Hendrik Pieterse on a Connectional Theological Imagination

I have referred readers to articles in Methodist Review in previous posts, and I'd like to do so again today.  As great a format as blogs are for fostering discussion, no one's going to read a 23-page long blog.  But sometimes there are things worth discussing that take 23 pages to say.  One such thing worth discussing in Dr. Hendrik Pieterse's piece in Methodist Review from early this year entitled "A Worldwide United Methodist Church? Soundings Toward a Connectional Theological Imagination."  In it, Pieterse asserts that we need to reject center-periphery thinking in the church that privileges the United States as the center of the UMC and everywhere else as less-important periphery.  Instead, he suggests, we need to form mutual, reciprocal relationships through our connectional system.  These suggests are certainly in line with other things posted in this blog, but said in a much more thorough and (hopefully) theologically persuasive way.

The article is available freely online, though accessing it does require the creation of a login for the Methodist Review's site.  I recommend you read it and the other fine work put out by the Methodist Review.  For other articles by the Methodist Review, see www.methodistreview.org/index.php/mr/issue/archive.