Religion and politics.
Dinner-party rules of engagement notwithstanding, should the two subjects rub shoulders, even shake hands, along the corridors of power?
Andrew Bradstock, director of the University of Otago's new Centre for Theology and Public Issues, believes so.
Policy-makers could do with a dose of religious dogma, he says, though he is at pains to point out that he prefers to offer practical solutions rather than preach to politicians and others.
Dr Bradstock is the first holder of the Howard Paterson Chair in Theology and Public Issues, established as a result of a gift from the Paterson Charitable Trust, the Presbyterian Synod of Otago and Southland, and Southland couple Ian and Annette Tulloch in conjunction with the University of Otago's Leading Thinkers programme.
The centre is the only one of its type in New Zealand.
Having arrived in January from his previous post as co-director of the Centre for Faith in Society at the Von Hugel Institute at the University of Cambridge, England, Dr Bradstock has been busy "laying the foundations" for the centre, assessing and establishing networks with a range of organisations, including churches, charities and politicians, on a local, national and international level.
"I've been mapping out what's already been happening. It's not as if there has been no public theology in New Zealand.
It's an exercise that has taken me not only to many parts of Dunedin, but also to Wellington, to find out what's going on, what people are doing and, in relation to that, what expectations are. A lot of people knew the centre had been coming - it has been about 18 months in the making," says Dr Bradstock, whose university post also includes research and teaching.
"It is exciting for me because it brings together the academic and the practical, having worked through theology, social issues and politics and also working hands-on with the churches, engaging in public issues."
Dr Bradstock says the role of public theology is to present a vision of how we might live as individuals and communities.
It also deals with the big issues: famine, disease, war, human rights, climate change, environmental degradation . . . all of which could benefit from bottom-line spiritual values, he believes.
"I think if you believe that we are all created equal - and the scriptures have quite a bit to say about what that means in terms of everyone having the basic necessities of life - that concentrates your mind and you ask, 'are our priorities organised to make that happen?'.
Clearly they are not, so we need to be coming up with proposals as to how that could work."
Dr Bradstock says the Christian contribution to tackling poverty has become quite sophisticated over the years.
Forget loudhailers and soapboxes.
Better to strive for change within the walls of the power brokers.
However, to do so requires an understanding of international trade and the structures that cause poverty. "As the American theologian Jim Wallis says, `we are very good at picking people out of the river, but we need to go upstream and find out who's throwing them in'.
I think we have been doing that."
He points to another quote from Wallis: "The Christian faith is personal but never private."
Dr Bradstock describes those words as profound; they profile both a personal relationship with God and a wider concern with community.
"I think the idea that religion is just a private issue is a travesty . . . It's about how I behave, how I live in a community, how I relate to people. It seems to me that the Christian message is as much about that as any one-to-one relationship.
"Going back to the global issue, I'm also concerned about the family in Africa who will lose a child tonight because there wasn't a proper hospital with vaccinations. We are all linked; we are all one family.
"I enjoy the benefits of the system in the Western world but it's not a fair system and I'm concerned that 50,000 people die every day from a lack of drinking water, lack of food, lack of vaccinations.
"We might talk about personal sin, but there is also sin in structures and organisations. I think there is a very powerful language of redemption."
Though Dr Bradstock believes the Bible's key messages have remained the same through the centuries, the good book's standing has ebbed and flowed.
Take, for instance, the Reformation, when some regarded it as a subversive document.
"In some cases, the Church has used the Bible to back up its own power, its own position and it has been a pillar of the status quo and that has led to war or the putting-down of heretics.
"But there has always been another strand, which has seen the Bible as subversive. You've got that contrast between the prophets and the kings. The prophets were often people who were out there in the public place, in the market square, saying difficult things, challenging authority when it was corrupt.
"No-one was beyond that. If you had a king who was ruling in his own interests rather than that of the people, then you'd find a prophet or community coming up and saying `you're not acting justly; you're going to be judged by God; you've got to look after the poor or those who can't look after themselves'.
"That thrust for social justice is sometimes very powerful and sometimes the Church has tried to keep a lid on it. That's why, for centuries, people weren't allowed to read the Bible for themselves."
Dr Bradstock points to spirituality as a force for change.
Among the dozen-odd books he has penned is one in which he explores the values that led to revolution and an overthrowing of a regime in Nicaragua.
"In an extreme case like Nicaragua some church people became revolutionaries because they felt there was no other way of changing things.
"You had a dictatorship there for about 40 years; they didn't have fair and free elections; there were no trade unions. Everything was kept going by violence - use of the army and the police.
"In that extreme case, people found the Bible a very radical document: what do you do in a system of oppression? They took the view that the only way to change things was to overthrow what they saw as `sinful' structures and start again to build a fairer society.
"Now, in New Zealand and other Western democratic countries we look to pursue justice in a different way. You use the democratic machinery; you engage in conversation; you raise public awareness."
In a pluralist, secular society such as 21st-century New Zealand, the messages theology offers have to fight to be heard above a range of others.
However, Dr Bradstock regards that as a healthy challenge.
"Over here, you've got to argue because you've got something worth saying and you want to be heard on merit. That's not to say we haven't got a right to be heard, even if Christians are a minority.
"I think we've got a very positive contribution to make, which is what the Church has always called `the common good'. We are actually an organisation that exists for people who don't belong to us," Dr Bradstock says.
"Take something like climate change - we are not just talking about a better system for the churches or Christian people; we want to benefit all society.
"Jesus said `I have come in order that you may have life in all its fullness'.
"On one level, that may sound a bit trite. But what is quality of life? It's more than having money; it's about wholeness and peace and belonging to a community, all those things that make you feel human."
Bradstock facts
•Andrew Bradstock is director of the University of Otago's new Centre for Theology and Public Issues and holds the Howard Paterson chair in theology and public issues.
•As well as developing and teaching papers on public theology, he will network with similar centres elsewhere, including the United Kingdom, United States, South Africa and Australia, seeking to raise the profile of public theology and contribute to public discourse and policy.
•Dr Bradstock studied theology and politics at the University of Bristol, completing a PhD in political theory at the University of Kent.
•In 1990 and 1991, he was a postdoctoral fellow in church history at the University of Otago.
•He returned to England where he taught theology in various institutions before being appointed secretary for church and society with the United Reformed Church from 2000-05, after which he co-directed the Centre for Faith in Society at the Von Hugel Institute at the University of Cambridge.
•He has extensive experience working with UK politicians to develop links between government, churches and other faiths.
