduate
studies at Yale Divinity School, confirming the theological liberalism learned from his father,
and exposing him to the ways of American academia. In 1915 he entered a pastorate at the
Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit. A thirteen-year term saw tenfold increase in the
congregation, and awakened the social activist in Niebuhr. Personal piety and the spiritual
perplexities of the humbler members of the congregation sat alongside and informed his
engagement with the major social issues of the day. In 1928 he commenced a lifelong
association with Union Theological Seminary as professor of Applied Christianity. With the
advance of the Great Depression Niebuhr became spokesman for religious socialism.
3.3.1 Theological Method
Niebuhr’s hermeneutic of faith and experience arose from his personal blend of piety and
pragmatism.127
Pietistic experience as “awareness of grace” established his sense of
relationship with the transcendent, and confirmed his understanding of Christianity as a “high
religion.”
A move from pure socialist theory in the face of the success of Franklin
Roosevelt’s New Deal, as a triumph of experience over dogma, confirms his essential
pragmatism.128
127
128
McCann, 13.
Ibid. 12.
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Niebuhr was an urban preacher who found in socialism a critique of the excessive optimism
and individualism of liberalism. However the early promise of socialism as biblical values in
secular form came to lack for Niebuhr a “dimension of depth in life”.129
“Religious
disinterestedness” became for him the means to avoid either the perils of fanaticism arising
from a false biblical literalism or the temptations of cynicism and apathy arising from a lack
of biblical seriousness.
This “radical spirituality centred on conservative religious
convictions” arose out of personal “assurance of grace”.130
Essentially the experience of grace in religion is the apprehension of the absolute from the perspective
of the relative. … The sinner is “justified” even though his sin is not overcome. The world, as revealed
in its processes of nature, is known to be imperfect and yet it is recognized as a creation of God. Man
is regarded as both sinner and child of God. In these paradoxes true religion makes present reality
bearable even while it insists that God is denied, frustrated and defied in the immediate situation. 131
Niebuhr proposed that a religious disinterestedness, born of an assurance of grace,
“guarantees the ethically striving soul a measure of serenity and provides the spiritual
relaxations without which all moral striving generates a stinking sweat of self-righteousness
and an alternation of fanatic illusions and fretful disillusionments.”132
Wesleyan
understanding is far more optimistic regarding the actual change in the “justified” one, both
drawn and transformed by the experience of the love of God, and this understanding is
replicated within The Salvation Army. However, Niebuhr’s personal “assurance of grace”
softens difference at this point, and sounds distinctly Wesleyan.
Niebuhr also introduced the category of “myth” as an essential methodological element.
Myth is the integrating vision of the whole that discloses the transcendent meaning of history
as a whole and does justice to the suggestions of meaning in momentary chaos.
Mythical method, by being paradoxical, retains both the immanent and the transcendent,
“insisting that the eternal is embodied through the finite, and cannot be grasped apart from
it”.133
Thus the world has meaning and coherence while it is not totally good and not all
things are sacred. “It means understanding God as the “Hidden God””. 134
129
God cannot be
Ibid. 16.
Ibid. 33-4.
131
Reinhold Niebuhr, Reflections on the End of an Era, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1934), 281-82.
132
Ibid. 296.
133
McCann, 39.
134
Ibid. 40.
130
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grasped in crude literalism, but is mediated through reflection on experience and biblical
meditation. Creation, Fall and Atonement are developed as the cycle of Christian myths.
Creation gives rise to the human paradox of finiteness and freedom. Within this paradox the
Fall expresses the inevitability that humans refuse to live within limits, experiencing evil as
well as good. The Atonement provides a model for living the paradox of finiteness and
freedom with a renewed sense of humility.135
This mythical approach allowed focus on two areas of interpretation, theological
anthropology and theology of history. “Finiteness and freedom, anxiety, sin and grace, thus
together form the structure of Niebuhr’s Christian interpretation of human nature, his
theological anthropology.”136 Creation contains within itself the paradoxical possibilities of
freedom and the limits of finitude. These together give rise to the human experience of
anxiety and sin, the actual situation of human nature throughout history, expressed by
Niebuhr as pride in various forms. Grace does not eliminate anxiety and sin, but offers a way
of coping with them. This is the outworking of the Atonement, an interpretation of the “grace
and truth” of Jesus Christ, and an occasion for an imaginative act of repentance and faith.
McCann warns that this theological anthropology (the nature of humanity) dominates the
structure of Christian realism at the expense of its theology of history (the destiny of
humanity). This sets up his major point of later comparison with liberation theology, which
theology he suggests is in turn overcome by the rigor of its own method of historical analysis,
conscientization – making humankind the Subject, losing a broader sense of salvationhistory, and losing the modes of analysis characteristic of critical history.
Of the two
theologies of history, McCann finds Niebuhr’s to be more adequate.
3.3.2 Self and Society
In his work, Moral Man and Immoral Society, Niebuhr sets about the central task of
connecting the self with society. Individuals live within the experience of finiteness and
freedom, anxiety, sin and grace. While human association as such is not evil, it is more prone
to sin and less amenable to grace. Collective egoism is more susceptible to idolatry and less
susceptible to the influence of grace than individual egoism. Collectively we trade justice for
135
136
Ibid. 41-4.
Ibid. 61.
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peace within the group, while paradoxically promoting the peace of the group through war
outside the group. Writing in 1932 his observations powerfully represent his time, and
acutely predict the balance of the twentieth century. Niebuhr’s arguments from this work are
worth expressing more fully, in the face of McCann’s criticism at this point, and because of
its apparent power in naming a deeply significant issue for The Salvation Army.
Any practical theology must succeed in connecting self and society. The thesis of Moral
Man and Immoral Society, published in the middle of the Great Depression and during a time
of uneasy European peace and rapidly emerging Asian national identities, “is that a sharp
distinction must be drawn between the moral and social behaviour of individuals and of
social groups, national, racial and economic; and that this distinction justifies and necessitates
political policies which a purely individual ethic must always find embarrassing.”137
Collective power is less susceptible to reason and conscience. Advocates of compromise and
accommodation in the face of injustice inevitably ignore the self-interest of collective
egoism.
Rational objectivity is impossible, especially for collectives.
Conflict is thus
inevitable, and power must be challenged by power, more in the threat than the actual use of
force. Such methods should always meet the test: Do they do justice to both the possibilities
and the limitations of human nature?
“A rational ethic aims at justice, and a religious ethic makes love the ideal.”138 However the
religious spirit of love loses force in proportion to the size of the community, and “can never
completely eliminate the selfish, brutal and antisocial elements, which express themselves in
all inter-group life.”139
Privileged classes are always slowest to yield power, and claim reason, religion and culture as
justification. Even their philanthropy, combining pity and power, prefers to be generous
rather than just. “Special privileges make all men (sic) dishonest.”140
In the face of this
reality Niebuhr allows for both evolutionary and revolutionary socialism.
However,
skepticism that justice formed by violence can be maintained encourages him to prefer justice
worked through broader political force rather than narrowly focused revolution.
Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1960 edition). xi.
Ibid. 57.
139
Ibid. 75.
140
Ibid. 162.
137
138
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Niebuhr thus proposes a dualism in morals reflecting different moral necessities and
intentions. The individual strives internally for unselfishness through religious introspection
on motives and reasons, leading to a disinterested altruism. In the external and social realm
we are to strive for justice, equal opportunity for all, worked out within the necessities of
political life. The best we can hope for in the political realm is a necessary balance of power,
“a rational check upon self-interest and a rational comprehension of the interests of
others.”141 Moralists tend not to recognize covert coercion and thereby support that injustice.
Political realists seek to make conflict constructive. Moral reason must ally with political
power without the ally negating the triumph. The selfishness of human communities must be
regarded as inevitable, to be checked by competing interests. In the meantime, live with the
illusion of perfect justice, alert to fanaticism, controlled by reason, trusting that reason will
not destroy the energy of fanaticism before its work is done.142
In this way, suggests
Niebuhr, personal religious experience engages society in time and space.
McCann joins with liberation theologians, among others, against Niebuhr to protest that the
link between human nature and human destiny is not self-evident. Human destiny here refers
to the relationship of the self and societies engaged in the processes of historical
development.
It is possible to dismiss his theological anthropology as ahistorical, as so restricted to the inner world of
private religious experience that it provides no adequate perspective for interpreting either society or
history.143
McCann continues to identify a yet more fundamental problem:
… the relationship between Christian myth and history must be clarified – not just the biblical history
that culminates in the cross of Christ but also the history of Christianity’s continuing impact on
Western civilization. … The Nature and Destiny of Man is meant to show how finiteness and freedom,
anxiety, and sin and grace are the key to understanding the moral and religious situation of human
societies.144
Thus, McCann suggests, Niebuhr struggles with only partial success. With reference to
theology of history:
141
Ibid. 233.
Ibid. 277.
143
McCann, 62.
144
Ibid. 63.
142
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Here Niebuhr’s achievement must be regarded as less than completely successful. For, given the
polarity between personal religion/impersonal civilization, human nature/human destiny, self/society,
characteristic of Niebuhr’s thinking throughout, it is not clear that The Nature and Destiny of Man
theoretically reconciles these poles, as it must if this theology is to have the practical impact claimed
for it.145
Niebuhr might well defend his theological method by pointing to practical impact, and turn to
the biblical prophets in further support of such method.
This discussion of the difference between internal and external morality, for all its difficulty,
is very instructive for the present day Salvation Army. The Army has always emphasized the
personal and introspective morality of unselfishness, disinterested love, advocated by
Niebuhr. At its best the Army seems to have understood the differences that Niebuhr
articulates for external and political morality, and held both forms of morality in paradoxical
tension. However the paradox is difficult to maintain at both theoretical and functional
levels, and often the private and internal form dominates, and the political realm simply
disappears.
This has encouraged retreat into citadels by uniform clad consumers of
introspective exhortation. Mission engagement with the wider world ceases, except when
driven by the need for survival in the face of numerical decline. Niebuhr articulates well this
further impulse that separates religious transcendence and social action in The Salvation
Army.
As well as explaining something of the causes behind the separation between Corps and
social services, Niebuhr’s naming of the contrast between public and private morality also
offers some understanding of difficulties created in addressing business and administration
demands in the ‘corporate’ Salvation Army. Centralised financial processing, introduced in
the name of efficiency and good governance, can rob mission capacity, responsiveness and
flexibility at the local level. Centralised car fleet schemes can save much money, but create
ill will with small country town motor traders. Decisions that make sense on the corporate
level can appear as compromises in mission and morality in another part of the organization.
Niebuhr proposes two tests for political ethics: the test of tolerance, informed by sociology of
knowledge, and the balance of power, informed by modern political philosophies. These
145
Ibid. 75.
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function as middle axioms to apply, as well as possible, the impossible ideal of Jesus. The
test of tolerance “is twofold and includes both the ability to hold vital convictions which lead
to action; and also the capacity to preserve the spirit of forgiveness toward those who offend
us by holding convictions which seem untrue to us”.146 At the political level constitutional
democracy seeks an equilibrium in which unjust disproportions of power may be overcome.
“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice
makes democracy necessary”.147
Again McCann finds insufficient connection between the internal and external dimensions of
these two middle axioms. My Wesleyan heritage likewise is somewhat uncomfortable with
the stark pragmatism of Niebuhr’s Lutheran impossible ideal, which sees the love ethic of
Jesus merely as a benchmark for choosing greater good or lesser evil, and is essentially
pessimistic about any possibility for personal and social transformation.
However the
practical achievements of Christian realism as seen in the Marshall Plan for post-war
recovery seem impressive. Niebuhr was invited to be part of the Policy Planning Staff and
came to be regarded as the intellectual father of the “realist school” of American foreign
policy. The five characteristics of this new “political realism” correspond with Niebuhr’s
Christian realism:
The common elements are: (1) the tendency to avoid moral absolutes in international politics; (2) a
rejection of the escape from power politics attempted by writers on international relations in the 1920s
and 1930s; (3) a distrust of concepts of human perfectibility and moral progress in human affairs; (4) a
passion for study and interpretation of history; (5) the conviction that a rather explicit conception of
man is helpful to political thought. 148
The influence of Christian realism seems clear in an effective program of reconstruction on
an international scale marked by principles of restoration rather than retribution, in stark
contrast to the punishment of Germany following World War I. It seems also that Christian
realism became the victim of its own success as the USA became the dominant world power,
increasingly flexing imperialist muscles. Both Niebuhr, and to some extent McCann, seems
less aware than they need to be of US hegemony and imperialist nature, at the time and as it
has developed subsequently. An inherent danger in Christian realism is accommodation to
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, Volume 1, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons One
volume edition 1949), 219.
147
Ibid. xiii.
148
Ronald H. Stone, Reinhold Niebuhr: Prophet to Politicians, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1972), cited in
McCann, 108.
146
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the new privileged interests that arise from its social action, and a consequent loss of the
prophetic edge.
This is always the accusation made by liberation theology, critiquing
Christian realism’s theology “from within” in contrast to its theology “from below”.
However all forms of practical theology must deal with the integrity challenges to which
successful action leads them.
McCann summarizes his difficulties with Christian realism:
The fundamental theoretical problem originates with Niebuhr’s theological anthropology and its
relation to its theology of history. His “Christian interpretation of human nature” was and is a
promising way to establish the correspondingly paradoxical vision of the Hidden God, since without a
correspondingly paradoxical understanding of human selfhood, this religious vision cannot be
translated into theology. Nevertheless, a difficulty emerges as Niebuhr attempted to elaborate his
anthropology into a theology of history. Through a process of metaphorical extension, the concepts
defining human “selfhood” and “society” were made virtually interchangeable. But while metaphors
of “selfhood” are psychologically illuminating, they may be less adequate as a framework for social
theory. In short, it is one thing to elaborate these anthropological insights into a dispositional ethic for
guiding the consciences of politicians and social activists; but it is another, to use these same insights –
as Niebuhr eventually did – to construct a model of “national character” from which to interpret the
vicissitudes of international politics.149 (McCann: 125)
3.3.3 Christian Realism - A Salvationist Perspective
While acknowledging the very real problems with Niebuhr’s method as analysed by McCann
and others, he is still very useful in naming for The Salvation Army something of its own
identity as an intuitively “realist” movement, in highlighting where it may have drifted from
this point of origin, and in alerting the Army to its shared dangers.
The pragmatic passion of William Booth and the harsh realities of his ministry context
brought the Christian ideal of redeeming love to the political reality of lower class Victorian
England in a way that captured popular sentiment and sparked an enduring worldwide
movement, with a vision for the salvation of all in time as well as for eternity. This realist
and comprehensive vision still has considerable power when presented with clarity,
resonating with the intuitions and hopes of those within the movement and those drawn to
identify with it as volunteers, employees and supporters.
149
McCann, 125.
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Since the passing of the early generations the Army has developed “schizophrenia” as its
intuitive realism has been largely overtaken in a flight towards personalized religious
experience in its worshipping congregations, and a separation of its social service and action
endeavors.150 As mentioned above Niebuhr helps name an impulse towards the separation of
worship and social service. He differentiates between individual and group morality, naming
helpfully the difference between what occurs in Sunday worship and the largely disconnected
social and political realm. Sunday worship reinforces individual piety and love, but fails to
connect the justice required in social engagement. Army pulpits and classrooms need to find
the language and the passion to reconnect all elements of mission justice as well as love.
Even more importantly, relevant and accessible action, supported by frameworks for
theological reflection must be rediscovered for young and middle aged Salvationists. The
founding mission image needs to be expressed in accessible forms for the different levels of
Salvationist involvement that lead to direct action and engagement, reduced if necessary to
simple methodological activities that lead to expression of the total mission.
The dangers of success in practical theology are clearly shared by the Army. We are most
powerful when we have no reputation to lose. We can become the victims of our own public
relations machine, allowing image to dictate service direction. Partnerships with powerful
interests, notably government, while tremendously effective in leveraging resources for good
use, are a continuing pressure to dull any prophetic edge for social reform. The officer
(clergy) workforce is now only 10% of the employed, and this full and part time grouping are
now approaching the number of active soldiers (members) in faith membership. The full
founding mission identity is carried by a smaller percentage of people, even as people drawn
by that vision are welcomed as partners in the mission. An enormous opportunity exists for
educating and informing these mission colleagues in shared learning experiences that become
part of the “way of doing business”.
Work is needed to draft competencies for service, employment and leadership in a way that
richly develops the personal faith identity and social engagement identity of The Salvation
Army, with subtle recognition of the partnership of all in mission regardless of personal faith,
and to institutionalise the use of these competencies in role analysis, staff selection,
150
Phil Needham commented thus in Schizophrenia of an Army, New Soldiers, a private publication, USA,
1966.
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induction, performance management, ongoing education and development and succession
planning.
The debates between “church and charity” need to be extended to include
“corporate”, so as to overcome all such destructive dichotomies – practical theologies in
general, and Christian realism in particular, require us to hold these elements together as
seamlessly as possible.
Current concerns such as “corporate governance” and “risk
management” are being introduced for good reasons, but they also have the capacity to allow
identity to be shaped unduly by corporate business principles as large budgets and large work
forces are managed. Strategic planning frameworks that can apply essential mission identity
in every local context are needed to facilitate alignment and much needed synergies of effort.
These frameworks for planning then need to be supported by information management
systems and review processes. Taken together these measures have capacity to embed the
essential identity of the Army, its mission, vision and values, into its ways of working on a
daily and local level.
The initiatives outlined above are needed to strengthen the religious foundation of Salvation
Army mission as expressed in social services and social reform. Equally important is the
need to recover and extend an educational system in Corps (local church) life, that had until
30-40 years ago been a pattern in most places. This system of classroom input and directed
activity provided a comprehensive curriculum for children and youth up to about age
eighteen.
“Directory” was a study of Salvation Army belief, incorporating an activity
component, aimed for one hour per week at primary school aged children. It lead to “Corps
Cadets”, again a weekly study and activity curriculum for secondary school aged youth.
Additionally “Junior Soldiers” covered 8-14 year olds, instructing in the beliefs and practices
of The Salvation Army. Of these the last is almost non-existent, the second continues in a
less rigorous but hopefully more contemporary form, and the first has effectively ceased
some twenty years ago.
diminishing health.
“Sunday School” has continued throughout, but with vastly
The curriculum for remaining forms, usually imported from other
traditions, does not often reflect foundational Army distinctives.
Furthermore, formal
curricula seem to have assumed that learning ceases at age 18, leaving most of life and many
learning stages untouched except for the variable quality of preaching inputs and, in more
recent times, shared learning in home groups.
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“Getting saved and getting others saved” was an oft-repeated dictum of General William
Booth to describe the meaning of membership of The Salvation Army, known as Soldiership.
“Saved” for Booth included necessarily pietistic experience of conversion, incorporation into
the Movement, and vigorous commitment to the salvation of others in ways that addressed
present life as well as the life to come. Contained within this dictum is an intuited action
reflection cycle of grounded learning. Such activity kept a person so busy that all contact
with former life quickly ceased, positively preserving the convert from temptation but
negatively removing them to a narrow sub-culture. This narrowing of cultural context has
eventually destroyed the action reflection process. At this point the penetrating analysis of
liberation theology “from below” offers much to reinvigorate the blandness of current
educational content and methodology.
3.4
Liberation Theology
McCann’s task, to compare and contrast Christian realism and liberation theology as
expressions of practical theology, continues using Gustavo Gutierrez as chief spokesman for
liberation theology.
3.4.1 Method
The paradigm of dependence/liberation in a world divided between oppressors and oppressed
gives rise to an ethos of “solidarity with the oppressed”. “History, not anthropology, serves
as the primary reference point for liberation theology.”151 The Bible is invoked in support,
citing God’s historic concern for the poor. Fidelity to God, definitively revealed in Jesus,
requires no less of Christians. “Just as Niebuhr’s Christian realism first emerged in polemical
relation to the Social Gospel, so liberation theology relates to Maritain’s Integral Humanism”
each at first reacting on practical grounds, and later theoretically. 152
The theoretical
disagreement for liberation theologians was Integral Humanism’s obsolete distinction
between the supernatural and the natural orders of existence. The basic question is the
understanding of God’s action in history and humanity’s proper response to it. “History, not
151
152
McCann, 150.
Ibid.
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heaven, is the arena where ultimate fulfillment will occur, and its occurrence will mean
humanity’s total liberation.”153
Each of Christian realism and liberation theology arises from a historical context of major
social change, from a sociological context of pastoral ministry, ideologically from
dissatisfaction with the militant socialism of the Social Gospel and Roman Catholic social
thought (principally Integral Humanism) respectively, and seek to discern God’s action in
history and humanity’s response to it. Differing context explains many of the contrasts and
disagreements between the two, and this should be expected in any practical theology. The
context from which The Salvation Army emerged and then spread through many countries
and continents in the late nineteenth century likewise shaped its theology and practice, and
the contextual realities of time and space and culture must continue to do so.
McCann moves quickly to identify his concerns with liberation theology.
It is clear that Paulo Friere’s theory of conscientization provides the distinctive methodological
principle. But since the logic of conscientization in itself appears to be more subversive than
constructive, I shall argue that it promises not just to detoxify but to eliminate theological reflection
entirely. If this point can be made persuasively, it will mean that liberation theology from the
beginning is marked by an internal difficulty, a tension between its subversive method and its
constructive theological intention, which makes it at once dynamic and yet vulnerable to dissolution. 154
The method of liberation theology assumes that Christian life springs best from active
participation in the human struggle for liberation.
Right action leads best to right
understanding. The Bible offers the resource for critique of society and the Church, and is
interpreted, says Gutierrez,
in the light of the future which is believed in and hoped for. It is to reflect with a view to action which
transforms the present. But it does not mean doing this from an armchair; rather it means sinking roots
where the pulse of history is beating at this moment and illuminating history with the Word of the Lord
of history, who irreversibly committed himself to the present moment of mankind to carry it to its
fulfillment.155
153
Ibid. 151.
Ibid. 157.
155
Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, Trans. Sister Caridad Inda and John Eaglesen, (Maryknoll NY:
Orbis, 1973 and 1988 with new introduction), 15.
154
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However such methodology is foundational to the early life and startling growth of The
Salvation Army. Yesterday’s drunkard experiences a conversion, pulls on the scarlet jersey
connecting her or him to a worldwide mission of reconciliation and launches into that task.
Faith is hammered out on the anvil of engagement with others and the reality of their
struggles for liberation, for redemption in time as well as for eternity.
experience thus counters the critique offered by McCann.
The Army’s
Indeed the organization of
Salvationists into congregations now separated from engagement with a world of need has
largely removed this generative praxis, and “right understanding” is the first casualty.
It could be argued that a lack of reflection, at individual and corporate levels, preceded the
loss of purposeful action.
As such McCann’s fears around conscientization would be
demonstrated as well founded.
However, Gutierrez names a crucial principle that was
foundational to early Salvationist mission, Christian life does spring energetically and well
from right action.
Liberation theology offers a political hermeneutic of the gospel, positive in annunciation and
negative in denunciation.
Freire’s conscientization, or ‘awakening’, is the educational
method – in South American context fundamentally three things: (1) a literacy training
program designed to trigger a social awakening among oppressed peasants and barrio
dwellers, where participants establish the agenda as active learners; (2) a revolutionary theory
of education derived from this practice, ‘problem posing’ in style, enabling students and
teachers to become Subjects in history, and directed towards overcoming domination or
‘limit-situations’ where the perspective of the oppressor overwhelms self-affirmation ; and
(3) a global perspective on history as a whole as a struggle for liberation, with the goal of
overcoming all limit-situations, specific content only realized by participation in the process.
For liberation theology the liberating God of the Bible is identified with the struggle of the
oppressed.
The question emerges: Can the method of liberation theology remain ‘liberating’ while at the
same time evangelise? Rigor in method seems to give rise to ambiguity in content. For
McCann this becomes a fatal flaw. Salvationist history suggests the opposite, that purposeful
activity enlivens the content of faith, but warns that action can be dangerously separated from
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reflection. The problem of course is what should direct the purpose. This thesis proposes
attentive listening to the voices of tradition and culture, as well as the voice of experience.
McCann continues, comparing and contrasting liberation theology with Christian realism.
3.4.2 Christian Realism and Liberation Theology: Practical Theologies in Creative
Conflict
Christian realism is founded in mythical method, liberation theology on conscientization;
both explore the role of religious imagination in politics; both work in a hermeneutic circle;
and both seek to engage spiritual resources to sustain Christian social action. They differ in
the role of the teacher, one able to be detached the other necessarily involved in the
community. The ‘mythical method’ of one is informal, while conscientization remains
rigorous. In theoretical foundation Christian realism is a hermeneutic based on a philosophy
of religion, liberation theology stands on a hermeneutic based on praxis. Theologically the
differences, arising from differences in method, are most telling.
