Rural Theology is a writing project focused on developing theological ideas from the perspective of my life in rural America. Roughly 60 million people in the US live in rural areas according the Census.gov, or roughly 1-in-5 Americans. While not a majority by any stretch, rural life affords unique insights into Christian life and practice that are not readily available to urban or suburban people.
Well, okay, you might say to yourself, it is obviously true that rural life provides a different perspective from urban life. However, that says nothing about the task of theology. Fair enough. Definitions of terms are important. Without clarity and precision, words become fuzzy. When terms are undefined, confusion and equivocation are not far behind. So, let me clear the air and get to what I mean.
What do I mean by theology?
With that out of the way, let’s get move on to defining what I mean by theology. The Oxford English Dictionary defines theology as “The study or science which treats of God, His nature and attributes, and His relations with man and the universe…” Pretty comprehensive, I would say. After all, theology is a technical term with a specific & established meaning among academic and religious schools. I can’t redefine theology any more than I can redefine sociology. The terms mean what they mean.
With that said, I don’t think this definition encapsulates everything about the task of theology. What is the goal of theology, after all? That’s a big question, but Anselm sums up the answer nicely in Proslogion: fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding). Christian Theology is an act of faith working out its understanding of itself. The implications of theology being an act of faith are substantial. I will work these implications in future writings.
Okay, so about the ‘rural’ part…
What does it mean to be a Rural Theology? Why not just theology? Does God act differently in a cattle pasture than in a busy business district? No, geography doesn’t have anything to do with God’s nature. However–as the cliché goes–no man is an island. We all live within a particular culture. Culture shapes our assumptions, perspectives, and taboos about what we value. If this is the case, every theology comes to the table with a set of cultural influences and biases. This predisposition is not inherently bad, but those values aren’t neutral. Recognizing how each particular value influences our views or God is important for a theologian to consider.
What does all of this mean?
Rural Theology is both an identity and a disclosure. It is a work of faith with a particular context, and an attempt at understanding God as a Christian living in a rural community. I am grasping toward God from the foothills and the plains, from the farmland to the riverbeds. In middle of all of these places, I hope to find the truth.