The drawing, Christ of the Breadlines, by Fritz Eichenberg (1953) probably says all that this book wants to say about being church. The church is a space in this world where heaven and earth reach out to
each other. It is a space in the world, but not of the world, as it is touched by heaven. Christ is in the
breadline, yet one can recognise Him as He stands out in the breadline. One can recognise him, because
of the hallow that surrounds him. He is the incarnation within reality and through the incarnation the
place within reality becomes holy, not sacred as in separated, but sanctified as differentiated offering an
alternative within reality. He brings a space that is marked, not by the darkness and the vicious cycles
of the world which dominate and enslave creation, such as poverty, but a space that breaks into this
darkness with light as it is hallowed in hope. What more can the church hope for than to be allowed to
be a space of hallowed hope in the vicious systems of death in a postmodern and post-Christian world?
This book would like to propose that it does not really matter if you start with theory (Scripture and
tradition) or with context and practice because theology is circular or spiral, and therefore there is no
starting point as the two continually influences each other, or one could even say the one interprets the
other. So for this book the best place to start is with where we are now – the now of experience as this
now of experience includes both theory and praxis.
There is no such thing as experience pure and simple, as experience is always interpreted-experience
and the interpretation is done through the theory that has shaped and formed us. Thus, in this book we
work with ‘theory-laden practice’.
Publication Date: 2012
Author(s): Johann-Albrecht Meylahn
Format: Softcover
Pages: 87
Download extract