In 2022, staff at Bethlehem Tertiary Institute (BTI) began to plan a research hui, He Whakaaro Noa Iho.

 Christian Research In Aotearoa New Zealand

We wanted to understand what made research ‘Christian’ in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand. Our intention was also to find some common language to articulate our thinking and to understand how we might recognise each other as Christian researchers. We met to open up collaborative spaces where we might begin to answer the question, Mā pango mā whero ka oti te mahi —What is woven together to produce Christian research in Aotearoa, New Zealand? We were focused on finding and articulating the threads that bind us within our diversity as Christians and researchers.

Participants engaged with the discussion catalyst adapted from Beth Green’s 2020 article “Present Tense. Christian Education in Secular Time.”[1] A loose fabric of ideas began to emerge with some common threads. In this reflective article, we intend to respond to the initial question: What is woven together to produce Christian research in Aotearoa New Zealand? by following some of these threads, including the responsive nature of Christian research and the requirement for Christian research to follow Jesus to the margins.

Christian Research is Responsive

A characteristic of Christian research is that it is responsive to God, to need, and to others. It requires us to step beyond our comfort zone and to find the assurance that neither our salvation nor others’ is contingent on whether we sit on the margins or at the centre. It also calls us to recognise the fragility that comes with that discomfit.

The nature of the research endeavour is that it goes into what is unknown. It does so with the hope that what is unknown may become known. But that is not always possible. Sometimes, cautious inquiry into the ineffable yields no answers and requires courageous steps onwards. The traditions of the church furnish us with a rich array of “guardrails” for this endeavour, including, the creeds, the sacraments, liturgy, hymns, commentary, and devotion. This is not untrod ground historically, even if it is for us at this moment. What is new can also be exciting, innovative, and rewarding, and the task of Christian researchers is to respond and open up those new possibilities, within their historical contexts.

Being responsive is both what we do (our actions) and who we are (our character). Our character formation is shaped by sacred texts, principally Scripture, but also the prayers of the church, its theologians and their debates, the communities, contexts, and ideas which shaped them. Being responsive requires recognising the social and psychological dynamics from which these texts derive. Such a responsive approach is also one grounded in humility, the kind of humility demanded by Scripture, particularly when these come up against competing views of our own.

The life and calling of the Christian scholar are active. It is an outward movement in response to the invitation of God to abide with him. If we take the journey on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:13-35) as a model, it is as if God opens our eyes to self-revelation through Scriptures and then, in an act of hospitality, we can invite God to stay with us. That act of hospitality in that story, and in the wider point, is critical. It was not enough for those two people to walk the road, nor to have the Scriptures explained to them, nor to have their eyes opened to the presence of the resurrected Christ, as marvellous and transformational as all these things were. They responded not out of some practical need to be inside before sunset or to eat and drink because it was suppertime but because Christ revealed himself to them. As Christian researchers, our task is also one of responding to God’s call. We never initiate, God initiates.

From confidence in Christ, contemplation, and character formation, come witness. The task of the Christian scholar, surely the task of all Christians, is to point people towards Jesus, modelled by John the Baptist when he said, “he must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).[2] Allowing God’s increase and our decrease by constantly saying ‘no’ to sin and ‘yes’ to Christ, our characters are formed and shaped by the work and will of God in our lives. In a lecture with the intriguing title of “Faith, Reason and Quality Assurance—Having Faith in Academic Life,” theologian and poet Rowan Williams suggests that Christians are called “to shape a life that will itself communicate something of God to others” and that Christian anthropology “ought to reinforce in the university and in society more widely, a set of deep suspicions about the ways in which that range of human capacity is shrunk by political expediency and convenience.”[3]

As Christian researchers who exercise holy reason, we are, in Webster’s words, “remade by the Spirit for humble attention to truth. [Our] fundamental posture will thus be prayerful; and [our] place will be in the fellowship of the saints, serving the community’s confession of the triune God, the fearing and sanctifying of God’s name.”[4] Such an approach will lead to an expansive view of God and humanity, rather than a narrow one, from which we may be responsive in our approach, not threatened.

Christian Research Follows Christ to the Margins

A second thread that emerged at the roundtable was the consensus that Christian research is often working in the margins. Jesus walked in the margins, and so we, too, are required to follow him into those margins. Hui participants expressed a shared understanding that for those conducting Christian research or as Christian researchers this is familiar territory.