The “mythical method” seeks religious wisdom about the heights and depths of human nature through a
psychological and moral interpretation of the Christian myths of Creation, the Fall, and Atonement.
The result is a paradoxical view of the limits of all human thinking and doing, a view structured in
terms of “finiteness” and “freedom”, the anxious, the sinful and the gracious aspects of human
existence. No particular situation fully exhibits these features, but each of these theological limitconcepts symbolizes what is common to all situations and tries to evoke a religious response to it.
Genuine limit-situations must be accepted in faith, a response that leads, it is hoped, to repentance and
a measure of serenity even in social conflict. Conscientization, however, is sharply critical of limitsituations. It seeks to “demythicize” them in order to overcome “fatalism”. 156
However for liberation theology there are no limits to demythicization, including liberation
theology itself!
If conscientization has no criteria for distinguishing genuine limit-situations from illusory ones, no
criteria for distinguishing limits that summon persons to worshipful contemplation rather than political
action, then the religious basis of liberation theology – not to mention any other form of theology – is
jeopardized. Conscientization in theory creates a powerful suspicion that the heights and depths
interpreted by Niebuhr’s “mythical method” may be an illusion. But in so doing it implies a similar
suspicion against the vision of “a liberating God … who intervenes in history.” 157
For McCann this becomes the fatal flaw that rules out liberation theology as an alternative to
Christian realism, a “structural failure” that leaves “no theoretical resources for distinguishing
156
157
McCann, 178.
Ibid.
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religious transcendence from political enthusiasm, a distinction that practical theologians and
Christian social activists must make if they are to remain recognizably Christian.”158 Either
the content trivializes the method, or the method politicises the content.
Gutierrez’ theology is based upon a series of epiphanies, historic encounters between divine
and human persons, based paradigmatically in the Exodus and culminating in the Incarnation
of Christ. The difficulty is to sustain this theology against the method of conscientization.
Humankind becomes the Subject rather than God, the meaning of salvation history is lost in
subjectivist appropriation, and biblical narratives are subjected inappropriately to modes of
analysis characteristic of critical history. Theology of history becomes a religious myth about
history. “To rely ultimately even on a liberating God for help in the struggle is to prevent the
emergence of the “new man”.
The “opium of the people” has not yet worn off
completely.”159
McCann continues his comparison of these two practical theologies:
The conflict between Christian realism and liberation theology may be symbolized as the difference
between a paradoxical vision and an epiphanic vision interpreted dialectically. Christian realism
affirms that God’s relation to history is paradoxical. God is a Hidden God who both fulfils and
transcends the meaning of history. His action in history must be understood as manifest in the
paradoxical situation of the human self. In other words, God acts in a hidden manner through human
agents who have opened their hearts to him in repentance, humility, and faith. This activity is never
known with certainty: God is never possessed, neither in mystical illumination, nor in rational
demonstration, nor in the sacramental life of the church; but his “abiding truth” may be recognized in
“moments of prayerful transcendence” shaped imaginatively by Christian myth. God thus remains a
Hidden God even in the lives of those who sincerely seek to live the paradox. By contrast, Gutierrez’s
theology of liberation affirms that God’s relation to history is not hidden, but is directly manifest in the
struggles of the oppressed. God is revealed in the Exodus, a paradigm for all other epiphanies insofar
as he espouses the cause of oppressed peoples and their historic struggle for liberation. God’s action in
history is to be understood dialectically, since it is known only through participation in this struggle.
The meaning of history is hidden only to those who refuse to act in “solidarity with the oppressed”. 160
This conflict in worldview is expressed in diverging theological strategies: theological
anthropology in contrast to the praxis of basic communities; contrasting theologies of history,
the paradigmatic status of the Exodus for liberation theology compared perhaps with the
cross of Christ for Christian realism; contrast in perspectives on history as a whole.
158
Ibid. 4.
Ibid. 198.
160
Ibid. 200-1.
159
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McCann introduces the comparative tests of internal coherence and relative adequacy. He
has already argued for the greater internal coherence of Christian realism. He finds Christian
realism to be adequate in its appreciation and application of critical historical scholarship; its
“mythical approach” concedes historical claims, distinguishing “truth” of history and myth.
He finds Gutierrez’ claims for historical truth for his understanding of salvation-history to be
unsubstantiated. On a practical level transcendence is expressed vertically for Niebuhr,
horizontally for Gutierrez.
Although the two forms of transcendence may be consistent with the theologies that espouse them, they
seem to be mutually exclusive. Gutierrez’s “enthusiasms” is indistinguishable from the “fanaticism”
that Niebuhr renounced as “political religion”. Niebuhr’s “disinterestedness” is but one form of
“excessive spiritualization” that Gutierrez rejects as an evasion of a Christian attitude of “solidarity
with the oppressed.161
A further serious critique of liberation theology is the narrowing of God’s interest to a narrow
and sectarian elite. The poor become the chosen people within the church, and carry a
privileged perspective.
McCann’s critique of liberation theology arises relatively early in its practice and
development. Is this analysis fair, especially in light of subsequent developments? He
acknowledges some weaknesses overcome in the work of Juan Luis Segundo and Jon
Sobrino, but suggests that they too introduce additional difficulties. McCann’s view is
undoubtedly coloured by his view of the church as a Catholic, and the challenge of retaining
liberation theology and its adherents within the institutional church. It is also necessarily
flavored by his North American identity. He does not dismiss the contributions of either
form of practical theology, but finds Christian realism more internally coherent and more
adequate at both theoretical and practical levels.
Writing in 1991 David Bosch, in his encyclopedic work on mission, is complimentary
regarding Liberation Theology’s impact:
Liberation theology has helped the church to rediscover its ancient faith in Yahweh, whose outstanding
qualification – which made him the Wholly Other – was founded on his involvement in history as the
God of righteousness and justice who championed the cause of the weak and the oppressed (cg Deut
4:32, 34f; Ps 82). It has helped us to understand the Holy Spirit afresh, in particular his ability to
change inert things into living things, to bring people back from death to life, to empower the weak,
161
Ibid. 206.
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and to recognize the Spirit’s presence not only in people’s hearts, but also in the workaday world of
history and culture. It has rekindled faith in the great renewal of history that has been inaugurated in the
death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ … 162
This is a far more optimistic view of liberation theology based more on outcomes rather than
criteria of internal coherence and adequacy. Bosch sees Western theologies as grappling
primarily with modernity and secularism. Liberation theologians rather “tend to be almost
naively religious”, and grapple with a different question, “not (about) knowing whether God
exists, but knowing on which side God is. And this is a postmodern question.”163
Bosch
admires liberation theology’s connection of the transcendent and the social, citing Nicholas
Berdyaev: “While the problem of my own bread is a material issue, the problem of my
neighbour’s bread is a spiritual issue.”164
Liberation theology returns a much needed focus
on community consciousness that tends to be lost in more comfortable theologies.
Bosch addresses the charge of inherent sectarianism: “This does not preclude God’s love for
the non-poor. In their case, however, a different kind of conversion is called for, which
would include admitting complicity in the oppression of the poor and a turning from the idols
of money, race, and self-interest.”165 This “integral liberation” is developed by Segundo
(1986), and taken up by Gutierrez in a new introduction to A Theology of Liberation (1988)
to warn against “the facile enthusiasms that have interpreted (the theology of liberation) in a
simplistic and erroneous way by ignoring the integral demands of the Christian faith as lived
in the communion of the church.”166 These developments address many of the concerns
McCann raises regarding liberation theology.
However Bosch joins McCann’s warnings against the utopian optimism of early liberation
theology locating sin entirely in the structures of society, and not also within the human heart.
Segundo, without abandoning the agenda for liberation, speaks for later liberation theology,
and in words reminiscent of Niebuhr’s “impossible ideal” and “balance of powers”, of a
“spirituality for the long haul,” based on a reading of Paul’s letters.167
162
David Bosch, Transforming Mission, 442.
Ibid. 238-9.
164
Ibid. 437.
165
Ibid.
166
Gutierrez, xvii, cited in Bosch, 444.
167
Bosch, 444-7.
163
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Liberation theology remains attractive as a practical theology. It commands attention and
gathers energy through its accessibility, especially with the marginalized. Purposeful action
preceding reflection is essential in such contexts. In this it recalls the energy and remarkable
vitality of early Salvationism, elements that must be recovered! Christian realism, while it
might be more coherent is also more subtle, and even elitist, in its appeal, and therefore less
accessible to many people. However, each of these practical theologies bring much to
contemporary challenges facing The Salvation Army, and many of these have been detailed
above. The questions and method of practical theology has always been natural to The
Salvation Army, if largely unnoticed in any formal sense. Not the least of the gifts of other
practical theologies is the sense that “we are not alone”, and we need not be embarrassed to
be practical theologians.
3.5
Postmodern Context, Practical Theologies and The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army can be greatly enriched by each of these practical theologies presented
by McCann, and by his discussion of them. Overall they support the validity of Army ways
of doing theology.
Christian realism blends piety and social pragmatism in ways that express the heart of
eighteenth century Evangelicalism in general, and The Salvation Army that emerged from it.
It speaks from and to a “modern” context, and offers language and framework that is
particularly useful for increasingly sophisticated Salvationists, employees and other partners
in mission, with its “mythical method” and “Hidden God”. Characteristics of Christian
realism find ready application in the organizational tasks of competency frameworks for
employment, service and leadership, and other human resource applications, in strategy
planning and review, and other ‘naming’ tasks. Christian realism supports also the Army’s
historic capacity to partner with government and others, offering practical ethical guidance in
its “test of tolerance” and “balance of powers”. Both Christian realism and the Army has
been victim of their own success, identifying too closely with their allies, and each can learn
from the other in this regard. Niebuhr’s contrast between a religiously based ethic of love on
a personal level, and a rationally based ethic of justice at a social level is instructive, and
helps explain the difficulty inherent in retaining the connection of the experience of the
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transcendent and life in society. By separating these two arenas of ethical response Niebuhr
offers a practical strategy for resolving such tension.
However the subtlety and sophistication of Christian realism is beyond the present reach of
many Salvationists and mission partners. Increasingly, also, its “modernist” sensibility limits
its applicability. A particular problem in an Army context is the pessimism of Christian
realism regarding the possibilities for transformation, personal and social. The Wesleyan
heritage foundational to the Army is considerably optimistic regarding divine grace for
personal and social transformation, expressed theologically in its doctrine of sanctification.
The Army has been energized by a powerful eschatological vision of redemption for the
whole world. Christian realism settles for a pragmatic “balance of powers”, useful as named
above, but limited in providing motive force for partnering with God in world redemption.
The Army is vulnerable at this point to the charge of triumphalism, however experience
suggests that the dangers of cynicism outweigh the risks of fanaticism in the Army at this
time and place.
The “Hidden God” and the mythical method of Neibuhr’s Christian realism is personally
appealing as a means of establishing greatly needed connection between the experience of the
transcendent and the daily experience of Australians. The methods and concepts of Christian
realism are likely also to be useful among the intellectually sophisticated partners in mission.
However, many Salvationists in this country retain a direct literalism, often experienced as a
triumphalism, that is much closer in style to liberation theology. God is grasped confidently,
not understood as “Hidden”. For these Salvationists the “horizontal” emphasis of liberation
theology is the corrective currently more needed than the “vertical” emphasis of Christian
realism, and the directness of liberation theology and its method is more likely to be useful.
The weaknesses of each of these practical theologies must be remembered, even as their
considerable respective strengths are applied.
Liberation theology offers a powerful educational methodology that is close to the Army’s
historic style, and is likewise energized by a clear eschatological vision. This methodology
and eschatology is accessible for many Salvationists and mission partners for whom Christian
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realism might seem either impenetrable or dangerous. Its postmodern sensibility in content
and method aids its accessibility, especially among youth.
However liberation theology does seem fragile as theology; its method does imperil its
theological content. As such it is especially vulnerable to fanaticism, losing the ‘vertical’
dimension, the transcendent, in favour of the ‘horizontal’, the social. The Salvation Army
has tended to separate the vertical and horizontal dimensions, initially perhaps
organizationally, but more worryingly on the level of operational theology. The separation of
Corps and social service administrations in the past has expressed unhelpful dichotomy. It is
even more concerning when this separation actually appears as articulated and operational
theology.
A related danger is that of sectarian style, God for a ‘chosen people’ and therefore against the
rest. The Army historically has been vulnerable at this point, appearing sometimes to be
unwilling to partner with groups of like interest.
As with all practical theologies the context determines the appropriate response to the
transcendent vision. The international response by The Salvation Army to the crisis of the
HIV/AIDS pandemic is an excellent example of its implicit, and often unstated, practical
theology. This example of practical theology will be developed more fully as a case study of
the work of the International Health Team in Chapter four. A few comments at this point are
appropriate. Like liberation theology, this response to HIV/AIDS is less concerned for the
niceties of theological formulation than many are comfortable with. While it grounds itself
theologically in themes such as Creation, Incarnation, Transformation and Hope, it actually
begins by responding to accumulated and overwhelming loss through ‘accompaniment,’
attentive being with people. Such accompaniment then facilitates emerging human and
community capacities, able to respond from within the situation.
“The eternal is embodied through the finite and cannot be grasped apart from it.”168 Practical
theologies seek to be grounded in God’s ongoing involvement with creation and express
God’s love and justice for the whole world.
The challenge of connecting religious
transcendence and Christian social action continues for all who share the mission of God.
168
McCann, p. 39.
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The Salvation Army will do well to be in more active conversation with others who walk the
same journey, speaking its significant contribution and listening for the rich diversity of
fellow travelers. Such assistance will aid the urgent task of recovery of a mission image and
methodology that will capture the hearts and minds of all Salvationists and their partners in
mission.
3.6
Conclusions
The challenge facing this study is to reconnect the experience of the transcendent with the
daily life of Australians. Careful attention to the voice of Salvationist tradition has identified
obvious images of ‘going out’ and ‘bringing in,’ and the far more subtle image of ‘being
with,’ coming alongside in a profoundly incarnational manner and allowing the presence of
God to be manifest. This third image, often intuited, has deeply marked the Army in its
earliest generations, and is still perhaps the image that captures the remarkable support of the
Australian public. The radical difference of this third image is its powerlessness, and in this
it contrasts with the provision-based nature, and consequent power differentials, of the first
two.
As outlined in Chapter two, the meaning of these images is strongly conditioned by the
theological view of history held by the individual or group in mission. Thus we have turned
to an investigation of the philosophical worldview of Australians at this time, and then to a
consideration of other practical theologies, attentive for an adequate theology of history.
The outline and comparison of Christian Realism and Liberation Theology brings for The
Salvation Army the comfort that we are not alone in the tasks and challenges of naming the
transcendent in daily life, and issues specific to each one provides substantial assistance.
Each develops an empirical theology which seeks to connect the immanent and transcendent.
Niebuhr, in his analysis of individual and public morality offers a new perspective on why the
one mission of the Army is so readily fragmented into separate social and Corps-based
missions. His middle axioms of tolerance and the balance of powers offer useful guidance in
a postmodern era. Niebuhr highlights the dangers of cultural captivity latent within practical
theologies, especially in times of public success. A number of practical tasks are clarified, to
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strengthen the religious foundations of The Salvation Army in social services and reform, and
to deepen the meaning of pietistic relationship with God through engagement with the world.
McCann finds that Niebuhr fails to connect sufficiently the motivation of individual pietistic
‘assurance of grace’ and the challenge of social transformation, and this matter is the central
concern of this thesis. Are we asking too much of ourselves? Is it a matter of faith, of trust
in promise, as Thiselton proposes?
Liberation Theology brings a direct postmodern emphasis to the challenge of naming the
transcendent in daily existence. Its stance from the underside of human experience is entirely
necessary if The Salvation Army is to remain true to its divine calling.
The reminder of the action reflection cycle from liberation theology in a problem solving
educational methodology is overdue to be heard and acted upon within The Salvation Army,
to be applied at all levels of operation, not just in the obvious educational settings.
Experience has always been a legitimate, necessary, and influential teacher within the Army,
and it is time for this voice to reassert itself.
Briesach reminds us that neither a state of unchanging continuity nor a state of total flux has
ever been sustained. The human condition will assert itself in the tension of continuity and
change. Listen to the postmodern voice of liberation theology, and learn a richer repertory of
questions and a proper sense of possibilities and limits.
The postmodern experience offers many opportunities for The Salvation Army, and
Boundless Salvation outlines these for the church in general and the Army in particular: the
human quest for meaning and belonging, respect for the ‘other’, the deconstruction of
oppressive power relationships, a gospel of hope amidst prevailing pessimism, a recovery of
the essential spirituality of life.169
In responding to particular challenges posed by postmodernism, Thiselton develops
Moltmann to propose a mission image content based in promise and hope, and then he
develops Ricoeur to affirm a mission style emerging within this thesis, mission as hospitality,
169
Cleary, 67-71.
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as participation, as accompaniment. This mission style will be further affirmed as we engage
the voice of experience in the case studies that follow.
What assistance is offered here to The Salvation Army from practical theologies in
contemporary postmodern context, in the task of reconnecting the experience of the
transcendent with the daily life of Australians?
The analysis of postmodernism suggests that the cultural landscape in Australia has changed
and is changing away from linear scientific positivism. This is both foundational change and
incremental change, as the implications of foundational change are worked through.
However life will assert itself in a balance between continuity and change. Real change
should be expected, and transformation will continue. However life is never exclusively
change, change occurs in continuity with past experience. Endless critique from within
postmodernism cannot finally dispense with the grand story, the metanarrative. Theological
themes of promise and hope are rich in possibility in this time of cultural shift towards
postmodernism. This richness will be demonstrated in the case studies of chapter four.
Set against this cultural framework, Christian realism, through its mythical method and
‘Hidden God’, avoids making absolute the experience of God in the world. However it does
risk reducing mission to grim effort in the face of an impossible calling, where no real
transformation can be expected.
The links are fragile between pietistic experience,
nourishing enthusiasm, and social engagement as expression of faith, and this has indeed
been the experience of The Salvation Army in Australia, with retreat into private religious
experience by many in the faith communities, and ‘good works’ detached from faith by many
paid to do so. Action for justice and transformation then loses its context and thus has fallen
away. Our heritage in Wesleyanism demands more. Our sense of divine calling as a
Movement demands much more.
Liberation theology, with its deep suspicion of the self-interest of the present powers, brings
an accessible postmodern perspective and method. However its method does bring the
danger of losing retrieval, losing connection with the metanarrative, the sustaining grand
story. This way then leads into a ‘desert’ of horizontal engagement without the nourishment
of the ‘vertical’. For many Salvationists who make the connection between their experience
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of God and the needs of the world, the nourishing and nurturing of their faith from within
many current expressions of Army worship has become difficult and disconnected. It is also
true that many people reached through social services find very limited connection to the
forms of Salvationist worship that have evolved.
Again the connection between the
transcendent and daily experience is not made well. Again the original sense of divine
calling for The Salvation Army is frustrated.
Does Thiselton’s proposal of hope grounded in promise and fulfillment offer direction for
The Salvation Army?
Can Wesley’s image of the restoration of the image of Christ in
individuals and collectives be seen to work still? We move to contemporary experience of
Salvationist mission, listening still to the voices of tradition and culture.
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Chapter 4
The Voice of Experience
Case Studies in Salvationist Mission
4.1
Introduction
The voices of tradition and culture in preceding chapters have been rich in what they offer for
contemporary images of Salvationist mission separately, and even more so when in dialogue
with each other. The third voice, experience, has always been implicit in this dialogue, and
we now give it our focused attention through constructivist inquiry into three case studies.
The first of these case studies combines two elements, reflection on the personal impact for
members of participation in the Theology in Mission focus group, and then application of
content emerging from this group into a strategy planner intended for use across all areas of
Salvation Army operation in order to encourage aligned and effective mission. This first case
study encompasses mission as supported and directed from a Territorial level, across all types
of Army operation.
The second case study brings local focus upon a creative mission originating in high school
social work in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. Shop 16 developed in a shopfront across the
major arterial road from that school, allowing a wider response among students and their
families, incorporating homework groups and other practical support activities, plus weekly
worship, and connection into other Salvation Army camping and activity programmes. This
case study is of interest in that Shop 16 has sought consistently to be responsive in the
neighbourhoods, rather than imposing pre-formulated solutions based on imported
perceptions of local concerns. A participatory ethos, as against a provision-based approach
has been intuited as most appropriate, and seems to have been retained in the face of
inevitable pressure for both quick results and to be more ‘normal’.
The third case study is global in its teamwork and organization, but radically local in its
methodology. The Salvation Army’s International Health Team’s community and human
capacity development responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic seems to capture the same
dynamic that Henry Lawson recognised in the ministry of the “single lassie” in the lonely
country town. It has articulated a truly incarnational style more clearly than any other within
The Salvation Army. Its missional approach, anchored in the large theological themes of
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creation, reconciliation and hope, finds expression in such language as ‘participation’,
‘facilitation’ and ‘teamwork’. This missional approach has developed in response to the
overwhelming concerns of HIV/AIDS, initially in poorer settings bereft of Western
resourcing, and facilitates the emergence of capacities latent within people and
communities.170
I sense that the mission images inherent in these values and ways of
working have much to offer to the Australian context, especially in contrast to powerful
provision based habits that always threaten to dominate.
The voice of experience has a valued place in the theological method of Wesleyanism and
Salvationism, and supported by this history and the framework adopted from Whitehead and
Whitehead, we now listen attentively to this third conversation partner.
4.2
Theology in Mission
I reflect on the processes of this group as a participant observer and adopt personal and
present voice, consistent with methodology identified in Chapter one and honouring the place
of personal reflection on experience.
The members of the Theology in Mission focus group, all busy people, volunteered twenty
two Friday nights and Saturdays over a number of years, as together we have sought to
articulate a Salvationist theology of mission accessible to the diverse stakeholders in that
mission.
Dozens of public presentations of material in a wide range of settings have
questioned and refined and energised the outputs of the group, and in each of these
presentations a resonant ‘aha’ from many of those participating has been both confirmation
and reward.
Reflection on the personal struggles and changes and transformations inherent in those
involved suggest and confirm images of mission suitable for these times. If the members of
this group had remained unaffected by the content and process it would have been wise to
dismiss its outcomes immediately.
170
Henry Gariepy in Mobilized for God: The History of The Salvation Army, Vol 8 1977-1994 writes in the
official history of The Salvation Army quite extensively of this work under the chapter 22 heading ‘Paradigm
Shifts in Health Services’. He recognises a basically different way of working, 331 and 339, coupled with ‘a
holistic theology,’ 342, as offering a hopeful pattern of mission.
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The task assigned appeared deceptively simple – “to articulate a Salvationist theology of
mission that is culturally relevant and accessible to the various stakeholders in that mission”.
Initially the task as set was confined to “social mission” but we recognised immediately that
focus on one aspect only of Salvationist mission would likely exacerbate unhealthy tensions
in mission integrity. This deliberate broadening of purpose made more difficult an already
challenging task, and work still remains to be completed, especially in restating passionately
an understanding of personal conversion and transformation.
Members were chosen on the basis of their perceived capacity to contribute to the task, based
on their record as practitioners and articulators in Salvationist mission. I proposed names that
were then approved at senior levels of Territorial administration.
As stated in the
introduction above, the voluntary contribution of all members has been extraordinary, and the
introduction of some new and additional members two years into the task gave occasion for
continuing members to recount their reasons for involvement. The question “What has
involvement meant for you?” produced authentic and unrehearsed responses that I remember
as deeply moving and encouraging.
People, myself included, were being changed in
important ways through the group processes and the content emerging.
The level of
voluntary commitment underscores such indications of personal impact.
Together we developed our individual understandings and experience towards a deeper and
richer corporate expression of Salvationist mission. Some were pressed by the urgency of the
daily work of combining word and deed, needing to produce something to make their
contribution more effective, and to justify their expenditure of time and effort. Others were
less urgent in their interest; grasped by the importance of the task, but able to hold it more
distantly. One shouldered the writing task, taking on the 5,000-word assignment that has
grown through 35,000 towards 50,000 words, using annual leave breaks and the wee small
hours, trying to keep the content component moving. We brought passion for the intention of
the task, and a willingness to work together. We each needed to sharpen our individual
understandings of Salvationist mission but have not been able to do it well enough alone. We
have each known that the corporate expression of mission has needed clearer and more
compelling articulation, and that by working together we may contribute in significant ways.
None of us is as smart as all of us!
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As mentioned above, the outputs from this group have been well received. A brief summary
