2021 Census: implications for public theology and the mission of the church
Baptist minister the Revd Dr Israel Olofinjana, Director of the One People Commission, Evangelical Alliance, shares three points
As someone who studied religious studies for my first degree, I have always been fascinated by the intersection of religion and public life. I have therefore been eagerly waiting for the religion data of the 2021 census. The religion data of the 2021 census is very interesting and has implications for how we do public theology.
The census data reveals that, “For the first time in a census of England and Wales, less than half of the population (46.2 per cent, 27.5 million people) described themselves as “Christian”, a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3 per cent (33.3 million) in 2011. Despite this decrease, “Christian” remained the most common response to the religion question”[1]
It continued, “No religion” was the second most common response, increasing by 12.0 percentage points to 37.2 per cent (22.2 million) from 25.2 per cent (14.1 million) in 2011”[2]
Officially, this census confirms for many Christians who are aware of the various culture shifts in British and wider western European history that Britain is a pluralistic, secular, post-secular postmodern society. As Danny Webster, Director of Advocacy at the Evangelical Alliance puts it, 'First of all, these findings are not a surprise; it has been widely predicted that this would be the result, and our own research through Talking Jesus found that 48 per cent of the UK population described themselves as Christian”[3]
As a missionary scholar who sees the UK as a mission field, I have however wrestled with the question, why is it that sometimes British public theology is still seeking to engage from a place of presumed power? Another interesting aspect of the census is that white British ethnicity in England and Wales appears to be on the decline from 86.0 per cent in 2011 to 81.7 per cent, while other non-white ethnicity is on the increase from 14 per cent in 2011 to 18.3 per cent.
This increase in non-white ethnicity also brings a challenge to British public theology which has little or almost nothing to say when it comes to the issues around racial justice. In the light of these data on religion and ethnicity, I would like to share three crucial points that could help us to continue to develop a British public theology that can help us engage the public from the margins, that is, from a place of vulnerability.
These three points are Public Theology and Post Christendom context, Public Theology and Intercultural Engagement and Public Theology and the Suffering Context.
Public Theology and Post-Christendom
A definition of public theology that I am working with here is that public theology is seeking to engage public questions from a Christian perspective. Therefore, I find it interesting when I sit in either church gatherings or some strategic national meetings, how sometimes we still want to engage the public arena almost as if we have the dominant power in society. Sometimes this betrays our lack of societal understanding or how the public has shifted away from a church and state model.
This attitude is sometimes reflected in ways we exercise our public leadership when dealing with the government. For example, during the pandemic many churches and church organisations were rightly frustrated when the government decided in order to make society safe to close down public worship in churches. While the closing down of churches and particularly when other public spaces such as pubs opened requires interrogation, what was really revealing was the attitude of demanding that the government open churches for public worship.
So, what is the issue here? The attitude of demanding churches should be open is almost premised on the notion that the church is still in power, like in premodern times when the church enjoyed power and privilege to demand things from the government. In the premodern times, that is, before the Enlightenment worldview and thought, the church operated on a Constantinian model were Church and State were intertwined.
I fear, that on occasions, we are still operating from this Constantine model of public theology, when we feel we should enjoy some privileges from the government because after all we are the church. I am aware that there are many mission organisations and church networks such as Fresh Expressions, Urban Expression and the Evangelical Alliance to mention a few that are at the forefront of helping us to rethink mission from a post-Christendom context. But I think this is still a challenge for some of our churches that are still going through a grieving process. This grieving process of a loss of power is echoed when people mourn the days when churches were packed both in the morning and evening services. Some of our churches are still coming to terms with the shift in context, let alone have the clarity to understand some of the complex issues society is asking and how we can respond from our Christian perspective.
For others, this grieving process takes place when we want to answer some of the public’s questions, but still with the same apologetic texts and dialogue that misunderstands our culture as searching for prescribed answers. There are a few places within the UK that are developing some robust public theology to help us engage the public meaningfully such as the Evangelical Alliance, the Joint Public Issues Team, William Temple Foundation and Theos think tank to highlight a few.
But increasingly, with this new census data on religion, we all need to be engaging with the key question: what does a British public theology that is not rooted in power look like? What does a British public theology that operates from a marginal vulnerable place look like?
