Catholic academic calls for new 'empirical political theology' in wake of 'faulty' report commissioned by PM

Professor Francis Davis

Speaking at a seminar of the Fowley Island Institute, held jointly with Lincoln Bishop University and St Mary's University, last weekend, leading Catholic academic, Professor Francis Davis, called for 'innovation' and 'expansion' in especially the English speaking Catholicism and wider Christianity's 'political' and 'pastoral' theology, to build an 'empirical political theology' "truly fit to help lay people reflect in new ways about how best to identify pressing social needs and make concrete future improvements happen, amidst fast changing technological, social, ecological and synodal times."

He noted that this was particularly important this week when a major report ( Heart of the Neighbourhood, How the Church is Providing Essential Services in Every Part of the Country ) offered to the Prime Minister "has so misreported the contribution people of faith make to society."

''The dominant 'Political Theology' coming from academic departments like Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Aberdeen.'' he said, 'takes a small step or two towards learning about society through anthropology and sociology and maybe some other social science, but then steps away very consciously from the wide array of insights available in political science… including political psychology, critical accountancy, public value and public leadership, civic innovation and institutional studies…One significant book from Durham, for example, and one major Reader from Cambridge ''are seminal texts in British 'political theology' but have no political science in their pages at all."

"This matters' 'because persons who suffer, the oppressed, matter first . ..and …No wonder too that a major report published by the Bible Society backed Gather movement in parliament last week, reportedly at the request of the then Mayor Andy Burnham, said that churches mobilised only '250,000 instances of community provision' daily. Faulty data? A theological omission? Struggling political theology and approaches to social evidence ? ''

"…If one reads the report and accounts of just the monasteries who make up the English Benedictine Congregation they employ more people than Alpha, reach more people than Holy Trinity Brompton and are vital contributors to rural life. This, surely, must count Diocese by Diocese?..''

''Meanwhile, each day, Caritas Social Action Network members and UK Catholic schools reach more than a million individuals and each year English Anglican cathedrals alone welcome an average of 4,000 schoolchildren for educational enhancement weekly with their overall work supporting the equivalent of 6000 jobs…A deeper commitment to inter-disciplinary 'empirical political theology' would on the one hand raise the bar for Christian contributions in public life like these ..but also keep us humble. Data giants Meta and Elon Musk have more daily users, after all, than there are Christians globally.."

"But more than this" Davis argued, "our social problems are getting bigger and more complex. Huge data centres to secure 'data sovereignty' in East Africa undermine social stability by demanding scarce water, in England call centres create accessible jobs but AI is displacing ordinary people already.. in the maritime sector human slavery can thrive ignored by our 'sea blindness' ..Relying only on ethical speculation or self - aggrandising narratives born of not much research will not help us anew to see-judge -and act …but an expanded vision of political and pastoral theology where evidence, social dynamics , political forces and scarce resources are approached afresh - and with consequent plans for action - might."