First things first, I know the word “frontier” has a tragic history.
It is not hard to imagine why history reveals a tragic link between excessive frontier-talk and cross-cultural violence. Well-meaning missionaries of various faiths have often tried to build their version of God’s kingdom around imperialistic calls to conquer the world in the name of their creed.
The problem with uncritical frontier-thinking is that our frontier is almost always someone else’s home. Our vision of a well-ordered society is someone else’s system of domination. One person’s dream might be another’s nightmare.
So, why did I choose to employ the word “frontier” in the title of this blog?
I borrowed the title “Any Frontier” from the Presbyterian missionary-theologian, M. Richard Shaull, who said, “the Christian is free to live on any frontier in which God has placed him [her/them] because he [she/they] knows that God is in control of the world and of the Church, despite the seeming indications to the contrary.” Shaull spent much of his life outside the country of his birth. He knew what it was like to live in a place that was, for him, foreign, unfamiliar, and undiscovered.
Yet, the concept of “frontier” is much more than a cartographic descriptor or a simplistic representation of people, places, and customs that seem “other.” For Shaull, a frontier is a place, space, academic discipline, political process, or philosophical exchange in which God’s Spirit is at work in history, disrupting the status quo. Frontiers are epistemological boarder-zones where the Kin-dom of God crosses over our carefully constructed walls to ignite revolutionary fires in its new homeland.
God is at work in every context and in each person. Divine activity pushes us beyond the boundaries of what is known and comfortable. The frontiers that emerge are creative spaces where grace is active, love is victorious (though embattled), and hope is realized.
I chose the word frontier because I have yet to come up with a better term to describe the spiritual and intellectual spaces I have inhabited throughout my life.
By way of example, I moved to Bonn, Germany, from the United States at the end of September 2019 to study Ecumenics. Stepping onto foreign soil and calling it “home” for a little while is opening new frontiers, not so much in the world around me, but within my own being. I find myself exploring new dimensions of life and faith. I am learning new languages, asking new questions, building new inter-cultural connections, and hearing old assurances of divine promise afresh.
I don’t post regularly. In fact, I usually only post after I have given a non-academic talk and been asked to make my thoughts available. Thus, most of the articles provided here have a “pastoral” flare, and testify to my thoughts on a particular subject at a specific time.
Maybe we’re asking some of the same questions. If so, I hope you will find something I say helpful on your own pilgrimage into life’s next frontier.
A Disclaimer: I’m not a blogger. It took me like 10 days to figure out how to post this sentence! I have never hosted a blog before this one. I will undoubtedly break whatever unspoken rules this sub-culture has established. Bear with me.
Quote from M. Richard Shaull, “The Mission of Calvinism in Brazil Today”, 3. in Angel D. Santiago-Vandrell. 2010. Contextual Theology and Revolutionary Transformation in Latin America: The Missiology of M. Richard Shaull. (Eurgene, OR; Pickwick), 83
Any Frontier 