Building an “Australian theology” – mateship, multiculturalism and malleability

The module for the first semester of my Tabor course is on doing “Theology in Context” – basically making sure that as we (the church in particular) “do theology”, that we are doing so in a way that is applicable to peoples lives and that considers the wider cultural setting. It’s all very good stuff, and it’s got the head really going. I love the notion that we’re removing the tendency towards theology becoming an end unto itself – your theology has to “do something”.

Last weeks reading was effectively lamenting the lack of “Australian Theology”. It pointed out that the christian community in Australia has imported their theology from the larger cousins – Europe historically, and the US more recently. Citing the contrasting cultures of Australia and the mother country, the need for Australians to generate their own thoughts and concepts of our relationship with God becomes increasingly evident.

So, the solution proposed is that we find our own Australian theology. Building on a quote from Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee, the thought is that we build a theology around mateship, and the ideas behind that:

“Nah. I read The Bible once. You know God and Jesus and all them apostles? They were all fishermen, just like me. Yeah, straight to heaven for Mick Dundee. Yep, me and God, we’d be mates.” (Source: IMDB)

It then goes on to deconstruct the history of the “mate” culture, and how you can apply that concept to our relationship with God, and with who Christ was. Which is a great concept, and it hits on a pretty fair point for lots of people in Australia.

But the notion that you are going to be able to come up with an “Australian theology” seems to me to be almost as foreign as the notion that you could apply a European theology, or an American theology to the Australian context. In our “cohort group” discussion stuff, we were talking about even the difference between the culture at Croydon Hills Baptist versus our church in Lilydale. And that’s not as a reflection on the church, but the setting that the specific church is in. And those two churches are less than 10 minutes drive apart!

Australian culture is so hard to define because it is so incredibly diverse. The theological analogies that would hit the spot with a group of Anglo-Australian bogans from Lilydale are going to be completely different than you can use on a group in the inner city, which is completely different from country Victoria.

So rather than look for a unifying “Australian theology”, or even a specifically “Lilydale theology”, I believe that we need a theology that is “culturally flexible” (I used malleability in the title ’cause it’s an ‘M’ word). A theology that has boiled down the heart of Jesus’ message to the deep centre, and can then apply the theology out of that heart. A theology that can sort the legalism from the heart of the law, and ask “Which is lawful… to do good or to do evil?” (my slight paraphrase of Luke 6:9).

We need to stop looking to the US (or the UK) to find our brilliant “God Formula”. Where God is doing things, we need to look not at what specific things churches are doing, not looking for the specifics, but to look at what the heart of God is behind that move of God. Breaking the colonial instinct of transferring culture in from outside, and instead of seeking to apply the good news of Christ directly where people are at.

OK, I’ve ranted enough.