JAMES BELICH has suggested that “New Zealand is an historian’s paradise: a laboratory whose isolation, size and recency is an advantage, in which grand themes of world history are often played out more rapidly, more separately, and therefore more discernibly, than elsewhere. It is a bold claim – one some might suggest is uncharacteristically self-confident for a Kiwi – but it contains a germ of truth nonetheless. It may not be a principle which is straightforwardly applicable to all theological disciplines, but it clearly bears on some. New Zealand has within two centuries witnessed missionary encounters and indigenous religious movements, colonial and post-colonial church building, the rise and fall of both sectarian and ecumenical passions and of course the constant immigration (or intrusion, depending on your point of view) of international trends in theology and spirituality. All of these make attempts to construct local theology complex and provisional.
The intricacy of the theological task is evident in this collection.. Elaine Wainwright addresses the underlying challenge of “looking in multiple directions” even whilst claiming a priority for context or “a place from which to look”. The role and nature of culture is contested on many levels in Aotearoa New Zealand. If theology is to contribute to those debates it must acknowledge both its own role in shaping the cultures of this context and its experience of being shaped, in turn, by them. Theology celebrates those insights whilst simultaneously engaging international discourse and the multiplicities of tradition in order that a new story may be told, a new praxis enacted.
Nicola Hoggard Creegan looks to engage aspects of contemporary New Zealand spirituality. Acknowledging the concerns of Maori and neopagan spiritualities she explores the resources of christological debate for approaches to the concept of salvation which might engage these movements and at the same time enrich Christian understandings.
Graham Redding and Mike Grimshaw highlight aspects of culture which often sit on the margins of theological discourse. Redding picks up the story telling function of theology. The narratives he identifies, however, are less on the printed page, or even in the oral tradition. Rather, he explores the role of “the built environment” in constructing a sense of identity and place. Looking at specific instances in New Zealand architecture and town planning, he identifies both the power and the limitations of such narratives and suggests that the church may play a part in developing and informing the stories contained within our urban spaces. Mike Grimshaw examines some critical responses to the artist Colin McCahon. Given McCahon’s uses of text it is not quite accurate to suggest that he calls us beyond the printed word but his vision encapsulates many dimensions. Grimshaw looks to various critical receptions of the artist’s work to discover elements of a secular theology in Aotearoa.
Engagement with tradition must address the prior question, “Which tradition?” The shape and processes of contextual theologies will vary according to the faith traditions within Christianity from which they emerge. The essays of Chris van der Krogt and Mary Betz in different ways address the implications of the New Zealand context for Catholic spirituality. Chris van der Krogt examines developments in Catholic practice and piety between the world wars. Interestingly, he suggests that one trend was towards the internationalising of Catholic identity, rather than to its localising. By contrast, Mary Betz’s qualitative research among contemporary Catholic women suggests an evolving set of images of God which differ from those of similar groups in Australia and North America. These two studies again highlight the complexity and diversity of spiritualities, even within the same broad tradition.
This collection then is manifestly not a statement of “a”, much less “the”, Kiwi theology. Perhaps there is a pointer in that. Perhaps, for the foreseeable future, authentic theological discourse in Aotearoa New Zealand will remain complex and provisional. The peculiarities of its context may demand it.
Martin Sutherland
Elaine Wainwright