In order for us to be able to construct such a public theology we will need to appreciate that as Christians we are in the minority in a secularised, post-secular, postmodern, pluralistic society, and therefore our Christian imaginations and engagement have to stem from humility, recognising that we do not have all the answers. This is the starting point of a journey that can allow us to look at Jesus' missional engagement from the margins. Jesus operated from the periphery of society but with such a dynamism that alerted the powers that be.
Public Theology and Intercultural Engagement
A second point that British public theology needs to wrestle with is the whiteness of its approach and solutions to a public that is increasingly multi-ethnic and multicultural. Again, it amazes me when in our public theologising we fail to engage racial justice concerns. The re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement has met largely with resistance from the church. While I am not saying that we should embrace everything about Black Lives Matter movement, it is however important that we engage with some of the crucial issues around black lives such as health inequalities, criminalisation of black youth, immigration issues, colonial conservation and lack of representation in the academia.
But why is British public theology failing to engage racial justice concerns properly? Firstly, there is the fact that many exponents of public theology are white, leading to courses on public theology and the canon on public theology being drawn from one particular perspective and experience.
Secondly is that this in turn leads to tackling society’s questions that resonates with one particular community. For example, increasingly in the UK in the last decade we have seen a love for animals and pets. This is due to various reasons such as people wanting companionship or friendship to tackle loneliness, mobility issues and so on. These are justified and legitimate reasons. One of the questions that arises from such fondness for animals and pets from a Christian perspective is what happens to people’s pets after death? In essence, people want to know what will happen to their beloved pet after death.
The love for animals also means that in our approach to climate concerns we campaign for animal rights as well as tackle the extinction of some wildlife species. But take another example from a different context. Imagine a black family in an urban context which has just lost their daughter due to urban gang warfare in the area. What sort of questions would they be asking?
Their question will be around justice, particularly whether the government is doing enough to tackle the rise of gang violence in the cities, and whether there is enough provision of youth clubs. In addition, living in an urban context where deprivation and air pollution is connected, means an approach to climate concerns from that context will focus on the impact of the climate crisis on people of colour, instead of on preserving green spaces and wildlife conservation. These examples illustrate some of the concerns arising from different communities in the UK. The proximity of public theologians to these sorts of issues and questioning determines which agenda shapes our public theology.
One of the key agenda that needs to be a priority for our public theologians today is to engage intercultural issues such as migration, health inequalities, colonial conservation, environmental racism and high incarceration of black youth in the prison system. For this to happen it will require an intercultural approach that sees white British public theologians engaging with black theologians, African theologians, Asian theologians and Latin American theologians to begin to understand some of the questioning from the black community and other people of colour.
Public Theology and the Suffering Context
I have argued so far in this article that our public theology should engage from the margins of society because we are no longer operating from a Constantinian model of thinking. I have also articulated that we need an intercultural approach in our public theology because our public theologising has not really engaged questions or concerns from certain communities.
A final point for consideration which brings both these points to focus is that we are now in another pandemic context. The economic crisis we are living through is another form of pandemic that has really exposed that while the church has a significant contribution to make to society, nevertheless, we engage from a liminal place. The economic pandemic like the health pandemic has ushered in a global suffering that will require a suffering church to respond in a relevant way. It has to be a church that understands suffering that can help address some of the questioning the public is asking around the nature of suffering resulting from economic crisis and instability.
The health pandemic exposed several social justice concerns that has been around for years. The economic pandemic is also doing the same. Therefore, British public theology must grapple with the suffering context as a paradigm shift, giving way to new views on our existence.
The suffering context has raised lots of questions around identity, humanity, race, medicine, science, education, politics and media. What we now need in such a context is a public theology that is humble enough to admit that it does not have all the answers, but yet is willing to engage with some of these questions taking an intercultural approach so that it can address racial injustice in church and society. In essence, the suffering context has given us a unique opportunity to address questions from certain communities that have not been answered.
Our public theologising must therefore understand suffering in order to be able to address the public’s questions on the nature of suffering.
The Revd Dr Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is an ordained and accredited Baptist minister and has led two multi-ethnic Baptist churches and an independent charismatic church. He is the director of the Evangelical Alliance's One People Commission
[1]
Office for National Statistics, Census 2021. (Accessed 30/11/22)
[2] Same as above
[3]
2021 Census: Christianity can flourish in the margins of society, Evangelical Alliance (Accessed 30/11/22)
Further reading on the Census
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Baptist Times, 01/12/2022