of the Stakeholder Consultation, conducted to test the relevance and importance of material,
appears in the minutes of the sixteenth meeting, 27-28 April 2001:
High energy levels (at the Consultation) are indicative of the importance and the degree of
engagement with the content and task.
In the event we overestimated people’s readiness to grapple with the content of the Core
Document (Boundless Salvation) and process for implementation. Many people needed more
time to address the issues as they affect them personally.
Officers in particular (and employed staff) have a lot to either lose or gain in the process. This implies a
need for careful process, expecting the issues to be painful and complex. It suggests that implementation to
officers will be best managed through Divisional Commanders.
The minutes of meetings held are rich for what they reveal in the development of thought and
conviction within the group and its members. I quote from a report that I drafted on the
operation and effectiveness of the focus group:
The next major developments emerged within the August 31-September 1 2001 meeting. One member
discovered a very useful educational resource, a line drawing that made up the front cover of the 1893
Christmas War Cry for ‘Australia and Tasmania’ (see Chapter two above). This authoritatively
illustrates mission understanding from that era, thirteen years after the Army’s beginnings in Australia,
and confirms the thrust of Boundless Salvation. Presented in Powerpoint format, with enlarged details,
it has proved invaluable as a framework for introducing and educating staff and officers in Salvationist
mission.
This meeting was also extraordinarily productive in finally developing a discussion of conversion that,
up until this point, had been too sensitive to be held. We had often agreed the need to enrich and
deepen the discussion of this aspect of our writing and work to date. Do we believe in the substance of
conversion, and do we have confidence in what we understand of the conversion process? Without
doubt William Booth and the Salvationists of his day carried the driving vision of people spending
eternity in Hell. They worked passionately to save people from this fate.
We reflected on the suspicion of psychological manipulation that developed through the twentieth
century, and the impact of that suspicion on group members. We discussed the impact of the
separation of holistic conversion within The Salvation Army into a private religious experience, and
often a separated experience of help and care outside the ‘spiritual’ community. Do we still carry the
same convictions regarding eternal destiny? Do we have confidence in the capacity of our religious
communities to administer nurture of the whole person within the crises and process of conversion?
As convener of this group, and with the interests of this thesis in mind, I asked the ten current
members to respond to the questionnaire found as Appendix 4.1. The four responses received
appear in full as Appendix 4.2. The supplied ‘thought starters’ were intended to make it easy
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to get started, but allow a free ranging response. In practice they generally functioned as the
framework of response.
The things that have mattered most to me are … because …
Respondent A speaks quite comprehensively to represent all.
The things that have mattered most to me are:
 developing my own thinking because in the day to day operating mode, business and isolation
often preclude disciplined reflective thought
 meeting with people who ask the hard questions because all too often we tend to skate over
the underlying issues, happy to persist with traditional thinking - or with not really thinking at
all
 taking a part in developing the coming Army because the longer I work in the Army, the more
I realize it depends on people - like those of us who meet in the Theology in Mission group to take a lead ... no one else is going to do it ...someone has to take responsibility
The opportunity for the leisured task of reflection, officially endorsed and supported, was
universally valued. Even more, the issue mattered concretely, existentially, not just in the
abstract.
The greatest impact for me personally …
We hear from respondent D,
The greatest impact for me personally is that I have been encouraged and challenged to view the world
and its place in a far greater context rather than accept a limited fundamentalist evangelical
understanding. Equally I have been forced to come to a point of resolved tension between the challenge
of being open to the breadth of God’s mission and yet not losing sight of the non-negotiable features of
the gospel mission. My understanding of the holistic nature of the Army’s mission has been expanded
and reinforced through my involvement with the Theology in Mission group.
This response indicates a profound shift in worldview. Other responses indicated that their
experience of mission had been confirmed, and that participation on the focus group gave
words to express that experience. All respondents were personally affirmed through their
involvement, while valuing the range of thought and experience of others, and the openness
and integrity of shared expression. Respondent A writes, “The greatest impact for me
personally is knowing that I am not alone.”
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The actual and potential impact for the Army …
Respondent D is the most optimistic regarding actual and potential impact of the contribution
of the focus group within The Salvation Army – “hope of renewal, even resurrection, of the
spiritual life of The Salvation Army.” I share this optimism, especially having been in a
position to see more than most the impact of this work when presented across a range of
settings. However I agree with other respondents that deep and broad impact will require
more, and different, human and divine action.
Leadership (B & C), coherent strategy and passion (C), and divine/human partnership (A) are
all needed in abundance.
- Analysis of responses
Both data sources, minutes of meetings and personal responses to ‘thought starters’, have
been rich in what they reveal, particularly when the interpreter has been part of, indeed
convener of the Theology in Mission focus Group.
As the convener, I have dictated all the minutes, and the group has accepted them routinely. I
am encouraged and challenged by what they reveal when read as a whole at this point of the
process. If I had been more disciplined in systematically re-reading them I believe that I
could have more effectively directed the progress, keeping a better balance between the
needed openness and the task completion. The minutes could have kept me more alert to the
personal agendas that dominated from time to time, perhaps suggesting alternate ways
forward when impasses loomed.
The method of collecting individual reflections on the experience of participating allowed the
voice of others to be heard directly. Unsurprisingly we hear different emphases from each
person. At the same time each voice confirms essential elements: that involvement in the
content and process has been liberating, confirming, even transformational. This personal
impact is encouraging but does not surprise. The endurance of people’s involvement, well
beyond the original undertaking, has been remarkable, and suggests that there must have been
considerable rewards along the way. My personal experience includes all of the positives
listed above, but periodically too the heavy responsibility as convener of the task group,
responsible for productive outcomes.
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Does this research suggest preferred ways of completing the broader task?
Does the
experience of group participants indicate optimal ways of embedding comprehensive mission
understanding and practice in other stakeholders? Even more importantly, what do we learn
regarding contemporary Salvationist mission images?
We learn from the research that the work of the focus group has been transformational and
liberating for the participants. Without this there could be no confidence in the effectiveness
of its work for others. Transformational impact has been further tested in presentation of
material in a broad range of settings, always with deeply satisfying results. The question
remains as to how well the material might travel to the second and third generations of
dissemination.
However, investigation of the personal impact of participation in Theology in Mission also
begins to suggest ways forward to embed this material into the culture of daily mission in The
Salvation Army.
“I am not alone” – We will do our best work in spreading the message when we take people’s
existing ownership and understanding of mission seriously, and travel with them into clearer
and deeper grasp, enriched by creative difference.
Coherent strategy is needed. The current grouping has not been able to distance itself
sufficiently from the creative task to be effective in the broader communication of its
message. Another way must be found.
Passion and brave leadership are needed. A guiding coalition of senior leadership has to be
recruited to the task.
Active partnership with God is essential, a profound conviction that God, who raised up The
Salvation Army, still has a purpose for this movement, and will resource us abundantly with
faith, hope and love.
Clearly, as described especially in Chapter two, the Theology in Mission focus group has
been important in outlining Salvationist mission images that have informed our past, and in
outlining ways in which mission clarity has been lost, and in highlighting the importance of a
coherent theological view of history.
Within this current Chapter I have explored the
personal impact of participation in this focus group. The process has confirmed my hope that
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individuals can be transformed and that enriched images of mission can take root and
flourish. I am reminded that such transformation and enrichment happens best as a communal
and collegial process, and that coherent strategy and passionate leadership are also necessary.
A contemporary image of mission will highlight active partnership with God, complemented
certainly by elements of quiet waiting on God, but issuing in an activism characteristic of
Arminian, Evangelical and Wesleyan heritage.
Two practical outcomes from the work of the Theology in Mission focus group warrant
comment at this point, each seeking to focus passion and direction in mission.
4.3
Mission Values Statement and Strategy Planner
- Mission Values Statement
A development of Theology in Mission work came in response to a request from a Divisional
Headquarters for assistance in drafting a set of mission values, intended for support of social
program, but necessarily applied to all aspects of service, including Corps and administration.
It was hoped that this statement of values would assist mission alignment, and therefore
integration of services, maximising outcomes for client participants.
I accepted an invitation to facilitate divisional staff in a group exercise to draft this statement,
bringing the content of the Theology in Mission focus group to the task.
The group
represented a spectrum of mission understanding and conviction, and the degree and speed of
achieving a common statement was highly encouraging. Final ‘word-smithing’ was assisted
by the Theology in Mission focus group.
The text of these values appears as Appendix 4.3. The preamble states the reality that the
mission is God’s mission, and God precedes our involvement and invites our participation.
The list was reduced to five values, human dignity, justice, hope, compassion, and
community. Each of these is expanded in a definition, a statement of anticipated outcomes,
and supported by an illustrative biblical text. The expanded form makes Christian meaning
explicit. Originally a sixth value, participation, had been articulated, but a choice was made
to bring this meaning into the expanded form of ‘compassion’ and ‘community’.
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The most common form of production of this statement is as a bookmark. These mission
values have subsequently found their way into other documents – program planning and
approval pro formas, letterheads and other stationery, they have been the subject of articles
and other studies in Territorial publications.
Soon after their launch in one Victorian
Division, another Division in that state invited me to introduce them in a series of regional
gatherings.
Within about one year the use of this statement had spread widely, and it was time to publish
it as a Territorial statement. It had been a deliberate strategy to test the use in this ‘organic’
manner, allowing its use to grow rather than mandate its use from above, and the
confirmation implied in its spread was highly encouraging.
- Applications of the Mission Values Statement
The mission values statement has provided functional assistance in many tasks, at the same
time confirming the mission articulation of Theology in Mission. An example of its use is in
establishing a statement of principles in the introduction to a Human Resource policy and
procedure manual. As such these articulated values have demonstrated the capacity to shape
the ways of working of the organization with its workforce of more than 6,000 people. On
the level of awareness-raising these statements have worked to make explicit what is
implicitly understood. They then work to make possible a conversation, even debate, around
mission image and identity. As mentioned above, the mission values have been expounded in
published articles and studies and sermons. They appear on computer mouse mats, and have
been produced as computer screen savers. Posters have been printed and can be seen on the
walls of social service centres, headquarters and local Corps buildings.
Further application of this statement of mission values has served evaluation and review
processes. ‘We get what we inspect, not what we expect’ – unfortunately this dictum
expresses a reality. Reviews are conducted regularly across Army services, and this presents
opportunity for affirmation in the practice of these mission values, and for education and
encouragement.
Sometimes debate arises as to whether the statements are actual or
aspirational, contributing either to cynicism or to deeper learning and application. In practice
our behaviours reveal our deeply held values, and the aspirational dimension of any values
statement may serve to encourage us to more adequate expression of these values.
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In summary, making the mission identity of The Salvation Army more explicit through this
statement of mission values has been of considerable benefit across the organization.
Analysis of the content indicates that they are well housed within the images of mission
emerging from within this study, namely images of hospitality, participation and
accompaniment.
The active resourcing of Theology in Mission made the content task
relatively easy. The chosen method, a group process through which values emerged as we
reflected together on experience, worked very well. The natural and widespread adoption of
this statement continues to demonstrate the value of their content as expressing and
cultivating Salvationist mission identity. The easy take-up also demonstrates the value of the
‘bottom up’ process of implementation, whereby a majority of Divisions adopted the values
statement prior to it being confirmed at Territorial level. In contrast the Strategy Planner,
was implemented through a ‘top down’ approach, and to date has been less well integrated
into customary ways of working.
- Strategy Planner
The Territorial Strategy Planner is a second practical tool that bears the imprint of Theology
in Mission and emerges from a lengthy Territorial strategy-planning task.
Appendix 4.4 reproduces two tables that form part of this planner. The upper table expresses
the mission intention of The Salvation Army Australia Southern Territory as four intended
outcomes: transforming lives, caring for people, reforming society, and making disciples.
‘Making disciples’ was added as a fourth element following a wider consultation, to
emphasise the educational task implicit in the other three elements. As with the mission
values statement the pattern of definition, outcomes statement and word picture gives fuller
meaning to these elements of mission intention. These four intentions should then become
the focus of effort across administrative, Corps and social service areas, and be central to
planning and review.
The upper table is supported by nine strategic activities. These activities were identified as
those that contribute most directly to the mission intentions, together expressing most clearly
the distinctive nature and purpose of The Salvation Army. Again the wider consultation
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added a category – ‘deepening Christian faith and understanding,’ again reflecting an
educational emphasis.
- Applications of the Strategy Planner
The planner offers a pattern whereby each strategic activity could be considered on an annual
basis in a group planning process at local level, across all services, including administration.
Use of the planner has been patchy across the Territory, depending principally on the
enthusiasm of the relevant leader.
As commented above, perhaps the ‘top down’
implementation has worked against acceptance.
However, the planner has been deeply
helpful in many places where it has been adopted.
I found its application within the
Personnel Department to be important educationally, for planning for cohesive development,
and in team building. Staff included officers, Salvationists and non-Salvationist employees.
The introduction and use of the planner provided excellent opportunity for learning regarding
Salvation Army mission, and worked well across the diverse membership of the department
so as to build the effective teamwork. This mission planning led in turn to further planning
activities that formed the basis of ongoing work of the department, work that was truly
cohesive across sections that had previously been highly and unhelpfully independent.
Has the application of the strategy planner enriched the mission of The Salvation Army?
Without doubt this has been the case for the Personnel Department. By this means the
mission of the Army has become the basis of a Human Resources Policy and Procedure
manual. An educational leadership development program has been developed and is being
applied, with Salvationist mission underpinning a Diploma in Management course available
for staff. Its application has assisted greatly in developing a new cohesion in the staff team.
Do the development of the strategy planner and the statement of mission values aid the quest
for a rich and vital Salvationist mission image for these times? These tools demonstrate that
such an image can be effectively applied. The application of these tools, each based on the
work of Theology in Mission, is outlined here to demonstrate the impact and potential of this
work and what it offers for contemporary Salvationist mission. The application of these tools
also confirms further the content of the work of the Theology in Mission focus group.
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Further developments could see production of a DVD with study guide, a Salvationist
lectionary that resources worship and preaching, and Boundless Salvation as a hard-copy
book, all aimed at education and practice in Salvationist mission.
The work of the Theology in Mission focus group demonstrates the immense value of group
reflection on tradition, biblical themes, and personal experience. It is similarly valuable to
inquire into one of many expressions of innovative and responsive mission that are emerging
from within The Salvation Army and from other denominations within Melbourne. Indeed,
as will be demonstrated, Shop 16 embodies and exemplifies the mission values and the best
intentions of the Strategy Planner, even as it emerges from the context that produced such
tools. Each case study also demonstrates the methodological circle adopted in this study,
whereby experience interacts with tradition and culture.
4.4
Shop 16
Shop 16 provides further opportunity to name an image of Salvationist mission that is most
suitable for these times. This community outreach work has developed over four years,
arising from a youth worker placement into a number of suburban high schools, funded
through Mission Project Partnering money made available from The Salvation Army
Employment Plus.171
I conducted an interview on a Monday morning, following the regular staff meeting. From
the five people in the leadership team, four were present, with one apology. Individuals
responded to a prepared questionnaire (Appendix 4.5), with individual written responses to
the first eight questions. Question nine calls for creative expression in describing the mission
of Shop 16. The participants preferred to respond to this question as a group conversation,
and I recorded notes for later use. Question ten invites a response to diagrammed images of
mission that have emerged through the course of this research project, enabling this group of
people to respond out of their experience.
Question ten was not introduced until full
responses to Questions one to nine were gathered.
171
Employment Plus is a national project of The Salvation Army within the framework of the Australian
Government’s Jobs Network, seeking to support unemployed people into paid work.
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The work that is now known as Shop 16 commenced with a welfare/youth worker placed in a
number of secondary schools in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, a lower socio-economic
area recognized as having high needs. It was soon judged most effective to concentrate effort
in one school, and that school found funding for the position, allowing a second person
(social worker) to be added. The school comprised forty-two different ethnic groupings.
Sensitivity dictated that work in the school could not be identified as Christian chaplaincy, as
this might have been seen as inappropriate in the pluralistic environment.
A double shopfront was leased across the road from the school, in a rundown corner of a
regional shopping centre. This became a base from which deeper, longer term and more
intensive contact with individual students has become possible, diverse program options have
developed, and contact with families has emerged. Cultivation of a worshipping community
has been intended from the earliest days of Shop 16.
An additional worker now operates in a local primary school as a natural extension of the
early intervention emphasis of the secondary school work. The current team was completed
within the last year with the addition of two special education staff who work with small
groups of students, male and female separately. This program extension gathers students
identified by the school as seriously behind in their learning progress, and aims to return them
to schooling with reasonable capacity to maintain their learning.
In addition to the school-hours program outlined above, evening and weekend activities with
school children and their families are conducted. Homework groups include primary school
children on Monday afternoons and secondary school students on Tuesday afternoons, with a
mixture of young people on Wednesday afternoons. God and Pizza nights on Fridays include
social engagement and spiritual input and reflection. Two groups on Thursday evenings
bring a discipleship emphasis for young people who have made Shop 16 their place of
belonging.
Sunday morning worship has developed as a gathering time for any and all people associated
in whatever way with Shop 16, and increasingly reflects the local community feeling and
participation. In the words of one staff member, it works to “name God in what is already
happening,” “all exploring together,” “not as an expert setting expectations for others”.
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Discussion groups usually replace a sermon. An unchurched enquirer, who assists as a
musician, recently repeated many times: “Thanks for making me feel welcome!” 172
The ethos is established around imagery and example of serving. A positive indicator
celebrated by the staff is when young people begin to serve others – a strongly countercultural outcome. “Sacramental exchanges emerge,” suggests one staff member. Indeed, an
even richer pattern is emerging: being served develops into helping and serving, and then
becomes “being one of the group, accepted, belonging,” with differences in role and age
fading. Leadership is the gift of service to the community, and therefore anyone can lead. 173
We see in Shop 16 a deeply appropriate contrast to the uncritical adoption of church growth
principles and practices referred to in the Introduction (page 14).
The questionnaire sought to explore the images of mission that existed within staff as they
came to work with Shop 16, and the ways in which those images have changed through the
experience of this work.
- Questionnaire Findings
This questionnaire revealed quite uniform understandings among staff of the mission of Shop
16, summarised by one as “to create a belonging community that focuses on transforming
lives through Jesus Christ.”174
This response also mirrors closely the language of the
Strategy Planner referred to in the section above.
Other responses refer explicitly to
academic, social, emotional, physical and spiritual dimensions.
Mission as experienced by staff at Shop 16, compared with earlier experiences, reveals
important differences. Responses arise from needs identified by the local community, “rather
than starting with a program and imposing it on the local community.” 175 “Our entire sphere
of influence is (on) unchurched (people).
community.”176
You journey/share life with those in your
Spirituality is explicitly included as part of a response to the whole
person.177 “Shop 16 does not aim to develop a program and filter people through to the other
172
Comments made in response to Question 9.
Ibid.
174
Response C.
175
Response A.
176
Response B.
177
Response D.
173
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side, rather to be in the lives of the people we serve and change and disciple and grow
together.”178 This last response takes us deeply into the third circle described in the diagram
towards the end of Chapter two above – meeting God in people, an image emphasising
participation and ‘being with.’ This diagram is reproduced below as part of discussion of
Question ten. All of these responses highlight differences from earlier experience of mission.
For one person these differences confirm a growing conviction “that it is by listening to the
community and finding its strengths that real mission is found.”179 “Befriending people and
genuinely loving people of this community who I would have only pitied and ‘helped’ and
‘prayed’ for in previous experiences.”180 A powerful expression of new capacity to engage
emerges here from within mission practice.
Each respondent then records understanding of ‘ways God works in the world’ that
correspond with the personal changes and growth recorded above. “God works through
relationships.”181 “I believe God works in people whether they realize it or not. ‘Goodness’
is a sign of God’s presence. The majority of people express goodness in one form or another.
The key is to acknowledge it and work with that in people rather than starting with the things
people don’t have. I believe Jesus was an expert in doing this.” 182 Activism and partnership
with God is emphasised further: “God is at work always. We need to find what he (sic) is
doing and join in. He uses all sorts of people – especially the most unlikely. God wants to
use us … and waits for our participation.”183 “God looks for people who have a soft heart,
ready to give love and grace to others. We must choose that God will work in our world.”184
It seems that this team of leaders has initially been drawn together around a shared conviction
that God continues to work in the world, and that God invites them as participants in that
divine mission.
It is also clear from written responses and wider conversation that
involvement as staff at Shop 16 has confirmed and deepened this mission conviction for each
of these people. Especially in a postmodern context, their response to the particular concerns
Response A, respondent’s emphasis.
Ibid.
180
Response C.
181
Response D.
182
Response A.
183
Response B.
184
Response C.
178
179
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of individuals and communities is the necessary and correct starting point. Furthermore the
praxis dynamic of practical theology, action and reflection confirming and deepening each
other, is nourishing and informing the staff. “The culture and context of the neighbourhoods
has influenced and shaped all that has happened at Shop 16 because all we do evolves from
that context – diverse ethnic backgrounds and faith/single (parent) families/erratic family
life.”185
However, while local culture establishes the place of engagement, that local culture is also to
be transformed through engagement. “In some ways we want to reflect Reservoir culture, in
other ways we purposefully go against it to show a better alternative.” 186 “People are not
connected to communities, they are isolated, without structure, direction or purpose. We aim
to provide community, build self-esteem and help them see that God has a plan for their
lives.”187 While this last response, more than others, may indicate a residual provision-based
approach, it does recognise the community as the starting point, and also recognises the goal
of transformation within that community. Such transformation is further identified as a
“culture of supporting one another, caring, encouraging.”188
The impact of Shop 16 in the neighbourhoods is quite specific in three responses, all of which
emphasise the word ‘people’: “Young people are staying in school. People are connecting to
community. People are meeting God for the first time.”189 “Those involved are part of a
community where they are loved and cared for. People are discovering faith in Jesus. People
are supported.”190
“People are starting to dream, to want more, to contribute and to
experience more of what life has to offer.”191 The fourth response generalises the impact,
identifying Shop 16 as a place of sanctuary and nurture: “Creating a ‘safe’ place, a place of
belonging, a place of acceptance, a place stimulating self belief and hope for the future.”192
Again the themes of promise and hope take centre stage in this discussion of a Salvationist
image of mission suitable for these times. Again the dynamic of coming alongside in
hospitality and participation emerge as the best, perhaps the only suitable style of mission.
185
Response A.
Response B.
187
Response D.
188
Response C.
189
Response D.
190
Response B.
191
Response C.
192
Response A.
186
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The essential founding tradition of The Salvation Army both informs and comes to life in the
work and mission of Shop 16. All respondents valued “a tradition of serving the poor,” and
one emphasised also “the original vision of world salvation/holistic salvation.”193 Three
responses specified hierarchy, rank or position as an aspect from the past of The Salvation
Army that is unhelpful to Shop 16. The fourth response cited the pressure to conform to
current expectations around Corps structure and membership numbers as unhelpful.194
I reproduce in full each of the four responses to Question ten, inviting comment on the
following diagram (introduced in Chapter 2 and labeled here as circles 1, 2 and 3) with
reference to Shop 16.
193
194
Response B.
Ibid.
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Images of Mission
1:
2:
3:
Bringing people to God
Taking God to people
Meeting God
in people
Response A: None of the circles represent a specific place or structure eg. not the building ‘Shop
16’. Bringing people to God, taking God to people, meeting God in people occurs where you
are/where people are, any time, any place – connecting with the community, seeing value in the
encounter/moment. The celebration of that can take place in the street or home, in the car
transporting children. The Shop – the building provides a meeting place for those connected to
embrace the quality of the encounter whenever its been felt and experienced – a place of valuing
the inner self, of finding the inner self and finding a voice.
