What Really Matters

Scandinavian Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnography

Ideström, Kaufman

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781498243384
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Systematic Theology & Ethics

This volume is about ecclesiology and ethnography and what really matters in such academic work. How does material from field studies matter in a theological conversation? How does theology, in various forms, matter in analysis and interpretation of field work material? How does method matter? The authors draw on their research experiences and engage in conversations concerning reflexivity, normativity, and representation in qualitative theological work. The role and responsibility of the researcher is addressed from various perspectives in the first part of the book. In the next section the authors discuss ways in which empirical studies are able to disrupt the implicit and explicit normativity of ecclesial traditions, and also how theological traditions and perspectives can inform the interpretation of empirical data. The final part of the book focuses on the process of creating "the stuff" that represents the ecclesial context under study.What Really Matters is written to serve students and researchers in the field of ecclesiology and ethnography, systematic and practical theology, and especially those who work empirically or ethnographically--broadly speaking. The book might be particularly helpful to those who deal with questions of methodology in these academic disciplines. This volume offers perspectives that grow out of the Scandinavian context, yet it seeks to participate in and contribute to a scholarly conversation that goes beyond this particular location.

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Introduction

Jonas Ideström and Tone Stangeland Kaufman

What really matters? In any conversation that goes into depth on a certain issue or theme the question must be raised. This volume is about ecclesiology and ethnography, or rather the very interaction and juxtaposition of these two phenomena. This is a book on what one could describe as theological and ecclesiological ethnography and what really matters in such academic work. How does material from field studies matter in a theological conversation? How does theology, in various forms, matter in analysis and interpretation of field work material? How does method matter? The conversation that takes place on the following pages is part of a broader scholarly conversation within the Network for Ecclesiology and Ethnography. This network exists through meetings, conferences, publications, and relationships between scholars.

Over the years, several scholars working in a context have become part of this network and ongoing conversation. It has become obvious that the ecclesial context of the Scandinavian countries—clearly shaped by folk church tradition and theology—makes an interesting case for reflections on theological and ecclesiological ethnography. There is also a need in the Scandinavian context to create spaces and arenas for a deepened and widened scholarly conversation on qualitative research and theology. Therefore, organizing a meeting place in Sweden seemed like a good idea. The Church of Sweden Research Unit invited a group of scholars from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark for a symposium with the aim of publishing this volume. In order to weave our Scandinavian perspectives into the wider international network and conversation, we also invited non-Scandinavian scholars to participate in the symposium: Pete Ward, Natalie Wigg-Stevenson, and Eileen Campbell-Reed. For the same reason, Christian Scharen was asked to write a preface to the volume. The symposium was to a large extent funded by grants from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

The seminars and conversations at the symposium played a crucial role in the process of generating the chapters in this book. Our aim as editors has been to publish a volume that mirrors and embodies a conversation rather than simply placing texts next to one another between the two covers of a book.

The volume offers perspectives that grow out of a specific context, yet it should not be read as only relevant for Scandinavian scholars. Ecclesiology is always contextual. What is thought, articulated, and argued always comes from somewhere. There is a place where it happens. In this case, the place is the Scandinavian context. In one sense, then, this is to a certain extent a book about church in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden and what matters there. Yet, at the same time, this is a book about ecclesiology and ethnography that has relevance in many other places and hopefully the conversation and arguments in this volume will contribute to the broader conversation.

The structure of the book emerged from our conversation at the symposium, where we were able to identify the three themes of reflexivity, normativity, and representation as central to this ongoing conversation on ecclesiology and ethnography. Reflexivity concerns the crucial role played by the researcher in research inspired by ethnographic approaches. In the interaction between empirical material and theological reflections questions of normativity sooner or later have to be dealt with—which voices in the material or in the tradition are allowed to play a role in the conversation? And which roles are they allowed to play? Representation has to do with how ecclesial life worlds are presented and represented in written texts and research results.

