Thinking about Lived Theology from the Context of the Congo

Posted on December 26, 2015 by PLT Staff

Recording of a lecture presented by John Kiess at the Spring Institute for Lived Theology 2011 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Kiess draws upon his research on the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo to reflect on the ways attention to lived theologies in contexts of protracted conflict, state collapse, and displacement can significantly challenge the ways that these settings tend to be theorized. The lecture begins at the 2:15 minute mark.

Excerpt: “The attack no doubt destroyed the foundations of the town. It disrupted ordinary life and so in a total way life will never be ordinary in the same way again. But by returning to the ruins, by rebuilding a hospital, by being willing to inhabit a space of devastation, residents are able to re-weave a new ordinary out of the ruins of the old…. In re-inhabiting such broken institutions, residents body forth a local soteriology, a way of redemption that does not leap into another worldly transcendence but lingers among the ruins and recovers agency through a form of wounded healing.”

  • Audio Information
  • Date Recorded:May 25, 2011
  • Location Recorded:Charlottesville, VA
  • Audio File:Download File »
This audio is published by the Project on Lived Theology (PLT). For any questions related to its use, please contact PLT (https://www.livedtheology.org//contact/). Copy available for use subject to Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC-ND (Attribution required, Non-Commercial use, No Derivatives, 3.0, Unported).