THIS is a Festschrift, a book of testimonies, for an outstanding man. John Vincent studied under Karl Barth and Oscar Cullmann in Basel. He submitted his thesis in German. He is a man of rare intellect. For all that, he didn’t move into an academic career. Instead, he set his heart and mind on developing a theological method that focused on people’s contexts and allowed the gospel to work itself out in action. No top-down theology for him. This was theology from below. “Where you are is where it begins!”
It worked itself out among the urban poor. It became the Urban Theology Unit. It was centred on the unfashionable side of Sheffield, where Vincent and his family lived throughout the period of its life.
The book is organised in six chunks according to Vincent’s own developed focal points. So we have essays on “The Primacy of” — Situation, the City, Discipleship, Mark’s Gospel, Practice, and Radical Christianity. Each section clusters material that ranges from personal tributes from a wide variety of his former or actual students (of varying churches and backgrounds, at home and abroad) and longer articles of greater substance.
Alan Billings writes about the way in which the 1985 report Faith in the City came about. A lovely cameo piece, “Christ in the City in El Salvador”, by Tony Crisp, describes the rise of liberation theology. Christine Dutton describes “John Vincent’s Alternative Church”. James Bullock outlines Vincent’s “Radical Markan Project”, and Christine Jones assesses his “Contribution to Ministerial Training”.
And the book ends with three splendid chapters: the first, alarmingly honest, by the black Pentecostal theologian Joe Aldred (“Theological Self-Discovery”); the second by the Oxford professor emeritus Chris Rowland (“The Testimony of Jesus: Anticipate the Ethics of the New Age”); and the last by the retired Anglican bishop and former college principal Laurie Green (“The Integrity of the UTU Method”).
These serious pieces are well matched by the dozen or so personal testimonies interspersed through the book.
I mustn’t end this analysis without mentioning the skilful way what might have been a clumsy ramble is held together with succinct editorial introductions to each of the sections by Ian Duffield.
I was surprised to find no mention of Inderjit Bhogal, who has also taken root in Sheffield and has developed the idea of “Sanctuary cities”, as well as, for a short while, being Vincent’s successor as the Director of the UTU. Nor did I read the name of my own mentor, George Lovell, who taught at UTU for a number of years and whose AVEC consultancy, well known for its practical approach to problem-solving, had so many overlaps with the methodology of John Vincent.
This little book has been a delight to read and it’s been a privilege to review it.
Lord Griffiths is a Methodist minister and politician.
Radical Disciple: The influence and significance of John J. Vincent
Ian K. Duffield and Robert P. Hoch-Yidokodiltona, editors
Wipf & Stock £22
(978-1-6667-1210-0)
Church Times Bookshop £19.80