Public Theology or Private Language?

I have just received an email from a colleague suggesting that the type of approach used by the William Temple Foundation in the earlier blogs referencing comments on the global financial crisis is too academic and analytical to constitute a "public theology" that ordinary folk can understand and access. Is this type of public theology then in danger of becoming a "private language" spoken only by academics to other academics? I think this polarization of the debate is dangerous and misleading and damages both sides in the end. Are "ordinary folk",whoever they are, not capable of reading, absorbing and interpreting quite complex material from within their own tradition? Is there not a danger of "dumbing down" the levels of analysis required to come to grips with what are complex issues within current economic and political thought? All too often church leaders and local church commentaries resort to the glib and easy responses to issues that fail to do justice either to their own tradition or to the secular world which they claim to criticize. On the other hand, there is no doubt that public theology runs the risk of being absorbed into the academic industry and thereby losing its cutting edge or engagement with the outside world. People are needed who span this divide and wander back and forth in an annoying manner between the worlds of front-line practice and more distanced reflection - the sort of blurred encounter that I am advocating of late. If "public theology" fails to capture this essential activity then lets call it something else - but let us not underestimate the scale and nature of the challenge we face in attempting critical engagement between the tradition and the rest of the world!

John Reader's Publications

Just to add that one can find and access some of the other publications on the William Temple Foundation website. Read here

The New Capitalism debate

For a series of papers from research associates from the William Temple Foundation in Manchester UK here is the link to their website.
My own paper is entitled "Authoritarian Capitalism" and offers some detailed economic analysis and a fairly pessimistic view of future prospects! Read it here...