All Theology is Local

Sigurd Olson (1899-1980)

Tip O'Neill famously claimed that, "All politics is local."  We, that is, see national issues through the lens of what is happening around us and, to a degree, judge what is best for the nation by what we believe is best for our own community and family.  I'm not sure that we can say the same for our belief systems, our theologies, but we probably should.  If all theology is not local, it should be.  We do not experience God and do not understand God in the same way in the United States as do Christians in Thailand.  The Thai language and Thai society profoundly influence Thai theology.  By the same token, God walks the streets of Syracuse wearing a different mask from the one "she" wears on N. State St., Lowville.  There is, or at least there should be, a Lewis County theology.

Two sources one might turn to for insights into what Lewis County theology might look like are two Presbyterians, one deceased and one still living.  The first is Sigurd Olson, an author and environmentalist who was born in Wisconsin and lived most of his life in northern Minnesota ("Up North" as it is known there).  Out of his own experience, Olson came to see the North Country, the wilderness, as a spiritual reality that calls us back to our deepest roots.  The wilderness is a place for mystical experiences born out of the quiet of the deep woods, lakes, and loons.    (See, David Backes, "The Land Beyond the Rim: Sigurd Olson's Wilderness Theology").  Lewis County is partly wilderness, partly loons & lakes & forest, precisely the mystical land Olson wrote about.

Kathleen Norris

The second sources is Kathleen Norris, particularly her book, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography (2001).  (See my review here). Norris lived for some years in the small town of Lemmon, South Dakota, which is out on the high plains, and her book reflects on the spiritual impact of life in rural America and on the prairies.  Lowville is, of course, a very different place, and yet it is still small town America and has its own spiritual realities that parallel those of Lemmon.

Lewis County is rural farm country.  It is also North Country wilderness.  And it is out of these slices of reality that one might construct a Lewis County Theology.  Olson and Norris would be helpful in that happy task.  Amen.