Why do Christians engage with poverty? Q&A with Chris Shannahan

We speak to Chris Shannahan about his research into austerity-age poverty in the UK and his new book.

Hi Chris. Would you tell us a little about your background? What brought you to your current focus?

I would describe myself as an activist theologian. My research work as an Associate Professor in Political Theology at the Centre for Peace and Security at Coventry University emerges from a lifelong engagement in struggles for social and racial justice and my own attempts as a person of faith to live out the values that underpin liberation theology. My new book, Life on the Breadline: Theology, Poverty and Politics in an Age of Austerity, grapples with this commitment to the vision of a God who has a 'preferential option for the poor' in the face of the structural injustice that a decade of austerity has deepened and sharpened.

Before I joined the Centre for Peace and Security in 2015, I was a Lecturer in Theology and Religion at the University of Manchester and before that a Research Fellow in Urban Theology at the University of Birmingham. My work as an activist theologian and my research within the Life on the Breadline project have all been shaped by a deep conviction that, in the face of the structural injustice exemplified by austerity, theologians need to stand up and be counted. We’re very good at ‘talking the talk’ but it’s time to engage in the struggle against poverty and ‘walk the walk’. Theology needs to be a force for liberative social change if it is to reflect the vision of God’s egalitarian kingdom that Jesus speaks about so passionately. That’s the only kind of theology I’m interested in.

Tell us about your new book, Life on the Breadline. What is it about?

Over the last decade, dozens of books wrestling with the slow violence of austerity have been written by colleagues within the social sciences. During the same period, I’m ashamed to say, there have only been a handful of theologians who have written about this in any depth and almost none who have based their theological analysis on extensive in-depth fieldwork. Life on the Breadline emerged from my own commitment to fashion an austerity-age theology of liberation and to model the thoroughly interdisciplinary, fieldwork-led approach that I believe needs to characterize all theological engagement with contemporary poverty and wider forms of structural injustice. The Life on the Breadline project, from which this book arises, was an attempt to take theology out of the library and into the street. The project was the first major fieldwork-led project by academic theologians in the UK to explore the severe impact of austerity-age poverty on communities up and down the country, and to analyze the differing ways in which the Church has responded.

In this interdisciplinary political theology book, I attempt to do three things. First, I develop a detailed theoretical discussion of the multidimensional nature of contemporary poverty and its roots in the ideologically motivated age of austerity introduced by former Prime Minister David Cameron and his Chancellor, George Osborne. Second, I discuss the nature, strengths and weaknesses of the four broad Christian approaches to poverty that we identified during Life on the Breadline – an ‘ecosystem’ of Christian approaches to poverty. Third, I argue that we stand at a Kairos moment in which we are called to forge a new austerity-age theology of liberation and, in the closing chapters of the book, I begin to sow the seeds of this liberative theology.

As you say, this book is the first looking at austerity through a theological lens. What can this add to the discussion?

It’s true that lots has been written about austerity by social scientists, by Christian NGOs, by journalists and politicians. Social science texts and NGO reports are great at analyzing the ways in which the Church uses social capital in responding to poverty and inequality – the ‘what’, the ‘how’, the ‘where’ and the ‘who’. This is important but unless we explore the ‘why’ of Christian engagement with poverty, with the theological, the ethical, the biblical and the political values that shape such social action, we will never do more than skim the surface. Theology helps us to wrestle with the ideological foundations of austerity and the existential damage it causes. Rooted in a deep dialogue with political and social theory, this book argues that unless we win the battle of ideas, we will never defeat the structural and cultural violence that energize austerity-poverty. Theology can change this picture. It has to.

Who would you like to read the book and why?

My hope is that this book will be read widely. It’s got something to say to theological and social science researchers who are exploring contemporary poverty, Christian social action or the role of the Church in the public sphere. It will be valuable for people training for ministry in the Church and for students studying theology, sociology of religion or human geography and for all interested in contemporary liberation theology. Activists will benefit from the book’s roots in fieldwork and from my call to action in the final chapter, and policymakers will develop a greater understanding of the breadth of Christian engagement with poverty.

What comes next for you and this book?

I am currently working with colleagues to build on this work in three ways. First, I am developing a project that translates the tools we developed during Life on the Breadline into an effective framework for drawing on the Church’s resources to challenge child poverty. Second, I am working with colleagues within theological education to develop resources for ministers and lay preachers in training. Third, I am beginning to develop ideas for a larger trans-Atlantic project comparing the ways in which the Church in the UK and the US uses its social capital to challenge structural injustice.

Theology needs to stand up and be counted. My prayer is that this book can play some role in transforming the structural injustice that feeds austerity poverty and damages the lives of so many. Change is needed – now.

Thanks for talking to us, Chris.

Image credit: @samuelsteele on Unsplash.com

Chris Shannahan is Associate Professor in Political Theology and theme lead of Faith and Peaceful Relations research at the Centre for Peace and Security at Coventry University.

His new book, Life on the Breadline, is out this month and available to order here, with 20% off all orders before the end of November.