Response B: Doesn’t work as Being a part of the
(Circle 3 is) Most powerful – it
effectively – people won’t
community. (This works
doesn’t matter where you are
come to church unless they’ve together with Circle 3,
(i.e. location inside the church
sensed God in you anyway.
‘meeting God in people’.)
does not matter)
(See Circle 3)
Response C: (Circle 1 was
In taking God to people, they
… is within themselves,
understood as) bringing Godly meet and recognise that God
(leading to) transformation (as)
people together for a holistic
…
ready to occur.
experience of the Kingdom of
God on earth.
Response D: At first I thought All three circles are important, but we have to recognise God can
I had to bring people to Shop
do this without us. We just have the privilege of being involved.
16 for them to find God. Then
I realised God was already at
work in people and I just had
the opportunity to journey
with people and help them
discover what God is doing in
their lives.
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Response A identifies each circle as a relational exchange, almost unrelated to place. The
building however still serves to gather people and give them a voice, so as to affirm their
experience.
Response D demonstrates high levels of personal growth in the course of mission
involvement. Overall the staff members of Shop 16 understand themselves to be working
along the lines of Circle three. It was further recognised in conversation that the ‘circle’ in
Circle three does not represent the building, the shopfront, in contrast to circles one and two.
The first two images of mission are strongly tied to place; the third image does not
necessarily depend on place. A general consensus emerged in conversation that Shop 16
began with an image of mission close to Circle two, but that it has developed strongly in the
direction of Circle three. Circle three represents clearly an open space of mutual hospitality.
Many rich mission themes emerge from inquiry into the work of Shop 16, and are developed
along with those from other case studies, and the voices of tradition and culture in
conclusions at 4.6
4.5
HIV/AIDS: Local Responses to an International Concern
Just as mission values, such as those articulated in 4.2 above, become embodied through the
response in Shop 16, so also we recognise them taking form in a third case study inquiring
into an international response to a global concern.
The overwhelming concerns brought by HIV/AIDS in Africa at the end of the 1980s called
for a response of a different order from The Salvation Army’s 250-bed hospital at
Chikankata, Zambia. Conventional Western medicine could not and would never cope with
the demand of this growing pandemic. The medical catastrophe, as bad as it is, is dwarfed by
the appalling cost to family life, the nurture and care of children, the social infrastructure, the
means of economic production, and the resources of hope, meaning and dignity for people
and communities.
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The communal resources of family, village and tribe were recognized as untapped capacities
for care and education, to be facilitated through participation, teamwork and leadership. The
understandings and skills discovered have, by their nature and through international
organization and facilitation, been shared team to team across countries and continents, as
people are invited locally to respond to their concerns using the emerging capacities of people
and communities. Vision, direction, strategies, theological underpinnings and anticipated
outcomes are outlined in summary at Appendix 4.6,195 and affirmed officially by The
Salvation Army as a statement on the nature and process of integrated mission. Specific
application of these is made to the Health Programme context in a Policy Statement
(Appendix 4.7196).
These published and unpublished documents, crafted in the context of theologically grounded
engagement with the concerns and hopes of deeply marginalized people and communities,
parallel many of the perspectives of both Christian realism and liberation theology, as
outlined in Chapter three above. The driving convictions are theological: Creation assures
the resource of the presence of the God image in people, even if unrecognised; Incarnation
underpins a participatory way of working with others, rather than doing things to them or for
them; Hope is grounded in the power of resurrection life stronger even than death. God is
experienced as present in the meeting of people around shared resources and concerns.
Capacity for care as presence, community as belonging, self determined change, leadership,
and hope emerge in the exchange. The blend of piety and pragmatism that energized Niebuhr
fuels a network of local, regional and international teams. Niebuhr’s mythical method may
not be readily accommodated, the biblical emphasis of liberation theology being more
accessible and likely more acceptable.
The community and human capacity development methodology is parallel to Friere’s
conscientization, especially the ‘problem posing’ approach. However, rather than naming
“problems”, the preferred language and style is to identify the concerns of the local
community, and facilitate the naming of capacities inherent but often hidden in the situation
that can be applied, generally from within the local community.
195
196
Statement on Integrated Mission, Sri Lanka, 23 June 2003.
Policy Statement for The Salvation Army Health Program, International Headquarters, 21 January 2003.
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The ideology of this expression of human and community capacity development matches that
of Christian realism. It enters into partnership with other “powers” and seeks to work as
leaven in the partnership, bringing the resource of new insights and values to the resource that
the partner brings.
The changes facilitated are by nature evolutionary rather than
revolutionary. Partners include those whose concerns are being addressed and external
support agencies. The oppressor of liberation theology in this setting is primarily impersonal,
in the case of HIV/AIDS a disease. While this might find a more human face in cultural
practices that must be changed to alleviate rates of transmission, or in access to affordable
drug therapy through drug companies and governments, the method is change through care
and stimulation of response rather than revolutionary power.
Interview with The Salvation Army’s Dr Ian Campbell elicited the following question as
bringing focus to the human experience of HIV/AIDS: “How do people survive in the face of
suffering?” Clearly, for anyone who has lived through much of the twentieth century this is
not a new question, however “the curious phenomenon of the AIDS epidemic shows an
evaporation of both the past and any sense of the future, resulting in paralysis in the
present.”197 AIDS, more than anything else is a global story of accumulated loss. Ian
Campbell writes more fully of this experience in a paper Loss, Hope and Faith through a
Community Capacity Development Approach to HIV/AIDS: The Foundation of an Expanded
Response (Appendix 4.8):198
This is what can be meant by loss of community memory - loss of valuing the past, celebrating the
present, and storing up hope in the future can happen because of accelerating continuing impact of loss
which is felt to be negative. Instead of acknowledging this loss there is actually denial of it, and it is
projected into discussion of a more superficial nature. 199
An example of loss is seen in the sheer burden of grandparents across entire populations
raising small children. The forced changes of traditional ways collapses all experience into
the present as the old ways cannot be sustained, thus also calling into question any future
patterns. A generation of youth become disconnected and discontented, as does a generation
of older people. “Accompaniment will feel that loss, and thereby develop capacity for
197
Interview July 16, 2004. I indicate also, for purposes of transparency in research, that Ian is my brother.
Ian D Campbell, Loss, Hope and Faith through a Community Capacity Development Approach to HIV/AIDS:
The Foundation of an Expanded Response (Appendix 3) presented at the National Health Care Leadership
Conference, Quebec City, Canada 24 June 1999
199
Ibid. 3.
198
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response.”200 Interaction with accumulated loss occurs only through accompaniment in the
present, literally ‘presence’, to recall a past that might be celebrated again in the rituals and
traditions, and to posit a hopeful future. Thus we come to the core mission image of this
radically local mission that is taking root across diverse cultures and continents, often in
contexts of unimaginable accumulated loss: mission as accompaniment.
Campbell’s paper continues, outlining the scope of the mission image:
A core element of vision is care - not by provision but by participation within the situation of suffering,
which is often the living environment; community, defined by belonging, positive relationship; and
shared confidentiality; change that happens not by imposition but by facilitation, in attitudes, behaviour
and environment; leadership that happens through support, servanthood and inspirational presence rather
than imposition; and hope that is characterized by concrete positive opportunities available now as well
as more diffuse but equally necessary ideas about future, solidarity, ongoing community memory and
relationship with God.201
Such participation and care requires new ways of working:
Vision is not reached only through actions - success has its foundation within a context of participation,
of teamwork, of facilitation of capacity of local people who are struggling to live every day with the
impact of HIV and other issues. Leaders need to find passion for this process - they need to live it out,
lead by influence and service compared with power and implicit desire for self-service.
There is a great difference between participation and observation. … People have to live with the
epidemic - and we need to be inside that experience, which is an ongoing conversation about loss, hope,
and therefore of desire for valid future. This is inextricably linked to a mysterious yearning for
connectedness for a future that is unseen as well as seen. It is speaking therefore of the experience of
faith - reaching out for something beyond what human beings can touch and articulate, something bigger
than we are. Faith is about innate desire to touch the essence of creativity and creation, and of
relationship that can always be better than what we feel it is at the moment, and that recognises people in
a spiritual situation, where God is, and where hope is glimpsed. Such faith is not naive - it is realistically
grounded in honesty, and recognition of loss and pain.202
Accompaniment is profound engagement with another, often costly (at least initially), that
lays aside personal and positional power in order to be present. The underlying value base,
expressed as ways of working, must complement any actions taken. Action is not enough.
Why the action is taken shapes how the action is shared. Participation, not provision;
participation not observation; accompaniment, not sympathy; facilitation, not domination;
leadership as service and support, not as command and control; each of these ways of
working are resonant with the voice and actions of Jesus, but deeply counter to the ways of
200
Interview July 16, 2004.
Loss, Hope and Faith, 7.
202
Ibid. 8.
201
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power and possession. The medium is the message. Well-intentioned actions contradicted
by the ways of working will fail.
Accompaniment facilitates grounded faith and hope in the face of unimaginable accumulated
loss. God turns up, mysteriously, in the encounter between people, and hope is confirmed.
Concrete response to specific opportunities is only a beginning. The greater contribution of
accompaniment within overwhelming loss is “ideas about future, solidarity, ongoing
community memory and relationship with God.”203 Accompaniment offers sanctuary that
responds beyond charity to restore a measure of justice, in this case in the recovery of
community memory that in turn provides a basis for a future and hope.
Examples of meaningful action are offered, with examples from contrasting places:
Our exploration of ways of working tells us something about the environment for action - in brief,
people need presence in the home; there is a need for participation in neighbourhoods; and there is a
need for adequate support by health and other institutions.
Home care is indivisibly linked to neighbourhood-based prevention, but it depends for this effect on a
relational approach.204 Home care is more effective with a viewpoint that a person with HIV is an
agent for change at least potentially; and a team approach that can include people from local
communities. Teams need to work in a multi-disciplinary fluid integrated way by spontaneously
responding to a local situation with information, pastoral care, counseling, clinical care, equipping and
training of local people, and always having a mind for the non-verbal but palpable neighbourhood
interest in relationships that exist - people watch but may not comment. 205
It is this understanding that can be an entry point into the neighbourhood - through a question of
curiosity from a neighbour following a home visit it is possible to put the question back to the whole
neighbourhood to explore why there is interest.
Neighbourhood building processes are often the missing link in strategic understanding and practice of
integration. I refer to integration not only of structures but also of capacities of people. This view
shifts a culture of expectation and demand for services on the part of so-called consumers, and on the
part of expertise-based providers because this idea of integration affirms the necessity and opportunity
of participation by people in their own health.
What is the real concern of the whole neighbourhood? Is it the individual who appears to be the
subject of a home visit or is it inner anxiety that is felt by many people in the neighbourhood? 206 207
203
Ibid. 7.
In Philadelphia, USA, a pre- and post-natal home based care approach with low income women is to be
linked to family and neighbourhood counseling. The goal is to facilitate important family and community
counseling for self-care, mutual care, and change of risk behaviours.
205
In a spontaneous village role play in China, a family depicted the normalcy of community knowledge and
shared responsibility for behaviour change by showing how they would include a married HIV positive son, yet
would expect him to change behaviour - and they should enlist neighbourhood support, the agreement of the son
being implicit.
206
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, six former commercial sex workers have recently relocated from a brothel to a
‘normal’ neighbourhood. They are generating income by craftwork. They are now respected. The
204
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An important following observation is recorded, linking location, ways of working and
specific strategies:
There is a dynamic continuum between the locations of work, (that is the home, neighbourhood and
institution or building); the ways of working (characterized by participation and teamwork); and the
activities that happen which at least need to include team approaches to home care expressed through
presence, linked to facilitation of ongoing community conversation and a community counseling
approach.208
The institution, represented as a building, has come to dominate mission images in The
Salvation Army in Australia, hence the prevalence of ‘going out’ and ‘bringing in’
understandings.
HCD (Human Capacity Development) response to HIV/AIDS has
uncovered the importance of home and neighbourhood, as well as building. The building is
an important and necessary recognition of ‘outside’ agency. The critical matter is how a
building is connected to home and neighbourhood. Neighbourhood is an important and
necessary recognition that each home is connected to other homes. The concerns that gather
around HIV/AIDS cannot be addressed in isolation.
Ian Campbell outlines further questions and strategies facing the ongoing development of
HCDR (Human Capacity Development Response):
There are questions that remain which need continuous exploration.
1.
How are community voices, feelings, emotions felt and heard? How can ‘community voices’
form an environment for measurement of the forward impact of the epidemic, and of other health
issues?
2.
How can leaders in a local community and in organizations listen and learn? How can they move
from observation into participation in suffering?
3.
What influences local capacity development? For example when a hospital team designs its
approach by consultation with community, what difference does this make? When working with
a local community on desirable outcomes, to what extent does this influence the action that
community undertakes? What are some listening and learning processes that need to be
explored?
4.
Regarding the role and approach of systems and organizations, of churches, hospitals and hospital
leaders, how can a culture of expertise be reshaped by willingness to engage in learning
processes? Rather than continuing to cling to the view that institutions, including churches are
neighbours want them to work within the neighbourhood on HIV issues. Initially however they were nervous
about the new residents but now they are beginning to think about the implications of HIV for themselves.
207
Ibid. 8-10.
208
Ibid. 11.
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the centres of expertise and moral authority that counts most of all, how can the function of
organizations be more facilitative?209
Changes in local communities can be expected: better capacity for caring, better capacity for
change, better capacity for coping with present circumstances, better capacity for hope.
Implementation teams can be expected to grow in understanding and skill. Organizations
should become better at listening and learning, and better at responsive policy development.
We need some forms of measurement of forward movement.
Measuring specific outcomes from responses for community and human capacity
development carries all the difficulties inherent in qualitative and relational measurement, but
is essential in ongoing development of best approaches.
Appendix 4.9 outlines a
measurement framework, Core Outcomes and Indicators, According to Spheres of Action,
and Facilitation Teams.210
All participants, local communities, service providers,
policymakers, and facilitation teams, will be impacted in measurable ways across the
dimensions of local response, organisational change, expansion and transfer into other
settings, policy, and in learning from local experience. A further dimension, ‘spiritual life,’ is
being added to this grid of indicators. Each participant in the Human Capacity Development
Response (HCDR) process can thus be expected to show specific and measurable impacts on
ways of working and outcomes.
This extensive description of HCDR principles and measurement addresses the challenge
regularly put to this approach: that it is a ‘talk-fest’, that it majors on warm and fuzzy feelings
rather than solid and measurable outcomes. My analysis of these criticisms is that they often
sense but cannot name the changed power relationships.
HCDR undercuts the power
differentials of provision-based approaches. Provision-based approaches are also built on the
paradigm that ‘we know best’.211 HCDR resists ‘ownership’ of resources and processes and
even outcomes imposed by any particular participant.
209
Ibid. 13.
Ian D. Campbell, Measuring Human Capacity Development for an Expanded Response, paper presented at
the 15th World AIDS Conference, Bangkok, July 2004.
211
A project, Participatory Action Research: 2001-2004, is underway incorporating study across Africa, India,
South-East Asia and the Pacific. Early findings validate the HCDR measurement framework, and illustrate
through measurement of expanded local response, with analysis from within different spheres of action, that
“Community involvement leads to change. Response can be accompanied and supported by facilitating teams
as well as developed by community leadership and initiative. Accompaniment and support are factors that
subsequently influence whether response is sustained, irrespective of funding available to the community.
210
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Campbell continues, projecting ongoing strategic questions:
Within these reflections on vision and direction for a community capacity development approach, some
key strategy analyses will occupy us for many years.
1.
Central to these is the linkage of care to prevention - when we participate with persons, instead
of only providing for them we see their capacity increase for self-respect and healthy choice
making within and between accountable communities. Participation is not the same as
decentralization. Often the relational link of care to prevention is not seen because of structural
preoccupation. We need to pay attention to the function of participation.
2.
The link of care to prevention can only be understood when a non-Western understanding of a
wider confidentiality is opened up - with recognition that people in local neighbourhoods live in
an environment of shared confidentiality, referring to the inevitable diffusion of information that
helps shift secrets to shared knowledge, shared understanding and shared safe intimacy, which is
a confidential environment. Recognition of this community capacity is an entry point to
disciplined community counseling, which can rapidly accelerate commitment toward prevention
processes by local communities, as well as to care for each other.
3.
Home care and community counseling proximity - when home care is done through a visitation
process by a team, either systematically (house to house) or by specific invitation, its effect is
greatly increased when community counseling processes are happening in some
neighbourhoods. These facilitated community conversations may appear not to be linked to
the home care visits but if both activities are happening in the same neighbourhood there is a
synergism that is expressed through expanded care and change processes.
4.
Community to community transfer - initiated and implemented by local neighbourhood people,
working in teams, with a concern for other neighbourhoods, and willingness to respond to their
requests. One neighbourhood can be an example to another. The function of the ‘health
system’ or organization is to facilitate the belief that this is possible and exploration of ways of
doing this effectively. The people of the health organizations are often external and they often
include people like ourselves. Yet we need to function not only as facilitators but also as
learners because we too work with communities in other places. 212
Within the AIDS context, prevention is facilitated well when grounded in participatory
approaches.
The principle of participation transfers well to responses such as drug and
alcohol services, and indeed to any mission response. Social reform will always address
causes of social breakdown and dysfunction, and we take note of the increased effectiveness
of prevention strategies when they emerge from participatory approaches. The Salvation
Army has had best effect for reform when these efforts have emerged from engagement with
the people affected by the issue.
Finally, transfer of influence and information can occur without external stimulation, but a community can be
stimulated to transfer more rapidly, which is what appears to have occurred as a result of PAR in all the
participating locations.
212
Loss, Hope and Faith, 13-14.
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Deepening understandings of neighbourhood expressed through HCDR recall something of
the Christmas War Cry 1893 graphic, with the location of The Salvation Army building and
its attraction of a long line of interested followers behind the marching group.
Transformation and change impacts, and is impacted by, local neighbourhood.
The early
Army understood this principle and responded in bold and confident style. HCDR reminds
us well of this understanding and the necessary bold vision.
Human capacity development responses offer rich possibilities in an image of mission as
accompaniment, characterised by participation and presence. This image emerges from the
documents that have grown out of HCDR, and through interview with the key facilitator of
this approach within The Salvation Army. Such mission is organic in nature, expressing
itself as it will, not linear in scientific cause and effect. Such mission enters and shares the
experience of accumulated loss, laying aside the distancing impact of power and control – it
is truly incarnational! Such mission resonates with the best historic mission of The Salvation
Army, in continuity with its formative theological and methodological influences, and
consistent with its simple and intuitive love and care with people. Such mission is enriched
through dialogue with other mission practitioners. Such mission, appropriate for all times, is
remarkably attuned to postmodern sensibility.
4.6
Conclusions – Mission Themes Emerging From Practice
Inquiry into various expressions of mission experience is rich in the common themes that it
uncovers. These themes connect in turn with the tradition of The Salvation Army and the
culture of which it is part.
1.
‘Together’ and ‘teamwork’ emerge consistently in each case study as a necessary and
consistent practice. Salvationist tradition, while rich in examples of humble converts joining
a great world mission, tends rather to honour the image of heroic and strong individuals. This
image is supported by hierarchical structures and an appointment system for officers that can
be opaque in its process and decisions.
Likewise, postmodern culture encourages
individualism. Experience tells us that good teamwork is a consistent component of effective
mission. Much counter-cultural and counter-traditional work is needed to develop an ethos
that encourages, supports and rewards excellent teamwork.
- 131 -
2.
The methodological circle that listens intently to tradition, culture and experience
emerges from each case study as either implicit or explicit. This methodological circle
parallels both Christian realism and liberation theology, but is counter-cultural in a
postmodern era in its use of tradition and culture. Within The Salvation Army practice has
usually preceded reflection, and often reflection is noticeable only by its absence; experience
dominates the conversation as the loudest, sometimes the only voice.
3.
The three case studies each affirm the importance of the participant/observer in the
practice of mission. Much can be known only from within. The cluster of mission images
emerging from this study, hospitality, accompaniment and participation, do not allow for
clinical detachment. However detachment as an observer emerges as necessary to produce
high quality reflection.
Participation of this sort was intuitively grasped in earliest
Salvationist mission, but is at significant risk as social engagement is separated from lively
faith community and as professional paradigms are adopted uncritically. Postmodernism and
practical theologies each articulate the rich relational qualities needed to sustain meaningful
human existence.
4.
The purpose of mission ideas and images is that they take form in mission among real
people. This fourth theme from the case studies is again supported by practical theologies and
Salvationist tradition.
Metaphysical speculation is unproductive if it does not join the
transcendent with the daily lives of people. Tools such as the statement of mission values
and the strategy planner can offer great assistance, particularly when implemented
sensitively, consistently with their own intention.
5.
A related theme addresses the military metaphors inherent in the organization and
structure of The Salvation Army. These quasi-military structures have served the Army well,
and do so best when certain values are strongly in place; when leadership is service, not
status; when compassion and community abound; when human dignity is upheld equally and
for all. However the worst in humanity can also be emphasised in such a system, and
Niebuhr’s middle axioms of tolerance and the balance of powers must be actively present.
Both ‘bottom up’ and ‘top down’ dynamics, in healthy balance, will maximise mission
effectiveness in a contemporary Salvation Army.
- 132 -
6.
Experience, tradition and culture strongly suggest that mission begins with response
to the local neighbourhood and its concerns. Local experience does not preclude regional,
national or global responses but grounds them in specific local issues.
7.
Beginning with the neighbourhood means recognizing and valuing what is present,
and working out of these assets. Mission begins in listening to the community and finding its
strengths.
8.
Likewise mission is essentially with people, and with the whole person. Such mission
will likely grapple with structures and institutions, but begins always in people.
9.
Experience uncovers a progression in mission from being served, to serving, to
belonging, and becomes its own methodological circle.
This progression was certainly
strongly present in earliest Salvationist mission, and is entirely congenial in a postmodern
culture.
10.
“People are starting to dream!” We note this profound marker of progress that comes
from Shop 16, and echoes throughout the human capacity development responses of the
international HIV/AIDS work. Promise and hope declares itself as essential content for
Salvationist mission, confidence for the future based on a transformed present, resurrection
emerging out of brokenness and decay.
11.
The explicit witness of the HIV/AIDS work, implicit in Shop 16, is that hope is
facilitated in accompaniment. As quoted above:
There is a great difference between participation and observation. … People have to live with the
epidemic - and we need to be inside that experience, which is an ongoing conversation about loss, hope,
and therefore of desire for valid future. This is inextricably linked to a mysterious yearning for
connectedness for a future that is unseen as well as seen. It is speaking therefore of the experience of
faith - reaching out for something beyond what human beings can touch and articulate, something bigger
than we are. Faith is about innate desire to touch the essence of creativity and creation, and of
relationship that can always be better than what we feel it is at the moment, and that recognises people in
a spiritual situation, where God is, and where hope is glimpsed. Such faith is not naive - it is realistically
grounded in honesty, and recognition of loss and pain.213
213
Loss, Hope and Faith, 8.
- 133 -
As Ian Campbell reports, “the curious phenomenon of the AIDS epidemic shows an
evaporation of both the past and any sense of the future, resulting in paralysis in the
present.”214 Hope will not emerge without action for justice. Action for justice within the
HIV/AIDS work begins in accompaniment as it functions to restore community memory in
spite of the present experience of loss, and provides the basis for a future and hope.
Accompaniment allows community memory to resurface and be affirmed in the face of
overwhelming loss, and facilitates grounded faith. God appears suddenly, mysteriously, in
the encounter between people.
The selected case studies speak of current experience of Salvationist mission from local
territorial and global contexts. In the conversation with tradition and culture the case studies
contribute concrete form and immediacy to the voices of history and ideas, aiding
identification of the above themes. These themes act to give shape and substance to the
mission image cluster of hospitality, participation and accompaniment.
This thesis now turns to a treatment of a dominant mission image from the Gospel according
to Luke, and then proceeds to gather final conclusions.
214
Interview July 16, 2004
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Chapter Five:
Emerging Images of Salvationist Mission
Conclusions
5.1
Introduction
The scriptures are foundational within Salvationist tradition, and as we gather conclusions
from the lines of inquiry pursued within this study towards a contemporary image of
Salvationist mission, we turn firstly to a key theme of the Gospel according to Luke, and a
consideration of the first public act of Jesus in this Gospel.
