One of my big concerns in regard to the budget on this trip was how I would

fund reading. Books are expensive and I love to read. I figured it could add

at least $50.00/week to the costs unless I could find a way of getting good

cheap books. So to discover some gems in Op shops has been a real bonus.

The Halls Creek op shop had a number of half decent titles as well as the

usual pulp stuff and the Salvo shop in Kununurra has several books worthy of

a read. I bought 4 books for the grand sum of $7.00 which has to make a

bibliophile very happy.

As I was rummaging thru the laundry baskets of books in the Kununurra op

shop I came across one entitled Following Jesus by a bloke called Segundo

Galilea (Danelle reckons he sounds like a coffee bean) and after a brief

skim decided it was worthy of purchase. Galilea is a Chilean Catolic priest

and liberation theologian who has written a short and relatively simple book

around the theme of what it means to truly dedicate ourselves to

discipleship. I read many books of this kind, but not often from this

perspective so I figured it would be a good balance to the predominantly

North American based stuff that I find myself reading.

It’s immediately worth noting that our context has a huge impact on shaping

our theology – much more than we tend to give it credit for. The Latinos and

others from impoverished contexts gave us liberation theology and wealthy

white westerners gave us prosperity theology. I haven’t come across a name

for a theology that has its roots in suburban western life, but is not

prosperity driven. I imagine it would be something like ‘comfort theology’

or ‘security theology’ as that it what seems to form so much of our middle

class western dreams. Hence Jesus becomes the one who makes life safe and

secure for us. as if.

This is challenging because we have to admit that it’s impossible to do any

kind of theological reflection outside of a context. And because of that we

need to regularly be open to the insights of other cultures to help us get a

fuller revelation. At times this can be challenging and it may even seem

that our brothers are waaay off the mark. however reality is that we may be

the ones missing the point.

Here are 3 few quotes from Following Jesus that I thought worthy of sharing.

“We believe that it is appropriate to the religious life to call into

question or even protest against the church and society: against the church

to the extent that it I decadent or ambiguous, or has lost its radical

dynamism; against society, to the extent that it become dehumanized or

dechristianised (not sure what he means by this), and thus the source of

oppression and injustice” p.82

So. If we are leaders with any nouse then we will be protesters when we see

either the church or society lose their way. We won’t stay silent and tow

the party line, but we will have the courage to speak up – loudly. The net

result of this is that we will not be popular for long.

“A religious movement will never be authentic unless it returns to the root

of its own prophetism. Its radicalism is a sign of vitality and of its right

to continued existence. Its absence is a void that calls into question its

very reason for existence in the church and society. One of the causes of

the present crisis in religious life rests on the fact that many who have

given themselves to this life have discovered this void” p. 83

How true. When we lose our founding charism we become a social club and this

is one of the issues we are currently grappling with as the church in the

west.

“Normally the people of greatest character, most maturity, are those who

have the greatest difficulty with obedience. This is quite normal. One does

not arrive a free obedience without passing through rebellions. Obedience

consists of a synthesis between the acceptance of the will of God and a

complete Christian freedom. It is extremely difficult. It is a work of the

Holy Spirit. And one does not arrive at this without having passed through

many crises and even through many errors.” P. 93

I thought this was insightful. A conformist finds ‘obedience’ easy. A

non-conformist or a questioner will struggle much harder to accept the rule

of another.

This book has some real gems and is worth a read.