As some of you are aware, I am currently undertaking my masters in transformational development. For each unit, we’re required to set our own major essay question, which has been a great opportunity to explore topics and questions that arise through the study. I thought I’d post the essays up here as some of the topics might interest some of you. Others will certainly be bored by them, but it should be pointed out that 20-odd pages makes for a sizable fleet of electronic paper airplanes for the origamily equipped…
Here’s the first, exploring the potential contribution of the spiritual practice of lament to the community development context:
Yelling at God about Poverty
About Clinton Bergsma
I live near Fremantle in Western Australia with my sweet wife and our four children. I love exploring the intersection between theology and practice for all aspects of life, and get excited about finding ways to bring those two together in the life choices available to me. I love learning and making things with my hands, family days, gardening and home produce. I am terrible with a paint brush or camera, and I know nothing about cardiology. I do not own a cardigan. Yet.
I also manage Amos Australia, help facilitate a Masters of Transformational Development through Eastern College of Australia, and am undertaking some additional study. I tend to order more books than I can read. Actually, I don't tend to. I do.
patmos 
You’ve touched on a nerve for many of us I think, as you challenged the reader to consider how to be more real before God; and so begin to understand ourselves more. Thanks Clint.
Thanks Dad! It was a good exercise for me to do some thinking/reflecting/study and writing on the topic of lament. I must admit I have a slight fascination with it, and I really enjoyed looking at it a bit more through this assignment. As always, thanks for the encouragement…
Good on ya,Clint!
I admire your God given knowledge,but ,must admit,it’s a bit beyond my simple brain!
Love you,oma.
Hey Oma,
Thanks for your love and compliments! I think that perhaps the issue isn’t so much the complexity of your brain, but more my use of unnecessarily large words and lengthy sentences in hopes of sounding remotely intelligent 🙂
Much love, Clint.
Thanks for this Clint. You’re doing your Masters now!? Awesome, where at? So cool that you get to choose your own topics too. I really liked the premise of this essay too, that biblical lament shouldn’t just inform worship/liturgy, etc, but something like community development! I’ve been thinking about lament a bit for the last few years and am beginning to ask questions about what it might mean for reading Scripture. The Canaanite genocide is not something I’ve found easy to accept, for example, so I wonder how Job and the psalmists would want me to read those accounts. I also appreciated the psychology literature and how you integrated this with the psalms of lament. I liked the quote from Cohen on p.8 on how the structure of these psalms is helpful for the grieving. Also I’m going to have to steal the one from Brueggemann on p.15, the cheeky dig at how orientation is not so much done in faith (though I’m sure it is here and there!) but in fear of the basic disorientative character of life. It’s funny you used “theodicean.” I was searching for an adjective a couple weeks ago and came up with “theodical”!
One thing I’d be careful about is jumping too quickly into affirming divine suffering. What do you think? I know it’s a contentious area at the moment, and although I think there’s a good biblical basis, we’ve got to remember that Scripture also gives God a face, back, hands; he changes his mind, and repents, etc. There’s a really good article by David Bentley Hart named “No Shadow of Turning: On Divine Impassibility.” Also I’d just watch imminent vs immanent; the first is temporal and the second spatial, the opposite of transcendent.
All up I loved the personal tone, how this derives from your experiences, reflects on them, and then goes right back to them with renewed insight. All the best for the rest of your Masters man!
Och, Camo, so good to hear from you! I trust NZ is taking care of you well. I keep some track of what you’re up to through your blog, but it’s nice to hear from you in person. As always, I appreciate the solid Camo reflection that provides some things to mull over. In response to your various thoughts and questions:
– I’m studying through Eastern College of Australia, which used to be called Tabor College Victoria. I could have done it closer to home, but this particular course brings theology and practice together, which is something I both love and care deeply about. It’s coordinated by Steve Bradbury who was the director of TEAR Australia for many years; he’s an incredible source of wisdom, insight and example, and I’m thoroughly enjoying sitting at his feet.
– I too have been intrigued by the concept of lament over the past few years for various reasons, and I’ve found it a most beautiful spiritual practice, particularly how it creates space in our relationship with God for expressing our fears, doubts, questions and anger, and giving room for holding things in tension and things that appear contradictory, paradoxical, or impossible. I too struggle with the Canaanite genocide while also being able to somehow hold it in the ‘lament box’ while I do some more thinking around it. I hope that makes sense. I don’t have to throw out God while I try to come a conclusion on it; lament creates the space for me to do that.
– Re: Brueggemann. I must read more of his stuff. I’ve heard that ‘Prophetic Imagination’ is a great read; I love both the way he writes and his incredible ability to deconstruct the uglier parts of our theology and ecclesiology with clarity, wit and grace. More Brueggemann!
– I believe I may have crafted ‘theodicean’ in the true fashion of a wanna-be theologian :). I think it has a nice ring to it…
– Re: divine suffering. I’ve not read the entire article by Hart, although I managed to find a few excerpts from Hart’s writing on the topic, where he raises great points about how affirming divine suffering allows God to be shaped by evil/God to be passively shaped by his creation etc. While I have neither the understanding or knowledge of folks like Hart, I find it very difficult to ignore a God who permits himself to be described – even if anthropomorphically – as suffering; for his permission to be described in such a way must be indicative of some measure of reality (I realise others may apply a different hermeneutic, and draw a different conclusion). I can’t pass over a grieving God in the days of Noah; His lament through the prophets (Hosea particularly!) of Jesus in the gospels of (particularly) Mark and Luke; and the anguish of Jesus in the Garden and on the cross. In my opinion, to ignore these passages or interpret them as anthropomorphisms or depictions of only Christ’s humanity sells the relational nature of the Trinity short. But I know little of metaphysics and the implications thereof; I’m with Job, and I’m ‘speaking of things too wonderful for me.’ Perhaps that’s the key for me; I believe that God has suffered, yet I maintain that he is not shaped by evil, nor a puppet of his creatures. Paradoxical and oxymoronic? Certainly. But my God is big enough to encompass even the paradoxical. If Jesus can be both divine and human, perhaps he can also suffer and yet remain impassible. When I reflect on these things, I can’t help but worship him – the only worthwhile place theology can bring me…
-Oh, on imminence vs immanence: you’re right! Ha! Thanks for that…
So good to hear from you; I hope you’re well and content. Have you finished your studies yet?
Cheers,
Clint.
Thanks for the decent reply! I’ve been doing a few sneaky reads of your blog every now and then and had some time today so thought I’d check out your essay. New Zealand is taking care of me. I actually just finished my Masters. Did my thesis on the significance of the cross for the doctrine of the Trinity in the theology of Jürgen Moltmann. Feel like I spent a lot of time doing a lot of reading and am leaving now not so much with newfound understanding but with more questions, lol.
I appreciate your thoughts on divine suffering. I used to be all for it, for the same reasons, it’s seems so obvious reading Scripture and knowing God in Christ. But I explored it a bit last year and again now have more questions than answers haha. I appreciate your humility with regard to things metaphysical too. That might be the best place to start!
Bless you Clint! I might drop in here and there.
Also you living in Melbourne? If I’m ever over I’d have to pop in and say hi. Haven’t been back to Perth though.
Cheers! I’m actually in Perth still; still in Hilton, but moved around the corner from when you were here last…
Your thesis sounds interesting; it must have been great to spend some solid time digging through Moltmann’s stuff; I’ve only read bits and pieces and watched the odd Youtube lecture by him, but he’s an amazing guy.
Thanks again for your thoughts; I appreciate you touching base, and wish you all the best with whatever is next for you. I will catch you at some point in eternity and hound you out for yarns, stories and some good theological banter….