As researchers in our Christian communities, we are border-walkers (a translation of the term mearcstapa from the epic poem Beowulf).[5] We are the people within our faith communities at the learning edge, grappling with difficult ideas and seeking to extend the boundaries of what is understood. Equally, as Christians in our research communities, we are often the people standing at a distance from the centre of our disciplines, offering a different perspective.

This metaphor of margin-dwelling and border-walking is well understood in both theological thought and research literature. Retracing some of these steps can advance our reflection on Christian research. By drawing on a selection of these predecessors, we can reflect on the perspective, productivity, and power of Christian research as a marginal practice.

Perspective—borders become meeting points rather than boundaries

Dominant discourses position borders as marginal spaces and those within them as marginalised. In Jesus’s time, the edge of towns, bordering the countryside, were occupied by those who existed on the fringes of society. As we read Scripture (for example, Luke 4 and 5), we see that Jesus was routinely in these spaces. He lived and worked amongst the hedge-dwellers making “marginality normative for the people of God.”[6] At these border spaces, Jesus met people. The margins were “spaces of presence”[7] for Jesus, and he walked the borders “not to separate but to connect and reveal.”[8] By “deliberately avoiding the center, and looking to the margins,”[9] Jesus recentres our attention away from the priorities of hegemonic discourses, whatever they might be in our chosen field or faith community and directs our gaze towards his focus.

As Christian researchers working in these “margin-center”[10] places, we position ourselves to meet colleagues across borders and to share in synthesising knowledge that develops new understanding. A current and dynamic context for this margin-center work is Christian writing on bi-cultural reconciliation and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. In a field with some entrenched boundaries, Christian researchers are able to re-cast these borders as meeting points and embody reconciling dialogic practice. Rt. Reverend Whakahuihui Vercoe, Māori Bishop of Aotearoa, did this at the Treaty grounds in 1990. As Vercoe began to address his audience who had gathered to mark 150 years since the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, he was booed and jeered by those gathered to protest. Vercoe, in his vestments of the Anglican church, at a glance represented all that many Māori had come to protest, but he persisted, and the truth of his words soon brought the crowd to silent attention. Vercoe’s words were uncompromising in their demand for recognition of Treaty breaches and simultaneously urgent in their call for dialogue. Vercoe’s courageous border-walking address was taken up again by Alistair Reese as the starting point for his own bold margin-centre work in this area.[11] Reese draws on the story of Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kgs 21) as a template for active movement towards reconciliation by the church and between Pākehā and Māori. In his work, including that which featured in his address at the 2024 Waitangi Day National Dawn Service, Reese walks the border of academic fields that include theology, history, and sociology, which creates spaces of encounter and dialogue. At this margin-centre he is reimagining scholarship and forging new paths for reconciliation.

The kind of bold border-walking undertaken by Vercoe as a clergyman and Reese as a public theologian is not the unproductive or irresponsible lurking on the “periphery of intellectual existence”[12] suggested by Charles Malik when he searingly criticised Christian scholars in a lecture in 1980. Rather, it exhibits what Mark Noll calls Christians to be, that is, “among the most active, most serious, and most open-minded advocates of general human learning.”[13] Sometimes Christian researchers live on the periphery because they are forced there. They operate in an environment that can feel at every turn opposed to the good news of the gospel. Thus, researchers may adopt a bunker-mentality, or a victim-mentality. In contrast, Reese’s Dawn Service address exemplifies the confident declarative proclamation and plea supposedly made by Martin Luther: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise; God help me!”[14]

As Christian researchers we need to avoid too little confidence and too much confidence. Too little in that we don’t engage in public debates where we should because we are uncertain we will be listened to, or worse, misunderstood or criticised, or we have poor faith and grounding of the facts and values on which we stand. So much so that we forget that we only ever know “in part” and “through a glass, darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12), that our knowledge is not ours but is rather given to us.