Luke 4:16-30 acts as a
programmatic introduction of the ministry of Jesus, and has always held a special place
within The Salvation Army. The dominant mission images appropriate to The Salvation
Army in the early twenty first century, as they have emerged from tradition, culture and
experience, are gathered under the theme of hospitality.
This study of Luke’s Gospel
identifies the total ministry of Jesus as the offer of and participation in the hospitality of God.
Such hospitality is much more than table fellowship. The hospitality of God is a broad and
deep expression of salvation as healing, health and wholeness, demonstrated through the
birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, expressed in his preaching, teaching
and healing.
The notion of hospitality will be the dominant image that gathers together much that has been
argued as essential within the mission image of The Salvation Army in a postmodern era.
5.2
The Hospitality of God in Luke’s Gospel
The Gospel writers select and arrange stories of Jesus to interpret the meaning of his life,
death and resurrection, in order to create and sustain faith among the people to whom they
write. Mark developed this new Gospel genre, and it is clear that both Luke and Matthew
draw not only from Mark’s literary style but also borrow directly from his material and
structure. Luke seems to share another written source with Matthew, known as ‘Q’, as well
as bringing traditions peculiar to himself.
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All of these sources are shaped and framed creatively by Luke to address his particular
concerns. Luke brings “assurance” that God is faithful to divine promises, and provides
encouragement for the life of faith ‘in between times’.
Brendan Byrne identifies hospitality as a fruitful image through which to approach the
Gospel of Luke. He refers not only to the frequent examples of physical hospitality and table
fellowship, but also to central themes of visitation and acceptance and rejection.
The One who comes as visitor and guest in fact becomes host and offers a hospitality in which human
beings, and, potentially, the entire world, can become truly human, be at home, can know salvation in
the depths of their hearts.215
Scenes of hospitality and acceptance often include a third party to illustrate a contrasting
“rejection”. Thus, for example, Zacchaeus, “the marginalized one who has given hospitality
to Jesus finds himself drawn into a much wider hospitality, the hospitality of God,” 216 and at
the same time a third group mutters and murmurs, rejecting the exchange of hospitality and
missing the joy and transformation.
“Acceptance and rejection – human and divine – is, then, a key trajectory running through the
narrative.”217 Salvation emerges from human response of acceptance of the hospitality of
God, concerns the whole of life, and begins here and now, “today”. Again, salvation is a
broad and inclusive reality that touches every aspect of a person’s life and bears also on the
circumstances of their life. Salvation is never merely belief in Jesus, never just intellectual
assent or volitional commitment.
5.2.1 Luke 4:16-30
Many of the dominant themes of Luke’s Gospel lead into and flow out of the programmatic
scene of Jesus’ reading and preaching in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:1630), themes such as the meaning of salvation, acceptance and rejection, ministry to the
oppressed and excluded, the justification of God and scriptural promises made to Israel, and
by implication the continuation of the ministry of Jesus in the life of the church through the
215
Brendan Byrne, The Hospitality of God, 4.
Ibid.
217
Ibid. 5.
216
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same power of the Holy Spirit. Luke carefully places this hometown scene at the beginning
of Jesus’ public ministry, and uses it as a funnel, drawing together many themes that he has
already introduced and then in turn expanding these themes through his two-volume work.
Luke’s portrayal of the first public act in the mission of Jesus comes with powerful resonance
to the present-day mission of The Salvation Army.
In all Synoptic Gospels the baptism and temptation of Jesus immediately precedes the public
ministry. Luke though portrays a direct baptism by the Holy Spirit embodied as a dove. In
the flow of narrative John is moved aside through Herod’s imprisonment. Luke inserts a
genealogy which traces descent through Joseph, with the qualifier “as was thought” (3:23)
reminding us of the birth narratives, back to Adam, in effect universalising the significance
Jesus.
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit” (4:1) undergoes temptation typical of that faced throughout his
ministry. Each of these temptations is successfully overcome, with recourse to scripture,
each also refashioning the contemporary meaning of Messiah away from images of power
and domination.
With further emphasis on the dynamic source of his life, “Jesus, filled with the power of the
Spirit, returned to Galilee” (4:14). His public ministry begins with great acceptance and
popularity “through all the surrounding country” (4:15). The imperfect verbs, “he was
teaching … was praised” (4:15) “establish the sense of repeated action; Jesus was making a
circuit of local communities before he came to his own.”218 Luke does not erase the prior
ministry of Jesus, but unambiguously announces the beginning of the mission in his
hometown.
“As was his custom” Jesus joins his people on the Sabbath at the gathering place in
Nazareth. Matthew follows Mark in outlining the astonishment of those gathered. They
marvel at the wisdom and the works of Mary’s son, and then become offended simply
because such things come from one as ordinary as they are. Jesus quotes the proverb “A
prophet is not without honour except in his own country …” and is unable to do many mighty
works due to their unbelief.
218
Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke, 78.
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In contrast Luke rewrites the Markan account. While clearly based on Mark, Luke 4:16-21 is
independent of Mark’s construction, apart from the introduction in the synagogue. The
solemnity of the occasion is heightened by the chiastic structure: Jesus stood, the scroll of the
prophet Isaiah is given to him, he unrolled the scroll (vv 16,17); having read, “he rolled up
the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down” (v20). This chiasm highlights the
content that was read, and builds dramatic tension anticipating the reaction of those gathered.
In Luke’s account Jesus accepts the honour of reading and making comment on the sacred
text. The reading as Luke proposes it combines the Septuagint version of two passages from
Trito-Isaiah. Luke’s use of the LXX Isaiah texts is best illustrated through direct comparison:
Luke 4:18-19, incorporating Isaiah 58:6d Isaiah 61:1-2 (LXX)
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me;
to bring good news to the poor,
he has sent me
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the
poor,
to heal the broken-hearted,
to proclaim release ()to captives
and sight to the blind,
to proclaim release ()to captives
and sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free
to announce a year of the Lord’s to announce the year of the Lord’s
acceptance ().
acceptance ()
and a day of vengeance;
to comfort all who mourn.
Luke omits three phrases from LXX Isa 61:1-2:
Luke adds, from Isa 58:6d
- to heal the broken-hearted
-
and a day of vengeance
-
to comfort all who mourn
- to let the oppressed go free
The omission of “vengeance” brings corresponding emphasis on “acceptance” in the “today”
of Jesus and the church, foreshadowing a time when the broken hearted will no longer need
healing and the mourners will no longer need comfort. Luke thus creates a pivot point of the
themes of hospitality and acceptance. The dramatic tension continues to build around the
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question: Who will accept the acceptance of God? The response of the Nazarenes (4:22-30)
will signify a broader response of Israel to Jesus and, later, to the church.
The insertion of Isaiah 58:6 is impossible to understand as a literal rendering of the reading of
Jesus. It is Luke’s “interpretive rendering designed to emphasize a particular point.”219
Tannehill argues persuasively, illustrating with parallels from Paul in Pisidian Antioch (Acts
13) and Athens (Acts 17), that Luke is constructing an ideal scene “not primarily concerned
with a particular event on a particular day but with the meaning of Jesus’ mission as a whole
and its consequences”.220
Isaiah 58:5-7 shares the ideas of the two key words release () and acceptance
() with Isaiah 61:1-2, and declares God’s hatred of religious duty when carried out in
the face of social injustice.
It seems that Luke is importing into the mission of Jesus the whole social justice programme
of Isaiah 58. The Isaiah 58 text combines with Isaiah 61:1-2 to raise themes that are
emphasised throughout Luke-Acts, that God has acted in Jesus for liberation for all. This
proclamation is especially good news for the poor, whose condition makes them more ready
to hear the announcement and recognise the welcome that God offers. The proud and rich are
correspondingly disadvantaged through their anxiety to gain security in an abundance of
things other than God. The insertion of the phrase from Isaiah 58 brings increased emphasis
on the Isaiah 61 use of , and signifies the importance that this word has for Luke-Acts.
The Isaian meaning of release and freedom from captivity or oppression is complemented by
Luke’s otherwise consistent context of forgiveness of sins. It creates an overall sense that
this release, while spiritual in nature, always contains present and worldly substance. This is
critical in Luke’s presentation of the mission of Jesus, evoking an earthed spirituality that
must engage the circumstances of daily life in society. We have seen it in the ministry of
John as forerunner. We will see it in the ministry of Jesus himself, underlined by the “today”
that is soon to be preached in this scene, and later demonstrated in the acceptance and
Tannehill, Robert C ‘The Mission of Jesus according to Luke 4:16-30’ in E Grasser, A Strobel, R Tannehill,
and W Eltester, Jesus in Nazareth. New York: de Gruyter, 1972, 66.
220
Ibid. 67.
219
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conversion of Zacchaeus. We will see it again in the life of the Spirit empowered church.
The salvation that Jesus brings is widely and readily available “today”. It is freedom in
relation to God, and it always comes with social consequences. Indeed Jesus is killed
because of the political and social threats his mission entailed.
Paired with ,  is used to describe the acceptance, the hospitality of God, “the
year of the Lord’s acceptance”. A strong contrast will be formed later in this passage with
the failure of Jesus’ townspeople to accept him as a true prophet of God (v 24). This in turn
signals the rejection of Jesus by his people in his capital city, Jerusalem, and the later
rejection of the church by leaders of Israel, issuing in the church’s direct mission to the
Gentiles. As “acceptance” is linked with “release/forgiveness” in the Isaiah passages, so also
it is linked by Luke, and remains a central Lukan theme.
The listeners in the synagogue are reported as being “amazed at the gracious words that came
from his mouth” (v22). This surely refers to the content of the words, the declaration of the
time of salvation, more so than the manner of his speaking. The commentary that Jesus gives
on this conflation of Isaian texts is a model of brevity: “Today () this scripture has
been fulfilled () in your hearing.”
The amazement in the congregation arises
from the proclamation that their long Messianic wait is over. In this symbolic act Jesus, in
front of his own people, declares that in him the promises of God are ‘made full’.
In Mark 6:2-3 the reason for the rejection of Jesus by the Nazarenes is the fact that he is just a
local boy. Luke provides a different reason:
A prophet is not governed by in-group loyalties. Jesus, who takes the role of prophet during his
ministry, is governed by the purpose of God and the precedent of scriptural prophets. Therefore his
ministry will focus not on the in-group but on the excluded. Those who cannot accept this priority will
find themselves unacceptable.221
We hear echoes also of the annunciation to Mary, and of the boy Jesus in the Temple – “Did
you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 1:26-38; 2:49) Luke uses the
annunciation and the Temple scene to emphasise the prophetic and far-reaching dimensions
of Jesus’ ministry. In contrast the hometown congregation cannot perceive either the divine
221
Tannehill Luke, 93-94.
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origins or the all-encompassing mission of Jesus. Luke introduces a change to Mark’s text.
Jesus is Joseph’s son (“son of Mary” in Mark and Matthew), but he is in a special sense also
God’s son. In the same way that they fail to understand his sonship the Nazarenes will fail to
understand the universal nature of this messiah, as Jesus provocatively expands the borders of
God’s hospitality.
The proverb “Doctor, cure yourself!” is followed by a second proverb, again on the lips of
Jesus. This time Luke takes it from Mark, but with a significant change. “Truly I tell you, no
prophet is accepted () in the prophet’s hometown” in contrast to Mark, “Prophets are
not without honour () except …”. While this change could be explained as smoothing
out the syntax, it is more likely a link back to Luke’s use of the LXX version of Isaiah 61:1-2.
Luke’s theme of acceptance is correspondingly emphasised. Furthermore, Luke is pointing
out
the relation between sharing in the time of salvation which Jesus announces and the acceptance of
Jesus himself. Men (sic) can only share in “the Lord’s acceptable year” if they accept the one who
announces and brings it.222
Luke has Jesus resisting efforts to localise and domesticate him. There were many in Israel
who would have benefited from the prophetic wonders worked by Elijah (v 26) and Elisha (v
27), but it was the widow “at Zarepath in Sidon” (I Kings 17:8-16) and “Naaman the Syrian”
(2Kings 5:1-14) who these revered prophets of Israel served. In Luke Elijah is predominantly
identified with Jesus, in contrast to strong identification with John the Baptist in Mark’s
gospel. Jesus, and later the church, like Elijah and Elisha, will bring God’s release to the
Gentiles.
The one who speaks “words of grace”, who proclaims “the acceptable year of the Lord” is
angrily declared unacceptable. In their fury the Nazarenes seek to kill the one they had
earlier sought to claim as their own. Luke’s literary intentions are clear.
He has exercised considerable editorial and compositional control in adapting a conflict story found in
the other Synoptists (Mark 6:1-6a; Matt 13:53-58). … The passage is made into a programmatic
prophecy which guides the reader’s understanding of the subsequent narrative. 223
222
223
Tannehill, The mission of Jesus, 58.
Johnson, 80-81.
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Luke develops this conflict story to bring emphasis on the themes of acceptance and
rejection. Who will accept the hospitality of God, with its offer of health and wholeness?
The content of the good news is the announcement that the time of acceptance () has
come in Jesus, “today”.
The “acceptable year of the Lord is the season of God’s “hospitality” to the human race, which it is
Jesus’ mission to proclaim and enact. It is a time when people are simply accepted, not judged. True,
it is a summons to conversion – an urgent and insistent summons to true and deep transforming
conversion. But before conversion there is acceptance, welcome, a hand held out to the afflicted, the
trapped and the bound. If, as I believe, the whole mission of Jesus according to Luke can be summed
up in the phrase “the hospitality of God,” then that summary has its foundation here in the text from
Isaiah, which Jesus quotes to inaugurate his ministry and set the pattern it will follow. 224
Acceptance always precedes, and often initiates, conversion to the ways of Jesus.
Restoration and reconciliation emerge from the release of acceptance. Luke makes much of
the idea of release (). Characteristically Luke’s usage outside of the present Isaiah
context is to speak of forgiveness of sins. However, the central importance of this scene, as a
focusing lens for the entire mission of Jesus, imports into   the weight of
Isaiah’s release to captives, sight to the blind and freedom for the oppressed, and with it the
Sabbatical Year of Deuteronomy 15:1-18 and Jubilee of Leviticus 25. Thus, for Luke, while
“release” always has spiritual import, it is never exclusively spiritual. Release is intended to
open the recipient to a deeper knowledge of God, and in line with Isaiah 58:5, this will
always have daily and earthly outcomes.
The heart of that liberation is freedom from the bond of sin. But spiritual “release” is, in Luke’s
perspective, a beachhead and pledge of a liberation that will encompass the totality of human life,
including the socio-economic structures of society.225
When the disciples of John the Baptist questioned Jesus “Are you the one who is to come, or
are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard:
the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are
raised, the poor have good news brought to them.” (Luke 7:21-22) You will recognise the
coming of the Messiah in such physical evidences. Such a “beachhead and pledge”, while
224
225
Byrne, 50.
Ibid. 49.
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partial and incomplete, is sufficient to guarantee the promise for future totality and
completeness. Present transformation is real, though incomplete, and gives ground for hope.
“Today” and the “acceptable year” are the indicative timeframe set by Luke for God’s
universal invitation. It is preceded by the time of promise to Israel. With the inbreaking of
God in Jesus the “today” has arrived. As well as the time of Jesus, “today” is also the time of
the Church. With the same force that motivated Jesus, God’s invitation to all continues
through the Church, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The invitation is to join the messianic
banquet, the Kingdom of God feast, experienced proleptically “today”.
5.2.2 The Mission of Jesus in Luke and the Mission of The Salvation Army
“The whole mission of Jesus according to Luke can be summed up in the phrase ‘the
hospitality of God,’”226 and the text from Isaiah provides the foundational content and texture
of that mission. Examples of God’s hospitality for all people, embodied in Jesus, continue
throughout Luke’s Gospel.
The woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee pushes through the barriers of hostility that
she and her kind experience, sensing and receiving through Jesus a deeper welcome into the
hospitality of God. She in turn expresses extravagant acceptance of Jesus that contrasts
starkly the grudging hospitality offered by Simon, she releasing her hair to dry the feet of
Jesus washed with her tears, intensifying the custom of acceptance overlooked by the
householder. She expends the tool of her trade, her precious ointment, to anoint the feet of
Jesus.
This enacted parable with three players recasts the boundaries and limits of
acceptability before God and poses the question for all readers: Who will accept the
hospitality of God? The evidence here and elsewhere is that God welcomes all, and those
most likely to receive that hospitality are those who know their need (Luke 7:36-50).
In the feeding of the five thousand the practical disciples encourage Jesus to dismiss the
crowds in Luke 9:10-17. The day was drawing to a close and there was no food and no
shelter.
“You give them something to eat,” commands Jesus, delegating the duty and
privilege of hospitality.
226
Bypassing barriers of race, class, gender, age and ceremonial
Ibid. 50.
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requirements Jesus issues instructions for inclusive seating arrangements. The day, though
far spent, is still ‘today’, and the hospitality of God is still open. In anticipation of the
Eucharist Jesus blesses and breaks the food, and again the hospitality of God, mediated this
time through the disciples, is more than enough, and five thousand men plus women and
children are fed, with plenty left over.
The parable of the Good Samaritan again demonstrates that God’s inclusive mission has no
borders.
Jesus explicitly links the question of eternal life with our hospitable and
compassionate response to the needs of those around us, and there are no limits to who might
qualify for such care (Luke 10:25-37). Utterly unexpectedly the Samaritan outsider gives
sanctuary and care to the nameless and stateless victim. Matthew’s parable of judgment
(Matthew 25:31-46) likewise links present responses of hospitality, sanctuary and care to
matters of eternal destiny.
Against a background of grumbling about the scandalous inclusiveness of Jesus, the parables
of lost and found people and things through Luke 15 is a celebration of God’s acceptance.
The older of the lost sons provides the only uncertainty as to who might accept God’s
acceptance, even while God’s willingness to accept has no boundaries.
Zacchaeus the tax collector and Jesus exchange hospitality and this exchange issues in a
salvation that is evidenced in Zaccheus’ actions to restore his relationships with his estranged
community (Luke 19:1-10).
The accompaniment on the road to Emmaus progresses to home hospitality, and in a very
explicit Eucharistic meal recognition, enlightenment and celebration break through
disappointment and disillusionment. The lives of the two travelers are transformed (Luke
24:13-35).
While clearest in Luke’s Gospel this wide-ranging hospitality of God is shared by the other
Gospels.
Matthew’s parable of judgment has been referred to above.
The persistent
Syrophoenecian woman brings her request to Jesus, and her daughter is healed (Mark 7:2430; Mt 15:21-28). Jesus shocks his disciples by conversing with a woman of Samaria and
including her within God’s acceptance (John 4:1-42). The theme of God’s hospitality for all
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is deeply and broadly present throughout the Gospels as a foundational understanding of the
mission of God in the world.
Luke’s image of Jesus’ mission speaks directly to The Salvation Army and its mission.
1.
Salvation has many aspects: reconciliation with God, freedom from
dehumanising constraints and controls, being welcomed from the margins of society
into a central an honoured place within the community, eternal life in the finally
established kingdom of God.
2.
These aspects incorporate present realities as well as future expectations.
Salvation, while not complete until full establishment of the kingdom, comes “today.”
The essentials of salvation should be known in the present, including in a deep sense
of being welcomed into the community of salvation.
3.
Radical acceptance always precedes and often initiates conversion; acceptance,
not judgment.
Conversion involves the enlargement or shattering of treasured
assumptions about the ways of God, and a willingness to walk in God’s way.
4.
While the hospitality of God extends to all, salvation comes effectively and fully
to those who truly know their need of it.
5.
“Joy, wonder, praise, celebration – sometimes in extravagant measure – are
signs of the experience of salvation in human lives and communities.”227
6.
Knowledge of salvation frequently involves struggling to overcome the gap
between promise and fulfillment, living in the sure hope of life that is more powerful
even than death.
7.
“Those who make up the community of the kingdom are not a sect completely
separate from the rest of the world, its structures and institutions. They must live in it
227
Ibid. 196.
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and value what is best in it, holding out to it the hospitality to humanity that they have
themselves received from God.”228
8.
Grace often offends, and individuals and communities must be nourished
continually in the acceptance and salvation of God in order to live the way of grace.
9.
The abiding pattern of Jesus is the way of service rather than status and dignity,
the daily way of the cross.
10. The “today” of Jesus is still open.
5.3
Conclusions
In its international statement of mission, The Salvation Army says of itself: “Its (our) mission
is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human needs in His name without
discrimination.”229 Luke’s Gospel provides foundational content and texture for that mission,
and that content and texture is revealed richly in the traditions, culture and experience of The
Salvation Army. “Go at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the
crippled, the blind and the lame, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be
filled.” (Luke 14:23) The compulsion is simply the open invitation into hospitality. Luke’s
parable of the great feast points to present and daily mission as the foretaste and forerunner of
228
Ibid.
The full text of the international mission statement of The Salvation Army, as it appears in Henry Gariepy,
Mobilized for God: The History of The Salvation Army, vol. 8, facing page, is
229
The Salvation Army,
an international movement,
is an evangelical part of
the universal Christian Church.
Its message
is based on the Bible.
Its ministry
is motivated by love for God.
Its mission is
to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ
and meet human needs in his name
without discrimination.
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eschatological fullness. Jesus through his ministry has issued the invitations to the feast. The
kingdom of God will be like this, “gifting and honouring human beings with the superabundant hospitality of God.”230 The mission of The Salvation Army is to issue the same
banquet invitation, to all, especially those who never receive invitations to such occasions.
The parable of the great feast offers an interpretive background for drawing together the
conclusions of this inquiry into Salvationist mission. The parable incorporates the ‘going
out’ and the ‘bringing in’ characteristic of Salvationist tradition, but only ever in a spirit of
mutual hospitality that has always been foundational in the best Salvationist mission.
Firstly, the appropriate mission image for The Salvation Army in Australia is the image of
hospitality, accompaniment and participation. Such an image is consistent with and has been
present throughout the history and theology of the Army. The Salvation Army serves the
mission of God both in announcing the invitation to the Kingdom feast and in enacting the
deep hospitality of God for all people in real and practical ways. “Its mission is to preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human needs in His name without discrimination.” (See
above). Since 1880 Australian people have affirmed the enacted mission of Jesus Christ as
expressed by The Salvation Army as God’s hospitality for all.
The mission image of hospitality, implicit throughout the one hundred and forty years of The
Salvation Army, is also remarkably apt in an era of growing postmodern sensibility. Human
connectedness and community comes less through allegiance to institutions and more through
a network of personal relationships. Truth is experienced, not simply declared. People,
especially those who know their need, respond to an invitation into authentic human
relationship, and the truth is known and brings freedom.
An exploration of current mission practice also confirms that hospitality is a fertile and
spacious image that allows for local responses to local concerns.
A methodological
progression emerges within Shop 16, with movement from being served, into serving, and
then into a deeper belonging. From international health work, external agency is welcomed
as accompaniment within overwhelming local loss, community is re-membered, and grace
and hope emerge in localities across more than fifty countries. Gathering in Melbourne,
mission practitioners come together over time in a difficult task, and the discovery that “I am
230
Ibid. 124.
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not alone” brings grace and possibility to what cannot be accomplished individually. Again,
the mission image of hospitality is confirmed. The Kingdom of God is a feast, not just hard
and lonely effort.
Secondly, mission as hospitality offers release that is earthed and comprehensive. The
invitation into the great feast is issued with a compelling urgency. Some have very earthy
reasons for not attending, buying and selling of property, giving and receiving in marriage.
Equally the reasons for the invitation are ‘down to earth’, the poor, the crippled, the blind and
the lame, recalling Matthew 25:31-46 discussed above. As established elsewhere in Luke’s
Gospel God’s invitation is into a comprehensive healing and wholeness that addresses present
realities as well as future expectations. The mission of God through The Salvation Army can
never be reduced to spiritual escapism, a gnostic leap that bypasses temporal and material
need. “Soup, soap and salvation” has been a powerful justification of Salvationist social
services over many generations. Perhaps though its good intentions have hidden an implied
separation, as though soup and soap are separate from, or merely an introduction to, the
matter of real importance, salvation. Such is not the case in Luke’s presentation of the
mission of God in Jesus. Soup and soap are part of the salvation, and cannot be separated or
reduced in importance.
Soup and soap are the foretaste, the promise of fullness, and
represent the entire political, economic and social experience of humanity.
Thirdly, William Booth understood that the scale of response to a particular concern must be
commensurate with the depth of the concern, sufficient to address not only the symptoms but
also the underlying causes.
Thus the image of hospitality incorporates not only
accompaniment and participation, but also sanctuary.
Sanctuary extends the image of
hospitality to include shelter, the righting of wrongs, with justice for all. Justice addresses
privilege institutionalised through birth, or wealth, or power, or status. Luke deliberately
draws the social justice themes of Isaiah 58 into the themes of acceptance and release from
Isaiah 61 that together form the text of Jesus’ sermon in his hometown synagogue. Charity
alone is not enough. Indeed charity without justice institutionalizes injustice. Justice has
been described as structural love, fairness embedded in the structures of society. Lasting
peace is established on justice. An image of mission as hospitality, if it is to be truly good
news, necessarily includes justice, expressed well as sanctuary.
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Fourthly, an image of hospitality that incorporates justice must wrestle with the realities of
power. Indeed, the mission image of hospitality recasts every use of power under the rubric
of service.
“Filled with the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14) Jesus emerges from the
programmatic temptations into the programmatic announcement of ministry. The exercise of
power must be consistent with the objectives of acceptance, release and justice that make up
the good news.
Niebuhr introduces his middle axioms, the test of tolerance and the balance of powers, in an
effort to manage the inevitable temptations that arise under the corrupting influence of power.
Liberation theology reminds us to be perpetually suspicious of power, to consistently take the
view from the underside.
Postmodernism carries the same hermeneutic of suspicion.
Mission experience teaches the Army that policy and strategy and structure emerge best from
lively engagement in frontline mission.
The power of the Spirit must stand over and above the military metaphors of The Salvation
Army. In the late nineteenth century military images were popular and well understood.
Furthermore the command structures were well suited to be adapted to the service of the new
phenomenon of an internationalist mission organisation.
However, all structures have
limitations, and if they are not well understood these limitations can become oppressive.
Wherever people gather, power must be reckoned with. The military metaphors of The
Salvation Army have worked well when leadership is understood to be service, when
powerful leadership is replaced by empowering leadership, around which the leadership of
