Charles R. Ringma shares about theological, spiritual, and missional formation as part of his book, In the Midst of Much-Doing: Cultivating a Missional Spirituality.
I am usually asked two questions in relation to a new book.
"Why did you write it?" And "What is the book about?" When I am not direct in my answers, people are puzzled.
But there are reasons for oblique answers on my part. This has to do with Paul Ricoeur’s concept of a “surplus of meaning.” What he means by this is that readers/interpreters of a text read it for gaining the world behind a text, the world in the text, and the world in front of the text. This is a multi-dimensional reading of a text and particularly the world in front of the text suggests what a reader brings to the text in terms of its unfolding for contemporary relevance. Little wonder that he speaks of a “surplus of meaning.”
Simply put, what this means is that my attempts to say something about the why and what of In the Midst of Much-Doing will not matter all that much. Readers will make their own sense of the work. And this is a good thing. The book may be far more relevant than what I think.
Hand, Heart and Head
Nevertheless, it is appropriate for me to highlight certain themes. But first, some general statements before I engage the specifics of the integration of head (theological formation), heart (spiritual formation), and hand (missional formation).
The central thrust of "In the Midst of Much-Doing" is to highlight the missional nature of the biblical narratives and to point out their relevance for the missional engagement of the contemporary church.
This calling and task involves the cultural mandate of earth-keeping and societal formation. It involves the missional mandate of witness and service. It involves the relational mandate of love of God and love of neighbour. And it involves the eschatological vision for the faith-community to seek to live in the here and now that God’s final future will be like. Some vision indeed!
Sadly, at times the vision and practice of the church tends to be fragmented. In order to overcome this the theme of integration is essential. And this where the concepts of head, heart, and hand, play a part.
How These Themes Are Interrelated
The rather grand terms that are used for these three themes are – orthodoxy (head), orthopathy (heart), and orthopraxis (hand). The use I make of them is two-fold. First, these three themes are dynamically interrelated. They coinhere. Second, they are not to be conceived in order of importance. It’s not that only head should be first and then hand, or that heart should be first and then head and hand will follow.
What happens in life, including in our missional activity, is that doing certain things will lead to thinking about them which leads to conceptualisation (head). It is also possible that being deeply touched by something (heart) will lead to engagement and practical involvement. It is also possible that when we deeply think about things (head) that we are on the way to doing something.
But the overarching theme is that all three belong together. Only head, and we may be stuck in mere intellectualisation. Only heart, and we may be passionate, but lack a sustaining rationale for our activity. Only hand, and thus only activity, and we run of steam because direction (head) and commitment (heart) have disappeared.
To live and serve in more integrated ways is a challenge. We tend to be more one-sided.
We work hard but lack self-care. We serve but no longer pray. We serve the church but fail to engage the world. But the opposite may also be the case.
The challenge is to live a dialectic – wholly in Christ and in the world; wholly for the world by being wholly in Christ. In the Midst of Much-Doing celebrates this way of being and serving.
In the Midst of Much-Doing draws from Scripture and a wide range of Christian traditions to explain how we can sustain activism and compassion amidst the never-ending crises of the twenty-first century.
