Mission in Society
Live Issue
Building blocks of democracY
Christopher Rowland argues that all Christians should be inspired by “the democracy of participation”.
The human needs and the demands for a just ordering of society that brought liberation theology to birth are still with us. Alongside massive poverty and injustice, the issue of equal participation in society and its development still demands our attention.
My theological outlook was formed by my experience of the Basic Ecclesial Communities in Brazil. In these communities, the Bible - read, acted on and wrestled with - formed the catalyst of a life of commitment to the practice of peace and justice.
One of the things that made a lasting impression on me during my visit to Brazil 20 years ago was the democracy of participation existing at the grassroots level in these communities. The empowering of ordinary people led to an opportunity for self-determination.
Voices and stories
Here, it seemed to me, were the building blocks of democracy. In a disciplined way, a Christian Church was actually finding ways of enabling ordinary people to set the agenda of their lives. This process was democratic in the way it embraced all concerned, and the way in which the voices and stories of all the people were heard.
This was the very
antithesis of a top down model of church or society, in which a truth is
handed down from above, telling people what they should do. None were
excluded from the debate, as God’s Spirit was not the property of an elite
but had been poured out on all flesh. Anyone might be expected to contribute
an insight about the Bible or about the God who speaks through human
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Reading and participating
Since my return from Brazil I have discovered much about the antecedents of liberation theology. The happiest part of my work as an academic has been learning about the Anabaptists, Beguins and radical Franciscans in the late medieval period; the Levellers and the Diggers in 17th century England; and more recently the grassroots movements of contextual theology which have sprung up in many parts of the world.
At the Reformation, Anabaptists recovered the vision of “God with us” - of a Spirit who inspires all and from whom insight into the ways of God may be expected - as ordinary people met to engage with the Bible and make connections between it and their everyday lives.
This way of reading the Bible has its origins in the Bible itself, where Paul’s communities were participative affairs (1 Corinthians 14). This story of participative church life, in which the work of the divine Spirit poured out on all flesh, is fundamental to the gospel. In church and society, making real a participative democracy is a live issue.
Grassroots experience
The experience of the grassroots church in Latin America has much to offer us as we think about how the Christian churches may contribute to the building of democracy. The prominent place given to this experience ensures that the stories of ordinary people are the proper subject of discussion and policy.
I do not think it is an accident that 20 years after I witnessed for the first time those participative groups at work, there should be a government in Brazil whose president, Luiz Inacio da Silva (‘Lula’), and party, the Workers’ Party, has been so rooted in the same kind of popular movement as the Basic Ecclesial Communities.
This participative process is at the heart of democracy. There are no short cuts or easy answers as we seek ways and means to encourage all to find their voices. Those who would short-circuit or inhibit discussion put a stumbling block in the way of the work of the Spirit, with whose work all Christians ought to be identifying.
INTERACT
*** Christopher Rowland is Dean Ireland’s Professor of Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford. His book “Radical Christian Writings: A Reader”, written with Andrew Bradstock of the United Reformed Church, includes some of the story of attempts to build democracy among Christian groups down the centuries.