Editorial

This edition of Stimulus brings a focus on theology and the material world – how we act and live. In this sense, what we do matters.

In our first article, drawing on Paul’s letter to the Romans, Michal Baken argues that personal holiness is integral to Christian mission. She argues that as God’s “display-people,” we can display God’s invisible qualities to the world through our actions.

In the second article, Derek Tovey also directs attention to our actions and to the material world, this time in the area of sustainability. He focuses on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which encompass seventeen goals, such as ending poverty, providing education for all, and food security. He argues persuasively that as Christians we can and should support the implementation of these goals, “knowing that our God is a God who loves justice, peace, and the wellbeing of all, especially for the marginalized and vulnerable.”

What we do matters.

Next, historian Paul Moon focuses on a material, theological and artistic topic – church doors. He looks at the various roles church doors can play, both from historical and contemporary perspectives, in providing welcome and regulating spaces. He argues that the fairly recent trend for glass doors reverses the medieval purposes of doors, which was to enclose and protect knowledge in the church. In contrast, glass doors open the church to the outside world.

Continuing with the theme of the material and artistic, in Synergeo, counsellor Gel Lim writes about his counselling work through a metaphor of the art style, nihonga. Through the work of Christian artist Makoto Fujimura, Lim writes about how in this art form, the artist hand crushes the minerals for preparation to be used as paint, which the artists then layers on up to fifty or more times onto the canvas. Lim compares this metaphor with this work with clients who he imagines approach counselling with various materials from their lives formed under affliction and suffering. As the person talks, they paint the story. Then, “As the story deepens and more material is crushed to reveal the shards underneath, we may begin to see a clearer picture that we (the client, counsellor, and God) are trying to paint.”

The person of the artist in relation to faith is a theme which also resonates in the Ministry Corner interview with Auckland pastor and worship curator Mark Pierson. Pierson talks about the significant value of artists in themselves, not merely as resources to be used by the church. He says, “Artists are important to the wellbeing of humanity. Therefore, as the church is primarily interested in the wellbeing of humanity, artists must then be important to the church.”

Thinking more about the arts and theology (and world politics), in the music review, Peter Jellyman focuses on the Dire Straits song, Brothers in Arms. He reflects on this song as a form of lament for the war in Ukraine. In the TV review, Nicola Hoggard-Creegan writes about theology in the TV series Madame Secretary, and the ongoing possibilities of democracy as a form of good in the world.

In another regular column, Geoff New reflects meaningful in The Voice on Jacob being given a new name in Genesis 32 and what this might mean for us. St Imulus gives us a taste of the New Testament in brief.

We round off this edition with the book reviews, and Karen Newton’s Poem for a birthday.

We hope this edition will bring encouragement to you to continue to live as God’s “display-people,” living out and expressing his love, justice and peace in the world.