When the Margins Talk Back

Abstract

Communication theory reminds us that listening is always interrogative, relational, and never without politics. The articles in this collection are the first attempt to witness as listeners to what young people have shared in this research, amplifying a “youth ecclesiology” (Benjamin Conner), the prophetic ministry of young people (Justin Forbes), the importance of aesthetics in confronting dehumanization (Katherine Douglass), the disruptive call of listening itself (Michael Mather), the persistent gaps in theologizing racial reconciliation (Kermit Moss), and the provocative love of Jesus (Megan DeWald). To this witness, I further probe how it is that marginal agitation can be found deeply faithful, draw out its theological contributions, and attempt to behold, yet not coopt, that radical openness that both Peter and Paul reveal to us as so slippery, subversive, and decentering. In other words, it is critical that theologians and congregations at the center not so much “let” the margins push back, because that fetishizes them, all the while subtly maintaining the center, but adopt the confessional mode that Conner, DeWald, Douglass, Forbes, Mather, and Moss lay out, while also witnessing to a Jesus, a God, and a Spirit that prod and agitate and transgress, because this God is at the margins, too.