Everyday Ethics and the Becoming of Local Christian Communities: An Introduction

Focusing on the everyday ethics of ordinary Christians emphasizes the significance of their theological understandings, and actions of faith, in concrete situations where they face tangles, challenges and conflicts in real life. It is in the daily lives and ethical entanglements of ordinary Christians that Christianity can truly emerge, or rather, can truly take root and grow on the local level, rather than remain in conceptual rehearsals and doctrinal bickerings. The vitality and expansion of Christianity is not preceded by “theological proofs”, but rather when the theological expressions are proclaimed, and elaborated, by the church and its leaders in the process of concrete Christian life, and in the community’s witness. In other words, it is necessary to examine the realities and problems of Christianity from the real actual local experience, and not just from the level of ideal types or “oughtness” of the Christian faith. This is not to minimize the importance of theology or doctrine, but rather to say that theology is not a concept, but an expression of faith in a specific cultural situation; that faith is not the same as doctrine, but as it is lived out in life; and that the church is not an isolated community, but a living community in “society”.