THEOLOGICAL PRAXIS
“If you know me, you will know my Father also.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
--Jesus[1]
In the
book, The Tangible Kingdom, Hugh
Halter tells the story of entering into a rustic old Irish pub. It would be a
life changing experience for him, not that going to a pub was anything unusual
or special for him, but at this pub he would engage a group of non-Christian
and mostly unchurched people who would honestly and openly converse with him
about the meaning of life.[2]
Hugh has learned to enter into a practice of deviance from the norms of his
ecclesial cultural group, a Holiness Pentecostal Christian sect that in the
past has deeply frowned upon entering pubs, in order to connect with people
outside the church. Hugh unknowingly developed as a practitioner of the
Positive Deviance Approach. He would refer to himself as a missional,
relational and incarnational Christ follower. In other words, his practices and
strategies were outside the conventional norms of his tribe.
By means of engaging people outside
of what may be considered an acceptable context by the church, at least by
Hugh’s tribe, Hugh would connect with people and bring about the acceptable
goals of reaching people for Christ. This section of the blog shows that there
exists a theological practice and support for Positive Deviance. The question
is whether the Positive Deviance Approach functions in the church contexts. If
so, then a further question is whether a theological basis exists for praxis as
exemplified by Jesus Christ and the early church. The goal of this section is
to an open discussion concerning how the Positive Deviance Approach, when
applied to ecclesial/church contexts is able to create and sustain ecclesia/church
amid marginalized people.
Deviance, defined in the
Merriam-Webster dictionary is “deviating from an accepted norm.”[3]
The word itself, deviance, conjures up negative images, but what if deviance is
not always negative? This is the basic question and driving force behind the
conceptual ideology and development of Positive Deviance studies.[4]
Positive Deviance is a relatively new area of study in the field of sociology
and anthropology. Gretchen M. Spreitzer and Scott Sonenshein in the article Toward the Construct Definition of Positive
Deviance, in the American Behavioral
Scientist work toward a definition of Positive Deviance. A summary of their
definition of Positive Deviance is this: an individual or group approach to
sociological and anthropological shifts based on the concept every community
performs similar functions and actions, but within the community are certain
individual or small groups that function as positive deviants. The positive
deviants exhibit unique practices and strategies, honorable behavior outside
the social norms, which enables them to be more effective than their
counterparts with the same resources, environment and sociological construct.[5]
Positive Deviance
The
emergence of the sociological concept of Positive Deviance was brought forward
through the observations of Harvard nutritionist Dr. D. Mark Hegsted. In 1967
he recorded his observations in the area of child malnutrition. He asserts, “We
should pay a great deal more attention to those individuals who are apparently
healthy while consuming diets which seem to us to be restricted. We should pay
more attention to the reasons for nutritional success rather than nutrition
failure.”[6]
Hegsted’s observations laid the foundation for rethinking the concept of
deviance. In the arena of child nutrition, Hegsted recognized the sociological
implications were found in the practices and strategies of deviants, those
producing exceptional results in a limited resource environment. Hegsted
recognized that deviance is a necessary component of societal development.
Without such deviance there would be a stagnation of societal evolution.
According
to sociologists Sullivan and Thompson assert that relativity is the best
sociological approach to evaluate the necessity and evolution of society through
deviance. They write,
A key element of
the sociological approach to deviance is that it is a function of the judgments
of particular groups. Behaviors and characteristics are deviant because they are so defined by a particular
group.
Some people
approach deviance in an absolute way,
judging certain behaviors and characteristics to be good or bad and right or
wrong by comparing them to some fixed standards. Religious views of deviance,
for example, often reflect this approach, with some divinely revealed truths
representing the “standard.” Others adopt a statistical
view of deviance: deviance involves a departure from an established average.
There is
considerable variation from one group to another in what is considered deviant
. . . definitions of deviance also vary from one situation to another.
To explain this
variety, sociologists maintain that deviance is relative, or based on the social definitions of some group.[7]
Deviance is generally accepted as a violation of social
norms but it does not need to be perceived as negative according to Hegsted,
Sullivan and Thompson. In many instances it is the vehicle for positive social
changes. The sociological basis for the Positive Deviance Approach is found in
the premise that “. . . deviance is complex, and many people find it hard to
understand . . . it may be one of the more difficult forms of human behavior
for people to comprehend, and people are often tempted to settle for overly
simple explanations.”[8] Sullivan and Thomas’ observation indicates
that human nature seeks to establish a status quo, but in the consideration of
sociological constructs, relativity must be considered or factored into any
analysis of deviant behaviors in any given context. The issue of a pluralistic
society adds to the complexity of any deviant behavioral analysis as part of
social development and change. Our particular consideration is the free
religious economy in the American context where we are experimenting with formulating
one great nation from many, "E Pluribus Unum". The opportunity for
the social and cultural evolution abounds in such an environment. The Positive
Deviance Approach offers the vehicle for cultural transform into a truly
pluralistic society of “one from many.”
[1] John
14:7
[2] Halter
and Smay, The Tangible Kingdom. 9.
[3] Deviance, (2009) In Merriam-Webster
Online Dictionary, Retrieved December 11, 2009, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deviant.
[4] Gretchen
M. Spreitzer and Scott Sonenshein, “Toward the Construct Definition of Positive
Deviance,” American Behavioral Scientist 47, no. 6 (February 1, 2004):
828–847.
[5]
Ibid.
[6] Marian
F. Zeitlin et al., Positive deviance in
child nutrition (United Nations University, 1990).
[7] Sullivan
and Thompson, Sociology—Concepts, 144.
[8]
Ibid, 146.
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