Contextual/Frontier Theology Log

Theology needs applying — from our sources (Bible passages of course, lectures, books) to specific contexts:

1. lives of people around us, including 'five fingers' people close to us and far from God;
2. our social 'household' systems such as families, teams, and dorm sections, including those that don't acknowledge Christ as Lord; 
3. and forms of life such as trades and professions, different academic fields and disciplines, and cultures, including those structured by convictions not aligned with God's kingdom.

This is sails #3 and #4: taking the gospel farther away from where it's known, into frontiers where there are people of peace and opportunities for transformation. This is what the real people in The Father Glorified are constantly doing.

In this assignment, you keep a running log where you personally contextualize and apply doctrinal and biblical knowledge to discover where it may bear fruit 'on the frontier': that is, outside its familiar realms of Christian spirituality, culture, and social circles, where its relevance isn't obvious.

Before you begin, create the file in which all of your work will go, if possible on the cloud. Make sure it's regularly backed up! Then, in that file, begin a log in which you record the following kinds of observations:

In a paragraph, how have you applied doctrinal material you have learned from scripture, lectures, or books in a 'frontier' context, especially one involving people or things 'far from God': i.e., in another course or field outside RS, elsewhere in college besides chapel and other culturally Christian activities, a workplace or social environment that doesn't implicitly or explicitly acknowledge Christ as Lord—or at least doesn't do that adequately. Include at least one of each of the three contexts in the numbered list above. Don't just imagine 'what it might look like' or theorize about doing it, but move to actual practice with an actual exchange with 'frontier' environments, disciplines, or people. Then report what happened (whether it was fruitful or not) and what that teaches.

Aim for seven or so entries. If a context or application isn't 'frontier,' it doesn't qualify.

Don't let failure discourage and dissuade you. This is difficult work, and even for Jesus it didn't always yield fruit. He warned us all to expect uneven results in his parable of the sower (Mark 4) and many other times.

Near the end of the semester, conclude your log (and submit it for good) with this assessment:

Are these connections generally constructive, mutually reinforcing and enriching in a way that suggests that sails #3–4, and/or cross-disciplinary "Christian liberal arts," are fruitful ways to live and reflect on God's Kingdom in Jesus Christ in every context? Or are they destructive, qualifying or even contradicting the claims we make about the universal relevance of this kind of knowledge?