When, as scholars, we are able to embrace a Christian perspective as a meeting place of confidence and humility, serious thought and action, as well as open-mindedness, we are able to seek the welfare of the city, build a decent society and restrain evil. All of these activities remind us that our Christian faith as followers of Christ and scholars alike is not a private affair but that there is more to it too. As Chris Marshall reminds us:

 [t]o engage in Christian learning is to allow faith in God, membership of the Christian community, and acceptance of the canonical scriptures to shape and inform how one investigates and explains the world. Instead of public theology, we should speak of Christian scholarship, which is ‘kingdom-of-God learning, learning pursued in fidelity to the gospel and in light of the coming kingdom.’[15]

The work of public theologians such as Reese and the work conducted by Christian researchers engages us in growing a faithful expression of the Kingdom of God. One way that this is done, including at the He Whakaaro Noa Iho Christian Research Hui itself, is by pursuing learning that is faithful to the one who invites us to pray, “Your Kingdom come, you will be done, on earth, as in heaven” (Matt 6:9-13). As Psalm 122 directs us, there is gladness in the good news of God’s work in this world because it is transformative. Wherever the good news is proclaimed, whether it be at the centre of things, or from the margins, it is productive, and transformation follows.

Productivity—the fertile margins

Reflecting on marginal spaces reveals them to be a fertile, productive place. The work that emerges from the perspective of the margin-center as a meeting place, also demonstrates the metaphoric truth of permaculture’s eleventh principle: use edges and value the marginal.[16] Gardeners who adhere to permaculture principles value marginal spaces where two different habitats meet as highly productive. The vigour of flora and fauna in these diverse spaces is increased, and this environment can be used to foster growth and productivity.

Fuller Theological Seminary’s Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and the Arts demonstrates this same principle in the world of Christian research. Working at the border of theology and art, Brehm Center’s director Makoto Fujimura produces art and scholarship that demonstrates the hybrid-vigour of work that benefits from the cross-pollination that occurs in this border space. In his 2017 book Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for our Common Life, Fujimura discusses the estuary as another example of the border as a highly productive space and uses this image to develop a key model for his theory of culture care. Fujimara describes the diversity of the estuary as, “a complex system with a multiplicity of dynamic influences and tributaries. Within [which] are many nurturing - but not isolated - habitats.”[17] Critically, he goes on to observe that in an estuary the purpose of these nurturing, but not isolated habitats is “not so much protection as preparation”[18] where “[e]ach individual habitat strengthens its participants to interact with the wider environment.”[19] Just as Fujimura’s scholarship has been nurtured and prepared within such a hybrid space as the Brehm Center, so it advocates for the development of border-meeting spaces. Fujimura asserts that these environments challenge and extend thinking and therefore strengthen Christian scholarship and research.

Power—the generative power of multiple perspectives

Challenging and extending thinking in marginal places strengthens Christian scholarship and gives border-walkers a power outside of traditional, hierarchical frameworks. Border-walkers are empowered by their ability to move between worlds. Jesus models this movement for us. Phan describes Jesus “as truly divine and truly human”, dwelling and migrating “betwixt-and-between worlds”[20] going on to describe this as “a dynamic movement back and forth between” the “two opposite ontological states.”[21] Jesus's incarnation, death and ascension demonstrate the generative, life-giving power of ontological border-crossing.

In her autobiographical writing, bell hooks articulates the connection between power and moving between perspectives in a human context.[22] She suggests that the power of those who occupy the margins of society comes from having no choice but to view the world from multiple perspectives. Relating to her personal history, Hooks describes her youth in a segregated Kentucky town where her family occupied the shacks located on “the other side of the tracks” from dominant white society. Living on the margins, Hooks recalls entering and exiting the rest of the town as allowed and as necessary. She contends that this movement back and forth between the dominant culture in the centre of town and the marginal space of the shacks equipped her with multiple perspectives of the world. Hooks does not romanticise the hardship and oppression of occupying a marginal space, but she argues that it is “crucial” as a “position and place of resistance.”[23] Moving between the centre and the margins of a space can be empowering, Hooks suggests, because it equips those who must do it with multiple perspectives.

The generative power of this border-crossing movement is echoed again in the work of Christian researchers. In a similar movement to that described by Hooks, Christian scholars and educators working at institutions like BTI move across the borders of disciplines as well as between the secular and sacred. Within the span of a working day, a social work scholar at BTI can, for example, participate in karakia, meet with colleagues at Oranga Tamariki, conduct research into the intersection of Christian spirituality and Tiriti-informed practice, and teach a class on professional practice through a biblical lens. This work at the border-meeting place is powerful and generative, demonstrating what Phan describes when he argues that “persons at the margins stand not only between these two worlds and cultures but also beyond them.”[24] This positioning has the powerful potential to “bring about personal and societal transformation and enrichment”[25] because it draws Christian researchers into the new and the unknown.