others flourishes.
Especially in times when there are loud cries for good governance in the corporate world The
Salvation Army must surpass community expectations of its self-management. However
business processes, particularly when devised from the head office perspective can and do
easily overtake the interests of the mission front line. Power can readily be used to serve the
interests of those who hold the power.
The balance of powers can easily shift to the
controlling centre, creativity and mission capacity is then stifled, cynicism grows and
tolerance disappears.
- 149 -
We note the effectiveness of encouraging ‘bottom up’ implementation of the mission values
statement, and contrasting difficulty in ‘top down’ implementation of the strategy planner.
At the same time effective direction from formal leadership of The Salvation Army is both
valid and necessary. Ways must be found whereby mission identity, formed at the centre in
conversation with frontline mission activities, is communicated throughout the parts of The
Salvation Army in ways that are consistent with the mission image, and particularly an image
of hospitality. The only effective compulsion is the power of an invitation, even though other
forms of power will be expressed.
Fifthly, the mission image of hospitality flourishes between promise and fulfillment. Promise
and hope are implicit in the invitation into the household of God. Such invitation into healing
and wholeness is the witness of scripture, seen here in Luke’s account of the ministry of
Jesus. This promise and hope is declared also from the tradition of The Salvation Army. It is
expressed in the practical theologies of Christian realism and liberation theology and is
congenial in a postmodern era. Hospitality as the setting to cultivate promise and hope
emerges from the mission practice explored through case studies across local, Territorial and
international settings.
Finally, within the experience of hospitality, given and received, sustaining grace is found
along the way. Niebuhr highlights clearly the twin dangers of fanaticism and cynicism. His
own activism was fuelled by his pietistic formation in God.
Joy, wonder, praise and
celebration can be expected as normal in the Kingdom feast.
When asked in interview about his involvement with human capacity development responses
to HIV/AIDS, “What drives you to keep going in this role?” Dr Ian Campbell responded: 231
The key motivation, personally, is the repeated encounter with an experience of discovering the grace
of Christ in local culture, in local communities, in family response and in organisations, including The
Salvation Army. This is consistently present even amid intense suffering and despair, across cultures
and across continents.
God becomes present in the encounter between people, within their culture and circumstance,
and these people are nourished in this experience of grace.
231
The War Cry, New Zealand Territory, 26 June 2004, 4-6.
- 150 -
A participatory style facilitates an invitational exchange. All are enriched in this exchange of
equals; dignity is enhanced and not diminished. For this to occur the power differentials of
provision-based responses must be laid aside.
This is highly significant in many countries of Latin America, for example, where drug use and abuse
is ingrained. Here, and in other continents, people respond with high spiritual sensitivity. They
become receptive to God in ways that are beyond anything that can be shared verbally by a visiting
team. Rather than imposing prayer, it is more often the case that people desire prayer in association
with home care, and with intense community discussions about changes in behaviours, and the
economic situation and in local policy. 232
A spirituality that is inherent in people across the world emerges as an expression of grace
that seems natural and unforced. Transformation in people and circumstances is then a
normal outcome.
Experience in international responses to HIV/AIDS thus confirms tradition, culture, and the
witness of scripture, to affirm a Salvationist mission image grounded in the promise and hope
of the crucified and resurrected Jesus, and marked by hospitality, accompaniment and
sanctuary as ways of working. Such a mission image invites all people into the household of
God for restoration, transformation and healing. Likewise Shop 16 embraces an image of
hospitality and names a methodological progression of being served, serving, and belonging.
The costly commitment of individuals within the Theology in Mission focus group is
indicative of the value of joining with others in a journey of exploration. The immediate
rewards have kept people coming, as have the possibilities for what this work can mean for
the future of The Salvation Army.
Hospitality, accompaniment and sanctuary, grounded in promise and hope that is based in the
life of the crucified resurrected Jesus, provides a persuasive image of mission, so that those
within the faith community will be inspired in their belonging and so that other mission
partners might understand and deepen their belonging within the whole mission of The
Salvation Army.
Consistency between content and method in mission is essential, and hospitality is both a way
of ‘being’ and a methodology for engagement.
232
Ibid.
- 151 -
The facsimile autograph, found on preliminary page ii, provides the subtitle for this thesis.
The full text demonstrates an urgency characteristic of William Booth, founder of The
Salvation Army, as he writes near the end of his long life, early in the twentieth century:
Your days at the most
cannot be very long, so
use them to the best of your
ability, for the glory of God and
the benefit of your generation.
William Booth
October 4 – 10
… for the glory of God and the benefit of your generation.
The authentic sound of “Booth’s drum” was heard and recognised by the poet of Australian
culture, Henry Lawson, as he sat beside the single woman officer in a small country town.
The same mission call, connecting the transcendent into daily life and experience through
gracious acceptance, accompaniment and hospitality, retains the power and resonance to
invigorate Salvationist mission into the twenty first century. So shall the hospitality of God
be available to all.
- 152 -
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Arminianism
A doctrine expressing universal grace in opposition to particular election and
reprobation, named after the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609). John
Wesley (1703-1791) brought renewed emphasis on this doctrine in an ‘Arminian
Evangelicalism’.
Australia Southern Territory
A geographical area for administrative purposes reporting directly to International
Headquarters, including Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and
the Northern Territory. The Territorial Headquarters (THQ) is located in
Melbourne.
Corps
A local ‘parish’ or congregation. The term can refer to a group of people, a building
or geographic neighborhood.
Constructivism
A research paradigm that sees interpretations of reality and attribution of meaning as
socially constructed. Constructivist inquiry brings together related data and allows
truth to be ‘constructed’, to emerge as it will from the way that data is put together,
taking seriously the meaning frameworks of individuals and groups being researched.
Critical Theory
Critical theory emphasizes suspicion in a hermeneutic circle of suspicion and
retrieval.
Division
There are seven divisions or administrative regions in the Australia Southern
Territory, each reporting to Territorial Headquarters.
Epistemology
A theory of knowledge including frameworks by which humans conceptualize reality.
- 153 -
Evangelicalism
Expressed clearly in eighteenth century Britain as a movement of spiritual renewal
emphasizing conversion and active holy living, and known in the American colonies
as the ‘Great Awakening’. This movement spread through existing denominations
and called new denominations into being, with Methodism as an important example.
Hermeneutics
Theories of interpretation initially applied to Scripture and other texts, and later
applied to lived experience.
Image
The purpose and function of an image of mission is to create an open space into which
people can enter with new energy.
Mission
Mission is understood as the reason for existence, which in the case of the Church
always contains an outward focus. The mission of the Church always seeks to discern
God’s care and action within the world, and accept the divine invitation to join that care
and action. Mission is secondarily the things the Church does in the world.
Officer
An individual soldier, female or male, commissioned into the ministry and mission of
The Salvation Army, available for appointment at the discretion of leaders. The
terminology of ordination was included from 1978.
Participatory Research
Participatory inquiry takes seriously the contention that some truth is available only to
those ‘inside’ a situation as participants. The objectivity of a detached observer
brings valuable insight but may not access meaning hidden within a culture.
Positivism
A philosophical paradigm that posits humans can uncover and grasp the meaning of
the ‘real world’ only through empirical observation and reason.
- 154 -
Practical theology
Within this thesis used to denote a theology, formal or operational, that seeks to move us
from our experience of the transcendent – meeting the ineffable, wholly other, God alone
– beyond personal experience and into the political realm – the social, systemic,
material. Used this way the term practical theology is distinct from but relates to applied
theology disciplines, “Field D”, often worked under the same title.
Red Shield Appeal
This annual approach to the Australian public currently attracts about fifty million
dollars in direct giving nationally.
Social Services
An expression of mission of The Salvation Army responding to the temporal needs of
people. Over time social services has also come to mean an administrative section set up
to respond to such needs, in contrast to Corps operations, serving the congregational life
of Salvationists. The original Social Services Department was firstly known as the
Social Reform Wing.
Soldier
A faith member of The Salvation Army who has signed the Articles of War and been
sworn in publicly, on the basis of experience, belief and practice.
Wesleyanism
Wesleyanism is characterized by Arminian universalism, the doctrine of assurance of
salvation, the possibility of fall from grace, and growth into the image of Christ
through sanctification that has personal and social dimensions. It is activist in
cooperating with God’s mission in the world, and expects real and present
transformation of individuals and systems as foretaste and guarantee of the kingdom
of God.
- 155 -
Appendix 2.1 – Enlargement from the Christmas War Cry cover of 1893
Appendix 2.2 – Enlargement from the Christmas War Cry cover of 1893
- 156 -
Appendix 2.3 – Enlargement from the Christmas War Cry cover of 1893
Appendix 2.4 – Enlargement from the Christmas War Cry cover of 1893
- 157 -
APPENDICES CHAPTER 4
4.1
QUESTIONNAIRE (1) – THEOLOGY IN MISSION MEMBERS
159
4.2
RESPONSES A, B, C AND D
160
4.3
MISSION VALUES STATEMENT
166
4.4
STRATEGY PLANNER – STRATEGIC INTENT AND STRATEGIC
ACTIVITIES OUTLINE
167
4.5
QUESTIONNAIRE – SHOP 16 STAFF
168
4.6
STATEMENT ON INTEGRATED MISSION, SRI LANKA, 23 JUNE 2003
172
4.7
POLICY STATEMENT FOR THE SALVATION ARMY HEALTH PROGRAM,
INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, 21 JANUARY 2003
4.8
174
LOSS, HOPE AND FAITH THROUGH A COMMUNITY CAPACITY
DEVELOPMENT APPROACH TO HIV/AIDS: THE FOUNDATION
OF AN EXPANDED RESPONSE, IAN CAMPBELL, JULY 2004
4.9
176
MEASURING HUMAN CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT FOR AN
EXPANDED RESPONSE
188
- 158 -
Appendix 4.1 QUESTIONNAIRE (1) – THEOLOGY IN MISSION MEMBERS
MELBOURNE COLLEGE OF DIVINITY
Established by the Melbourne College of Divinity Act 1910-1990
Affiliated with the University of Melbourne
21 Highbury Grove, Kew, Victoria 3101 Australia
Telephone +61 3 9853 3177: Fax +61 3 9853 6695
QUESTIONNAIRE (1)
FOR RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
Project Title: EMERGING IMAGES
OF SALVATIONIST MISSION
Note: This earlier research had dual purpose, to aid the task at the time and in preparation for D Min
Studies. Of ten people invited, four responded. All were voluntary members of the Theology in Mission
Focus Group. All who responded gave consent by forwarding that response. Others may still respond
when prompted, and some in-depth interview is planned, based on the same questions. All members are
relatively senior in the organisation, and confidentiality around content of material is not a critical factor.
Can I ask for your help in a Methods of Research study course that I am taking. It may also find its way in
some form into a later D Min Studies thesis.
I want to draw together people’s individual reflection on Theology in Mission, and compare it with other
sources of data, particularly the minutes of the meetings and perhaps the Core Document and other data, to
explore meaning over time for those involved.
I will be pleased to know who is contributing each response to aid analysis, eg male/female dynamics etc.
However, all responses will be kept entirely confidential, and no names will appear in any write up.
With respect to the entire Theology in Mission experience, could you please spend some time gathering your
thoughts on its impact for you? Use the following thought starters as needed:
The things that have mattered most to me are … because …
(Eg. In the content that we developed, in the processes that we worked, etc.)
The greatest impact for me personally …
(Eg. Changes in worldview and theology, in the ways of understanding and doing mission and
ministry, etc.)
The actual and potential impact for the Army …
Other …
A response in the range of 200-1000 words would be deeply appreciated – do more if you wish.
Your assistance in this will not only help my study project, but will be valuable for assessing what we have
achieved together thus far in Theology in Mission, and where we might take it.
Please contact Major Grady Bailey at the Pastoral Care Centre, ph 9813 1917, if this process has troubled you in
any way. Alternatively Dr Paul Bierne, Dean of the Melbourne College of Divinity can be contacted, ph 9853
3177.
Craig Campbell
Email: craigc@alphalink.com.au; mobile 0407 832 091
- 159 -
Appendix 4.2 - Response A
The things that have mattered most to me are:
 developing my own thinking because in the day to day operating mode,
business and isolation often preclude disciplined reflective thought
 meeting with people who ask the hard questions because all too often we
tend to skate over the underlying issues, happy to persist with traditional
thinking - or with not really thinking at all
 taking a part in developing the coming Army because the longer I work in the
Army, the more I realize it depends on people - like those of us who meet in
the Theology in Mission group - to take a lead ... no one else is going to do it
...someone has to take responsibility
The greatest impact for me personally is knowing that I am not alone. having an
affirming environment in which to do theology. A group of people who think enough
alike to understand each others perspectives, but are different enough to challenge
one another's thinking, and are honest enough to say what they really think, and
are objective enough to look past issues of personality and style to the substance of
what is being said. To know that I can play a part in such a setting is also affirming
for me in my personal journey.
On the matter of my own journey there is the value of developing my own personal
theology. The discussions on conversion were particularly helpful in this. It has
been good to look at the gap between my own perspectives and the ones we are
traditionally talk and to try and discover some common ground, or at least some
mediating perspectives.
Impact for the Army
this is an interesting one, because as in all spiritual endeavors there is a mixture
of divine activity and human activity. The way these work together is a mystery.
If we take the line that "our task is to discover the formula of though and activity
that will work for today - then it will happen", we are moving down the church
growth line which actually verges on magic. i.e. we push the right buttons then
God does his thing. Or we could simply build a human kingdom. On the other
hand we could take a fatalistic approach and rely on divine sovereignty to bring
about God's will in relation to the Army.
Our Arminian heritage comes to our rescue here and reminds us of the
divine/human partnership we are involved in. It does not make it any less of a
mystery, but it keeps us from some of the errors that could trap us.
So what is the impact of this work in the Army? It is a quiet provocation. an
invitation for new [old] ways of thinking that can free us from the laziness and
error of some of our past suppositions and thoughts. Will it make a difference?
Certainly it will in spots, but will it change the Army ? I need to leave that to
providence.
- 160 -
Appendix 4.2 - Response B
Dear Craig
Hope this is helpful. It helped me, anyway.
BBBB
Personal Reflection on Theology in Mission Experience
As I reflect on my participation in the Theology in Mission experience, these are
some of the things that mattered and made an impact.
With a chaplaincy role within social services, I was very aware of the "big divide"
between the evangelical and social expressions of The Salvation Army. On the one
hand, I witnessed first hand, the passion, focus and strong commitment to social
justice in the non-Salvationist staff with whom I worked and their very real desire
to be acknowledged by The Salvation Army as valued participants in mission. Also
obvious, was the need to find appropriate ways to address the (often neglected)
spiritual aspects of mission in social services. As staff were engaged in mission
conversation, the absence of a "mission document" became an issue.
On the other hand, I encountered resistance from Salvationists who questioned the
participation of non-Christian staff in our programmes and even some of the
programmes themselves. I sensed that, for some Salvationists, our social services
were merely a "means to an end" - that we meet human need for the ultimate
purpose of bringing people into a faith experience. I found myself continually drawn
to the "cup of cold water" chapter (Matthew 24) in response to these views.
Then came the Theology in Mission task. Initially, the process itself was energising
- firstly, because there was a frank admission, from top level, that the
increasing divide was not healthy and that the Army was in grave danger of losing it's
way. I respect honesty. Secondly, the preparedness of Army leadership to hand
over the task to a group of fairly ordinary (but representative) people, some of whom
were involved at the coal face, was also heartening and I think, indicative of a
genuine desire to find a way forward together. That leadership was prepared to wait
for the process to take its course over two years was recognition also that this was
far more than "a quick fix". I enjoyed the participatory nature of the process, with
assigned tasks for individuals, and awareness of concurrent practice informing the
discussion. The open-endedness of the process has also been important - all the
way through the written work has been referred to as a "work in progress" with
contributions welcomed from others outside the group.
A couple of comments on the content: It was helpful for me to locate The Salvation
Army and its mission, within the context of the broader Christian church and her
mission. From my earliest years, I absorbed a sense of set-apartness, not just from
the world but other churches. There was a pride in our distinctiveness as
Salvationists that gave us a bit of an edge (not to mention more upmarket
accommodation in Heaven) and, on reflection, my understanding of mission as a
- 161 -
younger person was something quite independent of anything other Christians might
have been doing. It's probably true to say that most of what I read (Army literature)
contributed to that impression. I was fascinated to reflect on the Bramwell Booth
era, and "the nation within a nation" mentality. No doubt, I inherited some of that.
During the past 20 years or so, it seems that The Salvation Army has increasingly
tried to identify with other mainstream churches, particularly in regard to language
(like ordination, the word "church" on our buildings) and music in worship (praise and
worship) and this has mirrored my own desire to be identified with and participate in
the broader church scene. But what does it mean to be a Salvationist today? I
found a renewed sense of mission, and a sharpened personal focus, as we
articulated our list of Salvation Army distinctives, there in the beginning and all the
way through, and considered how they might look today.
Our Theology in Mission experience has been important for my own personal
journey. I have been conscious of considerable "bedding down" of theology, for
me and find I now have a few words to express theologically things I have previously
known in my heart and practised. It has also raised as many questions as it has
answered but this I accept as a healthy state. It has broadened my understanding of
mission and introduced to me some rich terms, like the phrase, "the overflow of God
in us". One of my deep convictions emerging from this experience, is that the way
forward for The Salvation Army, involves rediscovering the rich resources we have in
our laity and finding a way to release "the overflow". This won't "just happen" but if
leadership is brave and wise enough to look for ways to release lay people into
mission at all levels, we may yet see some of the joy, effectiveness and growth of
our foundational period.
- 162 -
Appendix 4.2 - Response C
THEOLOGY OF MISSION
A PERSONAL REFLECTION
When invited to participate in the theology of mission group I was in the process of an
honours paper with a focus on dimensions of salvation. The task of articulating a theology
of mission for The Salvation Army Social services seemed to fit in well with my own
reflections at the time.
It was an opportunity that I appreciated, since I firmly believed (and still believe) that as an
organization (or movement if you prefer) we need to be very clear in understanding what we
are about. I had a sense that we lost something of our mission over the years, and believe that
we still struggle to find a clear and motivating focus. Since I am committed to the
movement I valued the involvement in a search for a clearer understanding that would help us
to be more effective.
I guess that what mattered to me most was articulating an understanding of ‘salvation’ which
was more biblically based and not restricted by the more recent evangelical concepts that
seem to me to be intensely personal and mostly spiritual. The continued separation of social
and corps ministries, and what is perceived to be a division between social work and spiritual
work, is contrary to my understanding of what salvation involves. If in any way I could help
to enlarge the understanding of salvation, and help bring the various strands of our ministries
together, it would be worthwhile.
On a personal level I valued the opportunity of sharing with people from different aspects of
ministry within (and beyond) the movement who are passionately engaged in mission, and
passionately committed to the Army – and are intelligently and thoughtfully committed to the
present and future of the movement.
Some deeper glimpses into our history were helpful, as was reflection on the various
theological influences that have shaped our movement.
There were frustrations at times with the process – a long time to make little progress, along
with tensions when the process was to a degree ‘hijacked’ by the work with Melbourne
Central Division. While the same aims may have been achieved, the use of values primarily
determined by that group now dominate our mission thinking. I am not convinced that they
reflect values that can be easily adopted and embraced in the Corps ministries, and in that
respect do not help the Army as a whole have a clear sense of mission. While biblically
based they fail to encourage an evangelical edge to our mission.
The enormity of embracing such a diverse organization, and providing a clear and cohesive
mission focus is still before us. Involvement in the theology in mission group certainly made
that clear.
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While the potential impact for the Army is enormous, the actual impact to this point from my
perspective is much less, since it appears that nothing much has changed, just a new piece of
paper work in some areas.
The groundwork has been laid, and some resources provided, but something is still missing.
My sense of this is so may be based in my inability to participate over the last months of the
group, but I think it is also shaped by my sphere of ministry.
Articulation of a theology is but one aspect of helping to focus on our mission.
The lack of a coherent strategy to ensure that the theology is reflected in our actions may
mean the real impact of the work is minimal.
I was disappointed at the lack of interest displayed by territorial leadership despite the
assurances that they were interested, there was no face to face dialogue with the group in the
meetings I attended (or was there one visit from Alan Walker?) It was almost as if the task
had to be done, but it was not of importance to the leadership.
The place of symbolic and visionary leadership in this area is vital, and I have not seen much
in that way from our leaders since Norman Howe. It is to be hoped that some leadership will
be given by the Territorial Commander and Cabinet members that paints the big picture,
reminds us of what our mission is, and encourages and galvanises the “troops” into action.
Documents, and revision to evaluative processes and procedures cannot replace passion – and
as I sit and type this reflection I think that is what is missing – passion. I am aware of the
passion of those involved in the group – and of the passion of our founders. That passion
must be demonstrated by our top level of leadership in ways that are seen by the troops. The
alternative - become an organization ruled by bureaucrats, fulfill our administrative tasks, and
do some good work for the community, but fail to change lives. We will do the job; but in
the long run will find it hard to draw others to be engaged in the mission of The Salvation
Army.
Background work has been done.
What can be done now to permeate the hearts and minds of workers and, most importantly,
the officers and leaders in this territory so that The Salvation Army is more effective in
mission?
- 164 -
Appendix 4.2 - Response D
The things that have mattered most to me are the opportunity to personally rethink the history
and theology of The Salvation Army mission and to work with people from a range of
backgrounds and experience, whose input brought me a richness of understanding and
perspective.
I love history and believe that we need to learn its lessons or are doomed to repeat the
mistakes. This is so critically true of the history and theology of The Salvation Army.
The greatest impact for me personally is that I have been encouraged and challenged to view
the world and its place in a far greater context rather than accept a limited fundamentalist
evangelical understanding. Equally I have been forced to come to a point of resolved tension
between the challenge of being open to the breadth of God’s mission and yet not losing sight
of the non-negotiable features of the gospel mission. My understanding of the holistic nature
of the Army’s mission has been expanded and reinforced through my involvement with the
Theology in Mission group.
The integrity of the group and the earnest seeking for truth and guidance in this task by the
members of the group has given surety to my thinking on the subject. It is exciting to read
and interpret the biblical accounts of mission, and the Army’s interpretation and outworking
of the mission of the gospel, in the light of a renewed and expanded theological
understanding.
The actual impact for The Salvation Army is being felt through an excitement amongst
soldiers and members, as the understanding of the work developed by the Theology in
Mission working group diffuses throughout various parts of the Army in this territory. The
postmodern generation looks to causes and experience rather than structures, and
demonstrates a deep search for spirituality and meaning. The re-presentation of the spirit
behind the Army’s historical mission therefore provides great scope for impact in the present
and future ministry of The Salvation Army.
The potential for re-invigoration of the Army’s mission and the deepening of commitment of
its people to the historical and original purposes of the Army’s distinctive mission, brings the
hope of renewal, even resurrection, of the spiritual life of the Army.
The potential for the Army to be a powerful tool for God through a relevant expression of
mission, and the grounding of mission in a broken world, through a re-invigorated
understanding of theology and Army history, is heightened as the work of the Theology in
Mission group is disseminated both within and without the Army organization. The interest
expressed from other Army territories, as well as groups external to the Army, indicates that
the work is touching a need that is widespread throughout the Christian world - the need to be
relevant and vibrant in the understanding and expression of our theology in mission.
In the famous words of Fanny Crosby’s hymn, and admitting a degree of poetic license, I
believe that the work of the Theology in Mission group can be used by God to fulfill a
secondary purpose in the lives of both soldiers and the Army: “Chords that were broken will
vibrate once more.”
- 165 -
Appendix 4.3
The Salvation Army Australia Southern Territory
Mission Values
Recognising that God is always at work in the world,
we value …
Human dignity
respecting the sanctity of human life as being made in the image of God.
We affirm the worth and capacity of all people.
“So God created humankind in his image...” Genesis 1:27
Justice
acting with integrity and fairness, without discrimination, and being an advocate for the
disadvantaged.
We promote healthy and whole relationships and good society.
“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Matthew 22:39
Hope
sharing the gospel of Jesus as gracious invitation to wholeness.
We work for reconciliation, healing and transformation for all people and creation.
“I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:10
Compassion
engaging with others in the Spirit of Jesus.
We feel compelled to stand with and do something about another’s suffering.
“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did
it to me.” Matthew 25:40
Community
owning our common humanity as we engage with people, working and journeying
together.
We build community and meet with God in our encounter with others.
“Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2
- 166 -
Appendix 4.4
THE SALVATION ARMY
AUSTRALIA SOUTHERN TERRITORY
MISSION INTENT
Caring for people
Reforming society
In response to the
Bible our task is
Definition:
Transforming lives
Making Disciples
Working for personal renewal through
Jesus Christ, that touches and
integrates the whole person.
Engaging with others in need, without
discrimination.
Acting on the structures of society to
restore justice.
Patterning lives on Jesus.
Outcomes:
People are restored in their
relationships, and follow Jesus as
disciples.
We celebrate our shared humanity, and
affirm the divine image that all bear.
The quality and direction of God’s love
for the world is made more truly
evident.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit,
people grow in obedient dependence
on Jesus as saviour, teacher, lord and
friend.
Word picture:
Zacchaeus is welcomed by Jesus:
Luke 19:1-10
Parable of the Good Samaritan:
Luke 10:25-37
God’s call for justice:
Amos 5
Jesus calls disciples to be with him,
leads them in mission and teaches
them:
Matt 4:18-25 and Matt 5-7
AUSTRALIA SOUTHERN TERRITORY STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES
Activity:
Building
‘Belonging’
Communities
Leading People
into Christian
Faith
Developing
Empowering
Leadership
Cultivating
Functional
Structures
Expressing
Distinctive
Identity
Communicating
Mission Strategy
Initiating Targeted
Social Action
Alleviating Human
Need
Definition:
‘Belonging’
community is an
open and
welcoming place
where we