The themes now make up the three parts of the book. Each part includes an introduction that briefly introduces the chapters. It was clear in the conversations at the symposium that the three themes cannot be separated from one another. They are rather to be seen as aspects or dimensions of one and the same research process in which the researcher is incorporated. Through all of this there were also other themes and questions that kept reoccurring: What do we mean by theology? How do we integrate methods from social sciences into a theological conversation?

The volume is, as already mentioned, not just an anthology in the traditional sense. Therefore, each main part of the book ends with a shorter response chapter that seeks to bring the contributions in that particular part of the book on speaking terms with each other, thereby adding yet another perspective.

In this introductory part we introduce the Scandinavian context—both the academic and the ecclesial—in two chapters. This will give the reader some contextual background information to the conversations in the chapters that follow. The present volume is written to serve students and researchers in the field of ecclesiology and ethnography, systematic and practical theology, and especially those who work empirically or ethnographically, broadly speaking. The book might be particularly helpful to those are interested in and have to deal with questions of methodology in these academic disciplines.

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The Scandinavian Ecclesial Context

Kirsten Donskov Felter, Ninna Edgardh, and Tron Fagermoen

Introduction

A key insight for ethnographic ecclesiology and theology is that in theological conversations, both the particular and the contextual matter. Therefore, it is necessary to say something about the context of the conversations that led to this book. The aim of this chapter is to present a few significant themes in the Scandinavian ecclesial context. The presentation is far from complete, but the chapter still gives a sense of the particularity for the reader who may be, more or less, unfamiliar with ecclesial life in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

The Historical Ecclesial Context

The ecclesial history of the Scandinavian countries goes back to early ninth century, with the first organized attempts to Christianize the Danish tribes from the South. During the following centuries, the new faith expanded to the East and the North through what is today Norway and Sweden. The church organization process reached an important point during the twelfth century with the establishment of the archbishoprics of Lund in Denmark1 (1104), Nidaros in Norway (1153), and Uppsala in Sweden (1164).2

The church in the North was, from its beginnings, geographically based. According to Norse tradition, the religion of the tribe followed that of its leader, and the central position of the leader also became formative for the ways that religion and politics were intertwined in the young Scandinavian churches. Whereas the High Middle Ages, in general, were characterized by attempts to centralize clerical power in Rome over against secular rulers, the churches in the area kept a rather high level of autonomy under their respective kings. As the power of the kings increased, the geographical division of the church into parishes that centered around a church building became an important instrument for both religious and secular leadership. The movement towards national churches was completed by the Lutheran Reformation in the sixteenth century, which meant that the king officially gained the role of the head of the church. In Sweden the transition to the Evangelical-Lutheran faith, strongly inspired by Catholic and reformed Bible humanism, was officially declared in 1527 by King Gustav Vasa. In Denmark, the reformation process, inspired by a more orthodox Lutheran interpretation, was completed in 1536 and was politically extended to Norway by a decree from the Danish King Christian III.3

In the new national churches, the clergy, who mainly stayed in their positions, played an important role, both as propagators of the evangelical faith and as state officials who were to preach the gospel on Sundays, take care of the Christian education of the children and adults, and uphold church morals and discipline. Upholding discipline had not only religious but also civil consequences like, for instance, the right to marry. When new laws were passed, it was the duty of the local vicar to see to it that they were implemented in his parish. Economically, the clergy were dependent on their parishes, as their income was based partly on farming and partly on tithe paid by the parishioners.

Alongside the parochial structure and the clerical office, independent religious revivals have played an important role in the church life of the Nordic countries. A common trait of these revivals has been to stress the importance of both lay people and forms of organization that are based on conviction rather than on geography. Among the most influential of these were a range of pietistic revivals during the eighteenth century that were more or less critical towards the established church. In some areas, especially in Sweden, free churches were established alongside the state church and remained influential from that period onwards.

Between the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries during the period of absolute monarchy in the Scandinavian countries, the churches were consolidated as state churches led by the king. In 1848, ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: The Scandinavian Ecclesial Context
• Chapter 3: Mapping the Landscape of Scandinavian Research in Ecclesiology and Ethnography—Contributions and Challenges
• Part 1: Reflexivity
• Part 2: Normativity
• Part 3: Representation
• Bibliography