Border Thinking

I am in the midst of reading the book Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez in preparation for a Latino/a Theologies course I’ll be taking this fall at Garrett for my PhD program.

Some of you may be wondering why I am taking a Latino/a Theology course when my major is congregational studies and my focus will be women and pastoral identity in the Evangelical Covenant Church, an historically Swedish denomination. This past spring, when selecting my final five courses, I struggled with that exact same question. My minor is theology and while I have focused on feminist, womanist, black liberation, and other contemporary theologies, I have done little work in the classical theologians such as Augustine (granted, he is from North Africa), Luther, or Barth. Why continue pursuing these contemporary and intentionally contextual theologies?

First, I know that in the course of my academic career I will come across the classical theologians again and again. Their resources are readily available and the need to be familiar with them will most likely drive me to study them on my own. However, the same cannot be said of contemporary theologians. It takes much more intentionality on my part to pursue these resources and so I am choosing to focus on them at the moment hoping that I will achieve some sort of balance along the way.

Second, I think that it is unfair to expect me to do the equivalent work of a doctorate in classical theology (or at least a minor) before I pursue contemporary theology. Once classical theologians know as much as I am learning about contemporary theology, I’ll learn as much about their area of expertise. Plus, while I understand that most contemporary theology builds on the classics, I also know that it should not all be read through classical eyes. One of the great contributions of contemporary theologians are the new insights about God that come from perspectives shaped outside of the classical stream of history.

Third, to be honest, I just enjoy contemporary theology more than classical theology at the moment. Many contemporary theologians have begun to develop the concept of “border theology” or theology at the margins. Nancy Bedford, one of my professors from Garrett, has done significant work in this area as she explores her own experiences as an American missionary kid who grew up in Argentina, was trained in Latin American and Germany, and now teaches in the United States. She writes of the border as a place full of life, a place where one makes space and thinks in new and creative ways. In particular, she quotes Walter Mignolo who writes that border thinking allows us to move beyond the simplistic either/or thinking of our culture. Bedford describes it as “a way of knowing that disrupts dichotomies from within a dichotomous situation.” Bedford also cites W.E.B. DuBois’ concept of “double consciousness” and writes that border thinking is “an epistemology that avoids being entrapped within the logic of the dominant world view while still able to make use of critical instruments forged within that world view.” In other words, it is a way of thinking that has possibility. It draws on the best of the dominant world views and seeks a way beyond.

It seems to me that this should be the stance of all Christians. We are border thinkers, aliens in this world, seeking not to be entrapped by our cultures and our limited understand, but seeking a way to move beyond, to grasp a bit more of the mind of God and to be formed by the culture of God’s kingdom.

A few books and articles on Border Thinking:
“Making Spaces: Latin American and Latina Feminist Theologies on the Cusp of Interculturality” by Nancy Elizabeth Bedford. Shared in a contemporary theology class at Garrett, Fall 2005.

“To Speak of God from More than One Place: Theological Reflections from the Experience of Migration” by Nancy Elizabeth Bedford. In Latin American Liberation Theologians: The Next Generation, edited by Ivan Petrella. Orbis, 2005.

Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking by Waler Mignolo. Princeton University Press, 2000.

Journeys at the Margin: Toward an Autobiographical Theology in American-Asian Perspective, edited by Peter Phan and Jung Young Lee. The Liturgical Press,1999.