know and are
known

love and are
loved

serve and are
served
Living and
speaking
authentically so
that others are
directed towards
Jesus.
A serving style of
leadership that
releases the
leadership capacity
of others.
Continuous
improvement in
mission, human
resource and
business
processes.
Living out God’s
particular purposes
for the Army
through
engagement with
the wider world.
Embedding mission
understandings and
ways of working
within the Army that
are inclusive and
holistic.
Building good
society through
reform, in line with
mission values.
Coming alongside
to care for others in
need without
discrimination.
Outcomes:
We demonstrate
hospitality,
acceptance and
care, individually
and corporately, so
that all might
belong.
We draw people
into Christian faith,
transformation, and
discipleship.
Leadership
emerges in those
around us.
We are effective as
stewards of
resource, capacity
and potential.
The salt and light of
God’s character is
evident in the
world, and
our identity as The
Salvation Army is
clear.
Mission intentions,
activities and
outcomes are
aligned throughout
the Army.
We stimulate and
deliver specific
social reforms and
advocacy.
People receive help
across a range of
needs, in ways that
develop their
capacity to respond
to their own
concerns.
We recognise
increasing Christian
maturity and
spirituality.
Word picture:
Parable of the lost
son,
Luke 15:11-32
Healing of blind
Bartimaeus,
Mark 10:46-52
Moses and Jethro,
Exodus 18:1-27
Parable of the
Talents,
Luke 19:11-27
Sermon on the
Mount,
Matt 5:13-16
Jesus sends his
disciples in
mission:
Mark 6:7-13, 30
‘ …to do justice,
and to love
kindness, and to
walk humbly with
God.’
Micah 6:8
Jesus inaugurates
his mission:
Luke 4:16-30
“… until all of us
come … to
maturity, to the
measure of the full
stature of Christ.”
Eph 4:11-16
- 167 -
Deepening
Christian Faith
and
Understanding
Living and teaching
discipleship so that
people grow in
likeness to Christ.
Appendix 4.5
MELBOURNE COLLEGE OF DIVINITY
Established by the Melbourne College of Divinity Act 1910-1990
Affiliated with the University of Melbourne
21 Highbury Grove, Kew, Victoria 3101 Australia
Telephone +61 3 9853 3177: Fax +61 3 9853 6695
QUESTIONNAIRE (2)
FOR RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
Project Title: EMERGING IMAGES
OF SALVATIONIST MISSION
Please respond to questions 1-9 before turning to question 10.
1.
Could you please state in words your understanding of the mission of Shop
16 and its associated services.
2.
In what ways is this experience different from earlier experiences of
mission?
3.
In what ways has this experience changed you?
4.
Please outline your understanding of ways God works in the world?
- 168 -
5.
What from the past of The Salvation Army is useful in Shop 16?
6.
What from the past of The Salvation Army is unhelpful in Shop 16?
7.
In what ways has the culture and context of the neighbourhood influenced
the shape and formation of Shop 16?
8.
In what ways is Shop 16 influencing the lives of those in the
neighbourhood?
9.
Please take time to describe the mission of Shop 16 in picture/diagram, or
in poetry. Please use the blank sheet that follows, or other suitable
medium.
Please complete your response to questions 1-9 before turning to question 10
*************************************************************
- 169 -
- 170 -
Having completed questions 1-9, please comment on the following diagrams with reference to Shop
16:
Images of Mission
Bringing people to God
Taking God to people
people
Meeting God in
Thank you for your participation. Please contact Major Grady Bailey at the Pastoral Care
Centre, ph 9813 1917, if this process has troubled you in any way. Alternatively Dr Paul
Bierne, Dean of the Melbourne College of Divinity can be contacted, ph 9853 3177.
Craig Campbell
Email: craigc@alphalink.com.au
Mobile: 0407 832 091
- 171 -
Appendix 4.6
STATEMENT ON INTEGRATED MISSION
(RELATING TO HEALTH, HEALING AND WHOLENESS MINISTRIES)
SRI LANKA 23 JUNE 2001
CONTEXT AND FUTURE IMPACT
The Salvation Army at this stage of its development is living with the fruit of
separation in several significant areas. To mention just a few of the historical
divides:
“Social” and “spiritual”
Emphasis on programmes in buildings, more than being part of the
community
Officers, professionals, lay people
Countries that traditionally give and countries that traditionally receive, as the common
understanding of ‘mission’.
Vision is needed in order to overcome these barriers and to find innovative local
responses in a changing and diversified world.
There is implicit harmony and understanding between the language of integrated
mission, community capacity development, and Natural Church Development.
Integrated mission is not a programme, but it is a process and approach that can
apply to all we do.
Our mission is to participate together with others in growing to know God better in
the grace of Christ.
VISION
____________________________________________________________________
The vision is to be truly integrated with the community to promote wholeness and
the
characteristics of the Kingdom of God by believing in the capacity of people, and
being
transformed together.
____________________________________________________________________