Drawing the Threads Together

As we met around the table and considered what might be woven together to produce Christian research in Aotearoa New Zealand, we identified some common threads that bound us together within our diversity. Two strong themes that emerged were, firstly, that Christian research is responsive rather than defensive. It responds to God’s invitation and is, in turn, invitational to others and responsive to need. Secondly, Christian researchers are often margin-dwellers, and this positioning provides new perspective. Christian researchers are able to understand the margins as meeting places, not boundaries, and as powerful, fertile places with generative power. The roundtable provided a space to pause and consider what is woven together in Christian research and demonstrated that this is a productive and transformative place to be working.

Dr. Lindsay Fish's professional background is in high school teaching. Following the completion of her doctoral work, Lindsay began teaching at BTI in 2021 where she works with pre-service teachers and leads the Masters of Professional Practice and Leadership. Her research interests include teachers’ understanding of pedagogy and practice arising from their own cultural context, learning communities and how they are theorised, and enacting faith in professional practice.

Reverend Dr. Andrew Butcher is Priest Assistant in the Parish of Fendalton, Anglican Diocese of Christchurch. He was previously Principal of Bethlehem Tertiary Institute (2017-2022) and, earlier in his career, Director of Research at the Asia New Zealand Foundation (2006-2015).

[1] Beth Green, “Present Tense: Christian Education in Secular Time,” in Innovating Christian Education Research: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Joannes Luetz and Beth Green (Singapore: Springer Nature, 2020), 19.

[2] John Webster, The Culture of Theology, ed.Ivor Davidson and Aidan McCray (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019), 92.

[3] Rowan Williams, “Faith, Reason and Quality Assurance: Having Faith in Academic Life,” A World to Believe In, Babbage Lecture Theatre (Cambridge, 21 February 2008).

[4] John Webster, Holiness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 100.

[5] Beowulf, (New York: New American Library, 1963).

[6] Silence S. Bishop, “Hospitality, Othering, and the Infinity of Worlds,” in Bordered Bodies, Bothered Voices: Native and Migrant Theologies, ed. Jione Havea (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2022), 68.

[7] G. T. Cruz, “Migration as Locus Theologicus,” Colloquium 46:1 (2014): 95.

[8] G. T. Cruz, “Between Identity and Security: Theological Implications of Migration in the Context of Globalization,” Theological Studies 69 (2008): 371.

[9]Bishop, “Hospitality,” 68.

[10] P. C. Phan, “Deus Migrator: God the Migrant: Migration of Theology and Theology of Migration,” Theological Studies 77 (2016): 863.

[11] Alistair Reese, Te Papa: Naboth’s Vineyard: Towards Reconciliation in Tauranga Moana Executive Summary and Recommendations. (Dunedin: Centre for Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago, 2018).

[12] Charles Malik, quoted in William L. Craig, “Concluding Thoughts,” in The Two Tasks of the Christian Scholar: Redeeming the Soul, Redeeming the Mind, ed. William L. Craig and Paul M. Gould (Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), 179.

[13] Mark Noll, Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), x.

[14] Martin Luther, Speech at the Imperial Diet at Worms, 18 April 1521, online at http://www.sjsu.edu/people/james.lindahl/courses/Hum1B/s3/Luther-Speech-Worms-1521.pdf

[15] Christopher D. Marshall, All Things Reconciled: Essays on Restorative Justice, Religious Violence, and the Interpretation on Scripture (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2018), 63.

[16] David Holmgreen, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability (Australia: Melliodora, 2017).

[17] Makoto Fujimura, Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for our Common Life (Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2017), 103.

[18] Fujimura, Culture Care, 103 (emphasis in original).

[19] Fujimura, Culture Care, 103-104.

[20] Phan, Deus Migrator, 861.

[21] Phan, Deus Migrator 862.

[22] bell hooks, “Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness,” Framework 36 (1989): 15–25, and Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, 3rd edn. (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014).

[23] Hooks, “Choosing the Margin,” 21.

[24] Peter C. Phan, “Betwixt and Between: Doing Theology With Memory and Imagination,” in Journeys at the Margin: Toward an Autobiographical Theology in American-Asian Perspective, ed. Peter C. Phan and Jung Young Lee (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1999), 113.

[25] Phan, “Betwixt and Between,” 113.