We believe and have experienced that a shared vision of capacity in
people, directly and positively influences the life of the Salvation Army as a
community of faith.
We believe that all people have a God-given capacity to love, to belong
together, to change, and to have hope. Also that the life of God is active in
the whole world and not only within congregations of believers, but that
people become aware of the healing grace of God through the influence
of loving relationships (Titus 2:11).
We believe in the potential for community wide change, renewal and the
healing of nations.
- 172 -
These beliefs are affirmed in the theology of the Trinity as God in relationship, and
the incarnation of Christ as God with us, and the Holy Spirit as counsellor,
influencing change.
Therefore, integrated mission is a mandate to identify with and participate in the
joys and sufferings of the world in everyday life, that the presence of God may be
revealed in reconciliation and transformation of people and their situations
(Romans 8).
DIRECTION
Social issues including poverty, addiction, and violence, have an impact on
health, economic well-being, educational opportunity, family and community
development, and spiritual responsiveness.
Root causes of many issues are found in broken and fragile relationships that can
also alienate people from faith in God.
The context for integrated mission is the affirmation of strengths of people in the
living environment of homes and neighbourhoods.
Health work, corps, social programmes, community development, and other types of programmes
are a base for relationship building, not an end.
The approach to community is characterized by active faith, servant leadership,
and participation as friends in a spirit of flexibility and appreciation of culture.
We anticipate that where love in action is expressed with persons, there will be
expansion of capacity and change.
ELEMENTS OF STRATEGY
1.
Development of the dynamic relationship between home, neighbourhood,
and activities in buildings which need to be supportive to the integrated
mission process;
2.
Inclusive teams to catalyse and nurture an environment in which people join
in to share vision and concerns with a sense of mutual responsibility and
support;
 visits in homes that give attention to persons as well as family and friends;
 linked, ongoing conversations in homes and neighbourhood
3.
Communities influencing other communities into positive change;
4.
Facilitation teams to support the learning and application of integrated
mission within local community contexts;
5.
Intercultural learning from local experiences and diverse cultures;
6.
Partnership and policy influence, based on local community experience and credibility.
- 173 -
Appendix 4.7
POLICY STATEMENT
FOR THE SALVATION ARMY
HEALTH PROGRAMME
The Salvation Army’s international health programme is operated and coordinated through
International Headquarters’ leaders and departments, supported by an international health
programme consultant and health-related programme facilitation teams. The work includes
health-related programme development focusing on hospitals/clinics, corps and community
response, interconnected wherever possible, and developed within an integrated mission
context.
The Salvation Army’s commitment to health programmes is rooted in our understanding
of God’s saving purposes for the world and our commitment to world evangelisation.
The Army recognizes that compassionate care is linked to healing, social inclusion and
whole person transformation.
With a commitment to integrated mission we recognize that in spite of human
brokenness and sin, all individuals and communities have the potential for growth, for
wholeness, for better relationships and for reconciliation with God.
We intend all Salvation Army health programmes and institutions, including hospitals, to
be governed by The Salvation Army, in accordance with prevailing legislation and
constitutions, but also providing opportunity for community representation in this
governance.
We recognize that it is important to respond to a diversity of major health-related
concerns which includes learning from the local situation and the need to apply this
learning to other situations even though the health concerns may be different.
Because of our special commitment to the poor and socially excluded, we acknowledge
the emergence and importance of HIV/Aids as one of the significant health concerns
which merits the special attention of The Salvation Army.
.
We encourage the appointing to health programmes of people, not only with
administrative abilities, but with an understanding of development principles and the
ability to help develop mission-focused leadership
.
We support all health programmes which encourage the development of the community,
involving participation, and recognize the strengths of the local community and other
organisations.
We recognize the need for accountability in the ongoing commitment to such
programmes, with internal and external assessment as an essential aspect of continuing
measurement.
We confirm that in most cases programmes will be related to communities in which there
is a Salvation Army presence, and on occasions, with the endorsement of International
Headquarters, a programme could lead to the establishment of a Salvation Army
presence where health work is part of an approved long-term strategy.
- 174 -
Where such a situation arises it must be coordinated with other programmes and issues,
including those relating to gender, poverty, disaster relief, community development,
church planting/growth. The proper allocation of time, personnel and finance also
needs to be carefully monitored, and explored within the country situation.
We are committed to inter-organisational sharing for the purposes of mutual learning,
witness, and influence on policy within and outside The Salvation Army at local,
national and international levels.
INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
21 January 2003
- 175 -
Appendix 4.8
LOSS, HOPE, AND FAITH THROUGH A COMMUNITY CAPACITY
DEVELOPMENT APPROACH TO HIV/AIDS - THE FOUNDATION TO
AN EXPANDED RESPONSE
Ian D. Campbell
International Health Programme Consultant
The Salvation Army
International Headquarters
101 Queen Victoria Street
London EC4P 4EP
Fax: +44 (0) 171 489 1410
Phone: +44 (0) 171 332 8080
Email: Ian_Campbell@salvationarmy.org
- 176 -
LOSS, HOPE, AND FAITH THROUGH A COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT APPROACH TO HIV/AIDS - THE FOUNDATION TO AN
EXPANDED RESPONSE
INTRODUCTION
Many here are conversant with health related community development approaches. My comments
are drawn from 17 years of experience in health and community development work in both
implementation and design, mostly in economically developing countries of the south, yet in the
last decade, in some areas of North America, Australia, and Eastern Europe. So the thoughts that I
will present may appear very conceptual, with global derivation and relevance yet I want to assure
you this in no way diminishes my understanding of the need for application of the concepts into
other cultural contexts. The next speaker will give this more attention. Actions undertaken in
different parts of the country would appear different from each other, and from those in other
countries. Yet there can be a conceptual congruency, and mutual strengthening of direction,
approaches, ways of working and strategies.
First, can I ask you to look beyond the images that you will see into some concepts that relate to
community development across cultures and nations; second, can you look beyond action that is
implied to the strategic questions and processes that lead to capacity development for actions; and
third beyond apparent answers to recognition of issues and further questions that inform the
approach.
HIV/AIDS AND COMMUNITY CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT
I could begin with figures which illustrate the global, statistical impact of HIV to the end of 1998 233.
I prefer however to share two images.
233
See attachment
- 177 -
The first is a newspaper article from a Zambian weekly called “The Monitor” which I read
three weeks ago whilst in the country to visit the Salvation Army Hospital at Chikankata.
I read that in the capital city of Lusaka, population 2,000,000, there are over 300,000 deaths
each year. The headline was “Lusaka running out of burial space”. The question being
raised was about the capacity of the city council to adjust in terms of making more space
available. A subsidiary focus was the economic difficulty faced by families in arranging for
funerals.
Whilst it is known in Lusaka that most of the deaths are due to AIDS, HIV is not even
mentioned in the newspaper article.
The second image is a conversation that happened between our joint facilitation team from
Zambia, Australia, the United States and China during an evaluation visit to the province of
Yunnan. There was a discussion about the pattern of response to AIDS and HIV in the
Chikankata community over a 10-year period.
The Zambian with us was the Director of the Chikankata Health Services. His name is Elvis.
He notes an increasing community fatigue in Zambia, characterised by people chatting in the
villages rather than having serious focussed conversation. There are fewer people gathered
for purposeful conversation because many have died. Apart from that others will not bother
to talk together. This is what can be meant by loss of community memory - loss of valuing
the past, celebrating the present, and storing up hope in the future can happen because of
accelerating continuing impact of loss which is felt to be negative. Instead of acknowledging
this loss there is actually denial of it, and it is projected into discussion of a more superficial
nature. As I said the headline was “Lusaka running out of burial space”. People coming in
for a short time can only hear the words of immediate need felt by the community such as
crops and poverty whereas the real concern is larger.
What is really needed is to stop and simply be there - start again with the communities by
listening to them. Elvis commented that listening is not practised much now.
He said: “Communities are reaching out but drawing on the past. But the response should
not be stuck in the past. They may ask about reaching for the future. Yet until you have
celebrated the present the future won’t be there.”
We do not have to recapture the symbolism of the past but we have to recapture the values or
beliefs which represent the space that is needed for people to grow - this space becomes a
place characterised by core beliefs that connect us together - for example: care, respect, and
capacity for change.
The origin of conflict and stress in communities that links to paralysis and loss of community
memory comes back to the question of “Who are we as a community?” Lack of recognition
of who we are is evidenced by naming our problem in terms of the problems of others, or
blame, or punishment, or the expectations of solutions outside ourselves. Alongside this can
be chronic denial of loss. There is an indivisible connection between acknowledgement of
loss and a journey into sustained hope.
Learning about community capacity for response to crisis has not only come from developing
countries. We need to acknowledge that relationally contexted cultures have much to teach
- 178 -
those of us who are working with health in Western cultures which in the last few decades
have been dominantly individualistic. There are also some Western countries that have been
centres of excellence regarding capacity for reflection and clarification of learning pathways.
Many here are better placed that I to note the influences that have led to this. The ‘Ottawa
Charter for Health Promotion’ (1) of 1986 affirmed the need for community action in health.
Australia built this principle into the first national HIV/AIDS plan and retains it as the
foundation of the 4th plan now being formed.
The ‘Jakarta Declaration’ (2) of 1997, drew on the principle of community involvement
articulated in Ottawa, with the notion of ‘community capacity’.
“Health promotion is
carried out by and with people not on or to people.
It improves both the ability of
individuals to take action and the capacity of groups, organizations or communities to
influence the determinants of health.”
This promotes the view that public health
effectiveness is dependent on a much clearer understanding of the inherent and the
developmental capacity within circles of relationship, for participation and mutual learning in
response. This is in contrast to the view that people outside the health professional world
need to be provided for, are essentially victims in their own situation, and by implication, are
inherently unequal partners at best, and usually are not considered to be realistically able to
be in partnership at all. From the Jakarta Declaration “The challenge for the coming years
will be to unlock the potential for health promotion inherent in many sectors of society,
among local communities and within families.... specifically this reflects the creation of new
partnerships for health on equal ground between the different sectors at all levels of
governments and societies.”
For most health professionals, especially doctors and nurses, it is difficult to design
programmes from the perspective of being within a learning process - it is a legacy of
medical and nursing school training that we tend to view ourselves as experts, or to accept
other people=s view of us as experts. Priests and pastors can equally suffer from this
problem.
Is this appropriate for the issue of HIV and for many other health issues that require good
community involvement?
When working with the reality of impact of HIV/AIDS in persons, families and
neighbourhoods, the conclusion is inescapable that more is needed than the usual public
health approach, as it is commonly understood. Community voices must be heard.
Interventionist approaches, often the product of poorly understood public health philosophy,
are not the answer in any part of the world, They are part of an answer but when they are
dominant, they dilute the community voice, and diminish the idea that there is capacity in
people for care and for change and for hope. They spread confusion through expectation of
provision and external support that can never be sustained.
Understanding of community health and of health related community development is based
on the viewpoint that a community has capacity to move into its own future, supported by
health institutions and people with professional qualifications, but not supervised by them.
Again the Jakarta Declaration is informative – “Both traditional communication and the new
information media support this process. Social, cultural and spiritual resources need to be
harnessed in innovative ways.”
- 179 -
Community has its own life and process. We can be interventionist or we can be
participatory, and we will understand more of the life and a process of the community
through a participatory/facilitation approach.
The product of such participation is
partnership, mutual learning, and integration of care with prevention.
With this approach, the conclusion is that HIV/AIDS is a window into the problems of life
but it is also an opportunity for exploring these problems in the context of true partnership
and community development.
This assumes an understanding of community as a group of people with positive belonging,
in mutually accountable relationship. A community development process is one in which we
should contribute as a facilitator of change, but we do not own responsibility for change, or
the development of people with a problem of HIV, nor do we own their future and yet we can
be intimately involved. We function as outsiders working by invitation from the ‘inside’,
and we learn with others.
STRATEGIC QUESTIONS AND PROCESSES FOR COMMUNITY CAPACITY
DEVELOPMENT
We learn by questioning and listening more than by doing. The necessary questions need to
be even more searching than those we confront every day about allocation of time, people,
and money, to health programs.
I will explore some key strategic questions often used in response to HIV/AIDS in home and
community based work.
1.
Why be concerned?
From the point of view of health systems, mission hospitals, doctors, nurses and other
health professionals, some real challenges include staying in front of the epidemic, or at
the very least, tracing its progression; linking care with prevention; helping to transfer
learnings about community capacity and development from ‘south’ to ‘north’. And
there is distraction that is negative, focused on preoccupation with technology, and
access to drugs rather than giving scope for human capacity for care, for change, for
better relationship and for development.
For a community member, there is premature loss of life - loss of family members, loss
of income providers, and confusion about the future.234
There is deep concern about the accelerating loss in high prevalence communities that
is not explicitly recognized.
Without a concerns analysis it is difficult to work together with a local community on a
vision in the future.
Note that concerns analysis is different from needs assessment. A concerns analysis
releases expression of passion, and opening of vision about the broader dimensions,
234
A family in Lima, Peru went through this experience recently - an HIV positive man infected his
wife and indirectly one of his two children. He was rejected from the home by the grandmother after his wife
died. Through home care and neighbourhood relationship building reconciliation with his sister became
possible. He is now at home - however his journey has been painful and confusing .
- 180 -
present and future, which is an appropriate and conducive environment for authentic
participation.
2.
What is a vision of capacity development?
A core element of vision is care - not by provision but by participation within the
situation of suffering, which is often the living environment; community, defined by
belonging, positive relationship; and shared confidentiality; change that happens not by
imposition but by facilitation, in attitudes, behaviour and environment; leadership that
happens through support, servanthood and inspirational presence rather than
imposition; and hope that is characterized by concrete positive opportunities available
now as well as more diffuse but equally necessary ideas about future, solidarity,
ongoing community memory and relationship with God.
3.
What ways of working help achieve the vision?
Vision is not reached only through actions - success has its foundation within a context
of participation, of teamwork, of facilitation of capacity of local people who are
struggling to live every day with the impact of HIV and other issues. Leaders need to
find passion for this process - they need to live it out, lead by influence and service
compared with power and implicit desire for self-service.
There is a great difference between participation and observation. On the one hand it is
possible to be sympathetic and to do things for people even as an observer but this is
insufficient for sustainable hope to develop. HIV/AIDS is an issue that leaves
problems with people - problems that accumulate if unattended and problems that do
not go away from homes simply because a person has attended a clinic or a hospital or
because they have received a home visit from an outreach team. People have to live
with the epidemic - and we need to be inside that experience, which is an ongoing
conversation about loss, hope, and therefore of desire for valid future. This is
inextricably linked to a mysterious yearning for connectedness for a future that is
unseen as well as seen. It is speaking therefore of the experience of faith - reaching out
for something beyond what human beings can touch and articulate, something bigger
than we are. Faith is about innate desire to touch the essence of creativity and creation,
and of relationship that can always be better than what we feel it is at the moment, and
that recognises people in a spiritual situation, where God is, and where hope is
glimpsed. Such faith is not naive - it is realistically grounded in honesty, and
recognition of loss and pain.
4.
What constitutes meaningful action?
Our exploration of ways of working tells us something about the environment for
action - in brief, people need presence in the home; there is a need for participation in
neighbourhoods; and there is a need for adequate support by health and other
institutions.
Home care is indivisibly linked to neighbourhood-based prevention, but it depends for
this effect on a relational approach235. Home care is more effective with a viewpoint
that a person with HIV is an agent for change at least potentially; and a team approach
235
In Philadelphia, USA, a pre- and post-natal home based care approach with low income women is
to be linked to family and neighbourhood counseling. The goal is to facilitate important family and community
counseling for self-care, mutual care, and change of risk behaviours.
- 181 -
that can include people from local communities.
Teams need to work in a multidisciplinary fluid integrated way by spontaneously responding to a local situation with
information, pastoral care, counseling, clinical care, equipping and training of local
people, and always having a mind for the non-verbal but palpable neighbourhood
interest in relationships that exist - people watch but may not comment.236
It is this understanding that can be an entry point into the neighbourhood - through a
question of curiosity from a neighbour following a home visit it is possible to put the
question back to the whole neighbourhood to explore why there is interest.
Neighbourhood building processes are often the missing link in strategic understanding
and practice of integration. I refer to integration not only of structures but of capacities
of people. This view shifts a culture of expectation and demand for services on the
part of so-called consumers, and on the part of expertise-based providers because this
idea of integration affirms the necessity and opportunity of participation by people in
their own health.
What is the real concern of the whole neighbourhood? Is it the individual who
appears to be the subject of a home visit or is it inner anxiety that is felt by many
people in the neighbourhood?237
Very often it is the latter - people project their anxiety on to a ‘target’ but a skilled
counseling approach by a team is needed to help the community acknowledge its own
concerns, speak the truth to one another about relative risk and safety, and form
agreement on issues that are intimate to the group and that are discussed
confidentially within the group, for which all community members can act in the
interest of one another. They will do this because they know that the future is at
stake. Integrated care and change hinges on the recognition of the power of issuecentered confidentiality - this is part of the continuum that stretches from person to
person interaction that is based on personal intimacy and confidentiality, to family
conversations that can still focus dominantly on personal confidentiality but can shift
to issue based confidentiality. This is certainly the situation reached in community
conversation and has counseling elements. For effectiveness of forward movement
regarding decisions for change that are owned by a local neighbourhood community,
there can be no deliberate shaming of persons - but there can be collective recognition
of issues of concern to all, and capacity to act by all. This is centered around issues
that are common to all rather than persons who dominate the conversation with their
own anxiety, or who are felt by people in the group to be needing to be revealed
because they are the source of the community problem238.
236
In a spontaneous village role play in China, a family depicted the normalcy of community
knowledge and shared responsibility for behaviour change by showing how they would include a married HIV
positive son, yet would expect him to change behaviour - and they should enlist neighbourhood support, the
agreement of the son being implicit.
237
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, six former commercial sex workers have recently relocated from a brothel
to a >normal= neighbourhood. They are generating income by craftwork. They are now respected. The
neighbours want them to work within the neighbourhood on HIV issues. Initially however they were nervous
about the new residents but now they are beginning to think about the implications of HIV for themselves.
238
In Ahmednagar, India, anxiety was expressed by neighbours and community leaders about a
person with AIDS among them. Yet as they were counselled to explore the root of their concern, it was the
- 182 -
There are many examples of local neighbourhood groups functioning as healthy
community in this way - in parts of Africa cultural practices have been named by
communities, and are being changed whilst respecting the underlying cultural beliefs
that has led to the practice. Similar processes are now being observed in India, and in
neighbourhood communities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Hospitals, clinics and churches have a part to play - separate programmes of
community work and hospital work are not the answer - there needs to be a fluid
continuum of involvement of people within an institution outside that place, and
people outside the institution involved inside the place of specialty activity.
There is a dynamic continuum between the locations of work, (that is the home,
neighbourhood and institution or building); the ways of working (characterized by
participation and teamwork); and the activities that happen which at least need to include
team approaches to home care expressed through presence, linked to facilitation of ongoing
community conversation and a community counseling approach.
5.
What results can be expected?
In local communities, we can look for and find better capacity for caring - this can
improve the quality of life of people affected and infected with HIV. There is better
capacity for change, characterized by decisions made about corporate behaviours.
This often links to specific reconciliation and to prevention. There is better community
capacity to cope with the present impact shown by community decisions about income
generation, about family welfare, about plans made before death that carry the explicit
view for the families and the communities of continuity into the future, despite the fact
that community members are dying in increasing numbers.
There is an increasing community capacity for hope, when there is participatory
presence inside the neighbourhood - sustained care and facilitation of change can lead
to continuity, and sustainability of action and positive emotion and mutually supportive
relationship.
In the implementing teams that work from hospitals and clinics, there can be increased
maturity of understanding of the community development approach. A key indicator
will be the capacity of the implementing team to keep generating itself; to keep
incorporating new team members. Are hospital managers, administrators and chief
medical officers competent and willing to have a dynamic team formation of this kind?
Are governments, churches and non-government organizations willing to let go and
engage with the wider community?
Within organizations, leaders and policy, there can also be a positive development characterized by willingness to listen to the local community voice. When an
shared occupation (truck driver) of most of the men in that village, and a genuine recognition of their own risks
for HIV infection through their own behaviours
- 183 -
organization is self critical of its function to the point of seeing that it is there primarily
to support local community capacity development, then we can afford to say to
ourselves that we have a desirable organizational result, and it may be possible to see
that we are fulfilling our healing mission, to be present with others in their living space;
often difficult, fragile, yet always within what I sense to be the healing grace of God.
6.
How do we know that success is happening?
These results are indicators of capacity development. In the local community, there
are also some generic indicators - at least three are the formation of community action
groups such as care and prevention teams; the development of a process of motivation
and action for community to community transfer by these action groups; and indicators
of change named by local communities.239
The indicators that show community capacity are mainly qualitative, and relational in
nature. When people tell stories that are frequently similar that relate to care and
change, and these stories are sustained over time and are accompanied by new stories,
then we can reliably know that community is involved and that capacity for positive
care and change is developing given that these stories reveal acknowledgment,
movement through denial, and serious attention to implementation of agreements
reached.
Qualitative indicators of capacity can be supported by quantitative measures numbers of people living reasonably well at home, without stigma; numbers of
families working together to care, and to be agents of change in the local community;
numbers of communities willing to take action for the future, and to share their
learnings with other communities.
SOME OTHER QUESTIONS AND STRATEGIES RELATING TO AN EXPANDED
RESPONSE
Despite the key strategic questions crucial to a planning process such as those above, there
are questions that remain which need continuous exploration.
5.
How are community voices, feelings, emotions felt and heard?
How can
‘community voices’ form an environment for measurement of the forward
impact of the epidemic, and of other health issues?
6.
How can leaders in a local community and in organizations listen and learn?
How can they move from observation into participation in suffering?
7.
What influences local capacity development? For example when a hospital
team designs its approach by consultation with community, what difference
does this make?
When working with a local community on desirable
outcomes, to what extent does this influence the action that community
239
In Mumbai, India, an HIV/AIDS support group has been active for five years. Recently some
members have sensed that they need to link to their families. This requires respect. They have some changes
to make, as do the families - they say that when it is again possible to visit homes, they will have hope for the
future.
- 184 -
undertakes? What are some listening and learning processes that need to be
explored?
8.
Regarding the role and approach of systems and organizations, of churches,
hospitals and hospital leaders, how can a culture of expertise be reshaped by
willingness to engage in learning processes? Rather than continuing to cling
to the view that institutions, including churches are the centres of expertise and
moral authority that counts most of all, how can the function of organizations be
more facilitative?
Within these reflections on vision and direction for a community capacity development
approach, some key strategy analyses will occupy us for many years.
1.
Central to these is the linkage of care to prevention - when we participate with
persons, instead of only providing for them we see their capacity increase for
self-respect and healthy choice making within and between accountable
communities.
Participation is not the same as decentralization. Often the
relational link of care to prevention is not seen because of structural
preoccupation. We need to pay attention to the function of participation.
2.
The link of care to prevention can only be understood when a non-Western
understanding of a wider confidentiality is opened up - with recognition that
people in local neighbourhoods live in an environment of shared confidentiality,
referring to the inevitable diffusion of information that helps shift secrets to
shared knowledge, shared understanding and shared safe intimacy, which is a
confidential environment. Recognition of this community capacity is an entry
point to disciplined community counseling, which can rapidly accelerate
commitment toward prevention processes by local communities, as well as to
care for each other.
3.
Home care and community counseling proximity - when home care is done
through a visitation process by a team, either systematically (house to house)
or by specific invitation, its effect is greatly increased when community
counseling processes are happening in some neighbourhoods.
These
facilitated community conversations may appear not to be linked to the home
care visits but if both activities are happening in the same neighbourhood there
is a synergism that is expressed through expanded care and change
processes.
4.
Community to community transfer - initiated and implemented by local
neighbourhood people, working in teams, with a concern for other
neighbourhoods, and willingness to respond to their requests.
One
neighbourhood can be an example to another.
The function of the ‘health
system’ or organization is to facilitate the belief that this is possible and
exploration of ways of doing this effectively.
The people of the health
organizations are often external and they often include people like ourselves.
Yet we need to function not only as facilitators but as learners because we too
work with communities in other places.
5.
Fifth, there is the challenge of transfer of learnings. What can we learn from
- 185 -
the community development approach to HIV that is applicable to drugs and
alcohol, to nutrition, to disability prevention, other health issues to hospital
attitudes and practices, and to a growing understanding of the role of nongovernment organizations, churches and government in the wider community?
What difference does this learning make to our thinking about the future with
respect to size, scope, disciplines and function of a hospital or a clinic?
In
high prevalence areas of the world, how are we coping and managing change
brought about by the HIV/AIDS epidemic? As morbidity and mortality increase,
how can we strategically listen, learn and plan so that ten years from now, we
will be participants with community in an ongoing coping, learning and change
process? How can we truly share in suffering to the point that people perceive
that it is happening and that it is genuine?
How can we learn to value
experience based approaches to design and evaluation instead of being
dominated by an expertise-based culture of support.
This view could have some surprising implications, one of which is that hospitals may need to be smaller yet more
efficient, and community participation approaches can be correspondingly more intense, widespread, and
relational. Another is that we will more clearly see that hope emerges through honest recognition of loss; and by
movement from denial to truth telling, from burden bearing to burden sharing, from fear to hope, and from
provision to participation, we will have grown in faith in ways that are mysteriously hard and perplexing, yet
graciously and relationally enriching.
REFERENCES
(1)
Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, from 1st International Conference on Health Promotion,
Ottawa, Canada (1986)
(2)
Jakarta Declaration of Health Promotion into the 21st Century, from 4th International
Conference on Health Promotion, Jakarta, Indonesia (July 1998)
(3)
Rader, Alison D. Community Counseling - a Handbook for Facilitating Care and
Change, The Salvation Army International Headquarters, London, UK (1997)
(4)
Campbell, I. D., Rader, Alison D. ‘HIV Counseling in Developing Countries: the Link
from Individual to Community Counseling for Support and Change’, ‘British Journal
of Guidance and Counseling’, Volume 23, No. 1 (1995)
(5)
Campbell, I. D., Rader, Alison D. ‘A Community Development Approach to AIDS
Care, Prevention and Control’, Setting up Community Health Programmes - a
practical manual for use in development countries’, by Dr Ted Lancaster, The
Macmillan Press Limited
- 186 -
ATTACHMENTS
(1) Global Statistics to the end of 1998:
(i)
Adult and Children Living with HIV/AIDS - Estimate to the end of 1998:
Source - UNAIDS Geneva: ‘AIDS Update’: December 1998
(ii)
Projected Life Expectancy at Birth - selected Sub-Saharan Countries
: Source - World Population Prospects: 1996 revision: United Nations Population
Division 1996 (available through UNAIDS, Geneva)
(iii) End 1998 Global Estimates Adults and Young People: Source - UNAIDS Geneva:
‘AIDS Update’: December 1998
5.
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
Process diagrams
- Source: Community Counseling - A Handbook for
Facilitating Care and Change, The Salvation Army International Headquarters,
London, UK (1997): Rader, Alison D.
Continuum of capacity
Community response to HIV/AIDS and our role; intervention compared with
participation
Wider understanding of confidentiality
- 187 -
Appendix 4.9
Annex 9(a) HUMAN CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT FOR AIDS COMPETENCE CORE
OUTCOMES AND INDICATORS, ACCORDING TO SPHERES OF ACTION, AND
FACILITATION TEAMS
Spheres of
action
HCD
dimensions/
outcomes
Local response
Local community





Organisational
change



Service providers
Involvement of local neighbourhoods
in local response
Community action
Community determined measurement
Community determined transfer
Improve human resources
management – creating conditions that
foster adequate skills, work and
performance

Community based organisations
stimulate sustained local community
conversation/counselling, linked to
home care
Leadership development – people face
challenges and achieve results in
complex conditions
Improve human resources
management – creating conditions that
foster adequate skills, work and
performance







Page 188
Policymakers
Families and neighbourhoods become
involved and committed to care, support
and expansion of local response
Community members seek training and
skills development for care, support,
community counselling, income
generation and knowledge transfer
Local partnerships


Staff intentionally engage in local
community visits, to learn from local
action and experience, and to support
neighbourhood based response
Leaders foster community/service
provider partnerships
Partnerships enable expanded service
delivery
Leadership development – people face
challenges and achieve results in complex
conditions
Improve human resources management –
creating conditions that foster adequate
skills, work and performance


Support for local response
Funding support for national facilitation team
development
Support for expansion of service delivery
through partnerships
Facilitation teams





Policymakers in national and other bodies
adopt human capacity development as a
context and framework for policy
development.
Leadership development – people face
challenges and achieve results in complex
conditions
Improve human resources management –
creating conditions that foster adequate
skills, work and performance


Local implementing teams within districts are
stimulated to support, appreciate, learn from, and
transfer local response
Intentional shift for many local implementers
towards development of local facilitation teams (to
help connect local responses for learning from each
other)
Organisational policy change through participants
who apply what they learn within their own place of
work and develop SALT/facilitation teams with
their own organizations
Many organisations and people commit to
participation in national/district/local facilitation
team action
Improve human resources management – creating
conditions that foster adequate skills, work and
performance
Spheres of
action
HCD
dimensions/
outcomes
Expansion
Policy
Learning from local
action and experience
Spiritual life
Local community
Service providers

Communities which are responding
transfer to communities to which they
are linked either by invitation, or an
initiator within the host community
 Local partnerships
 Other partnerships between service
providers and local responses that
expand service provision
 Partnerships enable expansion of
service provision, as well as local and
organisational response
 Local community leaders committed to
an inclusive local neighbourhood and
home based care approach
 Local community members and leaders
assertively explore sources of money
and materials
 Support for the requirements needed to
deliver HIV/AIDS programmes
Community to community visits for
learning and application






Honesty about deep concerns
Healing between people and between
communities
People brought into fellowship
Understanding of God as living, ever
present for all people
Through spiritual release and physical
healing and reconciliation people come
to Christ
Hope and faith received and shared
with others
Page 189




Policymakers
Building of local community connection
or horizontal transfer
Partnerships enable expansion of service
provision, as well as local and
organisational response

Administrative and service heads
intentionally act toward and document a
participatory approach
Support for the requirements needed to
deliver HIV/AIDS programmes

Repeated visits by service heads and
professional staff for learning from local
experience and action
 Spiritual development through service
 Increased motivation, satisfaction and
commitment
 Understanding and practice of love.
Work becomes ministry
 Power of God seen in lives of people
 Endurance in ministry
 Withstanding spiritual attacks


Funds for community to community/district
to district transfer
Partnerships are supported that foster
expansion of service delivery and
local/organisational response

Policymakers in national and other bodies
adopt human capacity development as a
context and framework for policy
development.
Support for the requirements needed to
deliver HIV/AIDS programmes
Experiences synthesised are
presented effectively to policymakers (multi-level)
Commitment to learning from local response by
person-centred approaches





Facilitation teams
Encouragement and remembering of ministry
experiences
Become encouragers of the calling in
committed team members
Leaders represent the experiences of change
Leaders feel and live as ‘team mates’ (no
‘caste’ or levels)
Spiritual development is shared

More facilitators will be discovered and developed,
and will apply HCD for AIDS competence locally
and in their own organisations
The concept of partnership is easily understood
and, accepted, and practised within countries, at
many levels, and within the facilitation team process
In each visit/event a SALT activity is planned (to
support, appreciate, learn from and help transfer local
action and experience)
 Spiritual caring coming from experience with
people
 Perseverance in facilitation approach
 Prayer and worship increases confidence
 Simplicity of approach – as Christ did
 Finding our way around problems or obstacles by
prayer and faith
 Christians become disciples
Annex 9 (b)
1
SELF ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK FOR AIDS COMPETENCE
BASIC
2
3
4
5
HIGH
We acknowledge openly our
concerns and challenges of
HIV/AIDS. We seek others for
mutual support and learning.
We go for testing consciously. We
recognise our own strength to deal
with the challenges and anticipate
a better future.
Acknowledgement
and Recognition
We know the basic facts about
HIV/AIDS, how it spreads and its
effects.
We recognise that HIV/AIDS is
more than a health problem alone.
We recognise that HIV/AIDS is
affecting us as a group/
community and we discuss it
amongst ourselves. Some of us
get tested.
Inclusion
We don’t involve those affected
by the problem.
We co-operate with some people
who are useful to resolve common
issues.
We in our separate groups meet to
resolve common issues (e.g.
PLWA, youth, women).
Separate groups share common
goals and define each member’s
contribution.
Because we work together on
HIV/AIDS we can address and
resolve other challenges facing us.
Care and
prevention
We relay externally provided
messages about care and
prevention.
We look after those unable to care
for themselves (sick, orphans,
elderly). We discuss the need to
change behaviours.
We take action because we need
to and we have a process to care
for others long term.
As a community we initiate care
and prevention activities, and
work in partnership with external
services.
Through care we see changes in
behaviour which improve the
quality of life for all.
Access to
Treatment
Other than existing medicines,
treatment is not available to us.
Some of us get access to
treatment.
We can get treatment for
infections but not ARVs.
We know how and where to
access ARVs.
ARV drugs are available to all
who need them, are successful
procured and effectively used.
Identify and
address
vulnerability
We are aware of the general
factors of vulnerability and the
risks affecting us.
We have identified our areas of
vulnerability and risk. (e.g. using
mapping as a tool)
We have a clear approach to
address vulnerability and risk, and
we have assessed the impact of
the approach.
We implement our approach using
accessible resources and
capacities.
We are addressing vulnerability in
other aspects of the life of our
group.
We learn from our actions.
We share learning from our
successes but not our mistakes.
We adopt good practice from
outside.
We are willing to try out and
adapt what works elsewhere. We
share willingly with those who
ask.
We learn, share and apply what
we learn regularly, and seek
people with relevant experience to
help us.
We continuously learn how we
can respond better to HIV/AIDS
and share it with those we think
will benefit.
Learning and
transfer
Page 190
Measuring change
We are changing because we
believe it is the right thing to do
but do not measure the impact.
We begin consciously to self
measure.
We occasionally measure our own
group’s change and set targets for
improvement.
We measure our change
continuously and can demonstrate
measurable improvement.
We invite others ideas about how
to measure change and share
learning and results.
Adapting our
Response
We see no need to adapt, because
we are doing something useful.
We are changing our response as
a result of external influences and
groups.
We are aware of the change
around us and we take the
decision to adapt because we need
to.
We recognise that we continually
need to adapt.
We see implications for the future
and adapt to meet them.
Ways of working
We wait for others to tell us what
to do and provide the resources to
do so.
We work as individuals,
attempting to control the situation,
even when we feel helpless.
We work as teams to solve
problems as we recognise them. If
someone needs help we share
what we can.
We find our own solutions and
access help from others where we
can.
We believe in our own and others
capacity to succeed. We share
ways of working that help others
succeed.
Mobilising
resources
We know what we want to
achieve but don’t have the means
to do it.
We can demonstrate some
progress by our own resources.
We have prepared project
proposals and identified sources
of support.
We access resources to address
the problems of our community,
because others want to support us.
We use our own resources, access
other resources to achieve more
and have planned for the future.
Spiritual life
Prayer and faith to strengthen
ourselves personally. People are
encouraged by care
Team spiritual life strengthens
faith. Work becomes ministry.
People can be honest about deep
concerns
Finding our way around obstacles
and problems, by prayer and faith.
Hope and faith are received and
shared as people respond
Spiritual caring is developed from
experience with people God is
understood as living and ever
present for all
Ministry is discipleship, seen by
endurance and practice of love.
Through spiritual release people
come to Christ
Page 191
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